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Elisabeth Shue (The Karate Kid, Cobra Kai) gives one of her most profound performances in The Good Half.
In the film, she plays Lily, the mother of Renn (Nick Jonas) and Leigh (Brittany Snow). After she passes away, the family dynamics turn to chaos. It does not help that Lily's boyfriend, Rick (David Arquette), shows up as well.
While a loss like this is supposed to be met with grief, Renn has lots of anger. He has to confront his past with his mother while also moving forward with a blossoming relationship.
While speaking with ClutchPoints about The Good Half, Elisabeth Shue had a clear motherly warmth that resonates with her character. I was fresh off an ER visit for heart complications, and she seemed genuinely worried.
During our interview, Shue discusses what her “good half” is, her grateful journal, and why Cobra Kai fans should not expect her to return in Season 6.
Elisabeth Shue-The Good Half interview
ClutchPoints: I'm excited to talk to you about The Good Half. Congratulations on that movie! I thought it was really profound.
Elisabeth Shue: Thank you. I really love this movie. I'm glad, and I'm very grateful that everyone seems to enjoy it so much, and that it's speaking to people.
CP: You have done a lot of projects, big and small like Back to the Future and Cobra Kai. How would you compare doing something as small as The Good Half versus The Boys?
ES: I would say it's mainly the story that changes the experience of working on a smaller movie or a bigger movie.
You're still working with actors, and the crew feels pretty much the same, even if it's smaller or larger, but the story in this is obviously much more contained and much more focused on these very complicated personal relationships.
One of the reasons why actors are always longing to find smaller movies is because the stories that are smaller tend to be more interesting for them to act in, I would say.
CP: I love the concept of the good half that kids see with their parents. For people who are close to you like family, friends, you know, whatever, how do you think they would describe your good half?
ES: Well, it's hard because I feel like at this point, to be honest, when I think of how the term came to be, that all of my life is the good half. I don't really have a bad half, and I'm very grateful for that.
Obviously, if I was dealing with an illness, of course I've dealt with some loss, so I guess that would be put into the bad half category.
But, yeah, I really feel like most of my life has been the good half, just because I can't believe I'm alive at all. I really think one thing that I has changed me a bunch is that I've learned how to write — this sounds very cliché — in a grateful journal each morning. And the first thing that I always write is I am alive.
It's very straightforward and kind of cliché, but if you really think about it, that's all we should be really happy for, is just that we are actually existing. That does kind of simplify things pretty quickly.
CP: Reading about making this movie, I know there's a lot of talk about the cast being open and collaborative. Can you remember a time on the set with your fellow actors or maybe with director or anything where you felt that the environment was open and collaborative?
ES: Oh, yeah. I mean, every single moment I experienced on this film. I had to actually come to the film after they had already been shooting for about six weeks in New Jersey.
My first scene was the scene in the restaurant where we're all talking about the fact that I'm sick and [that] I don't want anyone to be upset and it's all going to be okay. That was my first scene in the movie, and I had not met anybody. I hadn't spent any time with anyone.
So I was so touched [by] the way all the actors supported me and were so present with me and made me instantly feel like I was connected to the movie. I thought was pretty special. Everyone in this cast are really good human beings.
CP: It sounds like you came to the shoot a little later than everybody else, so you didn't have as much time to really get to know everybody. But with David, who is your partner in the movie, a lot of your relationship is not shown in the movie. Was that at all difficult for you?
ES: I always would much rather have more time with actors that I'm working with than less in terms of just getting to know them and feeling comfortable or finding parts of their personality that are interesting that I can kind of learn from and work with.
But I think great actors also can just come immediately to a part with such openness that you can pretend and feel connected to them because of their presence. And I would say [for] Nick, I was very impressed with how present he was as an actor.
We had to have this incredibly close relationship — that is kind of the bedrock of the movie — and we had to create it instantly. I think that would be hard to do with an actor who isn't open and generous. So I really loved working with him. I thought he did an amazing job in the film when I saw it. And also the experience working with him was great.
CP: What was it about the script of The Good Half that resonated so much with you?
