This episode originally aired on Aug. 6, 2026.
Ohio's court-mandated drug rehabilitation program is featured in the movie "Union County."
Written and directed by Columbus native Adam Meeks, and filmed in Union and Logan counties, we'll learn about the making of the movie, and hear from Meeks and the film's star Will Poulter.
We'll learn how these specialized rehabilitation programs are helping to rebuild lives.
Guests:
- Annette Deao, licensed chemical dependency counselor/grants and specialized docket administrator, Logan County Court of Common Pleas
- Adam Meeks, writer/director, Union County, Columbus native
- Will Poulter, actor/producer, Union County
Transcript
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Amy Juravich: Welcome to All Sides with Amy Juravich. Whether it's a city or a rural area, many people struggling with drug addiction are found throughout the nation. Here in Ohio, court-mandated programs are in place to help citizens rebuild and recover their lives.
Later in the program, we're going to learn about a movie made in Ohio that tells the story of rural residents navigating these programs. We'll hear from the writer and director of the film, Union County, Columbus native Adam Meeks. And we will meet the film's star, Will Poulter, who is also a producer of the film.
But first, we're going to look at how court-mandated drug rehabilitation programs work. Joining us now is Annette Deao, licensed chemical dependency counselor and grants and specialized docket administrator for the Logan County Court of Common Pleas. Welcome to All Sides, Annette.
Annette Deao: Good morning, Amy, thank you.
Juravich: So you're also in the movie, Union County. We'll get to that in a minute, but I wanted to start with real life. Where you work every day. Can you tell us how court mandated drug programs, you were tasked with establishing one in 2004. Tell us how they work.
Deao: This is an amazing model. They're referred to as problem-solving courts. So looking at someone who is suffering from substance use disorder, this gives them an opportunity to take, instead of going to jail, and in some cases instead of going to prison, they can volunteer for this program. In Logan County, our through treatment. Of times with their peer supports, they have legal counsel.
I got involved because I saw this as a really amazing alternative to putting someone in jail or them going to treatment and not having the supports for the ancillary services that they often need like medical, dental, housing, jobs. It's so hard for someone to get a job who has a felony or a criminal record of some kind, so. I got involved because I saw this as an amazing opportunity to be involved with a community that is taking action.
Juravich: So you mentioned that they're court mandated programs, but they're designed to be an alternative to basically incarceration, right? Yeah.
Deao: And it's also an alternative to supervision. They have to agree to be in this program. And then once they agree, they sign a contract that says, I'm going to do this instead of being either in other kinds of supervision. It could be with adult parole authority. It could just be general probation. And I'm gonna work on myself. I'm go to treatment. I'm doing to do the things that are mandated in this programs, like finding sober.
Supports in the community, which we hook them up with. So yes, they have to agree to it, and it is a program with high judicial oversight. These people come to court in the early phases of this program every single week for a status review hearing. And the judge gets really personal with them, like how are you doing, how are feeling, how are things going with your treatment? Very different kind of court hearing.
Juravich: Yeah, that sounds like it. And you mentioned that it's 18 months. Can you also tell me, so you run the program in Logan County. Yes, ma'am. Does every county have one?
Deao: No, not every county, but here in Ohio, we have 250 problem-solving courts. Okay, there's 88 counties. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a couple counties that don't have it, but when we talk about problem- solving courts, it's not just for substance use disorder. It can also be like human trafficking. It can be DUI court. It could be mental health court. So it could be domestic violence court.
This model can be moved from all kinds of different issues that are happening in communities. So here in Ohio, we're very lucky to have the support with the Ohio Supreme Court and the Department of Behavioral Health from part of the Ohio cabinet. And they really have promoted and done an amazing job in encouraging and incentivizing communities and counties to be involved in this kind of program because we know it works.
Juravich: Yeah, so the idea is, it seems like the idea is to obviously help the person facing addiction, but also does it help ease some strain on the court system or does it ease some drain on the jails? Like what does it do there?
Deao: Absolutely, absolutely. The people come into the program. Again, if we thought jail was going to fix this, none of us would need this kind of program, but it doesn't. You know, oftentimes they're in jail with other peers that have criminal thinking and, you know, they're anti-social, you now, kind of thoughts. When we take them out of that environment, we try to get them in the community connected with people that are more pro-social.
That more interested in them getting well than staying in that group. You know, that has the more antisocial. It makes a huge difference. So we're reducing costs in the jail. We're reducing cost because of criminal activity. You know, a lot of property charges, things like that happen with people who are on substances. So those things are being reduced. And we're also increasing people's health.
