‘Half Nelson’ at 20: How a $700,000 Indie Addiction Drama Earned Ryan Gosling His First Oscar Nod

“He said it felt like we were the kind of people who talked about the script like we were plotting to build a bomb,” laughed Ryan Fleck, remembering how he and his longtime filmmaker partner, Anna Boden, convinced Ryan Gosling to star in their feature debut, “Half Nelson.” “It was probably a little bit true though,” adds Boden. “We hadn’t done much except try to make this movie for a long time, and maybe that came off the page. Maybe he was like, ‘Let’s just throw them a bone!’”

It was the right choice. “Half Nelson” arrived in 2006, an era when introspective indies still had time to flourish theatrically and find their crowd — and that’s exactly what happened. Filmed for just $700,000, Fleck and Boden’s first film turned a limited theatrical run into a $4.9 million global box office haul, while earning their leading man his first Best Actor Oscar nod. Looking back, it’s undoubtedly a success story — but far from a predictable one.

“The thing about not yet being a professional filmmaker is you’ve got time until someone greenlights your movie, so there was lots of time,” said Fleck, recalling the movie’s long road to production. The pair met on a summer filmmaking course at NYU in the early aughts and quickly realized they wanted to work together. “We were always big movie fans, and the ones that moved me the most were films like ‘Midnight Cowboy’ and ‘Harold and Maude.’ They all had flawed people at their core. We started there and began digging into things we knew a little about.”

Together, they spliced their own flawed character with themes of isolation and addiction, and before long they had someone they felt they could form a feature around. Their idea centered on Dan Dunne (Gosling), a twenty-something middle-school teacher and struggling creative balancing full-time work with a freebasing addiction, and Drey (Shareeka Epps), the young student who stumbles on his secret. That was their starting point, but over time, it evolved.

“When we first started writing in 2002 or 2003, it felt like a lot of young people had all this energy but didn’t know how to affect change in the world around them,” said Boden, explaining how external conflicts like America’s involvement with the Afghanistan war impacted the story they wanted to tell. “We were finding this character that was going through that too, in his own way.”

Fleck unpacked this disconnect further: “[Dan] understands how history, politics and change work outside of himself but he can’t quite get it under control within himself.”

‘Half Nelson’©Think Film/Courtesy Everett Collection

Despite having a finished screenplay, securing a green light proved elusive. However, instead of feeling dejected, the pair got to work. “We had this script but literally didn’t have anybody to give it to, so we made a short because that was something we did know how to do. We focused on the young student character, changing her from male to female and casting somebody from a local middle school,” said Boden, of Epps’ entry into the project. In fact, all the actors in their short “Gowanus, Brooklyn” were nonprofessionals. “It was a great way of working through the ideas, emotions and feelings we were trying to get across. Going back to the script after that deepened it a lot.”

Being proactive paid off. After a successful Sundance screening, “Gowanus, Brooklyn” bagged 2004’s Grand Jury Prize, paving the way for the feature they’d initially dreamed of — or so they thought. “I remember coming off stage and whispering to Anna, ‘I think this means we’re going to get to make our feature,’” said Fleck, laughing at his naivety. “It didn’t make it easy, but it certainly made it a more clear path.”

The win secured the duo an agent and key industry connections, through which their feature script reached their would-be leading man. Looking back, it’s easy to see someone as multi-faceted as Gosling deliver on the many faces this role required. Dan’s someone who’s simultaneously dejected, drug-addled and lost — but also inspirational, trusted and boasting a strong moral compass. Easy for someone with Gosling’s skillset, right? Fleck and Boden weren’t convinced right away.

“It had been written for someone a little bit older than him,” revealed Boden, describing the struggle of seeing the world-weary Dan in 24-year-old Gosling. “I remember when he met us, he’d grown his chin hairs out and looked a little older.” Fleck has similar memories: “It wasn’t immediate. We thought of somebody who had more life experience. He didn’t have the body of work he has now, but he just had this old-soul quality to him. He didn’t seem 24.”

Gosling threw himself into the role. “We introduced him to a public school teacher who was about his age so he could shadow him,” explained Boden. “Ryan picked up all these subtle little things from him, like wearing rubber bands around his wrists. The guy ended up looking so much like him that we cast him as Dan’s brother.” His ability to keep things loose lent itself to the pair’s fly-on-the-wall style, too. “Some of those classroom scenes have a very spontaneous feel,” she added, confirming that the students often didn’t know what Gosling was going to ask. “Some of their lines were scripted, some weren’t. They were reacting in real-time.”

Then there was the heavy stuff, like Drey unceremoniously discovering Dan’s freebasing habit in the school bathroom. As an inner-city teen, she’s caught in her own internal battle between a life of honest education and the quick wins of neighborhood crime, tempted by toxic family friend Frank (Anthony Mackie). It’s a challenging role for any actor, let alone someone making their feature debut.

“The other big thing [Ryan] brought was stripping away the dialogue. The scene where Drey is taking care of him after his overdose felt so much more visceral without any lines. You could hear a pin drop,” said Boden.

‘Half Nelson’©Think Film/Courtesy Everett Collection

“I think Shareeka was genuinely frightened,” recalled Fleck. “There’s such an intensity… I think she was genuinely concerned for him — and I was concerned for her watching it. I was just blown away, like ‘Wow. These people are really good.’”

Meanwhile, low-level dealer Frank offers Drey his own guidance in a morally blurry role that’s part friend, part corruptor. “[Anthony] immediately got what we were going for,” said Boden. “Frank isn’t a cartel guy or a big kingpin. He’s your working-class drug dealer making just enough to live on. It’s something that should feel relatable, even though he’s doing something illegal. Anthony and Shareeka immediately clicked. You can feel it on screen.”

To score their first film, the duo drew inspiration from one of their favorites, Hal Ashby’s “Harold and Maude,” a film that dedicates its entire soundtrack to one artist: Cat Stevens. For “Half Nelson,” Fleck and Boden chose Canadian indie-rock collective Broken Social Scene, blending their stark imagery with a dreamy sound that delivered a deftly emotional punch.

“A friend of Anna’s introduced us to their music, and we became obsessed,” said Fleck, explaining the choice. “When you put their music against some of the images we were playing with, it gave us goosebumps.”

There was just one issue: They needed the band’s permission. Luckily, they had a connection to Broken Social Scene lead singer Kevin Drew — but the Canadian musician was a bit suspicious. “He made us watch the film with him in his living room,” laughed Fleck. “Thankfully, he really liked it and said, ‘OK, you can have all of our music.’”

Turns out, it was kismet. “When we played the song ‘Lover’s Spit’ for Ryan, he was like, ‘Oh my God, who’s this band?’” said Boden. “He’d been listening to a burned Broken Social Scene CD in his car for the past two months and didn’t know what it was because it wasn’t labeled. It was meant to be!”

Twenty years on, “Half Nelson” feels like a product of a bygone time, one that benefitted from having the space it needed to find its audience. As the movie prepares for a 2027 dual disc re-release and a return to theatres, its remarkable journey hasn’t gone unappreciated by its creators.

“It wasn’t a huge blockbuster. It played really well in independent cinemas and the people who wanted to see it saw it. I’m not sure it works like that anymore,” said Boden. “So I’m really grateful for the experience we had with ‘Half Nelson.’”

Fleck echoed the sentiment: “It was our first and the one that allowed us to continue doing this. I love everything about the process of making that movie and think back on everything really fondly.”