ES: I would say just the idea that we all go through loss and we all have very dysfunctional families. [laughs] The premise of the movie is something so relatable, because in the midst of such a tragedy of losing someone you love, you're thrown into this absurd world of a dysfunctional family.
And then everyone's trying to survive and they're all doing really strange, funny, absurd things to survive because ultimately, we're terrified of dying, right? We're just so afraid of just disappearing off the face of the Earth. And when you see it up close with someone you love, what it does to human beings is so fascinating.
I think this movie is wonderful because of the comedy. And the laughter is just so human. I just really related to that and thought, Oh, this is a story people should watch just for that reason — to feel more community and more empathy for each other.
CP: And one of my favorite scenes in the entire movie is actually right at the beginning. It's a flashback scene where you're talking to the younger version of Nick's character. It was a very poignant moment in the movie. So could you break down filming it from your perspective?
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ES: Oh, well, it was lovely filming that scene. It was very emotional because I was younger at the time, and I had no idea that I would ever become sick. But I knew as an actor, that I was going to one day leave him.
So the idea of having to tell him, “I will never leave you,” and knowing that that was going to take place was very emotional, and yet obviously I couldn't show that, but I could feel it inside. That was an interesting emotion to feel.
I'm trying to think what that day was. I really only worked like two or three days and just packed in every single scene. So that was one of the scenes.
That was really invigorating, to do so many scenes in a row … kind of a deep dive into the story. Usually, all those scenes would be broken up over a few weeks, but because of the shooting schedule, they're all just packed into a few days.
CP: What are like the pros and cons effects of doing that?
ES: I think the pros are that you just have no choice but just throw yourself into it and you can't overthink anything. As I said before, I think really great actors will meet you where you are and they're always so generous. And so there's something immediate and dramatic about the fact that you don't know each other and yet you have to pretend you do that lends itself, I think, to a more raw connection support for each other.
So I don't really see any downsides to it. But that's because I was working with great actors. Maybe it would be tough if you weren't.
CP: What is the overall thing that you hope that audiences take away from The Good Half?
ES: I hope they laugh a lot. I was so surprised at how funny it was — I love how human the comedy is. I'm sure every single person on the planet has lost somebody at this point in their life, and so I'm sure they will be able to empathize and also relive some of the things they learned.
I just think it's a great movie for building community. And I do feel that the loss of watching movies and movie theaters is a bit sad to me because I feel like it's one of those movies we watched in Tribeca and it was in a big movie theater with a huge audience and it was very emotional to be in a big audience watching it together because of all those kind of human elements.
And it's too bad that people can't share films the way they did back in the day as much. So that's my hope. I'm very happy that it's getting a small [theatrical] release. Hopefully, there's going to be a bigger release. This will be a sneak preview, I guess, these two days, the [July] 25th and the 28th, but then hopefully we'll have a bigger release. (Editor's note: The Good Half received a wide theatrical release on August 16.)
CP: The Karate Kid has lived on for over four decades now. What is your reaction to the franchise continuing on with spin-off series and such? Did you expect that when you signed on to the first movie and acted in it?
ES: Definitely not. I did not expect anything. It was my first film. And at first, we didn't think that the title was a good title, which I find hilarious. [laughs]
So yes, it was a huge surprise that it was so successful. And it's a huge surprise to me now that it's continued all these years. It's a wonderful surprise, because it connects me to this young generation of creators — kids growing up now who are watching it for the first time, or they watch Cobra Kai.
I feel very grateful to be in a few films that have kind of stood the test of time to kind of connect me to this next generation. So, yeah, it's pretty lucky, huh? First film, The Karate Kid.
CP: I know that you've appeared in Cobra Kai. Is there any chance that you come back at all, or is that book closed?
ES: I probably will not be coming back. I feel like the way we handled it was just perfect.
[chuckles] I think it would be funny to see if she reappeared, just because the parting scene felt very final to me. It felt touching and kind of perfect for what it should be.
But I'm grateful that I did that too. It was really fun.
The Good Half is in theaters.