So we are addressing things like their medical health, their dental health. And so therefore, we are taking some of the burden off of them continuing to go to the emergency room. All of our people have to have a primary care physician. Almost none of them do when they come into our program. So we're keeping them out of the emergency rooms, which is where they would go get their health care. And so we're reducing health costs.
There's been many cost analysis on this and the savings is huge to the community, to our social services, programs, it's just really worth the time we put into it.
Juravich: Do you have statistics on the success of the program versus maybe those who don't complete it? Sure.
Deao: In Logan County, we're running about 56 percent on a success rate, and that is about the national average, 56 to 58. And when you think of someone that is not in a program like this or just maybe does treatment on their own, but they have a high level of criminality, because this is the issue here. We're dealing with people who are high risk, high need. We see that the, you know, the success rate for them is oftentimes not much more than 10%.
So this is huge. And we measure success by them completing the program successfully and remaining out of the criminal justice system no new charges for six months. Six months. Wow. So.
Juravich: Okay, yeah, and do you find that that's like that's the crux they can keep going if they can if they make it the six months
Deao: That's a really good benchmark for them, we think. And we have a lot of people in our program who have graduated who stay involved because we've become a community. We've become family. We have an alumni group that's getting started. We have amazing women's group that the alumni women help the women in the program. We have some great programs that happen in our community.
Juravich: This is All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking about how court mandated drug programs work and we're talking with Annette Dayo, grants and specialized docket administrator for the Logan County Court of Common Please. She's also a licensed chemical dependency counselor and she appears in the movie Union County. So you're a movie star now.
Deao: So they say.
Juravich: You play a fictionalized version of your actual job, so everything you just described is depicted in the movie But it is fictionalized, but did Adam Meeks write it pretty accurately?
Deao: He wrote it wonderfully. Adam spent a lot of time in Logan County with our participants, with myself. He did his research well. He sat in, he observed, he honored, he respected. And it was very easy to work with him. And when I saw the final script and my name's all over it, and I had been in the short film he had done with just a couple lines, I'm like, oh my goodness.
He said, well, who else am I going to have play you? And I'm like, OK. So it was a very natural role, obviously. I was playing myself. It was scripted. But there were times that he said, what would you say on your own without the script? So he was very conscious about putting me in that role and letting it be real.
Juravich: Did you take any acting classes or did you ever want to be an actor or anything like that?
Deao: Well, funny story, I did have an undergraduate experience in music and theater.
Juravich: Oh! So...
Deao: Lucky Adam. He found the right person. And he didn't even know. It wasn't until we finished the short film. He said, well, I knew you were going to be good, but I didn't know you'd be that good. And I said, Well, I guess I didn' t tell you. And so it's kind of the running joke.
But I mean, it was nothing really I aspired to do. At the time, I wanted to be a music therapist. So I took theater. I did theater in high school and I just enjoyed it and I love music. And, so I thought I kind of combined it all and, you know, I kind a different path, but I'm so happy that I did.
Juravich: Yeah, and how did you end up like playing yourself? I mean, did Adam just ask you or did he have to convince you? Like what happened there?
Deao: There wasn't a lot of arm-twisting here, or arm-twisting. No, we had met back in 2018 when he was preparing the script for his short film. And he asked me if I'd play a part. And from then on out, we just became really good friends. And again, he was so respectful of the content of what was happening in the drug court. He would come and sit, and he would bring the videographer with him It was just, yeah, just amazing, yes.
Juravich: There are some powerful scenes in the movie. I don't wanna, I'm not gonna give anything away, but there's a moment when the main character is nearing rock bottom and he calls you on your cell phone. Does that happen? I mean, do you give your personal number to people or is that fictionalized?
Deao: That is a real story. That really happened and it's happened more than once. And oftentimes, people ask me, why in the heck would you give someone your phone number like that? And here's my theory on that. I don't give my phone number to every client or participant I work with. But when someone is really, really struggling, I will give out my phone numbers.
Now, we always encourage them. You need to have five, six, seven phone numbers deep of people you can call when you get yourself in a jam. That way, if one doesn't answer, hopefully the next one will. But you always have my number if you need it. Well, my theory is, if I don't answer the phone, the drug dealer will. Wow. So, I mean, it doesn't happen all the time, but it has happened. And I will continue to do it that way. No one's ever abused it. I think they all realize that, you know, this is an emergency. Yeah. And that is a real story. It really has happened, yes.
Juravich: What are you making of all the attention that your drug court program is getting now? Not just you, but like the actual program, more people are learning about it because of this movie. What do you make of that?
