Rose Byrne and Mary Bronstein Bonded Over Their Own Experiences to Bring ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’ to Life | Video

Mary Bronstein’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” is a nightmarish drama centered on a mother’s internal turmoil — and it all started with the filmmaker’s own experience of crisis with her daughter.

“This movie started as a seed of an idea when I was going through a crisis with my own daughter,” Bronstein told TheWrap senior reporter Drew Taylor at TheWrap’s Sundance Studio presented by World of Hyatt. “I thought about, is there something that exists in the world that’s about the mother’s struggle with the child — or the child’s struggle, but that is concerned with the mother’s internal struggle in sort of a selfish way?”

With her life crashing down around her, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” centers on Linda (Rose Byrne), who over the course of the film navigates her child’s mysterious illness, her absent husband, a missing person and an increasingly hostile relationship with her therapist.

Byrne, who was cast after Bronstein saw her in Apple TV+’s “Physical,” said she was immediately drawn to the project. “The script was just extraordinary … I had moments of like putting it down and going, ‘Wait, that just happened.’ And like having to regroup because there were so many great reveals in it,” Byrne said.

The film benefited from extensive rehearsal time, which the actress noted isn’t always possible. “We got a couple of months to just sit down three or four days a week and go through the script, page by page, bit by bit, and often we’d just end up sort of telling stories to one another about parts of our lives and being mothers and parents,” she said.

The film also features Conan O’Brien as Linda’s therapist, with their scenes threading what Byrne described as “a very fine needle.” She praised the comic and future Oscars host’s approach, noting he was “never trying to go in for the gag” and took the role “very seriously, incredibly seriously.”

Watch the full interview with Bronstein and Byrne in the video above.

The post Rose Byrne and Mary Bronstein Bonded Over Their Own Experiences to Bring ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’ to Life | Video appeared first on TheWrap.