When Christmas comes around every year, you can expect a diverse collection of holiday movies to hit the screen. One of this year’s holiday movies is the indie film Lost & Found in Cleveland, which manages to blend several different tones and stories together to create a magical intertwining narrative about belongings, both physical and spiritual.
I recently had the chance to speak with Mark L. Walberg and Benjamin Steinhauser about Lost & Found in Cleveland, the Cleveland community, and more. (You can watch the interview below.)
Given how Lost & Found in Cleveland‘s ensemble cast is rounded out by actors like Martin Sheen and Jon Lovitz, Walberg and Steinhauser recalled what it was like to familiarize themselves with these stars.
“Working with all these people, all these Hollywood icons, they’re people that I’ve wanted to meet and wanted to film something together in my entire life,” Steinhauser said. “Actually getting to do this and do that in this film is a remarkable experience.”
“I have memories of watching Martin Sheen do his scene, and it was a gigantic scene with a lot of technical stuff because he’s playing an appraiser, and watching him do it in one take was like watching a master class,” Walberg recalled. “That was a memory I won’t soon forget.”
While Lost & Found in Cleveland involves multiple intertwining storylines, Walberg and Steinhauser’s characters cross paths with these legends in these peculiar ways. Both Walberg and Steinhauser recalled their first-time experiences with this ensemble cast.
“I was very nervous going into my appraisal scene with Loretta Divine and Dot Marie Jones in the background, people that I’ve looked up to,” Steinhauser recalled. “When they’re in their character, they’re a completely different person from how they are outside of the film. So I was really nervous to meet them. I didn’t know how they would react, [but] they are just awesome.”
“I had a scene with Jon Lovitz,” Walberg noted. “I was a big fan of his, and I actually had a lot of the jokes the way it was written. I was really nervous about that. He was so supportive and was coaching me, not without my welcoming it.”
Both Walberg and Steinhauser’s characters are extremely different from each other in terms of personality. However, both stars did find some things about their characters that stuck with them.
“Charlie’s character has a very warm and caring touch to it, which I feel like I had that before because Charlie cares for his mother with his entire heart,” Steinhauser explained. “He does so much that he does everything that he can for his mother. I feel like that’s one of the ways that playing this role as Charlie just came naturally to me.”
“I have a different experience because I am playing a version of a job I’ve had,” Walberg explained. “I was the host of Antiques Roadshow for many years. The difference is this guy on this show, kind of a jerk, right? It was hard for me to be that guy, a little bit kind of smarmy and not full of himself.”
“It’s not natural for me to be a jerk to the people I’m working with, but it was fun to play that role. Dot Marie Jones, who has become very good friends with Ben and to me, she’s the best. We have a couple of scenes together and we improv a little bit there.”
Although Walberg and Steinhauser’s characters aren’t on the same wavelength in Lost & Found in Cleveland, Walberg and Steinhauser got acquainted with each other very quickly and had a great time on set.
“I met Ben off camera first,” Walberg recalled. “I had a lot of scenes that I was in the background — that I had to be in those scenes before I was doing my actual scenes. I’m doing a scene with Jon Lovitz, who plays the mayor. We’re doing a television thing within the movie, and it gets interrupted by Ben’s character, Charlie, and his mom.”
“I’m a little perturbed at Charlie for kind of messing up our scene. It’s a little cheesy of me, but I had already met Ben and we’d hung out backstage, so it was fun to be on set and play with him. That’s really the spirit of it.”
“I feel like acting is kind of like double-sided because in [Mark’s] role, it’s very different from how you actually are off camera and just in normal life,” Steinhauser added. “Knowing you as this nice person talking to you off camera and then going to film my scene, it’s so different. But it’s really cool at the same time.”
Watch the full interview with Mark L. Walberg and Benjamin Steinhauser:
One of the ongoing comedic bits in Lost & Found in Cleveland is that Walberg’s character is subtly misidentified as “Tom L. Hanks.” Walberg explained how the film’s writers worked the bit into the film and how it played out in the end.
“That was a little bit that the writers put in,” Walberg said. “My name is Mark Walberg. They thought this is a funny way that people who actually know me will get the joke. If they don’t get the joke, they don’t get the joke!”
“I was approached to be a part of it way early in the process. As they were writing the script, it became evident that as I agreed to do the movie, they thought that would be a funny bit, and I approved it.”
Although Walberg’s name is notable, it should also be noted that Walberg’s work as host of Antiques Roadshow really impacted how he viewed the process and concept of economic valuations overall. Walberg reflected on how his career opened up his perspective.
“I have watched over the years while hosting Antiques Roadshow, I’ve watched people’s lives change when they’ve come in with something that was a family heirloom and find out that it’s priceless.”
“I’ve also seen the other side of it, which by the way, is also one of the stories in the movie where somebody comes in with something they think is priceless and it turns out not to be.”
“It just speaks to the fact that the value of items is subjective and has very much to do with what role those items have played in our memories, in our lives, and with our family,” Walberg continued. “That’s really where the value of antiques lies, other than its intrinsic value as a commodity. For most people, it’s about the sentimental value.”
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Lost & Found In Cleveland is now playing in theaters through Attend, developed by The Fithian Group.
