JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
What do you think happens when you die? The new romantic comedy "Eternity" has one answer to that question. It's told through the story of Larry. Larry is this pretty cranky older guy who dies choking on a pretzel, and when he comes to, he is on a train bound for purgatory and he is very confused. In the movie, purgatory is called the Junction. And not long after Larry's train pulls in, his wife's does too.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ETERNITY")
MILES TELLER: (As Larry) Joan. Joan.
ELIZABETH OLSEN: (As Joan) Larry. I was in bed, and then I took a train (ph).
TELLER: (As Larry) You look amazing. I have shocking news.
OLSEN: (As Joan) I'm dead.
TELLER: (As Larry) You're dead. Yeah. How'd you know?
DA'VINE JOY RANDOLPH: (As Anna) It took him forever to figure that out.
SUMMERS: That is Anna. She lives and works at the Junction as an AC - an afterlife coordinator. And she's assigned to Larry, whose life is about to get very complicated when Joan's first husband, who died in the Korean War, shows up. Oscar-winner Da'Vine Joy Randolph plays Anna, and she explains Anna's job this way.
RANDOLPH: An afterlife coordinator is basically almost like a social worker in purgatory (laughter). Basically, they're the person that helps you figure out where you would like to spend eternity. And eternity can be an option of many different types of worlds, if you will.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ETERNITY")
TELLER: (As Larry) Listen to me. I need to talk to God, OK? That's what I want. I want to speak with the big guy.
RANDOLPH: (As Anna) OK, so you're one of those. I don't know why you didn't say that in the first place. We got tons of eternities. What are you? New Testament, Old Testament, Hindu, Buddhist? Pick your poison.
TELLER: (As Larry) Hold on. Is God not real?
RANDOLPH: (As Anna) I don't know. But listen, after a couple hundred years in one of these eternities, you won't even know the difference.
SUMMERS: Everyone sort of finds themselves at this train depot limbo, but not everyone's stay is short. Anna tells Larry in "Eternity" that people choose to stay for all kinds of reasons - like they haven't accepted death, or, like Larry, they're waiting for someone they love, or perhaps they just have decision fatigue and they don't know which eternity to pick. And your character, Anna, is one of the people that chooses to stay. Can you talk a little bit about what Anna is hoping to accomplish with her extended stay, why she wants to stay there, why she wants to be an AC.
RANDOLPH: I think something that kind of gets softly alluded to is that life was rough for her in the earthly realm, and it wasn't easy. And she has a real joy for helping people and feeling like she's contributing in a positive way. I think it's really important to her. As well as, I think, absolutely there is decision fatigue or nervousness of not wanting to choose and choose wrong. So I think this is a happy medium for her, that she can interact and have variety and meet a lot of different people and yet have this kind of stability 'cause I think sometimes, when people have rough lives or rough upbringings, a lot of it is due to the lack of stability. So for me, I kind of imagine that this kind of punching in, punching out 9 to 5, where to other people that could feel very mundane, stability is something she didn't have and feels very safe and something that she yearns for in this realm.
SUMMERS: I don't want to give too much away about the plot, but one of the things that intrigued me most about "Eternity" were the scenes that involved something called an archive tunnel that we see the characters go back to.
RANDOLPH: That's beautiful, yeah.
SUMMERS: Tell us what that is.
RANDOLPH: Like, to me, when I saw it, it almost reminded me of, like, you know how at certain, like, carnivals or festivals they have, like, that Lovers Lane thing, where you get into a little boat and you go on this little ride and you see all these different things? But basically, it is this tunnel that has to each individual, like, memory locks or key moments in your life that in some way, shape or form was pivotal to you. But what I love that the movie shows too is, like, the small moments or the things that some people would see as trivial, but to that person is actually very tender and special.
SUMMERS: Do you think that if an archive tunnel existed in your afterlife, do you think you'd visit one?