Deao: I love it. I want everyone to know that there are alternatives. This is a community project. This is not something that just a court can do. We have community partners, again, like our treatment agencies, our mental health agencies, doctors, attorneys, the jail, dentists, peer support groups.
The communities that do this work know that you can't do it alone as a court. You have to have community partners. And it really does send a message to the participants, to the people who are suffering with substance abuse disorder and mental health disorders that my community cares enough to really step up and provide this kind of programming. We're gonna talk about.
Juravich: More later with Adam but the movie features other non-actors non-professional actors like yourself they're actual participants in your program I mean what did you think about when Adam told you he was going to highlight the real people instead of just he could have hired actors to be each of those people but what did You think about the people you work with day in and day about being in this movie. Well.
Deao: Adam came in so gentle with it and he spent time building relationships with the participants and we had a lot of discussion with them. We gave everyone a chance to opt out. Nobody was forced. It was all voluntary. And even the people who didn't want to be in the movie, we still gave them lots of accolades, you know, for being around when we were doing it and provided them with the same kudos that we provided the people, who did it.
I'm very proud of the people who stood up. There's so much stigma around wanting to keep this quiet that it means that you're bad or less than. You know, I had a wonderful young woman I met last night at the viewing who just came up to me and said, I'm an addict and I'm in recovery. And I just thought, girl, you just stand right up there and say that. Oh, yeah. And not that I want to model.
I don't want her to have that label. But she's owning her growth and her healing. And so I think all of us, all the actors, Adam, Will, Noah, everybody really was so in awe of how the participants responded.
Juravich: Back to your real world program for a moment. Addiction, we're just saying it's difficult to overcome. Relapse is common. Do you have like a three strikes policy? Can people make a mistake? How does that work in your program? Oh.
Deao: Oh, yeah. You know, we know relapse is part of recovery. So people don't get thrown in jail. We have service adjustments that happen when someone might relapse. So it might mean more treatment. It might mean you have to go to residential treatment. It might be maybe you go on house arrest so you're not, you know, being with peers that are using.
We problem solve all of that with them and the clinical team that that is over. With part of our treatment team. So no, this is not a punitive program, although there are sanctions if it happens. We don't have like three strikes. There's, you know, sometimes people just don't wanna participate. It comes to the point that they think they don't want to do it. They're not ready. That's okay. You know, we'll be there when they're ready. Okay.
Juravich: Um the judge that's featured in the movie is that is that your judge that is our actual judge kevin brang yes he's amazing yeah he i mean i mean just like yourself he does a really great job is he is he that compassionate he comes across as very compassionate and Absolutely. He doesn't come across as like the scary judge.
Deao: I've had six judges in my time in these dockets and each of them kind of the court takes on a flair of its own and it really has the persona of the judge. I will say that Judge Bragg is amazing. He's honest. He is compassionate. He treats people with dignity and respect. He goes
Juravich: He talks baseball with them. Oh my gosh. And movies. Yeah.
Deao: He loves Johnny Cash, so he sees us as the Carter family, our team as the Carter family. And so Johnny Cash had a substance use disorder, so our logo and everything that we've created is a guitar pick that says ARC on it, walk the line. So when people graduate, the judge gives them a guitar pick as they're, you know, like some places would give a chip or something. Yeah, wow. But he gives them guitar pick.
And he says, if you ever lose that guitar pick, you just come back, I'll give you another one. So they put it in their pockets. Some people drill a hole in it and wear it on a chain, whatever, but he's the real deal. Do you have all the funding you need for this? Oh my God, no. Okay.
Juravich: Well, hopefully this movie brings more attention to it and what good work it's doing. So, I mean, tell me what you need.
Deao: Well, you know, we are, again, very fortunate that the Ohio Supreme Court and the Ohio Department of Behavioral Health do see this as a wonderful program and do have this in our state budget. We do compete for federal funds. We currently now have a federal grant. It's going to be gone in two years. It's like, what are we going to do?
We don't know. Has this happened before though? Is it a two-year cycle? This was a five-year cycle on this particular grant, but I do a lot of grant writing, a lot of grant running. None of our program comes out of the General Fund. None of our salaries. I've been at the court for 22 years and none of my salary has ever come out of The General Fund
Juravich: Okay. Well, so listeners out there, you know, Logan County needs more money. Yeah. Well and everybody does not just all 250 of her. Yeah. Right. Right, right. We've been speaking with Annette Dayo grants and specialized docket administrator for the Logan County Court of Common Plays. She is also a licensed chemical dependency counselor. She plays a fictionalized version of herself in the movie Union County. And she does an amazing job at it. Thank you so much for your time today, Annette. My pleasure, Amy. Thank you, so much. Coming up, we are going to talk about the movie made here in Ohio that tells the story of rural residents navigating rehabilitation programs. That's when All Sides continues on 89.7 NPR News.
