This Indie Rom-Com Crew Was Officially in Danger While Filming One Scene

Recently, Collider was proud to partner with producer, writer, director, and star Reed Arnold for a chance to celebrate an early look at his debut feature film, Do Us Part, on the big screen. What began as a deeply personal yet relatable story about the passage of time and lost love soon became an intimate stage play that would garner high praise for Reed and his talented cast. When it became clear there was enough interest in the story to adapt into a movie, Reed and his original stars, Kelly Russo and Travis Laughlin, set to work for a 13-day shoot, making indie movie magic happen.

In Do Us Part, it’s Ryan’s (Laughlin) wedding day, and as with all good rom-coms, nothing is going according to plan. On what should be one of the happiest days of his life, his unrequited love and best friend in college, Rose (Russo), crashes the wedding to profess her love for him. While Ryan struggles to deal with this unwelcome surprise, his morally questionable best man, Mark (Arnold), must navigate a minefield of secrets, including his own, to get Ryan down the aisle.

Check out the full conversation with the trio behind Do Us Part in the video above, with a transcript provided below, as they discuss the making of their whirlwind production at our Q&A, moderated by Steve Weintraub. Arnold shares how the idea went from a 25-page script to a feature film, how their small crew pulled this off in just 16 days, 13 of which they spent filming, and what it was like to reunite with his original cast to make it happen. They also share their thoughts on these complicated characters, the story of how they were nearly shot on set, and which scenes were the most difficult to pull off.

How ‘Do Us Part’ Went From a 25-Page Idea to a Feature Film

“The response was strong enough that I stuck with it for years.”

Image via Level 33 Entertainment

COLLIDER: For each of you, what is the absolute worst real-life wedding disaster you have ever witnessed?

REED ARNOLD: I witnessed a pretty brutal Father of the Bride speech. I’m not going to go into it because they’ll piece it together, but it was brutal.

KELLY RUSSO: Someone almost died on my own wedding, so that was fun.

ARNOLD: Oh yeah, I was there. That wasn’t great either.

RUSSO: That was great. A guy had too much to drink and almost died at my cocktail hour. Good thing everyone there was a doctor, EMT, or firefighter, so they rushed in. It was very dramatic.

ARNOLD: Her husband’s a doctor.

TRAVIS LAUGHLIN: I don’t know if I have one. I was breakdancing, and I just kind of dislocated my shoulder.

ARNOLD: Was that at my wedding? [Laughs]

LAUGHLIN: No, it was a while ago.

RUSSO: Reed’s wedding was very wild. It was very fun.

LAUGHLIN: Oh, yeah. That one was a disaster at your wedding. I got sick.

RUSSO: Oh, you did! He got wasted. I got wasted, too, but I held it like a champ — unlike you. We’re all friends in real life. In case you can’t tell, we’re actually friends.

This started as a play. How close is the movie to the play, and when did you realize, “Wait a minute, I think I want to make this movie?”

ARNOLD: The original, original piece was actually 25 pages. I was going to film it as a short film or something. It was just the wedding stuff. And then, we were in an acting class together and our teacher, Wolfgang Bodison, said, “Does anyone have anything we can put up as a one-act stage play?” And I said, “Well, I have this. We could do this.” He liked it, and they happened to be great for the roles, and so we started rehearsing and working on it.

Eventually, we kind of realized we could expand it and add the college flashbacks and flesh it into a full-length thing, and so we added those. And at that point, the structure was wedding, flashback, wedding, flashback, wedding. So it was five long scenes. We put that up in 2015, so it was over a decade ago, and the response was strong enough that I stuck with it for years. It restaged several times with different casts.

In 2019, I was talking to a theater company about producing it in North Carolina for hopefully an Off-Broadway run, and then that was the first mention of, like, could it be a film? My first instinct was, like, “No, I like it as a play. It can’t change.” But then I was like, “That’s crazy. You need to take that opportunity and try to make something of it.” And so I turned it to a screenplay in 2019, and then COVID hit and killed all of those plans.

