Rose Reid: Discovering Your True Self in ‘Finding You’

JF: Could you please tell me a little bit about your new movie, Finding You?

Rose: Yeah, absolutely! Finding You was a project that I was really passionate about, and I had a lot of fun filming. Finding You is about a young woman learning to discover who she is. She goes on a journey where she learns about shedding the expectations of others and finding her true passions and loves and discovering who she is along the way.

JF: Is that the overall message you want the viewers to take from the movie?

Rose: I would love viewers to take from the movie that life has more meaning than just running around blindly and doing whatever you feel the world expects you to do. I think there’s something deeper than that. I think that’s kind of what the movie is portraying.

There’s a lot of faith elements in it that lead you to the scripture. The scripture she finds on the gravesite at the end leads her to realize she was never alone in all of these things, and that life has a deeper meaning than just learning to play the violin brilliantly. Somebody has always been out there, and she’s never been alone.

JF: Tell me a little bit about your character, Finley

Rose: Finley starts out as this somewhat judgmental girl who acts like she’s got it all together, but at the same time doesn’t have anything together, and she knows it. She is really striving for perfection. She feels very alone in this world.

In the very beginning of the movie, her mom doesn’t really support her. She doesn’t have her brother anymore who was clearly her best friend and her biggest supporter. So, she feels very alone.

So, when she goes on this journey, she thinks she’s going to find her music, but she’s really going to find herself and reconnect to this deeper meaning and this deeper sense of knowing. When she goes to Ireland, she discovers that she was never alone.

I can’t remember the scripture that’s on the gravesite, but I know that it has to do with you’re never alone. God is always walking with you. Someone’s always watching over you.

It’s really beautiful to watch Finley go from somewhat judgmental and kind of uptight to this girl who really appreciates and loves life, and doesn’t judge a book by its cover. She looks at everything with fresh eyes and realizes that she’s walking alongside someone, and despite all of the troubles and trials she’s gone through she hasn’t had to do it by herself.

JF: When Finley first meets Beckett Rush on the airplane, she wants nothing to do with him. How does their relationship, or non-relationship, help transform her into what we see at the end of the movie?

Rose: That’s a great question. I think Beckett, for a lot of the film, is used as this device to show her what she’s missing out on. Even though Beckett has plenty of things he needs to work on as well, he’s able to show Finley that life isn’t just about following the rules and doing everything that society and the world expects from you. You have to be able to have your own purpose and find your own meaning and truly connect to it and be passionate about something. And as much as she is passionate about the violin, he shows her that you have to be able to let yourself go and let your expectations go and trust in yourself a little bit more than she has been.

I think Beckett’s carefree, more excited, passionate side is really attractive to her. As scary as it is for her to get into that very chaotic world, it’s also exciting and attractive for her to step into and be this more free-spirited person than she was in the beginning. I think that’s mostly what Beckett does.

At one point, we did have a couple scenes filmed that I don’t think made it into the movie where Beckett talks about his own faith experience and how he saw this church and everything. There wasn’t ever any kind of altar call or anything like that, but it was a really beautiful moment. Beckett steps into this church and recounts this memory to Finley. He says he knew he wasn’t alone, and he knew that it felt right. Even though I don’t think that scene made it into the movie, I think the essence of it did.

JF: You mentioned earlier that you were attracted to the project and that you saw a lot in it. What about the script was attractive to you, and how did you get attached to the project?

Rose: I read the book when I was young, probably 14 or 15. The book is called, There You’ll Find Me. I was mesmerized by it. I loved this character who first came off so harsh and uptight and almost kind of bitter and angry. It was such an amazing story for me personally because I feel like sometimes I can be that way. Sometimes I find myself being a little too harsh or a little too uptight or take myself too seriously and expect too much of myself.

Then this fun-loving character enters and shows her that life’s too short to take yourself so seriously. I loved that about the story. I loved the aspect of the violin, because I had played a little when I was younger. By no means was I anywhere near where Finley was in how proficient she was with the instrument. It took a long time to even play the songs that you see on the screen.