Juravich: You're listening to All Sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. We're talking about court-mandated drug programs this hour in light of a new movie on the subject. The movie Union County tells the story of two brothers navigating an addiction recovery program in rural Ohio. Filmed in Union and Logan Counties, the film features professional and non-professional actors and here is a part of the movie trailer.
The movie was written and directed by Columbus native, Adam Meeks, and he joins us now. Congratulations on the movie, Adam.
Adam Meeks: Thanks so much.
Juravich: And also taking part in our conversation today, we have actor Will Poulter, who stars in Union County and is also a producer on the film. Welcome to All Sides, Will.
Will Poulter: Aw, thanks for having us.
Juravich: So Adam, as an Ohio native, what did you see happening in this state in rural Ohio that made you wanna bring this story to a movie?
Meeks: Yeah, you know at the time this was around 2018 or so You didn't have to look very far to see You know the impacts and effects of the opioid epidemic at that time But I was introduced to a previous drug court judge who invited me to sit in on a meeting that was you know, and that's court and her program and I Was just very I was immediately so moved and affected by Um, the feeling of kind of empathy and hope in that space.
And it kind of contradicted a lot of the narratives that I think many of us were hearing, um, or at least presented it another narrative of, you know, the, the. Uh, Potential for folks to kind of get back on their feet through kind of a community support and and Programs that were kind of like doing it thoughtfully and in the right way. And so Yeah, I kind of started by me Connecting with Annette connecting with you know folks in her program and and wanting to kindof translate that feeling
Juravich: When he invited you, did he know you were a filmmaker? Was he thinking, was he thinking this is a movie? Like, come see.
Meeks: I think he had had that disclaimer. I was sort of already kind of like introducing myself as such in the community and kind of wanting to meet with folks. So I'm sure my uncle kind of shared that with him. He knew what I was up to.
Juravich: Well, you're one of the producers of Union County and obviously you star in it as well, but what drew you to this film?
Poulter: Yeah, I think what drew me to it initially was the awareness that I had of Adam's work in the shape of the short film by the same title, Union County. And that came kind of across my desk, so to speak, at the same time as the script for the feature. And I was struck by what a kind of celebration this was of the hard work and the success of the recovery community.
Both in respect of how sort of service providers like Annette and her team were kind of contributing to folks getting back on their feet. And then also how participants were experiencing, you know, so much growth and positive change by thanks to the program. So the film felt like a really. You know, special and very necessary opportunity to highlight that work and also put a message out in respect of recovery that maybe cuts against the grain as far as the stigma around addiction is concerned and also typically the kind of angle that most TV shows and films take when it comes to the subject of addiction.
The focus often tends to be And not for any like necessarily like bad reason per se, but I think we're all fairly aware of the devastation and the negative side of things. And I think that having the opportunity to be part of a story that was weighted more in what could be done to create kind of positive change was just a really fantastic opportunity and one I couldn't turn down.
Juravich: Adam tell me about that creating a film about that is mainly about recovery rather than about Everyone messing up, you know
Meeks: Yeah, we've all, you know, humanity is ingrained with stories that take on a certain kind of trajectory and that is traditionally like a tragedy or a kind of arc that moves in a sort of downward direction with increasing conflict. And I thought so much about, you now, how to, you one of the reasons maybe why this has not really been represented narratively is because it's not as kind of like seductive of a narrative. But how can, but how can we sort of.
Juravich: Recovery is not boring though, is it? Certainly not.
Meeks: Certainly not, and that's, I guess, exactly what I noted and felt like, okay, well, so we can still, we can make a film that is about somebody getting back on their feet, but it's still full of trials and hardships and the stuff that, you know, humans go up against and ultimately grow from. And so it was just about recognizing that organically happening already and basically just deciding if we can kind of point our camera towards. This narrative of somebody going through these things ultimately in a way that helps them get back on their feet that that could hopefully be a new way of observing the story.
Juravich: You mentioned the short film, Will mentioned the short film. So and people may have seen it. I mean, it had a moment. Your short film definitely had a moment. It was award winning. But whenever you decided to make it a full length movie, you kind of expanded the story. You changed it a little bit. How tell me about that process. Did you want this? Did you wanna change? Did you know after when you made the short film you were like, this can be more, but it has to change.