So, after COVID, I kicked it around a little bit and finally decided if I knew I wanted it to exist, I should film it myself, and reached out to my former cast mates, because I knew I needed to do it fast and cheap. [Laughs] And I’ve always wanted to do it with them again, just because I knew I needed people who could get it in one take. There were many times I was like, “We have one take. You need to knock it out.” So, fortunately, they were free, and it was so fun to step back with them eight years later.

What, if anything, changed between the play and movie once you started writing?

ARNOLD: The big things that changed is the play was, again, those five long scenes, and a lot of them are in one location, like one room in the basement of a church, and so I realized that that’s not going to work. We need to make shorter scenes and put them in different places around a more scenic locale.

Then I realized I could add some characters, because originally it was just the three of us. I kind of realized, “Well, I can have all these characters we talk about, but don’t see, I could have some scenes with them.” And so I sprinkled some of the other characters in, and then I just did some rearranging and added a few college flashbacks that weren’t there, and just made it a little bit bigger than the play was.

Did you film the flashbacks at the end? How did the filming go?

ARNOLD: Yeah. Travis and I had beards. It was very sophisticated. We had beards for the wedding stuff, so we filmed all that first, and then we shaved and shot the college stuff.

RUSSO: And I threw in extensions.

ARNOLD: And Kelly threw in extensions.

The title is a riff on “till death do us part.” Did you have any alt titles? How much did you debate the title?

ARNOLD: The play version was called For Better, For Worse, and Do Us Part was another title we kicked around then. I like both of those because they are wedding-centric, but also, once you know what the story is and what these friends are, you understand why it works for them, right? You understand that they’re friends, for better or for worse. You understand “do us part” — they did part ways.

There is a sense that a wedding is kind of a finality, right? It’s a new beginning, which means it’s an end of a previous life. And so, I like both of those because they have to do with a wedding, but they also tell a little bit of a story about what’s going on with the three friends.

The Cast Almost Got Shot While Filming One of ‘Do Us Part’s Scenes

“I’ll give you all the dirt.”

Image via Level 33 Entertainment

I love learning about the behind-the-scenes, the making of movies or TV shows, stuff you don’t read in Wikipedia or in the press notes. For each of you, is there anything that you think fans might be surprised to learn, or any cool behind-the-scenes stories that you want to share?

ARNOLD: The thing that I’m proud of, and I think would be surprising to many people who try to make films, which I assume there’s many of us in the audience here, is we basically did this with the three of us and four other people. It was a really small team who put most of this together. There were a few days where we had a bigger crew on, but it was really about seven people for 16 days who made this film what it is.

I’ve said many times, I’m a total idiot. I was falling face forward through all of this, and so I really surround myself with a good team who could do a lot on not very much and make this look like a bigger picture than it really was. So, that might be surprising.

RUSSO: Reed almost got run over. That was scary. I’ll give you all the dirt. We got threatened to be shot at. It was kind of wild. So the scene where Reed and I are having this moment in front of this fence, beautiful view, we almost died for it! It was pretty scary. I’m not joking. I am not joking!

ARNOLD: I didn’t realize it was the neighbor’s fence, and they were not keen on us shooting on their property.

RUSSO: We almost died. It was very scary. No, but they were threatening to shoot us, so I take that, as a Californian, very seriously. Maybe not in Virginia.

ARNOLD: The phrase was, “We know about the Second Amendment and we exercise our rights.” So, good to know. Thank you.

RUSSO: To me, that’s a threat.

ARNOLD: I also said, “Look, can I give you all some money to just shoot right here on the fence line? We won’t go on your property. Can I pay you 500 bucks?” And the guy looks exactly like David Cross, and so in my mind, he is David Cross, and he said, “Look at this place. The last thing we need is more money.”

RUSSO: It was like Yellowstone. I was like, “We’re gonna die.”

ARNOLD: Honestly, I respected it. I was like, “You’re right. You’re exactly right. That is nothing to you.”

RUSSO: So that was fun.

LAUGHLIN: I’m shocked that it was three years ago we shot. It was three years ago. It doesn’t feel that way. It’s a long way to come across,

ARNOLD: It’s a long road to get a picture to life.

LAUGHLIN: It was a long time ago. And even going around all the festivals with it. So it’s been going around.

