Wish I Was Here is the new film from Zach Braff, star of the beloved television show Scrubs and director of the seminal independent film Garden State.

Braff continues to wear three hats in this new venture (writer, director, actor) and the result is a spiritual sequel that shows maturity and growth in his filmmaking touch.

Braff recently traveled to San Francisco to promote Wish I Was Here and to also host one of many Kickstarter Q&A screenings. Since the film was fully funded on the popular crowd funding website, Braff has been taking the movie to the millions of fans who made the project possible in the first place. In the following interview, we discuss the film’s Kickstarter controversy and how despite everything he is still grateful to his legion of fans. The following is a transcription of that conversation.

Q: Kickstarter has obviously been a huge part of this project from its inception. What lessons did you learn after going through that tumultuous experience?

Zach Braff: The good news is I learned to never give up on something and to not listen to naysayers because everyone told me it wouldn’t work. But when it got funded in 48 hours and the internet went crazy for it or against it, it was really exciting because a lot of the things that I’ve accomplished in my life that I’m most proud of were preceded by people saying they will never work. Everyone passed on Garden State, everyone passed on this. I started auditioning when I was thirteen years old and I didn’t get my first meaningful part until I was 26 with Scrubs. Of course I didn’t anticipate that there’d be so much vitriol from so many people on the internet because I naively didn’t understand the intricacies of film financing. John Q. Movielover is shocked that I can’t get a film financed because I’ve had successes so I had to go on a political campaign of sorts and correct talking points. The idea that I was harming Kickstarter was heartbreaking because I love Kickstarter.

Q: The film has a lot of big names and cameos. How important was it for you to cast friends and people you’ve worked with before?

Braff: It’s very important. We made this movie in 26 days, I only had Mandy Patinkin for four. You have to move fast so I can’t roll the dice on someone who’s not going to deliver. So all of these people who I know are going to come in and crush, obviously. Shooting in LA helped because going back to Kickstarter, without crowd funding we wouldn’t have been able to shoot there because there’s no tax incentive. Staying in LA, I can have my friends come in for a scene and deliver.

Q: You obviously wrote this with your brother Adam. Were there other ideas you were kicking around prior to this one or was this the main film you wanted to get made?

Braff: We tried a few things, we sold a big kids movie to Fox. We pitched it as if Terry Gilliam directed The Goonies. I still want to get it made but Fox owns it and they’re sitting on it.

Q: Did you read any of the early Sundance reviews for the film?

Braff: I saw some of them, yes. I didn’t dive too deep into all the bloggers because I know how some of them feel about me and I didn’t think they’d give the movie a fair shake. I read the big trades, Hollywood Reporter and Variety. I guess I’m polarizing because the Hollywood Reporter gave me maybe the nicest review I’ve ever gotten and Variety may have been the meanest review I’ve ever gotten.

Q: How much pressure if any did you feel to create a soundtrack that was as impactful as the Garden State soundtrack?

Braff: Tons. But in ten years iTunes has happened and no one buys albums anymore. Record stores are gone and so much has changed. It’s hard to try and compete with something from a different era. So we tried to have it be unique this time by having original stuff. Coldplay, Bon Iver and The Shins all wrote a song and we tried to create original content.

Q: What do you miss most about working on Scrubs?

Braff: Laughing my ass off. The hours were crazy and they owned the hell out of you. You couldn’t really travel or go anywhere, they got mad at me if I rode a motorcycle. But what I miss the most was going to work with your best friends and trying to crack each other up.

Q: If you couldn’t have played the main character of Aidan in this movie, as the film’s director who would you have cast instead?

Braff: Joaquin Phoenix because he’s pretty amazing.

Q: Kate Hudson is pretty magical in this film. What’s your opinion of how the media has treated her in the last few years as a fading celebrity?

Braff: That’s bullshit. You don’t have zero fans and be on the cover of a magazine every two weeks. People love her and when I saw Almost Famous I was like, holy shit! Obviously she does a lot of those romantic comedies because she’s beautiful and funny and that’s what it takes to be the star of those movies. Those women are rare but in this movie I wanted to find the Almost Famous Kate Hudson and we got it. She showed up and nailed it. I’ll tell you a secret, that scene with Mandy Patinkin toward the end of the movie, which is a lot of people’s favorite scene in the movie, it was mostly made up of a single take.

Q: You’ve obviously going from city to city answering a lot of questions. Is there one question you wish would go away?

Braff: No, I’ve been talking to a lot of smart people. But I used to get all the time, “so you worked on ‘Scrubs’ for nine years. Did you learn anything about being a real doctor?” And I would think, really? That’s the question you want to ask? That one has slowly gone away. (laughs)

Wish I Was Here is now playing in limited release.