Estevez understood the concern--"My body of work doesn't really lend itself to serious dramatic stuff," he says--but he didn't understand why every studio he took the project to passed. When Disney asked him to make D3: The Mighty Ducks last year, Estevez agreed to do it for free--in return for Disney's putting $3 million into The War at Home. "With Wisdom, I was arrogant--nobody could really tell me anything," he says. "I just showed up." For The War at Home, Estevez invested in an acting coach and prayed every day on the set, "Just let me come out of this alive."
He had plenty of familial support: His two children (with ex-girlfriend model Carey Salley), Taylor, 12, and Paloma, 10, were often on the set, as was his mother, Janet Sheen. (Estevez chose not to change his last name when his father adopted the more Anglo-sounding Sheen more than 30 years ago.) If the thought of directing one's father seems like a Freudian nightmare, Estevez says he wouldn't have made the film without Sheen. "For the last 20 years, I've felt that while his work is still good, the projects haven't been," Estevez says of his father's post-Apocalypse Now days. "I really wanted to show the world, I wanted to remind everyone what an incredible talent he is." Estevez also wanted to rediscover his own talent. "This is a chance to redeem myself," he says firmly, "for myself."
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