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November 11, 2024 14 mins
The BUZZ recently sat down with actress/writer/director Sara Friedman to talk about her film, "Heightened." Filmed in Maine, it follows the story of Nora (Friedman) who moves back in with her parents after suffering a mental breakdown. While she undergoes court-ordered psychiatric treatment, Nora’s world is further upended when she is assigned to volunteer at a local state park. Her awkward assignment actually shows promise when her anxiety subsides in the company of her new supervisor Dusty (Dave Register), who is dealing with crippling issues of his own. Maybe Nora and Dusty can help each other overcome the obstacles their socially complicated world presents to them.

We got to speak with Friedman about working alongside Sarah Clarke and Xander Berkeley, as well as how we as humans need to break the stigma surrounding mental health. She also talked about when she came up with the concept of the film.

"Heightened" can be streamed on major streaming platforms, including Apple TV, YouTube TV, and Amazon Prime.
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Buzz. Buzz Buzz is on. The Buzz is on
the show that gets you up close and personal with
some of the hottest stars. Now here's your host, Novelle
jay Lee. What's going on everybody? It's Nobelle jay Lee
with the Buzz at Buzzworthy Radio. I had the chance
to sit down and speak with Sarah Friedman, who stars

(00:21):
in the indie film Heightened, and this was one of
my favorite conversations that I got to have with anybody
on the show. And don't get me wrong, I have
so many wonderful conversations with everybody that stops on this show,
but this one in particular struck with me because we
get to talk about mental health and mental health stigma,

(00:41):
especially since the character that Sarah plays in the movie
deals with mental health issues. The character had a mental
health breakdown. So getting the chance to talk about this
in this kind of capacity on my show really was
very therapeutic for me. Actually, I never made any qualms

(01:02):
about it. I do speak about it publicly publicly about
having a mental breakdown myself at one point in my life,
and having another person to get to talk to about
this in this kind of a space was very It
was wonderful to speak about. So I hope you guys
get the pleasure of that from this as well. So
here it is our interview with Sarah Friedman. Check it out.

(01:26):
I heard the description of this movie and I felt
like this is probably something that's going to resonate with
me a little bit. So can we talk about the
movie real quick? Let's give a synopsis of this, And
I can't wait to talk about who's in it because
I'm so excited at who you have in this movie.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Too great, cass. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
So, so from our understanding of it, your character in
this suffered a mental breakdown mm hmm. And now you're
your character's back in living with your parents. Yes, not
really close, they're not really I try to be nice
with it as much as I could, but so I

(02:08):
thought that was the best way of saying it. You're
not exactly close.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
It's not exactly close.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, there's some discomfort around the subject of mental illness.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
And I believe your character meets someone else and I
guess somehow you guys connect a little bit.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
So basically she has to do some so she has
a mental.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Break searching maybe yeah, she has.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
A mental breakdown while taking the bar exam and ends
up having to volunteer at a state park where she
is shadowing a park ranger who maybe had some issues
of his own. So the two of them are sort
of able to help each other with a lot of
high jinks along the way.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Mmm. So for even though it I know it's marketed
as a comedy, but I feel like it is definitely
a big I don't want to say stigma, but it
is a topic regarding mental illness, and I've said it
all my show before and I'm very public about it.
I am an advocate for mental health. I had a
mental breakdown myself in real life at work, So when

(03:19):
I do see things like this conveyed in film and
on television, I always looked to it one just to
make you know, I always I was always at person
go like, hopefully it's portrayed accurately, But I'm also I'm
also intrigued for this. When you're using mental health and
you're also incorporating humor into it in some capacity, you

(03:40):
know you're you're able to look at it and you're
able to laugh at it. So I appreciate the fact
that you are telling this story on such a topic
that I feel like has so much stigma, and that.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Was a huge you know, two things that you just
touched on were a huge goal of mine. Number one,
just destigmatizing in general. Right, the more we talk about anything,
the more acceptable or socially aware people become. But the comedy,
so I have, you know, struggled with anxiety OCD basically
since I was a young kid. So this is all.

