My Happy Days in Hollywood

by Garry Marshall

  We had to be sensitive to Julie, her voice and her legacy. People just look at her and hear the voice of Maria in The Sound of Music wafting into their ears. In order to please everyone and protect Julie’s voice, we had the song crafted to include many lines that were spoken to the music rather than sung. I wasn’t sure we could pull it off, but I knew it was worth a try. I wanted Julie to sing on-camera not only to make the movie better but for her own sake as well. I can only imagine what it was like for her to lose her singing voice, and I wanted somehow to be a part of giving it back.

  Julie’s singing took place during a slumber party scene featuring my granddaughters, Lily and Charlotte, as extras. The day we shot I sat behind the camera and couldn’t believe my good luck. Raven and Julie came out in silk pajama sets and prepared to sing “Your Crowning Glory,” written by Lorraine Feather and Larry Grossman.

  I had cleared the set, as a director might when shooting a nude scene. Only the essential crew and cast were present. The day Julie sang was a very emotional day. I looked over my shoulder and saw that members of my crew—tattooed teamsters who drove big-rig trucks for a living—had tears in their eyes. Even with all the cables, lights, and cameras, we knew we were capturing magic on film as we watched Dame Julie Andrews sing once more.

  For me it was like being twenty-one years old again, standing in the dark in my khaki army dress uniform, just smiling from ear to ear as Julie brought Eliza Doolittle to life. Watching her now I thought the same thing that I thought back in 1956: Her performance is so impressive, delightful, and rejuvenating. To see her act and sing reminds you that magic still happens. As a director you can’t hope for anything better than that.

  22. RAISING HELEN

  Directing Kate Hudson and the Next Generation

  RUNAWAY BRIDE did more for my career than I ever could have hoped for, and then The Princess Diaries knocked me over the top as a major league comedy director. Back-to-back hits meant that I could choose my next picture slowly and pace myself. I wanted to pace myself, like the Pro Football Hall of Fame player Jim Brown. I used to watch the way he would use all of his energy to run through another player with power and speed. Then, when he got up, he would move slowly, shuffling like an aging cat. He was conserving his energy so he would have it when he needed it the most. I wanted to direct movies and pace myself in the same way.

  Disney sent me a script called Raising Helen. I found it interesting, although a little predictable until they said something that turned my head around: Kate Hudson would star. That sealed the deal for me. The last time I had seen Kate she was nine years old, sitting on my lap on the set of Overboard while I was directing her mother, Goldie Hawn. I loved working with Goldie, and I was excited at the prospect of directing Kate, a slender blonde with tousled hair and a great giggle, who was one of Hollywood’s hot new actresses. My lucky number is 13, and Raising Helen would be the thirteenth movie I would direct.

  For the male lead, Disney wanted John Corbett, a big, calm West Virginian. I went to meet him in Hollywood at a bar he owned called, coincidentally, The Falcon, the same name of my theater in Burbank, which was named after the athletic group I played with while growing up in the Bronx. I thought it was a good omen that John and I both had Falcons in our lives. We sat and talked at his bar, and he mentioned his longtime girlfriend, Bo Derek, with whom he lived in Santa Barbara. I thought he was a stable, fun, and extremely easygoing guy who had good buzz from his great turns in Sex and the City and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I knew I had made a good casting choice when both of my daughters screamed with excitement when I told them John would be in my film. Big fans of Sex and the City, my daughters couldn’t wait to visit the set and meet him. I also liked the fact that he would play against his usual type. In Raising Helen I had him play Pastor Dan, a man of the cloth who also happened to be quite sexy.

  We started filming at the end of January and shot straight through until June, doing many locations in New York City. Raising Helen is the story of a young woman faced with raising her older sister’s children after her sister and brother-in-law die in a car accident. But it’s the kids who end up helping her become more mature. Key to the casting were the young people. I wanted them to look real, not too Hollywood-like. Luckily I found two of my kids in the same family. Spencer Breslin was a hot young actor who was coming out in a new version of The Cat and the Hat. He had a little sister named Abbie who had just been in the Mel Gibson movie Signs. From the moment I met both of them I knew they would be terrific. Just as important, I liked their mother, Kim, who traveled with the kids and managed their careers. It’s always helpful when kids have a strong support system.