The dynamic between Ryan, Rose, and Mark feels like a real trio with years of history. When did you guys first meet? How long have you guys known each other?

LAUGHLIN: It has been a long time.

ARNOLD: We met in 2013 or ‘14 is when we were in acting school together. So, yeah, it’s been a good long while.

That also explains the chemistry on screen.

ARNOLD: Steve, we’re also phenomenal actors.

100%. So, the glory hole joke is very funny. Talk a little bit about where that joke came from and also doing the scene with a straight face and not cracking.

ARNOLD: Well, that was actually a joke that happened… We thought about that like 15 minutes before shooting that scene, actually. That was one of the rare script changes. I don’t remember who it was — I heard the phrase “glory hole in the wall” as a joke. Someone said it. I think it was Zander [Black], our sound techs and one of the producers, said that as a passing mix-up, and I thought, that’s kind of funny to mix up “glory hole” and “hole in the wall.” And we were literally about to shoot that scene, and I was like, “We can just put it in this scene we’re about to shoot.” It kind of needed a button, so it was really a spur-of-the-moment pun that came up on set.

RUSSO: And how I did not break — this one [Laughlin] sometimes in real life says funny stuff where I’m like, “Are you joking? Are you that adorable? Like, you don’t know what that means?” But yeah, no, you can channel that naivete really well, so I believed it. It felt real.

There’s a lot of history between the characters that we don’t see, that we hear about. How did you decide what was important enough to show and discuss and how much to leave unsaid?

ARNOLD: Before I wrote this script — you’re really taking me back, I’ve kind of forgotten this — I had the idea of a scene where a woman is drunk, and it’s a similar setup where the guy’s in love with her, and she says drunkenly, “I love you,” like, as a friend, and he knows that it’s not quite the “I love you” he wants, and so he just responds, “Goodnight, person.” That moment is all I had. When we decided to expand this into the college scene, I thought, “That really fits here, and I could craft a scene around that.” Then that grew into why is she drunk and when is it happening?

I was dealing a lot with graduating. It was a few years out of college so I was nostalgic for that, so that got into her character a lot. I’m kind of rambling here because it’s such a good question. I’m just kind of B.S.ing my way through it. But yeah, I think part of it was just I had a few nuggets of ideas that I thought worked with these characters.

Another thing was just the constraint that it was a play, and I had basically two scenes at the time. I was going to write two scenes where we get enough of their flashback to know enough about them. I only had the three characters, so I couldn’t do anything big. And when I went to the film, I didn’t have the budget to do anything big, so it stayed basically the same.

Reed, you wrote this, directed this, produced this, and then gave yourself arguably the character with the least impulse control. Was that an act of bravery or terrible judgment?

ARNOLD: Good question. So the original premise of this idea was a person comes to crash the wedding, and the best man tries to stop that from happening because he has his own secret thing going on. He has his own reasons for doing that. You all know that, but I’m not going to spoil it. I liked that premise because it’s like, “Oh, it’s lovely. What a sweet sacrifice.” And then the immediate next thought was, “So he should just be the worst person you’ve ever met that you should not expect capable of such a thing.”

Once I had that idea, I kind of channeled a little bit of Romeo and Juliet with Romeo, Mercutio, Rosaline, all the names. That’s totally intentional. So, Mercutio has low impulse control, he’s crude, he’s crass, but he’s also really loyal to Ryan. And I’ve played Mercutio before. It’s one of my favorite roles to play. I love that character, where he just says whatever the hell he wants and seems like kind of a bad guy, but when you dig deeper, he’s a little broken and he’s really loyal to the person he thinks is more decent than him, and maybe by protecting that, he can redeem himself. So, that’s just the character I like to play, that fast-talking Lothario with a heart of gold.

Kelly Russo Understands Rose Differently Years Later

“Rose is very polarizing.”

Image via Level 33 Entertainment

Mark is described as “the reason so many women don’t trust men.” How did you find that line between making him funny versus making him unlikable, and were there jokes or lines that got cut for going too far?

ARNOLD: There were a few jokes that got cut. I could have probably cut a few more. It’s a fine line to walk. He’s kind of the Barney Stinson character, right? You don’t want to condone everything that he does. I tried to have some fine lines that you do know he wouldn’t cross. He’s not fundamentally out trying to get girls drunk and take advantage of them, but he certainly is loose and casual with sexual escapades.