Meeks: Yeah, I was in the edit on the short and I just started to feel like there was more to explore. There were relationships that I had formed that were deepening and I felt like could be even further incorporated.
Juravich: You wanted to give a net more lines? I wanted to get a net far more screen time.
Meeks: Um, and, and so, yeah, I started writing and thinking about, uh, the right kind of structure and container for, uh a feature length story and, you know, a 95 page script has different kind of narrative requirements than a 12 page script does. And um, and as I thought a lot about, you now, the, what I hoped that the film would feel like and what it might communicate.
I was told a story from somebody who had gone through Annette's program who said the closest he had got to relapsing while he was in the program was when his foster brother passed away and he had a history of using his foster brother in it. It sort of sent him in a kind of downward spiral before ultimately kind of like deciding to call Annette and ask for help. And that contained everything in a way that I felt like I wanted the film to hold.
And so I started writing a story that was... Different from the short in the sense that it was ultimately about a relationship between two foster brothers and their kind of different paths through recovery.
Juravich: Will, you play the main character, Cody. Your character is going through this court mandated program, basically do this program or else go to jail. Had you ever heard of a court program like this before you started studying this character?
Poulter: Um, you know, it's interesting because I know Annette spoke to this. I think that I had sort of heard about structures like this, but I wasn't aware of just how much it was kind of characterized by wraparound care, by such kind of personable and really invested sort of support that the conversations between the judge and participants was so sort of humanizing and really kind of at times, although there is obviously a hierarchy and there are rules and regulations, it feels at times like the emphasis is a lot on peer-to-peer support, on you know, mentorship, and so getting to learn all of that really kind of dispelled some of the myths that I had maybe kind of been led to believe around like sort of core related programs.
Um, but certainly, you know, the thing that was evident to me more than anything else was just how successful it was. It's like plain to see and to witness the growth in the participants with whom we made this, this film, even in the space of the year since we, uh, made it. You know, we had it, we'd a screening back in bell fountain recently, um, at the Holland theater across from the courthouse and you know we got to celebrate the, film with the participants. In correlation with their graduation and many of the participants were celebrating another year through the program and it was just so awesome to see the kind of real world effects of this program and also like how the film kind of hopefully became an extension of what is a celebration of their work.
Juravich: This is All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking about the movie Union County and we're talking with actor Will Polder, who stars in the movie and is one of its producers. And we're also talking with writer and director Adam Meeks. Will, you were in the Hulu docu-series, or mini-serie, "Dopesick," about the opioid crisis. You played the pharmaceutical sales rep and now you are playing the other side of this, basically a man who has an addiction. I mean is that Is that a connection? Is that how you, were you drawn to this movie because you had played something in the opioid crisis before?
Poulter: Yeah, definitely I think that my awareness of I think the subject matter of addiction and recovery was very much informed by my experience reading "Dopesick," the book, and then being a part of the show I was lucky to receive an education that I otherwise probably wouldn't have were it not for my involvement in that show. And I think in that the focus really was on the injustice of this kind of epidemic of how it came to be, of how it came cause of irreparable destruction to so many lives.
And what really appealed about my involvement with Union County was, well, here's an opportunity to sort of, in a way, highlight a potential answer to some of those issues. Here is a film that is focused on a workable, actionable program that is a step towards helping folks who've been impacted by this epidemic. And yeah, I feel very lucky to have been able to kind of like walk the bridge between the two and Danny Strong, who created Dope Sick as a fan of our film and he's gonna be in some discussions with us down the line while we promote this, which is really exciting.
But I think with any subject matter, it's so important to try and see it from as many different angles as possible. And I think in TV and film, on the subject of addiction, sometimes we're a little bit reductive and. I think to Adam's point, in focusing on recovery, you're actually able to explore a journey that is characterized by more ups and downs and a kind of more textured and detailed reality to the journey than when you just focus on the devastation, it's a shorter and kind of oversimplified arc. And so that's what I really love about this film and would encourage people to see it because.
Even knowing a fair amount about the subject matter, I learned so much and continue to learn so much, through the journey with Union County. And I think I can only imagine that audiences, will feel the same.
Juravich: Adam, I saw the film described as a docu-drama, and that's because it doesn't use all seasoned actors like Will who we have here. You're using non-professional actors. I mean, basically regular people are featured in the film. Tell me about that decision. You could have cast actors to play all those people. Why did you cast non-actors in these roles?
