Dan Levy on ‘Good Grief,’ His Heartfelt (and Stylish) Portrait of Loss and Adult Friendship

Levy plays…Marc, a gay man in his late 30s confronted with the sudden death of his dreamy husband, Oliver (Luke Evans). An artist who abandoned his painting practice after the loss of his mother, Marc had been living contently in Oliver’s shadow, illustrating his young adult novels and playing the role of “Gay Best Friend” to Sophie (Negga), an effervescent hot mess, and Thomas (Patel), Marc’s moody, forever-single ex-boyfriend. Of course, Levy is no stranger to playing the bubbly GBF (remember his turn opposite Kristen Stewart in 2020’s Happiest Season?), but in Good Grief, the friendships aren’t a B-plot to some sweeping love affair—they’re the very core of the story. 

“Once I started to explore the territory of grief, it became clear that there was a story about the importance of friendship in the wake of a great loss,” Levy says. His goal was to give platonic bonds their proper due on screen, even prioritizing them over romantic ones. (That’s not to say, however, that there’s no romance in the film; while Marc processes Oliver’s death—and a troubling discovery that he makes about their marriage—he finds a suitor in Theo, a charming Frenchman played by Arnaud Valois, whom he meets on a trip to Paris.)