  After I auditioned Spencer and Abbie, I called Kim and offered them the parts. Initially she said, “No, they are tired. I’m tired. We’re not going to do any more movies for a while.” But I talked to her some more and said, “Look, wouldn’t it be nice for you to drive both the kids to the same location every morning? Think how pleasant it will be for them and for you if you all work on the same movie together.” She finally agreed with my logic, and I signed both Breslin kids to play Kate’s niece and nephew in the movie.

  I also needed to cast the oldest child—a sixteen-year-old girl. I found Hayden Panettiere, who later became a star of the television series Heroes. When I cast her Hayden was only thirteen, but she delivered an audition that seemed to demonstrate more experience than was on her résumé. After you’ve directed many movies in a row, discovering a great new actress can invigorate you. I knew Hayden was going to become a star. However, the script described the character as a sixteen-year-old. I decided that if the wardrobe department dressed her in more sophisticated clothing, she could act older.

  Sometimes casting is all about people’s schedules and smaller parts. This is one of the reasons I lucked out and got one of my favorite actresses, Helen Mirren, to play Kate’s boss. Helen would win an Academy Award a couple of years later for her work in The Queen. I had never worked with her before Raising Helen, but I knew her for years socially as the wife of my friend and colleague, director Taylor Hackford. My son, Scott, is also one of Taylor’s son’s best friends. Helen is a petite, down-to-earth lady who can create the illusion of a tall actress with the demeanor of royalty. Normally Helen wouldn’t take on a small supporting part like this, but sometimes even a big actress likes to relax and play a small comedy part. Kate worked at a fashion magazine and Helen played her boss, a character not unlike Anna Wintour, the infamous editor of Vogue magazine.

  My style of directing often involves giving actors things to hold in their hands or do with their bodies—as I had done when I gave Kurt Russell walnuts in Overboard. I decided to put a treadmill in Helen’s office so she could look at files and have meetings with her staff while walking on her treadmill, still wearing a fancy designer suit. It was a difficult scene to shoot, but visually it was funny and Helen, as always, did a superb job. People are always surprised to hear that Helen is quite short. When acting she can appear to be almost six feet, but in reality she’s petite. To play Kate’s other sisters I cast Joan Cusack and Felicity Huffman, both incredible and versatile actresses. Joan had worked with me on Runaway Bride, and I asked her to do Raising Helen as a favor. I knew she could do comedy, but I needed her in this movie for heavily dramatic scenes.

  Kate is a California girl, so shooting in New York City was not her favorite thing to do, but we had a lot of fun. There is a certain energy that builds when you shoot in the city because people stop on the street and talk to you, and sometimes you run into people you know. One day we were filming in Tribeca and Robert De Niro walked up and said, “Hey, Garry! Thanks for shooting in my neighborhood!” Robert had originally been pegged to star in Penny’s movie Big but ended up working with her in Awakenings instead. Another time a kid threw his résumé out the window from the fifth floor just to get my attention. I was so impressed with his ingenuity and assertiveness that I hired him to do two lines in a scene we shot in Central Park. Later I ask
ed him, “Why didn’t you just come and hand me your résumé?” He said he was too shy to meet me and thought throwing the résumé out the window was a better way to get my attention. In the end, I think he was right.

  When we went back to film in Los Angeles, Kate was more comfortable and Goldie even came to visit the set. Mother and daughter took a picture together, and it was such a treat to see Kate introducing Goldie to the other members of our cast and crew. Like Goldie, Kate is smart and funny without being at all whiny or diva-like. Goldie doesn’t like it when people swear. So on Overboard we had a Goldie Box on the set, and whenever someone cursed they had to put a dollar in the box. Kate isn’t that keen on swearing either. So on Raising Helen we decided to introduce a similar box. Instead of calling it a Kate Box, though, we called it a Goldie Box as a tribute to Kate’s mom. When the Goldie Box got too full, we used the money to buy pizza for the cast and crew.

