'As They Made Us' Cast Share Their Emotional Links to Family Drama

Mayim Bialik stayed behind the camera of her new movie As They Made Us, but we see plenty of her on the screen in a different way.

The actress and Jeopardy! host makes her directorial feature film debut with As They Made Us, a family drama she wrote based loosely on elements of her own life. She recruited her The Big Bang Theory co-star Simon Helberg and former Glee actress Dianna Agron to join the cast, while Dustin Hoffman and Candice Bergen star too.

As They Made Us opens in theaters and on VOD on Friday, April 8, 2022. Ahead of its launch, Newsweek spoke to Bialik, Agron and Helberg to get their take on the movie.

Divorced mom Abigail, played by Agron, tries to make peace with her dysfunctional family in As They Made Us. Those family members include estranged brother Nathan (Helberg), her own judgmental mother Barbara (Bergen) and the reformed father Eugene (Hoffman).

While she acknowledges that not everything within the movie is autobiographical, there is an element of truth to parts of the story, according to the writer. Bialik told Newsweek, "My father passed away seven years ago, and there's a very traditional year of mourning in the Jewish tradition.

"After that I started a very different kind of processing, which happens, and things started coming to me that I had to start writing down. I started writing some thoughts, some images, music that all went into those memories, and it evolved from there," she said.

She spoke to Oscar winning writer Jim Rash (Community), Don Reo (Two and a Half Men), Eddie Gorodetsky (The Big Bang Theory) and Eric Kaplan (The Big Bang Theory) who helped her shape her ideas into a script. When it came to who could direct the movie, Bialik determined that her vision was so specific, she was best placed to take on that role too.

"I decided I wouldn't go scene by scene and say, this happened, this didn't happen, but there are things in the film that absolutely never happened, likely never will."

Bialik continued: "There's a tremendous amount of vulnerability, however, that's really only revealed to the people that I reveal it too" — like her cinematographer David Feeney-Mosier and members of the cast.

Discussing the themes touched on in the movie, Bialik said: "There's a definite fear about talking about mental illness at all. There's a fear about talking about children who grow up with addiction and struggles around addiction. That's very painful, but also like, it's that pain and fear and secrecy that makes so many of us have to hide and start overcompensating. And so I guess it was also a cathartic process, not just for my story, but to show that it's important to talk about these things."

Bialik's lead actress in As They Made Us, Agron found painfully relatable aspects to the story — specifically that of an unwell father.

"There are so many personal truths in this film that made me absolutely want to dive in," Agron told Newsweek. "My father has been sick for more years of my life than not."

"Themes like coming to terms with the fact that there might be new versions of them because of the deterioration of physical health or cognition, and being ok to accept that new version of them," she said. "So it's just a lot of experience that has peppered my life and left a real lasting impact. It's very painful."

During a pivotal scene, Hoffman's character's health is visibly deteriorating, and as his onscreen daughter, Agron had to be there for him. "I went outside when we were done filming that scene and I just had the biggest cry, like, for 10 minutes. Like wailing to myself, like rocking myself. That was more about my personal truth."

This article continues at NEWSWEEK.