But there were some lines that got cut that I thought were just a little too harsh. But, I mean, I want it to be on that line. For some people, it’s going to be too far, and for some people, it’s going to be okay. That’s totally your call. I don’t judge you either way. Mark is terribly flawed. I don’t try to hide that.

If Mark gave you, Reed, wedding advice, would you actually take it?

ARNOLD: Well, in a way, he did. The thing I like about him is that he does have kind of a realist sense to him. Ryan has this grand, ideal vision of love, and Mark is the one who says, “Look, man, ditch all that shit. Sometimes you’re a little tipsy at a bar, and you kiss her, and it’s wonderful. Love doesn’t always come from grand gestures. It comes from just everyday interactions and chemistry happens in unexpected places. It’s not always fit for the movie screen, but that’s what life is.” So, I did have a lot of Ryan in me. I did have that kind of idealistic sense, and it was the Mark side of me that was like, “No, man, you’ve just got to go out there and meet people.”

Kelly, Rose makes a decision that is either incredibly romantic or absolutely insane, depending on your perspective. Where do you land?

RUSSO: It depends on the day. Depends on the crowd. Rose is very polarizing. It’s where you are in life. So brides, if I have any brides in the audience, they always hate me. They want to kill me. I’m like, “I get it.” I’ve been a bride and been like, “Oh my gosh.” When I first got the script, I always say, I was insulted, honestly. I thought, “Wow, Reed thinks I can play this, I thought, horrible person.” But the deeper we go into it, I see how complicated she is. Honestly, you fall in love with her more and more. She’s very complicated and flawed, as well, and interesting.

The older we get and the more we realize what love is, we were kind of babies when we first did the play, and we didn’t know what the heck we were doing, and then for the movie, we all had been in love, like real love in real life, so that was very helpful. I was like, “Oh, yeah, I would do anything for love. I would crash a wedding, for sure.”

So you’re on the side that you agree with her.

RUSSO: Now I am, yes. When I was younger, no. I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is immoral. It’s horrible.” But love is more important than anything, the older we get.

What did you have to understand about Rose to keep her from simply becoming the woman who crashes a wedding?

RUSSO: Oh, thought-provoking. What’s nice in acting is you really just have to live what your character is living and really believe and do what they’re set out to do and not care so much about hindsight, foresight, what people are going to think, because I’m not in control of that whatsoever. Zero control of what the audience sees or what the audiences thinks of me. So, taking away all judgment and just really living her as a full person.

LAUGHLIN: Well, that’s an interesting thing, because when we did it in whatever it was, 2015 or ‘14, I didn’t really get what you were trying to do. I didn’t like your character.

RUSSO: Oh my God, he hated me, so this is more tea. No, he didn’t like me, Kelly, and he did not like Rose either.

LAUGHLIN: But what’s interesting is, like what you’re saying, Reed clearly has an understanding of it beyond his years, I think.

RUSSO: Yeah, you’re more mature than us.

LAUGHLIN: He did at the time, and it was 10 years ago. But it’s like you just do the script and you’re like, “Okay, well, alright, fine. I’ll do it.” And then when it comes out, you see, and then people respond to it. You just kind of commit to the dialogue and the story makes more sense now that I’m older.

ARNOLD: I tried to slip in enough moments where it’s clear that Rose didn’t really like what she was doing either.

LAUGHLIN: Yeah.

ARNOLD: That she had a lot of, like, angst about it, but felt like she had to.

RUSSO: And his direction, as well. He’d be like, “Ehh, they’re going to hate you. Let’s do another one.”

LAUGHLIN: It’s very nuanced. And, you know. There was a line I couldn’t say that one way because it’s like, “No, no, no.”

ARNOLD: There’s a line where Travis tells Kelly, he says, “What do you expect me to do? I love her.” And Travis, God bless him, kept delivering it as, “What do you want me to do? I love her.” That changes the meaning entirely. [Laughs]

RUSSO: It’s like, “Why am I here? This is boring.”

LAUGHLIN: That’s a good example of it, though.

