I recently accepted an opportunity to interview Max Winkler who wrote and directed the film Ceremony and it was a pleasure. Max graduated from USC in May of 2006 and has been writing since. Upon completion of Ceremony he set his goal on getting it to the big screen. With persistence and dedication Max has made good on his promise and makes Ceremony his grand entrance. The quirky little film features a stellar cast in Michael Angarano (Almost Famous), Uma Thurman (Kill Bill), Lee Pace (When In Rome), Rebecca Mader (The Devil Wears Prada) and Reece Thompson (Dreamcatcher)
The storyline of Ceremony goes something like this: Sam Davis (Michael Angarano) convinces his former best friend to spend a weekend with him to rekindle their friendship at an elegant beachside estate owned by a famous documentary filmmaker (Lee Pace). But it soon becomes clear that Sam is secretly infatuated with the filmmaker’s fiancée, Zoe (Uma Thurman), and that his true intention is to thwart their impending nuptials. As Sam’s plan begins to unravel, he is forced to realize how complicated love and friendship can be.
I’m just going to hit you up with a personal question right away because our audience would be all over me with this one. You are the son of Henry Winkler a comedy hit star as ‘the Fonz’ in Happy Days, later a long career in film and TV. What was it like growing up in the shadow of this great Icon?
I never really felt like I was growing up in his shadow per say, It was a pretty normal household I never really felt that I had to ever achieve, especially since I am not a very good actor so I never had to feel any pressure to do that especially after my first performance in The Little Mermaid. It was my last performance. I hung up the boots and decided I could do a little better. My dad was always very supportive and kind of sweet about the whole thing.
Was your dad your inspiration for getting into the business?
Not directly, I just really like doing the work. I was not really good at a lot of things. I was not very good at school and got in trouble because I had a short attention span. I just liked all the elements that go into making a movie I love the music and I love the writing and the acting. When I was really young I watched the MARX Brothers movies I really laughed at those and I wanted to make things like that.
Ceremony is your directorial debut of a full-length feature and you also wrote the film. Where did you get the idea for Ceremony, was it something in your past?
Yeah there are probably some autobiographical elements in the movie. Per the recommendation of Jason Reitman, one of the producers who had been working with me on some other projects, urged me to try writing something personal. Because he thought that would be my best chance of making a first movie that meant something to me. So I took elements from my past and elements of people I knew. I have always been able to write better from places that are kind of personal.
Did you choose the cast and why your choice of Uma Thurman?
Why not Uma Thurman, Uma is so fantastic in the movie you really see a soft side of her that we are not always used to because of the movie we think of her in are some of the best performances ever by an actress. Movies like Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction and the stuff she does with Tarantino. In this movie we see a delicate sort of fragile side of her. And I think that is closer to who Uma is in real life. She is kind of a powerful and strong woman but also is kind of neurotic in a great way. She is smart and funny and really kind of fragile when you catch her at her most self like state. She is amazing in the movie and on set. On the set was these young adolescent men running around in suits playing dress up you know. And to have a real woman on the set was real helpful.
I noticed the height difference between Michael Angarano and Uma (The two play opposite each other in the film).  Did that ever pose a problem?
It was written into the script so it ended up working very well that we had someone the size of Uma and someone the size of Michael. The jokes that are in the movie are written in the script so I feel lucky about that.