Director Kevin Asch said he came up with the idea for “Affluenza,” a movie which comes out in theaters this Friday, as a junior at Great Neck North High School.
“As a junior I had to read “Hamlet,” “The Great Gatsby” and the “Catcher in the Rye” in my English class,” Asch said in an interview with Blank Slate Media.
The main characters in all three stories, Asch said, rebelled against “the moralities of their society, their parents and really sort of this brochure that you’re given as a young man.”
Asch, who has also directed “Holy Rollers” and “Characters,” said he, too, felt like an outsider growing up in Great Neck.
“That angst and some of that inspiration [from the books] led me to want to make this film,” he said.
Set in mid to late 2008, amidst the fallout of an economic recession, “Affluenza” tells the story of Fisher Miller (Ben Rosenfield) moves into the home of his wealthy uncle and aunt after his father and mother divorce.
Miller, an aspiring photographer who moonlights as a drug dealer, attempts to acclimate to the affluent lifestyle of the teenagers in his new hometown.
Although the name of the town is not mentioned throughout the movie, several scenes are filmed in various locations throughout the Great Neck peninsula, including Steppingstone Park, the Great Neck Long Island Rail Road Station and portions of Middle Neck Road.
Morris Levy, a Kings Point resident who worked as a producer on the film, praised the Town of North Hempstead and the Great Neck Park District for granting permits to the filmmakers.
“The town and villages are always great about filming,” Levy said.
Asch, 38, said he chose to film at Steppingstone Park because it’s “beautiful.”
“There’s no blockage to the water,” he said of the park. “I wanted the movie to have this lush open feeling and leisure and not feel claustrophobic.”
The Great Neck Long Island Rail Road Station, Asch said, was picked because “shows how close it was to New York City.”
Several parts of the movie were also filmed at the Guggenheim Estate in Sands Point and Chelsea Mansion in East Norwich, Asch said.
“I wanted that aged money look,” he said of his choice of the two estates. “I didn’t want that McMansion feel.”
Miller’s new acquaintances in the movie include his cousin Kate Miller (Nicola Peltz), neighbor Dylan Carson (Gregg Sulkin) and Todd Goodman (Grant Gustin), who dates Kate Miller.
Throughout the course of the movie, Miller attempts to enroll in a photography school in Manhattan while attempting to become popular within his new social circle.
But Miller, just like Asch, soon starts to question the rules and actions of the affluent society, unlike the other people around him.
Asch said many of the films he saw as a teenager growing up in Great Neck were also set “within an affluent world.”
“But very few of them really questioned the destructive nature of that,” he said. “I didn’t relate to that and I found that to be unbelievable.”
Asch said the outsider perspective is portrayed in Fisher Miller’s role as a photographer.
“The thing about that character is that he’s such a passive character,” he said. “Photography was my way in on all that.”
He said he, too, was an aspiring artist with a camera in an affluent society.
“I related to his plight as a young man trying to be an artist,” he said.
Asch said the actors in the movie learned during the filming that they were playing a previous version of the director.
“The actors playing Fisher and Dylan turned to me and asked if they were playing two halves of me,” he said. “I said, I suppose you are.”
He also said he believes his depiction of “young love” in the movie is a more realistic description than of that found in most teenage movies.
“I think young love is beautiful but I think it could be traumatic and it’s confusing,” Asch said.
Levy said he supported the idea from the movie after reading Asch’s original script several years ago.
“When I originally read the script I thought it was great and that it was very well written,” Levy said.
Levy said he did not experience the same type of feelings Asch did growing up in Great Neck, but said that he thought he was “spot on” in depicting the peninsula’s affluent lifestyle.
“I loved the idea,” Levy said.
Both Levy and Asch said they have watched several versions of the film since filming wrapped up in 2012.
“It was exactly what he said and what we had envisioned,” Levy said.
But Asch said he won’t be sure what to think of the film until it’s released in theaters on Friday.
“I’m really excited to see what kind of life it has,” he said.
