Angus MacLachlan’s latest film, “A Little Prayer,” is, like much of his work, soaked in subtlety. It explores topics that simmer below the surface for one family — such as abortion, interracial relationships and post-traumatic stress disorder — in Winston-Salem, N.C., where MacLachlan has spent his entire life.
Getting the movie to theaters, though, was a seemingly Sisyphean quest that took nearly a decade.
For one thing, understated, independent films with modest budgets have become increasingly difficult to get made. Raising money was a challenge. Shooting in 2022, when the country was still in the grips of a global pandemic: a challenge. Navigating overlapping actor and screenwriter strikes? A challenge. Finding distribution? A challenge. Finding another distributor after the first one dropped out? Another challenge.
But in keeping with the theme of much of MacLachlan’s work, he was grappling with his biggest challenge out of public view. On the final day of the film’s 19-day shoot, MacLachlan informed the cast and crew that years earlier, soon after he had finished the original draft of the script, he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney cancer. Months before the film went into production, he had surgery to remove one of his kidneys.
Since the diagnosis, getting “A Little Prayer,” which finally reaches theaters on Friday, in front of audiences has been a North Star of sorts for MacLachlan.
“You can say it’s the muse or something that pulls you through when things don’t make any sense in terms of being an artist,” MacLachlan, 66, said in a recent interview. “Having something to do,” he added, “also gives you a reason to get up and fight. I don’t really like the idea of fighting cancer. I always say, ‘You don’t battle cancer. You deal with it.’”
MacLachlan is best known for writing the 2005 film “Junebug,” which set Amy Adams on a path to stardom, garnering her an Oscar nomination. After graduating from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, MacLachlan was an actor for decades, including as a core member of the Charlotte Repertory Theater, before finding his voice as a playwright. (“Junebug” is an adaptation of his first play.) He has long been fascinated by finding depth in the ordinary and suspense in the relatable. His last feature, “Abundant Acreage Available” (2017), had Martin Scorsese as an executive producer.
“A Little Prayer” is the third feature film MacLachlan has directed. It tracks a father-son duo, Bill and David (David Strathairn and Will Pullen), and their wives, Venida and Tammy (Celia Weston and Jane Levy), as they navigate their fraying bonds, partly resulting from the men’s experiences in war. Bill reels after finding out that his son has been cheating on his daughter-in-law, of whom he is protective. It doesn’t help things when Will’s younger sister, Patti (Anna Camp), unexpectedly shows up with her own baggage — literally and figuratively.
“Some writer-directors, they have a script that’s more of like a blueprint and then, on set, you come up with all sorts of new things on the day,” Levy said. “But with Angus, all of the depth and the heart was in the script.”
Unwittingly, the film in some ways reflects MacLachlan’s journey with his diagnosis, as Bill constantly grapples with revelations that are out of his control. The movie explores themes common in MacLachlan’s work, including grief, loss and parental love.
“All artists understand that you’re not completely in control,” MacLachlan said. “That if it’s the unconscious or in a 12-step program — a higher power as you understand it — that there is something beyond what your conscious mind can think.”
To hear MacLachlan tell it, he never saw the cancer diagnosis as a death sentence. He described it as more of a speed bump.
The first sign that something was wrong came on Dec. 13, 2019, after an X-ray and then a CT scan showed a tumor in his kidney that had metastasized to three tumors in his chest, the largest of which measured eight centimeters. His doctor called the cancer “aggressive.” It was a serious diagnosis, though MacLachlan’s wife of almost 30 years, Jennifer Snowhite, said he didn’t realize the extent until almost a year later, when he overheard her on the phone arguing with Blue Cross Blue Shield over a payment.
“For crying out loud, he has Stage 4 cancer, why won’t you pay for it?” Snowhite recalled saying on the phone. “He came around the corner white as a ghost. And he looks at me and he says, ‘I’m Stage 4?’ I was like, ‘Oh, wow, you didn’t realize that?’”
Snowhite attended Wake Forest University School of Medicine before dropping out as a third-year student for health reasons. She had a keener understanding of MacLachlan’s diagnosis than he did.
“I carried more of the weight in some ways because I knew how advanced it was,” Snowhite said, adding, “I had friends advising me at some point it will kill him.”
MacLachlan was determined to get “A Little Prayer” made. To the extent he had a bucket list, the movie was it.
“This is his life,” said Mark Clein, a childhood friend of MacLachlan’s and an investor in “A Little Prayer.” “It’s one of his kids. He couldn’t let it go because he believed in it.”
MacLachlan kept the cancer a secret to most people, including potential investors.
“You don’t bet on a horse that may have to pull out for health reasons,” Snowhite said. (MacLachlan said he told Music Box Films, the film’s distributor, this month.)
MacLachlan had reasons for optimism: He got early access to a clinical trial for an immunotherapy specific to his type of cancer (renal cell carcinoma) — a stroke of good fortune that spared him the worst of chemotherapy and allowed him to keep his hair. Eventually, the size of the tumors receded and doctors recommended that the entire kidney be removed. MacLachlan was resolute that any operation not interfere with his film’s production schedule.
The operation in February of 2022 was a success and MacLachlan was able to run the set without missing a beat. During the shoot, most of the cast and crew were not aware that MacLachlan had received a life-threatening diagnosis. With a shoestring budget of around $1.3 million and worries about Covid-19, there wasn’t much time for bonding off set. Any delay would be untenable. Though there were no physical signs, Levy said she sensed something.
“Every time I was around him, I felt like crying and I couldn’t figure out quite why,” Levy said. She found out about the diagnosis later in the shoot, though the two never discussed it.
When Strathairn (“Good Night, and Good Luck”) found out about the cancer near the end of filming, he said, he teared up.
“What an amazing act of grace and giving to do that,” Strathairn said of MacLachlan finishing the project. “I know he wanted to make his film. It was a long time, but to have made it under those circumstances. Wow.”
Weston, a longtime friend who also appeared in “Junebug,” was one of the few who knew the whole time.
“It was tough but he — God bless him — is living a full life,” she said. “And we all hope for that, don’t we?”
MacLachlan told the cast and crew that there was nothing to worry about. And then, three days after shooting wrapped, MacLachlan went for a CT scan and found out that his cancer had returned. This meant a new round of chemotherapy pills and the looming prospect of not being able to see his work reach audiences, if it reached them at all.
“A Little Prayer” was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival in 2023 and then faced a winding road to theaters. A distribution deal with Sony Pictures Classics fell apart, but the movie was eventually rescued by Music Box. The movie doesn’t have capes or explosions. There’s no George Clooney or Meryl Streep. Nor is it based on a famous novel or a familiar show or film. That means “A Little Prayer” faces long odds to succeed at the box office, given the moviegoing habits of today’s American consumer.
But MacLachlan has faced long odds before. Doctors are hesitant to use the term “remission” nowadays, but somehow, improbably, his test results this month affirmed that he has been disease free for two years.
Even still, being around to see his film premiere was far from a given for MacLachlan. He insists that getting it across the finish line was much harder than treating his cancer. The movie premiere was the victory he was most focused on.
“I had much less faith that it was going to happen,” he said, “than I had in the belief that I was going to survive.”
Sopan Deb is a Times reporter covering breaking news and culture.
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