(04:13):
I did not pull a fire alarm during a bar
exam in my real life.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Fair enough, This.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Is a fictionaliited character, which I do have to tell
people sometimes.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Not a disclaimer. This is not a real character.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
This is not Sarah Friedman. But you know, elements of
both Nora and Dusty, the two main characters come from
my life and my experiences with mental health and mental illness.
And one thing, you know, that I really didn't want
to do was just make like a sad, depressing a
movie about mental illness. And I remember, you know, several

(04:51):
years ago when silver Lining's Playbook came out, and I
was so appreciative of a way the way that that movie.
You know, there's a hysterical scene where they're listing all
of the different anti anxiety medications and antidepressants they've tried,
and I see we're laughing and we're destigmatizing and we're

(05:13):
making it normal. But it's also funny, like sometimes my
friends and I are like, oh oh, me and prozac
don't get along, and it's a hilarious conversation. So it's like,
you know, incorporating incorporating that real life lightness was very
important to me.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
I Well, first of all, thank you for sharing your
story about that, because you know, another thing that while
we talk about this statement, it's also encompassing that it's
something that people don't like to talk about with anybody else,
let alone a stranger. And I I love the fact that,

(05:50):
especially in more recent years, people are becoming more open
about their mental health. They're they're expressing what they are
going through, and I keep encouraging people to do that.
So I thank you for sharing your story. But I
do tend to sometimes when it comes to mental health.
I agree with you on the aspect of let's not

(06:11):
have it be such a if we were to do
it in a film or a television scope, let's not
have it be one hundred percent depressing about it. And
you know, we want to make it lively. We want to.
We want to because the point of it, as my
last guests talked about, we want to entertain you, So
we don't want to obviously we want to entertain you,
but we also want to have the message incorporate into it.

(06:32):
So we don't have to have it be in this scope.
We can have it be to where you can laugh
at it, and you can laugh about it, because I'm
sure there's certain as much as fictional as it can be,
there are certain things in it that you have experienced yourself,
and then it could probably cause you to look at
it and smile and go like, oh my god, that
is actually funny. No.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
I mean, I've had moments in my life where I've
been freaking out and I'm like, Okay, this is going
to be hysterical tomorrow. I can feel that right now
that this moment is going to be hysterical very soon,
and that can help get you through. And I also
will say, you know, in the film, her parents are
very uncomfortable with talking about mental illness, and I am

(07:15):
able to talk about it because it was never a
taboo in my household. So me, Sarah Friedman, you, Sarah Freeman. Okay,
Sarah freedman. It was never a taboo in my household.
My parents talked about it all the time. My dad was,
you know, as neurotic as I am, probably more so.
You know, it just it was the reason I'm able
to sit here and go, oh, yeah, you know, I

(07:37):
have anxiety, I have OCD and feel no shame around
that is because that's the example that my parents set
for me.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
Absolutely, and the parents in the film are played by
Sarah Clark. Oh my god. I was like when I
heard that. I was when I first was pitched it.
I was like, oh, oh my god, I love that.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
And they're married in real life.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
And they're married in real life. Yes. First of all,
let me ask you these two questions. How long did
the concept from pen to paper come to fruition? When
were you when were you able to sit back and say, like,
this is actually happening. How long did that process take?
And then secondly, what was your reaction when you got
them to play your parents on the movie. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Well, so this is a little bit interesting because I
actually made this as a short film in twenty fifteen.
It was the very short film, the very first thing
I ever directed. I had been an actor and I
knew that I really wanted and I had done theater
directing in college. I studied theater directing. I knew I
wanted to try out films. So I made the short
film in twenty fifteen, and I considered that like my

(08:47):
film school. And then you know, I went on to
work in the industry, worked on a lot of features,
directed a bunch more shorts, and I kept coming back
to these characters. So I was like, you know what
my first feature should be heightened. I should write it
into a feature. So I started writing the feature in
probably twenty eighteen, and with the hopes to shoot in

(09:10):
twenty twenty. That obviously course happen, but we managed to
shoot in twenty twenty one, so so you know, and
it's out now, so like nine years from short to feature. However,
when I made the short, I had no idea that
I was ever gonna make it a feature. But I've

