Tony Hale Says He's 'Trying Not to Live in the What If' After Dropping Off His Daughter at College (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Tony Hale on Jan. 15, 2024.Photo:Jerod Harris/Getty

Jerod Harris/Getty

Tony Hale’s latest movie examines life as a father, and it’s making its world premiere just weeks after dropped off his real-life daughter at college.While speaking with PEOPLE on Monday, Aug. 26, about his new movieSketchahead of the 2024Toronto International Film Festival, Hale, 53, tells PEOPLE that he “just dropped off” his daughter Loy Ann, 18, at college for the first time when asked how he relates his own experiences as a parent towards playing one on screen.“So I’m in that kind of vulnerable space,” he admits. “But it’s all about — you just want to protect them all the time. You know?“Sketchstars Hale as a grieving father named Taylor who is thrown into supernatural chaos when his young children, grieving the recent death of their mother, accidentally find a magical pond that brings a series of his daughter’s grief-fueled drawings to life as a variety of dangerous monsters. The movie sees Hale’s character initially doubt his children when they try to explain what’s happening, only to realize he was wrong when their school bus does not return home one day.“I mean, my daughter’s 18 years old and, you know, you’re constantly trying not to live in the ‘what if?’ " Hale says. “You’re constantly trying to stay present and love them and not create narratives and scenarios that, you know, are crazy that could happen to them.“Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.Loy Ann and Tony Hale in 2022.Courtesy of Tony Hale"And so when it’s evident that something [happened] and you go to the school bus and they’re not there and something is happening, it’s just panic, you know? And so it’s almost like living out what is every parent’s fear.““I mean, good lord, I’ve lived in so many narratives in my head as a parent that have never happened, but man, it feels like they’re happening or that it could happen,” he adds.Hale shares daughter Loy Ann with his wife Martel Thompson, whom he has been married to since 2003. While discussing his favorite moments in the new movie, theEmmy-winningactor again related his own experience with fatherhood to a key point in the film in which his character apologizes for his mistakes to his children.Bianca Belle and Tony Hale in Sketch (2024).Morgan Stacey"I think me as a parent, those times when I say to my daughter, ‘I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have said that, that was a mistake,’ " he says. “The power and the acknowledgment of a parent’s mistake is really, really beautiful, I think.“Sketchmakes its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 7.

Tony Hale’s latest movie examines life as a father, and it’s making its world premiere just weeks after dropped off his real-life daughter at college.

While speaking with PEOPLE on Monday, Aug. 26, about his new movieSketchahead of the 2024Toronto International Film Festival, Hale, 53, tells PEOPLE that he “just dropped off” his daughter Loy Ann, 18, at college for the first time when asked how he relates his own experiences as a parent towards playing one on screen.

“So I’m in that kind of vulnerable space,” he admits. “But it’s all about — you just want to protect them all the time. You know?”

Sketchstars Hale as a grieving father named Taylor who is thrown into supernatural chaos when his young children, grieving the recent death of their mother, accidentally find a magical pond that brings a series of his daughter’s grief-fueled drawings to life as a variety of dangerous monsters. The movie sees Hale’s character initially doubt his children when they try to explain what’s happening, only to realize he was wrong when their school bus does not return home one day.

“I mean, my daughter’s 18 years old and, you know, you’re constantly trying not to live in the ‘what if?’ " Hale says. “You’re constantly trying to stay present and love them and not create narratives and scenarios that, you know, are crazy that could happen to them.”

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Loy Ann and Tony Hale in 2022.Courtesy of Tony Hale

Courtesy of Tony Hale

“And so when it’s evident that something [happened] and you go to the school bus and they’re not there and something is happening, it’s just panic, you know? And so it’s almost like living out what is every parent’s fear.”

“I mean, good lord, I’ve lived in so many narratives in my head as a parent that have never happened, but man, it feels like they’re happening or that it could happen,” he adds.

Hale shares daughter Loy Ann with his wife Martel Thompson, whom he has been married to since 2003. While discussing his favorite moments in the new movie, theEmmy-winningactor again related his own experience with fatherhood to a key point in the film in which his character apologizes for his mistakes to his children.

Bianca Belle and Tony Hale in Sketch (2024).Morgan Stacey

Morgan Stacey

“I think me as a parent, those times when I say to my daughter, ‘I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have said that, that was a mistake,’ " he says. “The power and the acknowledgment of a parent’s mistake is really, really beautiful, I think.”

Sketchmakes its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 7.

source: people.com