A Good Person: Zach Braff and Florence Pugh on tragedy, working with Morgan Freeman, and writing original songs

gamesradar.com:

Zach Braff doesn't make many movies. A Good Person, starring Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman, is only the filmmaker's fourth in almost 20 years. That speaks to an actor-turned-director who is always waiting for the right story to tell. Unfortunately for Braff, like so many others, the COVID pandemic brought about a wave of tragedy. It's something he used as fuel to mold into his new project.

"During the pandemic, I had the time and I had a lot of loss," Braff tells GamesRadar+ ahead of the Sky Original's release. "I lost some people who were very close to me, including one of my best friends to COVID. So what bubbled up was wanting to write about grief and standing back up after tragedy and loss. It just became very clear that it was the thing I wanted to write about."

That grief manifests as the story of Allison (Florence Pugh), the titular 'Good Person' whose life falls into a cycle of anger and opioid addiction after a tragic accident. While on the road to recovery, she encounters Daniel (Morgan Freeman), the man who would have been her father-in-law – if it wasn't for the aforementioned accident leading to the death of her fiancé Nathan's sister and the breakdown of her relationship. For Pugh, the tragic 'everyman' quality of the subject matter – opioid addiction and abuse affects two million Americans, recent US government figures suggest (opens in new tab) – was a fascinating in-road when playing the flawed character.

"The thing that intrigued me the most about it was when addict movies come where you get to play someone who is at rock bottom, you kind of assume the worst. Or you assume, because of XYZ, that's why they got there. The most important thing Zach tried to do with this script is try and prove it takes