Rose starts as almost a wedding crasher trope, but by the third act becomes the emotional center of the film. What conversations did you and Reed have about the pacing of that transformation so it earns the shift?

RUSSO: Oh, did we talk about it? I think we just did it.

ARNOLD: I’ll brag for Kelly here. A big turn is that drunk scene.

RUSSO: And that’s all acting. I had not one sip.

ARNOLD: [Laughs] She’s not drunk at all. But the other thing is she has that monologue about being stuck in the snow, and I remember the first time I gave them that monologue and seeing them do it, and she just immediately got it. She understood that it was really about being very reluctant and scared of the change that was coming. And again, that character got all of my feelings of that era of my life, and Kelly just picked it up immediately.

I’ve seen her do that monologue 400 times now, and I always love it. I made sure it was the last thing we filmed, because I think she just so well understood what was revealed in that scene and in that moment, and I think that might be what gives gives that shift its weight.

Travis, who causes Ryan more stress, Rose or Mark?

LAUGHLIN: Probably Rose. Yeah.

RUSSO: Yes.

LAUGHLIN: Ryan, I feel like with Mark he’s used to it. It’s like background noise. But with Rose, it’s a big surprise.

The ‘Do Us Part’ Stars Impart Some Hard Truths to Each Other

It’s not easy being friends for multiple takes.

Image via Level 33 Entertainment

What’s the hardest thing about portraying a friendship where the audience needs to instantly believe years of history that haven’t actually happened?

LAUGHLIN: You’re not always in the mood to be friends when you’re filming.

ARNOLD: I was.

RUSSO: That’s such a Travis response.

LAUGHLIN: I’m particularly hard. I think other people are good at it, but I’m not always in the mood, so it’s just like getting in the mood. I wish it was a little bit more light sometimes on my part.

ARNOLD: God, I love you.

LAUGHLIN: But it is hard to be like, “Oh yeah, we love being here and we’re getting married,” and that is the hardest thing about conveying it. It’s not funny. I mean, it’s true in a way. You have to be best friends now. Then stop and stop… Now. Do it again. And then do the same lines again and be best friends again. It’s hard to do.

RUSSO: It’s really tiring. It’s really hard.

LAUGHLIN: [Laughs] Yeah. Well, that’s the whole thing with these scenes. And then we’ll do scenes out of order, so it’s like, “Okay, now you’re not friends right now, at the moment, or you don’t like each other. Now you’re best friends again.” So, that’s the hard thing. You have to use your imagination.

I loved your face during the answer.

RUSSO: I know. I can’t control it. I can’t control the face. Sorry. No, I could tell on days. Oh, the bar scene. You were in a mood that day, and it kind of worked.

LAUGHLIN: But I was happier in that scene.

RUSSO: It worked. But he was so grumpy, and we had a ton of extras, and I was like, “Get it together, Travis!”

LAUGHLIN: But I feel like it worked okay.

RUSSO: It worked wonderful. You channeled it. Yeah, it was great. Also, you’re like, “I’m not mad.” I actually was really mad at you. [Laughs] I was pissed.

ARNOLD: I’m learning so much.

This Q&A has actually pulled back the curtain.

LAUGHLIN: We were in that cabin for a long time.

ARNOLD: We were. Yeah, it was close quarters for three weeks.

Continuing on so I can get more facial reactions. Ryan is hit with 10 years of unexpressed feelings right before he’s supposed to walk down the aisle. How did you approach playing someone whose entire world is spiraling in real time?

LAUGHLIN: Just being back in Charlottesville. I went to UVA, and so did Reed, and I hadn’t been back in, like, 15 years or something, so being back was great. Filming there was perfect because I was like, “Oh, man, I’m back in this place where all these things kind of happened.” It was easier to channel a lot of the stuff, like the past coming back at you. It was very easy to do with the environment there. That helped.

What was the hardest emotion to play convincingly on what’s supposed to be the happiest day of his life?

LAUGHLIN: The reveal is hard. The reveal that we slept together. Those are hard to be shocked and to actually be shocked. We’ve talked about that. And surprise. That was difficult. I’m pretty good at being angry.

ARNOLD: No!

