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Walking Manhattan with the filmmakers of ‘Growing Up and Other Lies’

In the new film “Growing Up and Other Lies,” four friends — played by Adam Brody, Josh Lawson, Danny Jacobs and Wyatt Cenac — walk Manhattan from top to bottom on the day before of them is planning to ditch New York City and move home to Ohio.

amNewYork got the lowdown on some favorite parts from the long walk with Jacobs and Darren Grodsky who co-wrote and co-directed the film, which opens Friday:

1)Darren Grodsky: “The very first time we started this walk, we started on the Broadway Bridge, the literal northern tip of Manhattan. We definitely knew we wanted to shoot on the Broadway Bridge and one of the issues that came up in production was that Inwood was deemed a hot zone right before we were set to shoot. That means that no productions are allowed to actually shoot in that neighborhood. … It turned out we were still able to film at the Broadway Bridge because we shot on the Bronx side of it.”

2)DG: “I’m a lover of New York, and I spent a lot of time in New York, I’ve been to many museums in New York. Until then, I had never even heard of the Cloisters. Seeing that museum, the medieval vibe of the grounds themselves ? it felt so not New York, yet here it is in Manhattan. It’s beautiful.”3)Danny Jacobs: “The next thing for us is St. John’s Cathedral. When you walk through Manhattan, part of it is the juxtaposition. … You walk into this space that takes all the noise out. ? It was always a real astounding, awe inspiring moment.”4)DJ: “The next area I really fell in love with was the very northern section of Central Park … the North Woods area, around 110th and 105. Primarily because it’s bramble covered. It feels like the kind of park that would be in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.'”5)DG: “This is a weird thing to say, but I love that I don’t understand the layout of the West Village.”

DJ: “I’ve spent tons and tons of time in the West Village, and I think there is a part of me that willfully does not ever want to understand how the West Village works because there’s a magic to getting lost in it.”6)DJ: “The first time we did the walk something happened that we just could not put into the movie because it was just too unbelievable. … We had gotten down to Battery Park and there was a wedding, and literally as approached the end of the southern tip of the island, as a part of the wedding, they had fireworks. So we sort of finished our walk with this fireworks celebration ? it’s too ridiculous to put this in.”