Meeks: Yeah, I mean, it's a sort of multi-part answer. The first is that when I left that first drug court meeting and felt like I wanted to translate the feeling in that room to the screen, I pretty quickly felt like the way of translating a kind of feeling of community, of a specific community, would be by including and incorporating that community into the film and by, you know, inviting participation and collaboration. The other part of it was um
Yeah, wanting, recognizing that the most sort of authentic depiction comes from folks who have lived it and can speak to it with as much specificity and personal experience as possible. And so, rather than asking a community of folks who are going through a very difficult program and sort of phase of their lives. Rather than asking them to come onto a film set and incorporate it into our world, I thought, what if we can do this the right way where we build real meaningful relationships and trust, which we did over many years in the lead up to making this, and just ask for permission to be in those spaces with a couple of cameras and a couple actors and try to actually adapt into that environment and let them. Let it feel as organic to their lived experience as possible, then between the fiction and the nonfiction, we could kind of use both all the tools at our disposal to get as close to the truth of a given experience.
Juravich: I, you make it sound so casual. I'm just going to throw a couple of actors, you know? I mean, like this is Will here. So did some of the people who were in the movie, like whenever you asked them to be in the movie and then you, you, you know, you brought the real actors in and they, they were all together. They like a little starstruck or did you, did you have to tell them like, stop looking at the camera? You know, just act like, yeah.
Meeks: It's kind of, in hindsight, it's kind of miraculous how.
Juravich: Did everyone, did everyone act cool? Everyone act cool.
Meeks: Yeah, we kind of had our, you know, we had a period in the lead up of relationship building and like everyone getting kind of comfortable and friendly with each other and, you know, to Will and Noah as well, like massive credit and others, you know, Elise Kuebler who's in the movie and Emily Mead, all the kind of like professional actors who came in, made such an effort to form real relationships. And not just ones that were like for the, you know, course of the couple of days we were with them, but relationships that transcend the production.
And so because of that sincerity and because of the time that we had to really like form relationships and we were able, by the time we were up and running with cameras, it really felt so much more like, you now, the characters of Cody and Jack, those people are in the room with the other participants and less like oh my gosh, that guy from "We're the Millers" is like in our courtroom. We had kind of gotten that out of the way and gotten to the kind of humanity past all of that and it felt much more kind of like a cohesive collaboration.
Poulter: And I think the sense I got as well from the participants without speaking for them is that there's, you know, a sort of earned sense of ownership over the program and a sense of pride in the program, and as protective as they are, and rightly so, of the success of that program and their own recovery, they're keen to, and they were very generous to sort of share the experience with us, because I think they recognize that in the making of the film there was an effort to sort of extend the success of the program through the film as opposed to extract anything.
You know, I think that there's a distance that is hard to close if you make a film about a community separately from them, whereas we were lucky enough to make it with and in collaboration. And so that meant that we were always operating from a place of trust, from a space whereby we always had kind of the same goal, which was to sort highlight the success of this. And I will say also The collaboration and the sort of a union ship between, you know, Adam and Annette as kind of the two leaders in a way, you now, so the director of our film and the director of the, you, know, adult recovery program, everyone felt a sense of trust and a sense of belonging. Unionship and union
Juravich: Unionship in Union County. I see what you did there. I'm with you. I am with you and well, you're obviously you're from the UK So how did you prepare for this role to sound like someone from rural, Ohio? What did you do there?
Poulter: I work with an amazing accent coach called Sonia Field. She's fantastic. No, I'm not.
Juravich: And has anyone ever said to her, I need to sound like I'm from Bell Fountain, Ohio, right?
Poulter: I'm not sure, but she...
Juravich: That seems very specific.
Poulter: Yeah, you know, the best way to kind of, I guess, at least get close to that was to spend time in the area. And so for the same reason that, you know, we were able to kind of feel sort of immersed and kind of I don't know, occupy a place in the recovery community. You know, we also spent time in Bellefountain and the surrounding area to kind of get a sense of, you know, what folks sound like and what the kind of the colloquialisms were. You couldn't hope for a more friendly place than Ohio, so it was very easy to strike up a conversation with people in the streets because people are just so welcoming.
Meeks: I had a Zoom meeting with the Will's Dialect Coach sort of early in prep. And I remember just being like, they had already started working. And I was like, I just wanna sort of check in and make sure kind of like we're on the right track. Cause you know, if this doesn't fully work, it, you know he'll stick it like a sore thumb in the courtroom.
And she kind of looked at me on Zoom and said like. Will is an accent genius, you'll be just fine. And then when I heard him sort of like speaking as Cody for the first time, I was like, yeah, what did I think I was gonna do that would be better? There it is, there's that Ohio.
