The Determined Society with Shawn French
Behind the Scenes of Oscar-Worthy Film 'Beyond The Rush': Mena Suvari, Bill Barrett & Robert Sayegh
16 Mar 2025
In this episode of The Determined Society, host Shawn French sits down with writer and director Robert Sayegh, along with actors Mena Suvari and Bill Barrett, to discuss their independent film Beyond the Rush. The conversation is a deep dive into the creative and emotional journey behind the film, examining how it mirrors real-life struggles and human resilience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Why is 'Beyond The Rush' considered Oscar-worthy?
When I say this movie needs to be seen everywhere, and I mean, to me, it's an Oscar nod. Like, I truly mean it. You guys absolutely crushed it, and I really do feel if there's anybody listening, yo, you need to get on this shit. Because the bottom line is, I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it. If this movie is not seen, then the world cannot heal.
Sheriff French, what up? This one's luck. I let the pain inspire me. I put my all in everything I'm doing. Up until it's done, I'm me for the entirety. I put in overtime. I be working. Just know I'm a gopher, man, because I earned it. They watching. I know it's time. I confirmed it. The whole society determined.
What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of The Determined Society. I'm your host, Sean French, and today I have a special, special treat for you. I know I always say that, but wait until you hear this show and watch this show wherever you enjoy The Determined Society. So today I have...
an amazing cast from an amazing film that I just saw and it's an independent film that to me needs to be distributed everywhere on big screen and has major Oscar implications in my mind. It's incredible and these performances from the actresses to the actors and the writing and directing from, it's just a masterful piece. So today I have with me award-winning actress,
Nina Savari, you have definitely seen her in a lot of films, American Pie, American Beauty, yada, yada, yada. Well, she plays an amazing lead role as the mom, Leah, in this movie, and she absolutely crushes it. And we have... Our man Bill Barrett, who plays Samuel, a very complex character, incredible. I got to tell you, dude, that role, it was very amazing to see that role on screen.
And we have our writer and director. rob rob rob like dude you like rob sayer right it's a sayer without an r but we're here and um man i'm just so happy to be here with you guys and uh i told you guys before filming that i'm in love with the movie
Thank you, Sean. Thanks a lot for having us. It's an amazing opportunity.
My pleasure.
To be able to talk about it with you and someone who watched it and liked it and has some input. We appreciate that.
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Chapter 2: Who are the key players behind 'Beyond The Rush'?
he fires the gun oh that's right that's right that's right yeah yeah just writing the office yeah just boom everybody's done what sorry amina we're we're getting it yeah yeah so she's like it's it's here it's here on that one um She's going to, it's going to come across. She's going to watch the movie over again now.
So, you know, like, again, you, you mentioned that you like to have, you know, the character, you know, play a character that you're truly interested in that can help you grow. How did, how did this impact you, this film overall?
I think that it's really about this beautiful gift, this opportunity to really be, I mean, obviously, I mean, because I feel like there's just, there's so much emotion involved. There's so much complexity and, you know, sort of like what Rob was touching on, you In contrast to my own life, it's really nice to step into this space where you can just be and you can flow.
And it's like each and every time that I get the opportunity to work, it sort of becomes that. And then out of that... I think it's about learning how to live in that space, just kind of approaching, you know, we were also working with younger individuals, you know, younger children. And it's like, you can't,
I think the gift for me is it's like getting out of any sort of expected space and it's being given the opportunity to just feel something, to really just move with each moment and work off of one another to see what happens. that's like an energetic gift for me.
Like when you talked about those moments in the room saying goodbye to the family or, you know, sitting with, with Wyatt who played Samuel and having these, really complicated moments as a mother. I mean, it was really challenging for me. I think I spoke with Rob about this at the beginning. Like I was really coming from this place of like, I don't want to traumatize anyone, you know?
And if there's anything that I can do that needs to specifically be on me, that the kids aren't even there. I mean, that's always really challenging. hard for me to not be thinking about like how how much damage I'm doing to this other person by yelling at them or being a particular way but but yeah again I think it's just you know even with Bill like just kind of like
Being able to approach something as just a complete blank slate and really be open to finding how you need to navigate those moments. To me, that's just the greatest gift as an actor and as a person. It just allows me to let go of everything, of every expectation and just feel. Yeah.
Yeah. I think the word feel is super important, right? Because a lot of times people want to skip the feel part, right? And when you're in something like this and you're feeling those moments, it just makes everything much more impactful. It also shows us, you know, towards the end, everything has the opportunity to be okay, right? Yeah.
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