Isabella Roland brings a hilariously dark family comedy to life with “D(e)ad.” A semi-autobiographical movie based on Roland’s own experience with her father’s death. The movie follows Tillie (Roland), an aimless young woman who loses her charismatic alcoholic father. Tillie learns that her father is haunting everyone in her family, much to her annoyance. After this discovery she must slowly heal her resentment and her fractured relationship with her father in the wake of his death.

Roland not only stars in “D(e)ad”, she also wrote the screenplay. “D(e)ad” is a very personal story for Roland; she also brought her family into the production. Her mother, Claudia Lonow, plays her mother in the film and served as director. The cast includes Roland’s stepfather Jonathan Schmock, her grandmother JoAnne Astrow, her grandfather Mark Lonow, and her husband Brennan Lee Mulligan. Vic Michaelis, Nick Marini, Craig Bierko, Eddie Pepitone, and Zac Oyama also star.

In an exclusive interview with Temple of Geek, Isabela Roland explained what inspired her to make “D(e)ad”. She also revealed how her mother was instrumental in inspiring the story. Roland also discussed the sisterly bond between Tillie and Violet. She also broke down how the exploration of grief and balancing Tillie’s struggles.

Isabella Roland Reflects Of The Journey Of Making D(e)ad

Temple of Geek: Oh my god, Izzy, this movie’s so damn good.

Isabela Roland:

“Oh my gosh! Thank you so much!”

Temple of Geek: It’s so good! I was laughing. I sat there with it for probably an hour just thinking on it. It’s so good.

Isabela Roland:

“That is, wow. You’re going to make me cry. That is so nice to hear.”

Temple of Geek: Can you talk to me a little bit about the journey that you’ve taken with this movie, from the initial idea to now having it screened not only across the United States, but in other countries?

Isabela Roland:

“Yeah, it’s been wild. It’s been very unexpected. It was just sort of, I don’t know, it happened I think pretty naturally. I just really, what set it off was my mom shared this idea that she had for a show that would essentially sort of star her character, this mother character. You could see her late ex-husband in mirrors, and she was working on something else at the time, I think, because she’s a working writer in Hollywood and I wasn’t working, so I was like, I really like that idea.

I’m going to take it and I’m actually going to make myself the star and I’m just going to write a movie because, so it was that. And then I had also read Rebel Without a Crew by Robert Rodriguez, the director, which was extremely inspiring and felt like it was one of those moments where you pick up a book and he’s like, Izzy, listen. Use what you have. You don’t need anyone else to make art. I was like, Okay. I had been throughout COVID and throughout my twenties I had been fixated on writing movies.

I’ve written a bunch of features and was fixated mostly on action comedies or big ensemble stuff. Just things that would require millions of dollars to make. So after reading this book, I was like, I just need to sit down and I need to make a point of writing something that is makeable financially and logistically. And what Robert Rodriguez said to me was, he was like, use what you have. He used his sister in a lot of his earliest memories of filmmaking and used a bad camera that he had and stuff like that.

I was like, okay, what do I have at my disposal? A family of show business Jews who have had prosperous and wonderful careers, but never really, I would say made it in varying degrees. My family should be extremely proud of their careers. I’m extremely proud of their careers. But we were all sort of in a slump. We were sort of like, what’s going on? The strike had happened or maybe was happening, I think. And I was like, and they have apartments, so I’m going to write a movie about a family where the scenes take place where they live. And then it all just unfolded from there. And now it feels too big to handle sometimes.”

Temple of Geek: One of my favorite parts of this is it really explores that thing that people don’t like to talk about of sometimes grief doesn’t mean forgiveness. We have this feeling that when someone dies, we should only focus on the good parts. And I love that Tillie’s like, no, this is my reality. This is how it impacted me. Why was it so important for you to show that and make sure Tillie’s not the bad guy?

Isabela Roland:

“Well, I’m really, really touched that you saw that. And yeah, I mean, losing anyone is so, when you have your first big grief experience, you’re sort of reorganizing yourself. It really makes you examine every atom in your body. You’re like, what have I thought this whole time? What has this whole relationship been? Who am I without this person? Who was this person without me? And especially when it’s a parent, you’re like, I don’t know. It’s a really introspective, just world stopping event and the world very much does not stop.