  I like to find out as much as I can about the actors I direct because it helps me connect with them. I found out that John Corbett was from West Virginia, and that his dad had been a rancher. I knew his father didn’t know much about Hollywood, so I sat down and wrote him a letter, not a text. I am a big fan of writing and receiving nice letters. In my home I have files of nice letters people have sent me over the years. I’ve learned that one of the ways you reach out to stars is to be nice to their parents, especially if they are far removed from Hollywood and don’t know what’s going on day to day with their adult children. These days I’m usually the same age as or older than my actor’s parents, so it’s a good connection to make. I told John’s dad what an excellent job his son was doing in my movie. It was a way to reach out to John and show how much I appreciated his work.

  Many stars don’t like the paparazzi that swirl around movie sets, but Kate loves them. She was nice to them and looked forward to seeing them each day when she arrived. Kate has spent her whole life watching her mom and partner, Kurt Russell, walk down the red carpet, and now it is her turn and she enjoys it. She likes being famous. She never yells at the press but rather waves hello and courts their lenses. While we were shooting Raising Helen, Kate was married to The Black Crowes front man Chris Robinson. He visited the set a lot. One week Kate got sick and I noticed that she appeared to be gaining a little weight. I remember thinking that if she was sick she should be losing weight and not gaining weight. What I didn’t know at the time was that she was pregnant with her son Ryder. It was so early in the pregnancy that very few people knew about it.

  The three kids on the set were great to work with. Smart-as-a-whip six-year-old Abbie knew everyone’s lines. And if Abbie ever forgot a line, her brother, Spencer, would jump in to protect her. He liked to play football with my son, Scott, while Abbie took little catnaps in her trailer. Kate was great with the children, and I thought some of the best scenes were between Kate and Hayden, who had to tackle the role of a difficult teenager. Abbie went on to get an Oscar nomination for Little Miss Sunshine, and I tapped her again to be in New Year’s Eve.

  The funny thing about directing kids is that although they are professional most of the time, sometimes they start behaving like real kids. Hayden had a few days acting like a difficult teenager when the cameras were not rolling. She would be late to the set, or we couldn’t find her between scenes, or she got distracted by boys. One day I had to sit down with her and talk about her behavior. “You have been given a gift and you are a very good actress,” I said. “I would hate for you not to have a career because you are rebelling just to rebel.” I think I got through to her, because for the rest of the movie she was on target, even during a difficult scene in which she had to kiss a twenty-six-year-old. She was only thirteen years old at the time.

  There are some scenes that you think about in your mind but never have the right movie to put them in. I have always wanted to do a big scene with a Zamboni machine, which cleans ice-skating rinks. I was able to do that in Raising Helen with Kate and John, and it made me happy. It also made me happy to once again find a good spot to put my lucky charm, Hector Elizondo. Kate’s character loses her job at the fashion magazine and then gets a lower-paying job selling cars. Hector plays her boss at the car dealership, and their relationship on-screen is very reminiscent of Hector and Julia in Pretty Woman. Again Hector stepped up to the plate, making another actress shine and making me very happy.

  But allergies never make me happy. I have suffered from them for my entire life. On Raising Helen I had a particularly bad nose, so I started using a lot of Flonase nasal spray.

  One day I was using it and one of the producers noticed. “I was in Cuba once and Castro leaned over to me and said one word: Flonase,” said the producer.

  That is where I learned that Fidel Castro and I both have bad noses and a love of Flonase. On nearly every movie I make I get a severe cold and have to carry a box of Kleenex as well as my shooting script under my arm.

  Another thing I struggled with on this movie was my hip, which was starting to fail after years of playing sports. I knew that I would need a hip replacement, but in the meantime I learned to use a cane. One day we were shooting a very emotional scene, and in the middle of our take an ambulance drove by with its siren blaring. The scene was ruined. I was so frustrated that I threw my cane into the air and it hit one of the teamsters who was standing near me. The cane startled him but didn’t hurt him. The next day all the teamsters came to work wearing helmets to make fun of me. It just went to show that on-set pranks were things I not only gave but also received.