I loved the musical aspect of it because I come from a very musical family and music is such a huge part of my life that it really resonated with me. When I heard about the project and I auditioned for it, they asked me, “Do you play any violin?” I told them, “Oh yeah, I totally play the violin.”

Of course, I figured, “You fake it till you make it.” Right? Like I can totally play the violin. The director Brian called me and said, “Okay, here are the songs that I’m thinking about. We’ve got Paganini and all of these different composers.” I just sat there and was like, “Okay. Yeah. I can totally play that. Yes.”

The first thing I did was I called him back and was like, “I’m going to need to get a violin coach.” So, I brought a violin coach in, and she and I worked for three months every other day to just focus on the few songs that you hear in the movie.

JF: One of my favorite parts of the movie is the music. It has some great music, from the Irish jigs to the classical music. Is that really you playing the violin or fiddle? For those who aren’t that familiar with violins and fiddles, like myself, are they the same instruments?

Rose: The violin and fiddle are basically the same instrument, it’s just how you play it. I think Seamus in the movie actually said something about how it’s the same instrument. It just depends on how you play it.

I think definitely in the pub, Finley is playing the fiddle and she kind of morphs from playing the violin, which is this very classical poised instrument, to playing the fiddle, which is very loose. Even just watching how fiddlers play versus violinists is incredible to see – how perfect and strict the movements are when violinists play and then how very loose and flowy the movements are when fiddlers play. That was a huge part of learning as well.

Yes, it is me playing. The sound you’re hearing though is actually Zoe Conway. She’s an amazing fiddler from Ireland. I actually got to meet her and spend some time with her, and she was able to give me a few pointers on set on how to make it look more accurate. But for the most part, yes, it is me really playing. We did learn all of these songs.

If I were asked to play them today, I’m not sure I could because they were so complicated. I really just tried to put them out of my mind because they were so difficult, but it was really an amazing experience being able to play it for a short amount of time.

It was actually really terrifying because in the last scene of the movie where she is playing in front of this small orchestra with a bunch of other violinists and everything. That was actually the first day we started filming. So, I walked up there – I hadn’t even warmed up with the violin – and the first thing I said as soon as I saw all of the violinists I was about to play in front of was, “I’m so sorry that you guys have to pretend like you are following my lead up here and taking notes from me. I’m so sorry.” It was so humiliating, but really a great, very humbling experience to watch them all play.

I was walking around trying to watch how they were doing things so I could make it look more accurate, but yes, it is really me playing for the most part.

JF: For someone who is as musically talentless as I am, I thought it was very impressive. I thought you did an excellent job. What was it like on set during shoots?

Rose: There was never a dull moment. Jed [Goodacre] is one of the most entertaining people I’ve ever met, and also one of the most genuinely kind-hearted people I know. I can remember so many times where if I was having a bad day – and there’s bound to be emotional days on set where you have a crying scene and you’ve already been crying, so your emotions are all over the place – and he’d bring you a cup of tea or something like that. He’s just the sweetest. He always did anything he could to make everyone laugh. It was just a hilarious set constantly.

The whole castle experience was really crazy. The first day they started filming on the castle when they had all these explosions and horses and dragon heads and things like that going on, I wasn’t supposed to be there. That was supposed to be one of my two days off the entire shoot, but I was like, “Oh, I’m going in. I’m seeing what they’re doing here.” It was just so exciting and so fun. How can you not have fun in Ireland filming a movie within a movie?

JF: How much of the movie was shot in Ireland?

Rose: I’d say probably 85% of it was shot in Ireland. There were a couple shots that were done in New York, a couple of shots that were done in Nashville, and a couple of shots that were done in Los Angeles, but that was it.

JF: When and where can people watch Finding You?

Rose: People can watch Finding You only in theaters on May 14th.