LAUGHLIN: So getting angry and tackling him, that’s kind of familiar, but the surprise, and like, “What?” not angry but just shocked is different. I’ll get angry in a second, but now I’m like, “What?” So that’s different. It was difficult to do that. And it works. It was great. The reaction was brilliant. That was the best I’d heard. Because we’d done it so many times, it’s not a surprise at all, and you know it’s coming. It’s wonderful.

What was it like for you guys watching in here with this audience?

ARNOLD: To his point, it was fun. You all were great. The gasps and the laughs, they all hit at the right time.

RUSSO: Oh my gosh, it was a treat.

ARNOLD: And then a lot of, “oh no”s.

I love talking about editing because it’s ultimately where it comes together. So you have a cut that you’re pretty happy with; who did you show it to for really honest and brutal feedback?

ARNOLD: I shared it with various friends. I always send it to the team, basically just like, “Hey, watch and give any notes.”

Were either of you like, “I know I did it a different way in take number two. Why aren’t we using that?”

RUSSO: He probably was like that.

LAUGHLIN: Well, I don’t know about that necessarily, but just seeing it is not always pleasant. Seeing myself. I like seeing them. Seeing it for the first time, it takes a lot to watch it.

I know a lot of actors that can’t watch themselves.

LAUGHLIN: Yeah, it’s not easy.

RUSSO: No, just as a girl, I’m like, “Ugh, my bloodshot eyes.” Of course, I got so stressed, like, “Oh, my hair’s frizzy.” Stupid stuff that doesn’t matter. So, it’s wonderful to now watch it with all the editing, all the beautiful music, all the color grading and just be able to immerse and not even notice myself, which is lovely.

What did you learn from those early screenings? Did you make any changes as a result?

ARNOLD: The movie opened originally with us in the dorm room, and I had many notes like, “Do not do that,” which is the right call. I almost cut it entirely before saying, “Hey, we can put it when he’s at the mirror. Let’s see if it works there,” and it does. That’s a big one. There was a scene that was cut entirely, just like, “We don’t need it. It’s wasting time.” I’m sure there are others, but those are the two big ones that jump out.

Reed Arnold Reveals the Real-Life Conversation That Inspired Julia

“If you need to call it, call it…”

Image via Level 33 Entertainment

Figuring out the structure of when you’re in the present versus when you’re in the past, you could obviously play that multiple different ways in terms of where you’re showing stuff. How did you figure out that structure?

ARNOLD: I’m pretty careful about when information drops, but if you do watch it again, and you all should, you’ll notice that there are little hints. I think you’ll pick up some clues that are dropped both in the past and in the present about the situation.

One thing I tried to do, if there wasn’t, like, an actual match cut or something that actually transitioned, and even if it was, I tried to make it feel like this might be what they’re thinking about at this moment. Like, this might be the memory that’s on their mind right now. I tried that both with the play and in the film, and just tried to make sure that that felt right, like, “Oh, this might be the thing that they’re both thinking about in this moment.”

And then, of course, the drunk scene is kind of the big finale of everything, where it’s such a small night and quiet night, but had big ramifications. So, I think that’s my answer because that was what was going on.

You made this on a very tight shooting schedule and a tight budget. For all three of you, before shooting begins, you’re about to start filming, what’s a scene that you would have had circled in terms of, “This is the one that I can’t wait to film, or I’m a little nervous to film this?”

RUSSO: The reveal scene with all the surprises. I was dreading it, and it was really hard to shoot it, too. That was kind of a hard one, just because of the blocking, a lot happening, really intense emotion, interiors. Lots of not-so-fun stuff.

ARNOLD: The chase scene was a big endeavor for a little indie film. It was basically three afternoons in a row of us running around those grounds, and the poor women were running in heels.

RUSSO: Yeah, uh, that was torture. [Travis] says it’s fun.

ARNOLD: I was very excited about the reveal scene, though. It was hard, but that’s also the most fun scene. There’s a lot that happens there.

LAUGHLIN: I think the romantic scenes are hard. [Laughs]

ARNOLD: [Laughs] They are. They’re hard.

RUSSO: They’re with me! You jerk.

LAUGHLIN: They were easier this time, but they’re difficult to do.

