Emmy-winning actor Tony Hale is no stranger to emotional tension on screen, whether it’s the awkward neuroses of Buster Bluth in “Arrested Development” or the anxious Gary Walsh in “Veep.”
But in “Sketch,” his newest film, Hale, the father of a 19-year-old daughter, trades comedy for something more somber, playing a father struggling to hold his family together after the death of his wife. It’s a role, he said, that is rooted in his own experience of parenting, pain and faith.
“As a person of faith … [I believe that] ‘nothing grows on the mountaintop, but everything grows in the valley,’” the 54-year-old actor told The Christian Post. “It’s the hard times where you’re refined and go through stuff, and it’s not easy, but that tends to be where the growth is.”
From Angel Studios and directed by Seth Worley, “Sketch” is a whimsical children’s film that blends grief with imagination. Rated PG, it follows two siblings, Amber and Jack, who conjure fantasy worlds to cope with the loss of their mother; one through haunting, chalk-drawn monsters, the other through a magical pond he believes can bring her back.
Hale plays their father, Taylor, who is quietly unraveling while trying to sell the family home with the help of his sister, Liz, ( D’Arcy Carden ) and shield his children from the weight of sorrow.
“Honestly, I related to Taylor,” Hale said. “When he loses his wife, he kind of goes into a place where he compartmentalizes emotion, and he’s like, we’ve just got to move forward. And then [his daughter] starts drawing, and I’m kind of freaked out by it, but he then learns in the end, I gotta give her the respect — give my kids the respect — to allow them to feel the feelings, because that’s how we’re going to get through this.”
The actor said it was the journey of learning to stop pushing forward long enough to grieve that resonated with him both as a parent and a believer.
“There’s this new term called ‘snowplow parenting,’ where you want to remove all the challenges from your kid’s path because it’s too painful to see them walk through them,” he says. “But they have to walk through them. … I totally related to Taylor’s instinct to want to just block his kids from feeling this stuff.”
Though a children’s film, “Sketch” doesn’t shy away from grappling with hard emotions: Guilt, shame and grief. In one scene, Taylor is advised to depersonalize the house: remove photos, take down pictures with faces, so it’s easier to sell. In another, he tells his grieving son: “‘It’s not your responsibility.’” “He’s carrying all this responsibility to try and fix his sister, to try to fix the situation, and that’s not his responsibility,” Hale said.
“I remember that, as a kid, kind of taking on other people’s feelings, taking on other people’s responsibilities. And if someone had just been like, ‘Hey, it’s not your responsibility. Give yourself a break,’ that turns the crank in my heart. Big time.”
Monsters drawn in different mediums, chalk, crayon, pencil, come to life in chaotic, sometimes comic fashion (though they may be scary for younger viewers). There’s talk of how to defeat them: wash away chalk, melt the wax. Faith plays a role in that emotional balancing act, too, Hale said, particularly the idea that emotions themselves are part of God’s design.
Hale called the film “Inside Out meets Jurassic Park,” a blend of psychological depth and high-stakes thrills.
“God gave us these emotions to help us process these challenges,” he says. “It’s all in, ironically, Inside Out. It talks about bringing all the emotions to the table.”
“That’s kind of life,” he said. “I think the director once said that some of his friends have gone through the hardest times with some of the funniest people, because you have to find that balance of, yeah, this is really hard, but sometimes you gotta take the air out of the balloon.”
For Hale, who has spoken before about how his Christian faith anchors him in a turbulent industry, “Sketch” offered a chance to give families something that’s both entertaining and restorative.
“I just love kind of shared family viewing experiences,” he says. “‘Goonies’ was my shared family experience — fun, adventure, scary, but we could watch as a family. The parents enjoyed it. Kids enjoyed it.”
“I want that same experience with this,” he continued, “I’d love for parents to watch and give themselves a break. We’re all on a learning curve, you know? We all make mistakes. And then kids can see it and be like, yeah, there’s a lot of different ways to process feelings.”
Hale also offered a word of encouragement for families still in the thick of things. “Just make sure your tank is full,” he said. “We’re pouring ourselves out so much for our kids, and we forget to take care of ourselves.”
That message, too, is one he connected directly to his faith.
“Honestly, speaking of faith, I grew up with a message that taking care of yourself was kind of shameful. You should always be thinking about others. You should always get your eyes off yourself. That’s what Christ did, all this stuff,” Hale said. “But Christ also said, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ You’ve got to keep your tank full so that you can be there to help others.”
“Sketch” is now in theaters. The film also stars Bianca Belle as Amber Wyatt; Kue Lawrence as Jack Wyatt; Kalon Cox as Bowman Lynch; Jaxen Kenner as Demarcus Davidson; Genesis Rose Brown as Carson Quinn, and Randa Newman as Miss Thompson.
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
