A simple love story set in the dreary winter of Atlantic City, directorial film debut The Atlantic City Story by Henry Butash captures the hearts of lost souls and those who have felt at their lowest. The film stars Broadway veteran Jessica Hecht alongside rising star Mike Faist who is also known for his stage work as Connor Murphy in the original Broadway cast of Dear Evan Hansen. 2023 has been a fruitful year for both stars: Hecht received a Tony nomination for her work on the play Summer, 1976. Meanwhile, Faist made his West End debut as Jack Twist in the stage adaptation of Brokeback Mountain alongside Lucas Hedges. These accolades are just the tip of the iceberg for the small cast of The Atlantic City Story.
First debuting at the Denver Film Festival, The Atlantic City Story follows unhappily married Jane (Hecht) as she traverses to Atlantic City for one weekend. There she meets Arthur (Faist), a young gambler with a penchant for stealing. In the haze of that one weekend, their friendship grows into something more intimate and romantic. As they bond under the haunted lights and the cold shore of Atlantic City, they rediscover pieces of themselves. Dubbed a “labour of love” by Jessica Hecht, The Atlantic City Story marvels at the anonymity of its two main characters and plays off of the relationship that can be born from that.
2023 closed with the streaming release of The Atlantic City Story on Amazon Prime. To prepare for an even busier year for both Faist and Hecht this 2024 – with Faist’s upcoming film Challengers starring alongside Josh O’Connor and Zendaya – we interview writer and director Butash. We talk about his inspiration for the film, working with Faist and Hecht, and lessons to learn from the characters of Arthur and Jane.
Can you please give us a brief introduction to The Atlantic City Story? What is it about and what inspired you to make this film?
The film is about an unhappily married woman. She sets out to run away from home and go to Atlantic City. While she’s there, she meets a young gambler and they have a sort of intimate, unlikely relationship in the course of a brief weekend.
In terms of the idea, I grew up in New Jersey. I knew I wanted to make a film there. I’ve been living in Texas for a while at the time, and so I was thinking of home and New Jersey. While I didn’t grow up next to Atlantic City – I grew up in the northern part of New Jersey – I’ve been to Atlantic City several times and to the shore quite a bit. When I was thinking of a film I wanted to do in New Jersey, my mind sort of wandered to Atlantic City. About what that represented and the kind of story one could tell there.
For the writing, the jumping-off point was a lot of literature. There’s a short story by Stefan Zweig called Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman. I was also thinking of Anton Chekhov’s The Lady with the Dog. I knew I wanted to do something about the very brief, intense relationship between an unlikely pair of people. There’s also a film by Jacques Demy called Bay of Angels. It approaches a similar relationship connecting to a place along the French Riviera with all the casinos there. I had these different ideas in my head and I started to just go to Atlantic City. I got a hotel room for myself and hung out there, I went to the casinos by myself and just watched people, played a little bit by myself just to be a part of it, and I walked around.
Over time, the script just kind of grew from that – from those initial ideas and from the environment itself. Because of that, I wanted to make Atlantic City—the place—a real part of the story. I had the thought to set the film in the winter. What Atlantic City is in the winter is completely different to what it is in the summer. Even more so in the past when it was a sort of destination: a gambling destination or just a summer resort destination. Now with online gambling, that sort of allure has faded. Beyond that, in winter, the place really clears out. It becomes haunted in a way by everything that happens there in the summer. You just sense that absence in the winter.
I really responded to this. I thought about how could it inform the story and reflect the attitude and the mood of the characters. That’s sort of how the script developed.
Arthur and Jane, where did these characters come from? Are they based on people you know; are they amalgamations of all these different inspirations?
Amalgamation is a good way to put it. It is sort of just a big melting pot of different things we researched and referenced. Of course, there are always going to be little characteristics or anecdotes taken from people you know, or people they know that you then hear about second-hand. The literal story isn’t in any way autobiographical at all. But of course, little details about yourself – not just me but also everyone creatively involved in the film – end up getting kind of poured into this pot of the characters and the story.
Arthur and Jane kind of grew out of those works of literature I mentioned. Knowing that I wanted to do something with two characters with that kind of background and how a weekend together would be unlikely between those two people. The idea was to do an unlikely couple in an unlikely place. That was sort of the way I was thinking. Of course, in the making of it, everyone brings their own experiences. They bring their own artistic temperament and pace to the story and the characters. It ends up – Frankenstein’s not the best way to put it but – an amalgamation. It really evolves into its own thing in an exciting way. That’s sort of the fun of it, I think.
Have you personally, romantic or otherwise, ever had that kind of relationship where you meet someone for a short period and form this unique connection, and then just never see them again?
It’s not an autobiographical story whatsoever. There’s no one-for-one at all between the story and something that’s happened in my life. Of course, you have interactions with people and it’s impossible not to make a story personal. You know, one where your own sensibilities and emotions are poured into it. The Atlantic City Story certainly is a personal film, but it’s not an autobiographical film in any way. It’s not based on anything that happened to me.
Since it’s a very small cast; what was the audition process like for the two main characters? How did you end up choosing Jessica Hecht and Mike Faist for these roles?
