He plays Dr John Dorian in Scrubs on Channel 4. Now Zach Braff makes his feature writing and directing debut with Garden State, the off-kilter tale of the reluctant New Jersey homecoming of struggling actor Andrew 'Large' Largeman, his slow reconciliation with his widower father (Ian Holm) and the romance with habitual liar Sam (Natalie Portman).

Charles Hutchinson enters his wonderfully weird garden.

How autobiographical is Garden State?

"The movie was based on a lot of anecdotes from when I was growing up in New Jersey. Things that happened to me, things that I read about in the paper, things that happened to friends of mine. I sort of wove them all together. I say that about 75 per cent of the movie is true, it just didn't necessarily happen to me. I would write down anecdotes and scenarios on scraps of paper, and when I went to film school I ended up with this box of notes and it was from those stories that I started weaving together what would eventually become the movie."

Were you once as screwed up as the character you play, Andrew Largeman?

"I would say the character of 'Large' is really where I was at when I was 26. I was living in Los Angeles, waiting tables - the movie's conversation in the Vietnamese restaurant is word for word the exchange I had with a group of people one time. I really experienced this lost, lonesome feeling in my 20s. I've started to think that your teen years are your body's puberty and your 20s are your mind's puberty. But no-one really ever tells you that."

How did you settle on British actor Ian Holm for the role of your domineering screen father?

"I've always been such an incredible fan of his. I'd obviously seen so many of the films he's done but The Sweet Hereafter a couple of years ago was one in particular that moved me a great deal. So we offered him the part. I was on the set of Scrubs, and we were in the middle of a scene and my phone rang and he said 'Zach, it's Ian Holm'. I went 'oh my God', and he said 'no, Ian Holm'. That's when he said he wanted to play Gideon. He was incredibly gracious. For a man of that stature to take direction from me, this kid, I thought was incredibly generous of him. I hope he'll be in every movie I make."

How close is his character to your own father?

"He's not my father. I joke that my father would hug the postman. But I think what does hold true to my relationship with my father is this time in your 20s when you're trying to figure out what your relationship is going to be with your parents. You're no longer a kid, you're starting your own life, so what is your relationship going to be? Are you going to be friends, are you going to confide in them, are you going to tell them everything? I remember that first time in my teens when I realised that my parents weren't perfect, that they were flawed and sometimes made stupid choices. So for me it was always a question of trying to figure out what your relationship with them was going to be."

Is it a straightforward affair, directing yourself?

"The hardest thing for any director is conveying exactly what's in his head to his lead actor. But that was taken out of the mix here because all of that was taking place in my head. I didn't have the time to sit and debate it, and rationalise each individual choice. We shot the whole movie in 25 days, so a lot of those debates and conversations happened in my hotel room. That actually saved a lot of time and was helpful in a lot of ways."

That was a short shoot; how did you feel by the end of it?

"I felt amazing. People always ask me if it held up to what I imagined it would be, but if I'm totally honest it's even better. I put together my dream team in terms of actors and crew, I just didn't imagine that it would come out as well as it did. I knew Natalie Portman would be good, but I didn't think she'd be that good."

Garden State (15) opens at City Screen, York, Friday, December 10.

Updated: 09:52 Friday, December 10, 2004