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‘Garden State’ at 20: Zach Braff, Natalie Portman and More on the Wallpaper Shirt, Taking Jean Smart to “Bong School” and Giving The Shins a “Boost”

In an oral history, the filmmaker, Portman, Jim Parsons, Jean Smart, James Mercer, Pam Abdy, Gary Gilbert and others look back at the making of the 2004 critically acclaimed indie, which went from struggling to be financed to being part of an unusual deal at Sundance.

To commemorate Garden State ‘s 20th anniversary, The Hollywood Reporter revisited the making of the film via a series of interviews with its cast and crew — including stars Braff, Portman, Jim Parsons and Jean Smart as well as The Shins frontman James Mercer and producers Pam Abdy and Gary Gilbert. In a scene that was used for one of the film’s posters, Mark (Sarsgaard) takes Sam (Portman) and Large (Braff) on a quest to track down a going-away present, stopping by a houseboat atop a quarry, located next to an abandoned crane. Its cast also continued to have successful careers, with Jim Parsons becoming a TV star as Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory, while Armando Riesco played Agent Hendricks in the National Treasure franchise.

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