‘Waves’ cast on the ripples of life

The film “Waves” was a longtime coming for writer and director Trey Edward Shults.

“I like to think I had to live a lot of life and get on the other side of some things before it could all come into place,” Shults told CNN. “It’s a very personal film.”

“Waves” stars Kelvin Harrison Jr., Taylor Russell, Sterling K. Brown and Renée Elise Goldsberry as an African-American family living in the suburbs who are confronted with a tragedy.

Harrison plays a teenager whose father, Ronald (played by Brown), pushes him as a student athlete. The family is rounded out by daughter, Emily (Russell).

The film reunites Shults with Harrison, who worked together on the 2017 film, “It Comes At Night.”

Shults said “Waves” is based loosely on his own family (they are not African American). Brown said it’s a testament to the director’s strong collaboration with Harrison that the story feels so universal.

“Kelvin shared his life with Trey and they found this way to sort of bring those two worlds together in a way that was seamless,” Brown said. “It necessarily had to be African American once you make [Harrison] the son, so race is going to be a part of the story, but it’s not the central part.”

Harrison said he loves that the industry is getting to the point where he can be cast in such nuanced and complex roles as he has in both “It Comes At Night” and “Waves.”

“Five years ago, there weren’t as many roles for [young black men] and if if they were roles, it was the same role,” Harrison said. “To be able to play so many dynamic, young African-American men makes me really excited just to keep pushing those boundaries and redefining who we are.”

Russell echoed that sentiment, saying she knew the film was “a gem” and fought hard to be a part of the cast.

“You don’t get roles like this as a young, mixed-raced girl. It just doesn’t happen,” she said. “I haven’t seen stuff like this come across my desk that often or even ever, so it’s kind of a no-brainer in so many ways.”

For Brown, who is so identified for his work on the hit NBC drama “This Is Us,” the project gives audiences a chance to see him on screen as a potentially less sympathetic character than the one he plays on television.

“Everybody’s going to bring themselves to the viewing experience for me,” he said. “It’s not a matter of how much you like me or don’t like me, but do you understand why I did what I did. As long as I can communicate that, like, ‘I understand why this man took the actions that you did and why he was the way he was,’ that’s all I need. I think [his character is] a great dad.”

For director Shults, such sentiment about the complexities of people and their lives is exactly what he was aiming for with this film.

“I think the movie has a lot of highs and a lot of lows and that happens in life — and it’s getting through those lows, hopefully back to some highs again and everything in between,” Shults explained. “I think that’s kind of a beautiful thing.”

“Waves” opens Friday in limited theaters.