RANDOLPH: You know, I don't know. A part of me says yes because I was never a journaler when I was young. I think you have to have (ph) the personality to be someone who actively, you know, is in their journal. But everyone always says to me - like, family and friends are always like, are you not journaling? Your life is so interesting and you get to experience all these things and meet all these people and travel and all of that. And so there is a part of me that would like to go maybe once, just to, like, recollect and remember 'cause even now, in my 30s, I can't remember all of those amazing moments. So I think that would be nice. But I'm also a person that doesn't necessarily dwell in the past, and I'm also - love the life that I have and that I've lived so far. So I think it'd be a mix of a yes and no. I'd probably do it once.
SUMMERS: Once, yeah. I mean, when a relationship ends or a spouse dies, people don't get a do-over. We don't get the chance...
RANDOLPH: Yeah.
SUMMERS: ...You know, to pick up where things left off to see what might have happened next. But that is, like, the question at the center of this movie because Joan gets a chance to pick between a man that she didn't get a forever with and a man who she built a life and a family and decades of time with. And I don't know, sitting there watching that, that just feels like both an impossible choice to me and also this incredible opportunity.
RANDOLPH: I would 100% do it.
SUMMERS: You'd do it? You'd see what happened?
RANDOLPH: Yeah, girl. Are you kidding? Yes. Because there's something about - like, there's, like, this heroic sensibility. You know what I mean? It wasn't just, like, that boyfriend that got away or the idea of somebody left you too soon, you know? Not like a messy breakup. Something where it ended, let's say, on good terms or...
SUMMERS: Right.
RANDOLPH: ...Sorrowful good terms in a pleasant way. Yeah, I'd be so curious. I don't know if I would then latch on for that to be my eternity, but I definitely would just be like, oh, I just would love to have a day or a week with them.
SUMMERS: Just, like, dip your toe in the water a little bit.
RANDOLPH: Absolutely.
SUMMERS: Feel the situation out.
RANDOLPH: Absolutely. I 100% would. I'd be too curious.
SUMMERS: One of the other big questions at the center of "Eternity" is what happens after we die and who will be waiting for us when we do? So I do want to ask you, do you believe in an afterlife?
RANDOLPH: I think so. I think there's something after this. I don't know what. I don't know what that would look like, but that's one of the marvels of life. We don't really know until that time comes, and then we can't even report back, really. I guess some people say that people come back from the dead, but you can't really report back...
(LAUGHTER)
SUMMERS: No.
RANDOLPH: ...To confirm, like, yeah, there is something.
SUMMERS: What eternity would you pick, though? What would you want it to look like if you got that whole menu of options like the characters in "Eternity" have in front of them?
RANDOLPH: I think mine would probably be, like, a luxury cruise liner which would travel all along the Mediterranean and I can get off at the stops. I love traveling. I love a good spa. So it would have, like, the best spa amenities, like, the idyllic summer holiday.
(SOUNDBITE OF KISSING SOUND)
RANDOLPH: Chef's kiss.
SUMMERS: Oh, that sounds beautiful. I think I would want to be surrounded by pets I think about all the time.
RANDOLPH: Oh.
SUMMERS: If I was going to have an afterlife...
RANDOLPH: That'd be sad. That'd be perfect.
SUMMERS: ...I'd want to go back and visit all the pets I've had in my life.
RANDOLPH: You have to. You have to because they're so pure and innocent. Yes, 100%. I haven't lost my dog yet. She's 8, and she's a French bulldog. And literally, every time I take her to the doctors, I'm like, ooh (ph). One hundred percent. I love that - every pet you ever had.
SUMMERS: We've been speaking with Da'Vine Joy Randolph. Thank you so much.
RANDOLPH: Thank you.
SUMMERS: "Eternity" is in theaters now.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOUL MATE")
FLORA CASH: (Singing) For what it's worth, I'd die with you again a hundred more times multiplied by 10. I hope I'll always have you in my mind. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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