Excerpt from the article “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead”. Read the full article at The Aesthete.com.

We arrive at the postproduction house in SoHo, where Levitas disappears into the editing room to work on his most personal project to date, the writing and directing of Lullaby. The script is inspired by Levitas’ personal experience with the passing of his father nearly 10 years ago. In the film, Garrett Hedlund plays a young man estranged from his family when he’s informed that his father is dying and has decided to take himself off life support.

“Lullaby was a really unique experience,” says Levitas. “It was the sort of thing where everybody contributed in places that they ordinarily normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to do so. You have actors talking about camera with me. You have camera guys talking about writing with me. It was a real collaborative effort.” This approach to directing help land Levitas a cast loaded with Oscar-worthy heavy hitters to compliment Hedlund, including Amy Adams, Richard Jenkins, Terrance Howard, Jennifer Hudson and Anne Archer.

“My only goal is to make something that’s powerful, special, an art piece,” he tells me a few hours later, while trying to negotiate his two-door convertible through Williamsburg Bridge traffic on our way out to Long Island. “I have the ability to say to my actors there’s nothing locked in, you know, there’s no right or wrong, the only thing that matters is authenticity.”

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