Juravich: There it is. There's that Ohio boy we were looking for. Our guest this hour, our writer and director of the movie Union County, Adam Meeks, and actor Will Poulter, who stars in the movie and is one of its producers. They're staying with us. And coming up, we're going to talk more about the nearly decade long journey Adam Meek took to make this movie a reality. That's when All Sides continues on 89.7 NPR News.
Juravich: You're listening to All Sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. The movie Union County tells the story of two brothers navigating a court mandated addiction recovery program in rural Ohio. Filmed in Union and Logan counties, the film features professional and non-professional actors. It tells the the story of the ups and downs of recovery in the midst of the opioid epidemic in rural, Ohio. Still with us is Union County writer and director, Adam Meeks. Thanks again for joining us, Adam.
Meeks: Thanks so much.
Juravich: And actor Will Poulter, who stars in the movie and is also a producer on the film. Thanks for being here today, Will.
Poulter: Thanks for having me.
Juravich: So we recently spoke to another filmmaker who is making an independent film that happens to be shot in Ohio. It also took him 10 years to make his. He talked about funding and campaigns and the kindness of local businesses and trying to just make a movie a reality. What's your experience like of trying to get Union County made? Like how hard is it to get a movie made?
Meeks: Yeah, it's hard and it's a kind of uphill battle for a long time and it can sometimes feel like a sort of Sisyphean effort of just kind of trying to push the rock up the hill potentially forever. But I think what's been amazing throughout this process is that it, From the Jump was a community project that took on a life much larger than Like, it took on a life of its own, it's something much larger than just me pushing that boulder up the hill alone.
And so, you know, it was always a thing that we were in together and we all believed in, and almost increasingly so, felt like, you now, this was something that we had a lot of conviction in, and the more people we met and developed relationships with and wanted to incorporate into the process, it just kind of, it's a process of like getting the train. On the tracks and moving and then once it's kind of like up and moving you're able to kind of start to get momentum and invite people to participate and you know the hardest part in the kind of film climate right now is finding financing for you know character driven dramas especially the stuff that isn't doing sort of traditionally like obvious astronomical box office numbers compared to like certain genre films and you know, the kind of space.
For financing for these kinds of films are, you know, it's becoming in some ways more of a narrow margin. But I mean, shout out to our incredible financiers who kind of like emerged at the perfect time and some of whom, you lay line, had had a pre-existing relationship with Will and we're excited to work with him again. And it's kind of a, in some way I think of it as almost like a self-selecting.
Process where you write something very specific and heartfelt and then the folks who respond to it because of its specificity and hopefully its sincerity respond to it for the right reasons and then you feel like you're all kind of making the same movie with the same goal in mind and that inevitably just takes time to kind of find those people but When you do, it's, I think, hopefully a recipe for success.
Juravich: Well, you got the boulder up the hill, right? And you played the festival circuit, including the Sundance Film Festival. And I read that it got a standing ovation at Sundance. That must have felt amazing. Were you both there for that?
Meeks: We were, and the standing ovation really kicked in when I called Annette up onto the stage afterwards. It was really.
Juravich: Oh, I'm happy to hear that.
Meeks: Profound and we were all just kind of like... No offense Will, but... Oh no, I, listen, I was standing as well for Annette. Yeah, I looked over at Will and we were both kind of tearing up just watching Annette kind of get her flowers in a 1200 person theater or something crazy like that. Wow, yeah. Or something crazy.
Juravich: Yeah, so we spoke with Annette earlier in the show. Annette Dayo is playing a fictionalized version of herself. She basically created the Logan County Drug Court Program and runs it to this day. She seems like one heck of a lady. Well, what was it like working with Annett so closely, who is a non-actress, but arguably an amazing human?
Poulter: It's really special. I mean, earlier in the program, Adam spoke about relationships that kind of transcend the production. And I feel like the relationship that I was able to develop with Annette is one such relationship. Like it really does transcend the production. She's just an inspirational figure to me in life. Her and her husband, Gary are. And, you know, she really is the heart and soul of the community.
And by extension, she's really the heart, the soul of a movie. I think that's what folks at Sundance kind of picked up on, you know, and that standing ovation was something that indicated that the movie is also kind of transcending its life as just a film or a piece of entertainment. You know, I think it's kind of encouraging people to think differently about the world around them and some of the people that they're likely to come into contact with And that's kind of one of the best things we could hope for, I think.
Juravich: So how well you did at Sundance probably is what helped you land a distributor. So I'm not familiar about how this whole film movie distributor thing works, but you were acquired by, can you say it for me?
