English: Sorry For Your Loss: Elizabeth Olsen, Mamoudou Athie, Kit Steinkellner and James Ponsoldt Interview.

One of the many things to world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival was a new drama from Facebook, Sorry For Your Loss. Written and created by nationally-produced and award-winning playwright, Kit Steinkellner (Z: The Beginning of Everything), the show is a half hour drama starring Elizabeth Olsen (who also executive produces) as a young widow struggling to put her life back together in the wake of her husband’s (Mamoudou Athie) unexpected death. Unlike most shows and movies where grief can be worked through between the first and second act, Sorry For Your Loss features realistic characters and situations where you really feel like you’re watching yourself or people you know trying to figure out life after something so traumatic happens. I got to see the first four episodes while at TIFF and they were excellent. For more on the show read Allison Keene’s glowing review. The show also stars Janet McTeer, Kelly Marie Tran, and Jovan Adepo.

Shortly after seeing the show, I got to sit down with Elizabeth Olsen, Mamoudou Athie, director James Ponsoldt (he helmed the first two episodes) and Kit Steinkellner. They talked about how the show came together, what it’s about, getting to play characters with so many layers, what it was like working for Facebook, the editing process, if they pitched the show with a multi-season plan, and a lot more.

In addition, towards the end of the interview, they played “Get to Know Your TIFF Attendee”, which includes questions like what TV show they’d like to guest star on, what film scared them as a kid, what is the background photo on their phone, what TV show have they watched all the way through more than once, what movie they have seen more than 20 times, and more.