"Saturday Night Live" writer Chris Kelly used his first break between "SNL" seasons to write the script for the semi-autobiographical film "Other People." He said at the time he had "absolutely zero thought that it would actually get made."
"Back then, I was like, 'How the hell does a movie even get made?' I still kind of think that, and I’ve actually made one now," he said in a statement.
Here's an exclusive first look at the movie poster for "Other People":
"Other People," Kelly's directorial debut, was inspired by the time he cared for his mother as she was dying of cancer.
"The time I spent living with her and my family while she was sick had such an enormous impact on me, that it just felt like that’s what I should write about," he said. "Anytime I thought, 'What do I want to say in a movie? What do I care about?,' it always came back to my mother and my family and that time in my life."
"Other People" centers on a struggling comedy writer, played by Jesse Plemons, who - just after breaking up with his boyfriend - returns home to Sacramento to help his sick mother, played by "SNL" alum Molly Shannon.
"I had told my managers years before that Molly Shannon was who I pictured to play the role of the mother, Joanne. I never thought I would actually get her, but I used her as an example of who I wanted," Kelly explained. "When she read the script and said she would do it, I went insane in my apartment. I really couldn’t believe it."