You get emails, have to go to appointments and shit like that. And so when I was grappling with the grief of this very complicated person who I still loved very much, I think I was overly fixated on the narrative of what he was to me or what he was to the world. And I think ultimately I did, and Tillie does forgive him, but it’s not clean and it’s not pretty for a while. And you sort of do feel every emotion at such a heightened, insane level, especially while you are forced to continue going through life and stuff.

I’m glad that she didn’t come off as the bad guy. I think that sometimes she is. There were times when I was like, I don’t like how I’m behaving or how I’m talking about my dad. We change. So I feel like we change moment to moment depending on what our morals are. And when you are immersed in just that trench of grief, you’re changing every second you or your morals change, your opinions change, your feelings change. And then you can after time sort of come up for air and go, okay, maybe this is what’s settling in. This is how I feel. I can see things a little bit more clearly now that I’m not so engulfed, if that makes sense.”

Isabella Roland Breaks Down The Sister Relationship In D(e)ad & Working With Vic Michaelis

Temple of Geek: I don’t think anyone came off as the bad guy. What was so impressive to me about the performances in the script is it was like everything just felt very real. It wasn’t like this person’s clearly the bad guy doing whatever. They’re all grieving and that’s hard. So I thought that was really well done. That’s awesome. I love the relationship between Tillie and Violet. You and Vic are phenomenally funny in having that very clear love, but also a little bit of the butting heads antagonism. Can you talk about not only writing that dynamic but also helping to cultivate it with Vic?

Isabela Roland:

“Yeah, I was greatly, I am hugely every day inspired by (Fleabag.) And that story really just clung to me, especially the end of season two when you sort of spoiler realize it’s been about the sisters this whole time. That is so that was really present with me when I was writing the movie. Because going through my dad’s death in real life, my sister is my half sister, so our dad is the only parent that we share. She’s actually quite a bit older that she’s 10 or 11 years older than I am. But we are extremely close. As (Fleabag) shows, a sister relationship is, especially when it’s just you, it’s crazy. And you only share one parent.

Both of our families are very enmeshed. I’m very close with her mom. She’s very close with my mom. But we had, she’s 11 years older than I, we had completely different experiences of our dad as well. And so when he died, it was like we needed each other so much, but we’re also, there was this chasm where we were like, I was like, why do you feel that way? And she was like, well, why do you feel that way? What’s wrong with you? And we’ve since come together so much stronger than we’ve ever been in our whole relationship. I almost am like, oh my God, any only child who has to go through a parent’s death. I can’t imagine that.

Thankfully Vic wanted to do this movie, I was just over the moon. They’re my favorite person in the whole world. And as soon as they read the script, they were like, this feels like (Fleabag.) And I was like, shut the f-ck up, dude. So we already have an immense love for each other. This project brought us so much closer, to the point, and then they did such a good job that I was like, did I fuck up? And someone who really blew me out of the water flies, but I feel okay about it.”

Temple of Geek: You’re too good. You can’t be in my movie anymore.

Isabela Roland:

“I literally would be watching them. It seems like, okay, maybe this was a big mistake because I don’t think I’m acting that well of what they’re doing.”

Temple of Geek: Oh, I love the dynamic. You both were so phenomenal in it! And can you talk to me a little bit about working with your mom as a co-star and with her as your director and maybe what you learned from that experience?

Isabela Roland:

“It was wild. It was crazy. A lot of people are like, I could never work with my parents. Just as fate would have it, I’ve been working with my mom in different capacities forever, and it’s pretty cut and dry, nepo baby stuff. I have developed projects with her. I was her assistant for a short period of time, which we were both really bad at. And we ended it quickly because it was bad. But we’ve worked on a lot of things together.

My mom is one of the most talented people in the world. I think definitely underrated when it comes to her ability as specifically a sitcom writer. What she does is magic and having the privilege of being able to watch her was an education that is so priceless. And then she started wanting to direct and she did a couple of short films that were really awesome. And so this felt, and when I was like, okay, I’m going to take this idea, she was like, okay, I’m going to direct it. And I couldn’t be like no, because I stole your idea.

It felt very natural and was certainly difficult. And we did very much get on each other’s nerves. And there were points where it was like, what the fuck have I done? Why am I doing this is so crazy. And then there were moments where you’re like watching your mom direct. I was watching my mom direct my grandparents, and I was like, this is insane. What a crazy life that I have. This is really unreal experience.”

Check out the list of screenings to see if “D(e)ad” is showing near you.