RUSSO: I was looking forward to the bride scene because that was a new one, and that was so exciting. I met Laura [Delhauer] a long time ago, so it was really nice to work with her. Laura Delhauer plays the bride, and that was really fun.

One of the things that I really liked about her is how she was written, just very smart and astute. Just very well written. Can you talk about making sure she came across that way?

ARNOLD: Thank you for saying that. I appreciate it. When I decided to make this a film and realized I could add some characters, I thought, “Well, maybe I could add Julia.” My first instinct was like, “No, no, she needs to stay off picture so everyone just has her in their own mind. We don’t want to show her.” But then I had the thought, “Well, what if the only person who meets her is Rose? And what if it happens towards the very end?” In my mind, “How does Julia react to this? What kind of person, really, is Julia?”

I’m going to shout it out. My now-wife, who was then my girlfriend, is just this quiet, graceful, strong, confident person who doesn’t have an ounce of jealousy in her body. There’s been times where I’ve talked about a past relationship or crush or whatever, and she’s just like, “Yeah, of course. We had a past. I get it.” And the day before we got married, we sat down and talked to each other, and it was like, “Look, I love you very much, and if you need this, I’m not going to be happy about it, but I will be okay. This is kind of our off ramp. This is the last moment. If you need to call it, call it.” We had that conversation with each other just as adults, and we both said, “No. We don’t want to. We’re doing this.” And then marrying her was the easiest thing in the world.

So, I realized it was this meeting of Rose, who’s still kind of insecure and figuring things out, and then Julia, who’s calm and confident and secure, and that’s where Rose needs to get to. So, having her meet that face to face, I just thought was a really nice idea. So, I hope it played.

RUSSO: Yes, Laura Arnold, his wonderful, beautiful, talented wife.

It’s a great scene.

RUSSO: Oh, I love that scene. We did it really quickly, too, because the sun was setting.

ARNOLD: Yeah, it was a race against the clock.

RUSSO: We had to do, like, one or two takes.

ARNOLD: Kelly especially. You had one take. I think you had one medium and one close-up.

No pressure.

RUSSO: Oh, I’m a closer. That’s why I’m cheap but good. I probably shouldn’t have said that in front of… Sorry, mom! I didn’t mean it. I am not Mark. I’m Rose.

Everything about that is great. That answer is perfection. For the three of you, is there anything that you hope that couples argue about on the drive home after seeing this movie or watching it at home?

ARNOLD: I don’t know if I will hope for this, but I think it’s fun if someone kind of understands what Rose is doing and if someone really hates it. That’s always a fun split. There’s the split on Mark. Is he a decent guy or not? There’s a debate that could be had.

LAUGHLIN: I guess whether he should go with Rose or not.

ARNOLD: Did anyone think maybe Rose would end up with Ryan? Yeah, there were some. Did anyone think absolutely not? “Not if he was smart?” [Laughs] That’s fair. I’m glad there was some ambiguity in the room. That’s fun.

Congratulations on pulling this off, because I know it’s really fucking hard to make a movie, and it’s really extra hard to make an indie, where, as you talked about, you have very limited takes, limited locations, and just trying to make magic happen. By the way, were any of you carrying lights and stuff? Was it one of those kinds of situations?

RUSSO: I did hair and makeup. That was a big deal.

ARNOLD: Everyone kind of did everything. It was very much a group effort.

I really want to say congratulations. How can people support this if they enjoyed the film on their socials?

ARNOLD: That is a great question, Steve. Look, this is a really indie endeavor. All of the money went into making it. I ain’t got a budget for marketing, and so it’s going to live and die by word of mouth. So, tell your friends if you liked it. Follow it on Instagram. Post stuff, repost stuff. I’ll be grateful every time. It’ll be playing at the Royal for the next week, every day at 4:10, and then it’ll be available on Digital on Demand tomorrow. So, tell your friends to rent or buy, especially if they like rom-coms that are a little crass. We are a little engine that could, so with your help, I think we could make a little splash. I appreciate it much.

Do Us Part is available to rent or own digitally.

Release Date

August 7, 2026

Runtime

93 minutes

Director

Reed Arnold