  I wanted Raising Helen to be a salute to single mothers everywhere. Raising kids is hard. Raising kids on your own is even more difficult. We made a movie that entertained people and spread that message, but unfortunately it didn’t find its primary audience until it was released on DVD, a year later. Maybe most of the single mothers of the world are too busy to go out to the movies so they wait for the DVD to come out. I have always been very supportive of my movies when they come out on DVD. I believe it’s part of the whole package: You do publicity when the movie comes out in the theaters, and then you make the time to do more publicity when the DVD is released. Some directors don’t see the point of this extra work. But I put in the hours to add new material in order to make the DVDs more interesting. We now do Blu-Ray.

  Raising Helen was a sweet romantic comedy that allowed me to work with a great cast. It was never going to be the kind of picture that made big money or took home prizes, but it would turn out to make people smile, and I like making audiences smile. At the same time I was continuing to build my reputation as a “woman’s director,” and that made sense since I was never any good at making movies with explosions and guns. What I like best is making movies that parents and children can go to together. When the script for The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement came across my desk, I was eager to do it but still paused. I had never done sequels or movies with Roman numerals in their titles. However, there is an exception to every rule. Who would turn down the chance to direct Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway in a second movie? Certainly not me. That’s why I did it.

  23. GEORGIA RULE

  Jane Rules and Lindsay Misbehaves

  IN MARCH 2004, I had finished directing both Raising Helen and Princess Diaries 2, and after that I didn’t direct another movie for two years. It was harder to find financing for movies, and I was getting older. I had my hip replaced, and in a rare move for a medical doctor, mine told me the truth: He said I would be back pitching softball twelve weeks after my surgery, and he was absolutely correct. My wife, the nurse, did a stellar job at helping me recover. I was getting more involved in my Falcon Theatre, too. I liked the pace of play rehearsals and going to the theater to greet audience members as they arrived. I liked saying, “Hi, I’m Garry. Welcome to the Falcon.” I thought about movies, but the scripts coming across my desk weren’t that intriguing. I had directed fourteen pictures already, so I wasn’t running just to direct another one. I didn’t want to do a science fiction movie. I
didn’t want to do a horror movie. I liked romantic comedies, and Hollywood wasn’t rushing to green-light another small romantic comedy. So I was content to play softball and oversee my theater, while still open to reading new movie scripts.

  I had read a script years before by Mark Andrus called Georgia Rule. Mark went on to write As Good as It Gets and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. I remember when I first read the script for Georgia Rule thinking that it struck a nice balance between the heavy subject of possible incest and some strong comedy moments. I also liked that it was a multigenerational film that followed the stories of a mother, daughter, and granddaughter. Flash forward years later and I heard through the grapevine that Lindsay Lohan wanted to star in Georgia Rule. I called Mark and talked to him about the script and the possible casting of Lindsay. I found out that this movie was being financed by an independent film production company called Morgan Creek. One man, James Robinson, was in charge of Morgan Creek.

  At this point, because I had not directed a movie in two years, part of me wondered if I would ever do so again. I went to talk to James, and after meeting with him, I was sold. The idea of dealing with one man instead of a team of studio executives appealed to me. I also liked the script, and I liked Lindsay as an actress. In the beginning James and I talked about shooting the movie in Idaho, but we found it was cheaper to use a green-screen backdrop of Idaho and shoot everything in Los Angles. If you are from Idaho, you can probably tell where we shot, but most people couldn’t tell the difference. I liked the idea of working near my home, too, so I ended up making a deal to direct the film and accepted about one third less than my usual salary. There was also another incentive to go ahead with the movie, and her name was Jane Fonda.

  I had met Jane before. In a way our friendship was similar to my relationship with Candice Bergen. We knew each other, and talked politely when our paths crossed, but we had never worked together. There are many actresses I know like this. Whenever I see them at a party we say to each other, “When can we work together?” My relationship with Sally Field was like that until we finally worked together on the television series Brothers & Sisters. I had met Jane at political events with her then husband, Tom Hayden, and we’d talked about doing a movie together. There was a script we used to pitch around called Mrs. California. It took place in the 1940s and was about a beauty contest in which each housewife had to cook a meal, iron a shirt, and pack a suitcase for her husband’s business trip. Jane and I never got the funding to make that movie. So Georgia Rule seemed like something that had been well worth the wait.