Slumberland is a movie that came into my life unexpectedly. What I thought would be a fun family movie turned out to be a heart-wrenching tale touching on grief and loss. It’s so timely too because I recently lost my grandfather. So when I had the opportunity to interview the cast of Slumberland – Marlow Barkley and Chris O’Dowd – I simply had to get their thoughts on how they deal with grief and loss with the hopes of finding some way through my own grief. Here’s what they had to say.
Slumberland Interview on Grief and Loss
SLUMBERLAND – (L-R) Kyle Chandler as PETER and Marlow Barkley as NEMO in Slumberland. Cr: Netflix © 2022
Marlow: “I think making sure to keep the things that make you happy and bring you joy very close to you is very important. And if you can, block out any negative thoughts and ideas. Specifically keep friends close because I find that friends can be very, very helpful and inspiring at different times. There are people out there who are going through difficult times at a young age so they need something to hold onto or guide them through the difficult times. I hope they can use Nemo as an inspiration to do that.”
Chris: “I’ve had to deal with a good bit of grief in the last few years and I don’t know if I have any great solutions but what I did find is that sometimes, obviously, time is the thing that heals. But sometimes, you can put things back a little bit so sometimes, you just get through the first month by all means necessary. It doesn’t have to be the most healthy f*ing way to respond to everything and the most rational and mature way to respond to everything. Just get out of the first month and then you can start to heal. The truth is we all know that parents never really die but they live on in all of us. It’s the glory of life. It’s just flesh. If you have an idea of what they’re like… if you know a thing they like… then they are still alive.”
How do you deal with grief and loss? Would love to hear your tips. Email me at angeline.wheninmanila@gmail.com or send me a direct message at When in Manila Angeline on Facebook. Interact with the team and join the WhenInManila.com Community at WIM Squad! Join our WhenInManila.com community on Viber, as well!
