Podtalk: Alex Thompson & Kelly O’Sullivan on Their Film ‘Ghostlight’

Submitted by PatrickMcD on June 11, 2024 - 10:14am

CHICAGO – Two of the finest filmmakers who have roots in Chicago (college) are Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan. After Kelly wrote the acclaimed “Saint Frances” with Alex directing, their second film is a co-directing effort that is a brilliant meditation on finding one’s self after loss, and doing it through … acting. 

Dan (Keith Kupferer) is a middle-aged construction worker grieving a family tragedy, and has cut himself off from his devoted wife Sharon (Tara Mallen) and talented but troubled daughter Daisy (Katherine Mallen Kupferer), Through an accidental circumstance, Dan finds comfort and community in a misfit company of amateur actors. While performing for the first time in a low-rent production of a Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy, Dan is forced to confront his buried emotions.

Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan, Music Box Theatre, Chicago
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson are up-and-upward cinema creators, Kelly a noted actor/writer and Alex a director of visual and auteur-style sensitivity. Besides being the lead role/writing the sublime and beautiful “Saint Frances” … which partially was about abortion, but not in the way anybody would think … Ms. O’Sullivan has appeared in the notable Chicago indie “Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party,” the festival favorite “Cha Cha Real Smooth” and “Hangdog.” Alex Thompson has also directed a horror-thriller film he wrote with this brother, “Rounding.”

In Part One of a Podtalk with Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, Filmmakers Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson talk themes in writing, of acting and a pause to reverse the curse of the “Scottish Play” …

In Part Two, on nuts/bolts of filmmaking, the creative life and “Saint Frances” …

In Part Three, the perils of Googling one’s self, the big screen and storytelling …

”Ghostlight” is in theaters on June 14th, including Chicago’s Music Box. Featuring Keith Kupferer, Katherine Mallen Kupferer, Tara Mallen, Dolly De Leon, Dexter Zollicofer and H.B. Ward. Written by Kelly O’Sullivan. Directed by Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan. Rated “R”