Nick: The first year [of shooting], we’ll stay at the resort.

Did you have any time to rehearse before the shoot?

Robert: You don’t have time because of budget restrictions. We just had to get out there and do it. We had to rely on the fact that we’d probably be in sync, which we were.

Nick: The film relies on nature. If we get out there enough, the trees will say it. The sun will say it. [Nature] will make its presence known. It makes it easy for Bob and me to act.

Robert: There’s a wonderful moment in the film that illustrates what we’re talking about where you see the transformation in Nick’s character. There’s a transitional moment where Bryson keeps talking about the value of this and the value of that. They’re hiking and they come up to a tree and I tell him about the history of the chestnut. I leave and he stays, looking at the tree. You know right then and there that something’s happening.

What else would you like to do in your career?

Robert: I directed for a while and I missed acting because that’s how I started. I missed just being an actor [on set]. And there are two ways to produce [a movie]. You can either sponsor something and make something happen or you can handle all the day-to-day [producer duties]. That’s not me. Just putting something out there and getting something made is the kind of producer I would be. That’s how it was with [A Walk in the Woods]. [My producing responsibility] was getting it out there and getting it made. Then I just wanted to be in it as an actor.

Do you want to act more now then?

Robert: I enjoy it. I wouldn’t want to totally give up directing because you control the story. A lot of the stories I would like to do, I would have to direct in order for them to be made. I would say a mixture of both.

Is our culture is ageist?

Nick: I think it’s fear. We want to turn away from getting older because we don’t know how to die.

Robert: I think he’s hitting a point about fear. You should be grateful that you can still walk and move. As long as you can, do it. Don’t sit down. As far as you know, this is the only life you’ve got so you’ve got to make the most of it.

A Walk in the Woods in now showing in select theaters and is available on Video on Demand.