Hollywood and heartbreak: Griffin Dunne dives deep in ‘The Friday Afternoon Club’ at Aspen Ideas Festival

Griffin Dunne has had a remarkable career spanning acting, directing, and producing. He first gained recognition for his roles as Jack Goodman in “An American Werewolf in London” (1981) and Paul Hackett in “After Hours” (1985). More recently, he starred in the Max original series “Girls on the Bus.“

In addition to his acting career, he has directed notable films including “Addicted to Love” (1997), “Practical Magic” (1998), and the documentary “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold” (2017), which explores the life and work of his aunt, the renowned author Joan Didion.

But despite the outward success and seeming privilege, his life was far from idyllic. And now, he’s ready to talk about it.

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On Tuesday, he was joined by actor, director, and producer Fisher Stevens for an appearance at the Aspen Ideas Festival to discuss being “Raised by Hollywood.”

The close friends shared Hollywood insider stories, filled with professional and personal misadventures that provided comedic moments throughout their career and friendship and for the audience in attendance.

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The two met when a 23-year-old Dunne cast a 16-year-old Stevens in “The Chilly Scenes of Winter,” the first film Dunne would produce.

“Fish was cast as Jewish boy number two,” Dunne said with a chuckle. “Robert Downey Jr. was Jewish boy number one.”

But taking center stage was a discussion about Dunne’s memoir, “The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir.”

Dunne is no stranger to being surrounded by talent. His father, Dominick Dunne, was a producer-turned-writer and investigative journalist for Vanity Fair; his uncle, John Gregory Dunne, was an accomplished writer of essays, novels, and screenplays; and his aunt, Joan Didion, was one of the most distinctive and celebrated American writers of our time.

His life has been intertwined with numerous iconic figures and memorable encounters in Hollywood and beyond. From his childhood best friend Carrie Fisher with whom he shared a close bond, to run-ins with legends like Sean Connery and Truman Capote and encounters with a pre-fame Harrison Ford, Dunne’s experiences reflect a tapestry of connections to broader pop culture.

However, “The Friday Afternoon Club” is not so much about his career or the celebrity that surrounded him, but a deep dive into all the messiness of life: tragedy and loss, castigation and redemption, humor, and most of all, love.

With almost everyone featured in the book now deceased, except for his brother Alex, he felt like it was the right time to publically explore it all.

“I called my brother before I started and said, ‘Alex I want to write this family memoir, and I want to write about you, and it is an ensemble, but I also have to talk about some of the struggles you had.’ And he said, ‘Griffin, you can write anything about me, as long as it comes from a place of love.’ And that gave me so much freedom,” Dunne told the crowd.

Holding nothing back and with dark humor, he delves into his father’s struggles with his sexuality and alcoholism, the effect of his mother’s multiple sclerosis diagnoses, his brother’s mental health, and most poignantly, the 1982 murder of his sister, Dominique Dunne, at the hands of an ex-boyfriend and its lingering effects for the first time.

“I’m still quite emotional, and I didn’t expect that; it’s never gone away,” Dunne shared with the Aspen audience, during one of the several times he choked back tears. “The saddest thing about finishing the book was that I no longer had their company; now I have their company back because I am talking about it. I’m in service of the memory of my parents and my sister, and I am just so proud.”

A few days before Dunne’s appearance in Aspen, The Aspen Times arts and entertainment editor Sarah Girgis spoke with him about the timing of his memoir, how his upbringing affected how he approached fatherhood, and balancing humor with unspeakable loss.

The interview was edited for brevity and clarity.

Sarah Girgis: I’m assuming that you’ve been writing down these stories and thinking about them for a long time. What made you decide now was the time to get it out in the world?

Griffin Dune: It had been on my bucket list up there with learning Spanish and a musical instrument. So one down, two to go before I cool.

My literary agent, David Kuhn, long before he was my agent and as a friend, would say, “You have a book in you,” and that secretly prodded me on. I was writing in secret and letting the pages pile, and one day, about two years ago, I just gave him 50 pages, and he ran with it.

SG: You write extensively about your sister’s murder and the trial but yet maintain a sense of humor throughout. Was that something you set out to do, or is that your natural voice?

GD: I think it’s my natural voice. It’s something that everyone in my family, both sides of my family, no matter what was going on, would find humor in some pretty unusual circumstances. When we were kids, our mother told us the rather devastating news that she had MS, and she was going to be in a wheelchair, and she would have a motorized chair put on the staircase. We had just heard this news, but we were also, “Oh boy, electric motorized chair.”

SG: There are so many connections that you make in hindsight in the book that are quite remarkable. Were you conscious of them while writing? Even being invited to Aspen Ideas by Tina Brown who was the one who discovered your father as a writer, it all seems to come full circle.

GD: I wasn’t conscious when I was writing it, but I was seeing connections all over the place. Things and people would revisit and be significant later. Like Harrison (Ford) the carpenter is now Harrison the actor. I think we all have these recurring connections if we are aware and conscious of it. I would notice it happening to my father with such regularity, that it almost seemed like some sort of spell was cast. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

SG: Your relationship with your father and all of the secrets he kept from you is a big part of the narrative in the book, yet you’re so gracious, kind, and forgiving. How did your relationship with him affect how you approached fatherhood?

GD: By the time I was a father, my dad had been through hell and back and had survived and come out stronger. In the early ’90s when my daughter was born, he was a famous crime reporter and deserved it all.

And this very odd thing happened where I was incredibly proud of him and impressed by his achievements, but at first, I was irrationally angry with him and a little at my mother. … I felt so present as a young father in my father’s life and my daughter’s life that it somehow highlighted the absences of my parents. So I thought, “I’m going to be a different father.”

SG: You come from a family of literary-heavy hitters, not just your dad but your uncle John Dunne and, of course, your aunt Joan Didion. Did having that legacy give you any fear or anxiety about writing?

GD: I didn’t feel daunted. When John and Joan and my father were alive, they’d seen writing of mine. They’d seen early first cuts of movies I was directing or acted in or first drafts of screenplays. I was used to their blunt assessment, and I valued them. So I didn’t have intimidating ghosts hovering over, but I did feel their presence when writing, and I took inspiration from them about how honest they were about themselves in their personal essays.

SG: What did you learn about yourself during this process that surprised you?

GD: I’m 69, but I’m one of those people who doesn’t believe that for a minute. I’ve always been very spry on my feet, a vigorous tennis player, and I feel very youthful. When I finished the book, I was quite surprised by how much I had experienced and been through, and it kind of aged me. I started thinking, “Oh yeah, I’m 69 — that’s 30 years away from 100.” It never became more apparent than when I read my audiobook. My whole life told in four days; it’s an overwhelming feeling and quite emotional.

Sarah Girgis is the Arts and Entertainment Editor for The Aspen Times. She can be reached at 970-429-9151 or sgirgis@aspentimes.com.