They both were recommended by our casting director which were both great recommendations. Jessica Hecht came on the project first. I remember meeting with her and just being very excited to be working with her. Just because she has—especially on the New York Broadway scene—such a great body of work. Mike Faist was someone—we did these chemistry reads with Jessica and some actors to play the Arthur role because we knew the whole story relied on the chemistry between these two characters. You could tell Mike understood the part. I remember meeting with Mike and talking with Mike. It was really our conversations that convinced me of his dedication to the role and how he approaches a character. It all just really made me excited that we got Mike and Jessica to carry the film for us.
As individuals, what was it like—first of all—working with Jessica? As you mentioned, she’s well-established in the industry. She has had so many different roles under her belt, not just on stage but in film and TV as well. What do you think she brought to the character of Jane?
What everyone brings—what Mike brought to his character, and what Jessica brought to her character—is the experience of life. The life you’ve lived sort of helps inform the world you build for the characters and how you approach it. Jessica’s such a talented actress. Through all of her great work on film, the stage and television, she really has a brilliant command of her craft and her instrument as an actress. I remember her telling me this story of how Arthur Miller would give this direct direction, so to speak, of boiling down a character to a simple way of understanding them. It’s having a clear thought behind what you’re doing and not overcomplicating things. I think, for Jessica, it just comes from years of doing it and doing it at a very high level.
And how about Mike? He’s currently breaking through the film scene, has a couple of acclaimed roles including West Side Story, and you see everyone excited for his new film Challengers. What was it like working with him before all of that and seeing him grow into the actor that he is now?
Mike is brilliant and he was brilliant. We made the movie now about four years ago, and even back then, what I loved about Mike was how serious he was about acting. Not in a self-righteous way; Mike’s extraordinarily humble as a person. But he really sort of reveres acting – or at least, I think he does. He doesn’t take the craft lightly. He approaches it like a real professional and someone who’s just enormously talented. I think where Mike’s so great is just, even when he’s not delivering dialogue, he’s just giving such a strong performance with his looks. You can always feel him thinking when you look at him—you can see him thinking. Which is sort of the mark of really good film acting, at least.
It was a pleasure to work with him and a pleasure to work with Jessica as well. As I’ve said, the film really relies on them and they really carry the film. Their chemistry and the relationship they have is what the film is.
Since you say that the film heavily relies on these two actors, how creative did you let them be with their characters? Was there room for creativity on their part and how they approached the scenes together? Or were you very specific about how you wanted those scenes and that relationship to come across?
I took a very loose approach to the film. I wanted there to be something spontaneous about it; something authentic and true to life. It just felt like if I forced them into one thing, it would be like the air got sucked out of the room. It would just feel stale and stilted. I didn’t want that; I wanted it to be very organic and alive.
Mike and Jessica – there was a lot of room and we had a lot of takes where we had just gone through the script and talked deeply about the characters and the story. But then, once we had that foundation, we had the freedom to then wander off in a really exciting way. We did a lot of takes where Mike and Jessica knew what the purpose of the scene was narratively. But then, they weren’t tied down to a specific line of dialogue or anything like that. They just acted off of each other and worked together.
We did a lot of scenes where I would tell Mike and Jessica to just surprise me. They both consistently shocked me with the things they would think of spontaneously. That was the most exciting part! And a lot of times, it was those takes that ended up in the film. Just because they felt so organic, real and natural.
Was one of those takes the boardwalk dancing scene? Because I thought that was really good and that was really beautiful.
Thank you for saying so. That was not choreographed at all. The direction was just we were going to dance on the boardwalk. Mike and Jessica sort of made it up on their own. Which is what we wanted the scene to be. It wasn’t a dance number within the film. It was supposed to be these two people just kind of having fun together, goofing around on the boardwalk alone at night. That’s where that came from.
You mentioned earlier Jessica’s long history with theatre, and same goes for Mike and his stage work. Does it help to have theatre actors be the backbone of your film?
I think so. What they brought was the real work one does in the theatre. Working on the character, understanding motivation – I think they both brought that background to the film. By doing that work, by talking things through beforehand – we did some script-reading, some read-throughs, just trying to understand the characters together – it allowed us to be more spontaneous in the actual filming. It wasn’t just Mike and Jessica trying random things; it was spontaneous improvisations that were informed by the characters and felt right for the world we had discussed. Having worked with Mike and Jessica and having seen the performances they give, it certainly did not hurt at all. I think it was a huge help.
What lessons do you hope people can take from the characters of Arthur and Jane in The Atlantic City Story?
Gosh. Both characters, when they meet, are coming from a place that feels like a real low for them. They feel like they’re at a low point in their lives. I think the time they spent together, they leave with the resolution to keep going and to take the first step towards improving their lives. You can always start over in a way. Things are never truly lost – you just have to take the first step and put yourself on the right path. That’s hopefully at the end how the characters are feeling: that nothing is beyond salvaging or repair. You can have the life you want if you just act accordingly.
That’s a wrap on this Henry Butash interview. The Atlantic City Story is now available to stream on Amazon Prime! What do you think of this independent film starring Broadway veterans Mike Faist and Jessica Hecht? How about Butash’s directorial debut? Make sure to comment on what you love about the film and this interview over on our Instagram or Twitter! Don’t forget to check out our previous article, a review of All of Us Strangers Starring Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Claire Foy and Jamie Bell @ Belfast Film Festival.
