Director Naomi Foner Discusses Parenting Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal

ABC/Randy Holmes(NEW YORK) —  When Naomi Foner first wrote the film Very Good Girls years ago, it was based on her own experiences as well as those of women close to her, including her daughter, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Now, she’s hoping it resonates with scores of other women — her two young granddaughters, Gyllenhaal’s daughters with actor Peter Sarsgaard, who also appears in the film.

“I do hope that my granddaughters will see it and understand it,” she told ABC News. “I had this fantasy that mothers and daughters would go see this movie together.”

Very Good Girls, a coming-of-age story starring Elizabeth Olsen and Dakota Fanning, explores the friendship between two adolescent girls who are lusting after the same young man, played by Olsen’s real-life fiancé, actor Boyd Holbrook. The person who helped clarify Holbrook’s character? Foner’s son, actor Jake Gyllenhaal.

“Jake was in the editing room frequently. He was the one who pointed out that Boyd’s character was like Clarence in It’s a Wonderful Life, who comes in and tells them something they need to know,” she said. “He gave me some great advice during the making of this.”

Collaborating with her children made the experience of film-making even richer. Foner, who is hoping to make her next film about “women of my own age,” said one of her greatest joys is the close relationship she shares with her kids.

“I can’t say that there’s anything that gives me more pleasure than to get to the point where my children are my friends. I adore my kids. They are spectacular,” she said. “Nothing is more important than family.”

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