NewzCLEVELAND (AP) — A movie star, a filmmaker and a chemical dependency counselor are halfway through a multiday road trip around Ohio and things are starting to get a little goofy. British actor Will Poulter, Ohio-born and Brooklyn-based writer-director Adam Meeks and Annette Deao, the program director of an adult recovery court in west-central Ohio, were close enough before, having made the indie film “Union County” just last year. But nothing is quite so bonding as spending hours upon hours together packed inside a Chevrolet Traverse as they bring their film, a raw but hopeful portrait of addiction and recovery, out nationwide Friday, to independent movie theaters across the state.
A very Ohio road trip In a lengthy interview with The Associated Press at the Cleveland Cinematheque, it becomes immediately clear that nothing is even remotely “Hollywood” about this tour. There are no publicists, studio representatives or glam squads. One day, they all showed up to a regional news station wearing essentially the same thing (white T-shirts).
Their “driver” is one of the film’s producers. They’ve made stops at family homes, including Deao’s 185-year-old renovated barn, Meeks’ uncle’s garage where he’d been storing various props and costumes from the movie “just in case.” And they’re serious about finding Ohio’s best cuisine, counting Hoyo’s Kitchen, a Somali food stall inside Columbus’ North Market, as a particular highlight. In the car, chosen primarily to accommodate two men who are over 6 feet tall, Deao supplied the snacks, a healthy smorgasbord of mandarin oranges, mangoes and coconut chocolate covered almonds.
Meeks helped with the playlist (including Ohio’s own Afroman). And Poulter brought the sugar-free energy drinks, which Deao did not approve of. “Will’s a bad influence,” laughed Meeks.
Seated together, the three seem more like relatives than temporary colleagues — they are light and jovial and excited by the response to the film from their screenings at the Gateway Film Center in Columbus and The Nightlight in Akron. The regional pride, Poulter said, has been palpable, not just for the fact that it was made locally but for how it represents the human element of the opioid crisis. The real drug court behind ‘Union County’ “When it comes to this subject matter, sometimes there’s a tendency to sort of pair the subject of devastation and tragedy with visu…
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