NO ADDRESS Cast Explains How You Can Serve the Homeless
By Movieguide® Contributor
The cast of NO ADDRESS discussed the heart of their movie, why they chose to get involved and how audiences can make an impact on homelessness in their communities.
“Every time you see a homeless person look at them, smile, say hello, ask how they’re day is going, make them feel seen and heard,” TV personality Ty Pennington told Movieguide® when asked how audiences can make a difference. “More importantly than that, I would say, engage on a local level. I would get involved with Citygate of the Red Cross or the Salvation Army or the rescue missions that are all over the country. Whatever organization is doing the best effective nonprofit work in the homelessness space, I would engage with them.”
The movie “offers hope, humanity, and resilience as…characters navigate the stormy challenges of life with no physical address. Inspired by true events, this film is a testament to the enduring human spirit and the transformative power of community,” a synopsis reads.
Because the topic of this movie is one that most people shy away from in real life, the actors wanted to make the movie as lifelike as possible so audiences got a realistic view of what it is like to be homeless. To achieve this realism, all of the actors engaged with homelessness in their communities and with people living on the streets.
“I’ve done a lot of films where I played fireman and cops and soldiers and I went deep into preparation. For this, I was cast a little bit late. I was cast a few days before they started principal photography, but I got to catch up because I spent a lot of time in homeless shelters and in homeless encampments,” William Baldwin told Movieguide®. “That was very sobering and very eye opening to be in the shelters.”
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“But going to the encampments is different because there’s no structure there…we would park the car and walk and go hang out and talk to homeless people and talk about everything, talk about the Golden State Warriors, talk about homelessness, talk about politics. They were making food, they invited us to sit down and eat with them, but it was super powerful,” Baldwin continued. “We have a major crisis, and it’s interesting because America is one of the most influential and most powerful and most affluent countries in human history, and it just seems like we have the resources to address this.”
While the actors often felt discourage while working on this project, they also found hope knowing that spreading the word about homelessness is the best way to help. They also hope that their projects impacts audiences by helping them realize that anyone can end up homeless if they are hit with a string of bad luck.
“The documentary is shining a light on how real homelessness really is and the fact that it really does show that it could happen to anyone,” Pennington explained. “Sometimes the thing the world needs is a little hope and a little bit of belief in themselves. I think what the movie shows is that second chances are sometimes what everyone needs.”
NO ADDRESS hits theaters starting Feb. 28.
Along with the movie, the filmmakers created a documentary called AMERICANS WITH NO ADDRESS.
“We wanted to show the spectrum of the different types of individuals that ended up on the streets,” director Julia Verdin told The Wrap. “Because one thing that struck me and one of the reasons why I wanted to make this is that there’s a general perception that everybody on the streets are drug addicts or have mental issues. And that is just not true. There are a lot of regular people on the streets who, just through bad circumstances, [like] not being able to keep up with the rent, have ended up there.”
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