Meeks: Oscilloscope.
Juravich: Oscilloscope, which is a word I was not familiar with, oscilloscope laboratories. So for our listeners, the movie is going to be in theaters, tell me where they can see it. What's the plan here?
Meeks: Yeah, starting August 14th, it'll be in theaters in Columbus at the Gateway and in a number of other theaters around the state. It opens in New York, LA, Ohio, and a couple other cities on the 14th. And then the following weekend, it'll expand nationwide. And for us who made a very small personal movie in our proverbial, and in some cases, literal backyard, It's a dream come true, yeah.
Juravich: This is All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking about the movie Union County, which can be seen in theaters soon with writer-director Adam Meeks and actor Will Poulter, who stars in the movie and is one of its producers. We've made it this far into the conversation without me asking you a very Ohio question. The movie's filmed in Union and Logan Counties, but Annette Dayo and the judge are in Logan County. So why is the movie not called Logan County?
Meeks: It's funny, there are, somehow I'll be like doing a Q&A with the movie in Salt Lake City and somebody will be like, okay, well, my mom's from Ohio and I know. Yeah, see, this is, I don't.
Juravich: Ohio people care about this, so do tell.
Meeks: Um, so the film was shot kind of across Union County and Logan County and, um, and the bulk of my kind of entry point into the story with the short film was in kind of like research and relationship building in Union County. Um, and, you know, as the sort of center of the film, uh, of the feature film settled in a Nets Court in Logan County.
The Union County title stuck for me. As specifically the word union felt evocative and important to the film in a number of ways. It's a film about community and about the kind of unions between people and the importance of that. I thought a lot about how there are union counties in many states in the country, and I hoped that there would be something both specific and kind of universal or relatable for folks outside of Ohio in that title as well. And also there was, when I was writing the film, I was thinking a lot about. This has a very American story.
Juravich: As we strive for a more perfect union.
Meeks: Exactly.
Juravich: Yeah, it doesn't really work to strive for a more perfect Logan.
Meeks: It doesn't quite work. Yes, that's right.
Juravich: No offense to Logan County I know I totally get it but it's just it's a very Ohio question and then the other Ohio part is there's a part in the movie where Cody says maybe I'm gonna move to Columbus someday my friend has a bookstore there and so immediately everyone in Columbus is like oh which bookstore oh my goodness so so you grew up in you grew up in Ohio I mean talk to me about that that part of the movie or he says you You know, maybe I'll move to Columbus. There's that whole... Wanting to get out versus staying mentality. Can you talk about that? Like the staying in rural Logan or Union County versus the getting out.
Meeks: Yeah, well, there is such a topic of conversation in recovery, especially in certain parts of the state and in the country where there's a kind of there can be a lot of power and relocation and sort of starting fresh somewhere else.
Juravich: But, simultaneously, that's... There's a really good line in the movie where one person says, if everybody leaves, who's going to be here for the people who can't leave? That really struck with me because that's really hard, that whole stay or go.
Meeks: Yeah, exactly, and I wanted to sort of at least reference that tension there and kind of the sometimes value of a relocation and starting fresh, but also the importance of home and roots and being connected to where you're from. And Annette is actually the person who said that to me first. I remember her saying at some point, I could go to Columbus or I could go to Cincinnati or to Cleveland or elsewhere and you know, maybe make more money in a bigger city or whatever.
But I've always felt like if I leave, who's gonna be here for the folks who are here and who don't leave, who can't leave whatever, don't wanna leave. And when she said that, I was just like, it just felt so profound to me. And I thought, let me see who I can have sort of say that in the film at a moment that might be exploring that tension. And that happened to be the right moment.
Juravich: Well, we have 30 seconds left. I'm going to give you the last word. What do you say to people who are listening right now about giving Union County a try?
Poulter: Wow. Well, I will say anyone who's listening from the central Ohio area, like, thank you, you know, this was made in collaboration with Ohioans. And I would say like, I mean, upper 90 percentile of our cast and crew were Ohioans and so just a sincere thank you. I think you'll feel a real sense of pride in the movie for that reason. And you know also stand to see a very, very successful beacon of hope within within Ohio in the shape of this program.
Juravich: We've been talking about the movie Union County with writer-director Adam Meeks. Thank you so much for your time today, Adam. Thank you. Adam.
Meeks: Thank you so much.
Juravich: And actor Will Poulter who stars in the movie and is one of its producers. Thank you for your time. Thank you so much for having us. And you can see the movie August 14th and you're listening to All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. Thanks for listening today. Thanks for joining us. I'm Amy Juravich.