(09:30):
been living with the characters for that long, the two
main characters, Nur and Dusty at least Ura and Dusty
ya yeah and then yeah, so when I when I
heard that, so, I had not met Sarah and Xander
before the film, but we do have a main connection
they live in Maine now most of the time. They
do come to play all the time for work.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Well, shout out, I love Maine. I went there for
work for two weeks. It was beautiful. I loved it.
The food was amazing. Just shouting that out there.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Go ahead, every week, go to Maine. So Sarah and
Xander live there.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
Now.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
I grew up there. We were shooting there and I
just had my casting director reach out to them. And
they are such huge champions of smaller independent films, especially
in Maine. They want to try to get that scene going,
you know. To have actors of that caliber do a

(10:25):
smaller project like this was really remarkable. And they're so
generous with their time and their attention. They're really I
mean it was it was such a joy to work
with them. They never were like, you know, why is
this young director telling us what to do? Right, They
were just okay, cool, Hey, like here's an idea, and

(10:47):
I'm like, you know what, that's better? But yeah, they
were so so so I was so thrilled. And actually
the location that is their house in the movie was
about four minute it's from their actual house, so they
were like this could it was like next to their
daughter's school. They would like drop her off to school,
roll up to set. They were like, this is perfect.

(11:08):
So it really was. It really was a joy.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
That's amazing. Oh my gosh. First and the other part
of the two where we talked about the we talked
about the food and Maine obviously is good, but the
views in Maine itself were absolutely beautiful. When I when
I visited there and gotten the chance to do that,
it's just it's it's a beautiful state. I encourage anybody
if you ever get the chance to visit Maine, please
do so. It's it's absolutely glorious. And the film is

(11:36):
now is streaming now on Apple TV Plus and Prime Video.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
I believe yes, so pretty much anywhere you get video
on demand you get heightened, so Apple TV, Prime Video
and then all sorts of cable and satellite video on
demand as well.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
Oh my, well, everybody, guys, now that you know where
to watch it, you gotta check it out. Please do so.
I encourage you. And one last thing before we wrapped
up here, I just want to call out this point
that you just made indie films. I love the fact
that you had just spoken about people wanting to support

(12:16):
independent filmmaking, and that is one of the big things
that I started doing on this show this year alone,
because not that I had not been I don't want
to say a novice, but I was a novice to
independent films until around this year, but ever since I
really got to talk to filmmakers and directors and actors
and writers that are involved in independent films. I got

(12:40):
to experience just how not only passionate they are about
the project, but how much of that dedication and work
that they've put into it. And you don't really get
to see that on a big budget production. So getting
the chance to talk to people who are involved in
such projects like this is such a thrill for me

(13:00):
because I get to hear the passion in her voice,
and I heard it from you just now. So thank
you so much for sharing this with me today, not
just about the movie, but also your own personal experience
that you were able to incorporate into the film. I
think that's a huge thing. So thank you so very
much for stopping by and talking about Heightened Please guys
check it out on any streaming service that you that

(13:22):
you possibly have right now, and you probably have a
bunch of them, because I do, and I still haven't
gotten rid of them. There's always something that keeps me
coming back, and this is one of them, so please
check it out. Sarah. I really appreciate you stopping by
and we'd love to have you back on anytime.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
Absolutely many thanks to Sarah Freedman for stopping by the
Buzzcasts to talk about Heightened, which you can now watch
on all digital streaming platforms including Apple TV, Amazon Prime,
YouTube TV. Wherever you watch your streaming movies. You can
download it right now and it's at your fingertips. But
that's going to do it for me for right now.
I'm the val Jayle making sure you keep getting the

(13:59):
latest us with Buzzworthy Radio by logging on to our
website at buzzworthyradiocast dot com. You can also find us
on x at Buzzworthy Radio and liking us on our
Facebook page. I'm also on Instagram and Blue Sky under
the name of buzzdav and you can download our podcast
on iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, and finally Spotify. We'll see you

(14:23):
guys next time. Take care, stay in the no catch
up on all the buzz podcasts and videos at buzzworthyradiocast
dot com. Keep getting the latest buzz with Buzzworthyradio now
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