In Touched with Fire, Christine Lahti and Bruce Altman are parents to a bipolar daughter named Carla, played by Katie Holmes.

Christine Lahti, Bruce Altman On ‘Touched With Fire’

Holmes’ character Carla in Touched with Fire is a successful poet who is living with bipolar disorder. One night, Carla accidentally checks herself into a psychiatric hospital, unaware that she won’t be able to voluntarily discharge herself the following day. Stuck in the hospital, she meets and falls in love with a fellow poet suffering from manic depression, Marco (Luke Kirby).

Speaking of Holmes and Kirby’s performances, Lahti told uInterview, “I think they’re incredible, beautiful, heartbreaking.” Altman said of Holmes, “I said it was like rolling down a hill because it was really like having a daughter suffer.”

Lahti would know how accurate Holmes and Kirby’s portrayals were, as would Altman; both have siblings who were diagnosed bipolar. For Lahti, it was her sister; for Altman, his brother. The actors used their foreknowledge of the disorder and what it can do to a family to play Carla’s parents.

“[Director Paul Dalio] and I worked very hard on trying to flesh out the parents, and really try to explore what that collateral damage is on the family,” Lahti said. “Because as you said, Bruce, so wisely, but bipolar disorder is a family illness; it affects everybody.”

Altman added, “It’s a family disease, it really is, and I thought this really came through [inTouched with Fire] in that regard. There’s a great maturity in these parents that I don’t know every parent has, you know, dealing with it.”

Speaking about Touched with Fire‘s writer-director Paul Dalio, Lahti shared that she could not help but be inspired by the bipolar filmmaker’s ability to create such a moving work about his own experience.

“Paul, in himself, is such an inspiration to me to all people, I think, with mental illness because what he has done is told his own story with such dignity and such pride and such complexity, that you think, well, geez, this guy, he’s bipolar and he does this,” Lahti told uInterview. “He created this. This is amazing; it’s inspiring.”

Touched with Fire will premiere at select theaters, Friday, Feb. 12.

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Article by Chelsea Regan

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Q: Now, you two play parents of a bipolar woman who is in love with another bipolar. Did you know other parents who had had the experience of a bipolar child that maybe you modeled your performances after? -

Christine Lahti: Yea

Bruce Altman: My brother was bipolar so the experience with my parents and certainly Christine has her own story.

Christine Lahti: My sister struggled with it for 25 years, and watching my parents, and my own experience with my sister.

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Q: So, were you drawn to the script and the film by the subject matter, did it speak to you? Did you find it resonant in that way? -

Christine Lahti: Very much so, and then when I spoke with Paul, I knew I had to do the film. Because not only is the film really important for the conversation of mental illness and to take it out of the area of stigma and to help people not be ashamed of it, but Paul, in himself, is such an inspiration to me to all people, I think, with mental illness because what he has done is told his own story with such dignity and such pride and such complexity, that you think, well, geez, this guy, he’s bipolar and he does this. He created this. This is amazing; it's inspiring.

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Q: Now, you have Katie Holmes as your on screen daughter. What was she like to work with? What were some of the things you remember about that? -

Christine Lahti: She was a pain in the ass. [Laughs]

Bruce Altman: Yea, she was a delight. I don't want to speak for Christine, but she was a delight. She really was into it, she was very, she and Luke, they were both – everybody was committed to the work, and so it was very easy. I said it was like rolling down a hill because it was really like having a daughter suffer and there’s a lot of compassion that just comes out of seeing that.

User
Q: What did you think of there performances? -

Christine Lahti: I think they’re incredible, beautiful, heartbreaking.

User
Q: To me, I think one of the most amazing things is how completely they inhabited those roles. -

Christine Lahti: Oh, unbelievable. They walked in the set, we did a lot of improv. So as Bruce was saying we are all in the zone the entire day.

Bruce Altman: It was very exciting.

Christine Lahti: Very intense.

Bruce Altman: It was exciting work, it was.

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Q: Final question: Paul, the director, had you do a lot of activities to get into the headspace of a bipolar person, describe a few of the things you had to do to learn about bipolar for the role? -

Christine Lahti: Well, again I didn't need to learn anything. I knew so much about it. But Paul and I worked very hard on trying to flesh out the parents, and really try to explore what that collateral damage is on the family. Because as you said, Bruce, so wisely, bipolar disorder is a family illness; it affects everybody.

Bruce Altman: It's a family disease, it really is, and I thought this really came through in that regard. There’s a great maturity in these parents that I don’t know every parent has, you know, dealing with it. So, I feel like Paul’s relationship with his own parents must have been really kind of beautiful because I thought we... One of the things I saw when I saw the film was that it really came through that we cared about these children. We weren't just embarrassed by them or blowing them off or whatever.

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