The New York Film Critics Series recently featured Rob
Reiner's latest
comedy "The Story of Us" (AVAILABLE ON VHS & DVD 2/15) in which Bruce Willis
and Michelle Pfieffer play a married couple who go through hard times in
fifteen years of marriage. The following is a very special visit with the
film's producer Frank Capra III (Bowfinger, Ghosts of Mississippi), and
Frank Capra's grandson. For credits and more info: Click Here
TA: My God. I
didn’t do it, it was Colonel Mustard in the…I want to thank this woman here for
giving me Kleenex. I am (phaclemped) after that movie don’t you know that we will be
seeing that scene with Michelle Pfeiffer you know, in all the Oscar contender things,
they’re going to show that clip, we have Frank Capra the III. Is he here now?
I am
sorry I think it’s the crying in the lights. The Executive Producer and Assistant
Director and grandson of that other Frank. Come on down, otherwise we’ll have to be
evaluate your walk here. Hi Frank, very good, a little tearful yes heading on my 13th
anniversary with two kids, gee I have nothing to identify it with. Welcome, welcome
wonderful movie.
FC: Thank you.
TA: Really a great great movie.
FC: Well I have to ask did everyone enjoy it,
absolutely? Great, great.
TA: I have a question then women’s movie or did
men like it in the audience?
FC:
All right let’s see the hands, how many men, how many women?
TA:
Good men, good men, so tell me you did a lot of movies with Rob Reiner when did you start
the collaboration what was the first movie you did together?
FC:
The first picture that I did…
TA:
Now you have to fold these things I learned
FC:
With Rob was A Few Good Men which, a very fine
picture which started our relationship about seven years ago.
TA:
And since then you’ve done a number of movies where you are either Assistant Director
or Producer, Executive Producer with Rob.
FC:
Correct.
TA:
And what movies were those?
FC:
Rob and I have done five, this would be my fifth picture with Rob, I did A Few Good Men with him, a picture called North, a picture called The American President, which is a very good
picture, The Ghost of Mississippi and The Story of Us.
TA:
And when did you come in on The Story of Us?
FC:
I came on The Story of Us about almost a year
ago he had started preproduction creatively, writing the script, the story came about four
years ago for Rob of idea from him and Alan Szwybell about four, four and half years ago
they had this idea obviously Rob…
TA:
And what inspired it?
FC:
Rob and I had done a couple of pictures previous to the making of this, he had this idea
in the back of his head about four and half years ago and it basically inspired the way
Michelle and Bruce meet in the picture when you see their characters in the film is the
way Alan Szwybell met his wife who is his wife as of now still married, happily married
with kids and then they brought in Jesse Nelson, this story specifically we set out to do
a picture that everybody could relate to in life in relationship to marriage and with Rob
and Alan they were pretty well set with the representation of the man’s side of the
story but they needed the lady’s side of the story so Jesse Nelson came on board and
creatively started the three of them, they began writing the picture about fifteen months
ago and we went into principal photography at the end of 1998.
TA:
Now just watching it seemed like Bruce Willis is really going through it what was his
fate, I heard stories he was going through his divorce with Demi on the set, yes, no, was
this after?
FC:
Well, I have never heard this actually of them getting divorced to this day so the media
is always prevalent to telling stories but we try to tell our stories on the screen so the
audience can enjoy them but…
TA:
Well so how many people heard this (eight-foot?) out, yeah. And now you're going to tell
me that David E. Kelley wasn't rumored to be with Calista Flockhart, I think that one had
less credence it was rumored that there were shaky moments in that marriage but there's
certainly something that you see in Bruce Willis that you haven’t seen before.
FC:
Definitely that's true. I think Rob when he completed this picture, were all proud of the
picture and he's very proud that he had the opportunity to, he had worked a little bit
with Bruce with this picture called North, Bruce has this small role in it but this
picture Rob is really proud of for Bruce also it does give him the ability to play a role
all the way through a picture where to his left or to his right he's not following back on
major destruction or explosions and real dramatic action-adventure like it's a real story
about the humanistic you know feelings and adventures of the trials and tribulations of
life.
TA:
What I am curious about in this movie because it's so episodic and it moves back and forth
was it in the script or when you got into the editing room did you then shuffle it, to
what extent was it before?
FC:
This was a very tricky movie to make actually all of what you saw was in the script, Rob
is the one reason I like, so enjoy much collaborating with a director like Rob Reiner is
he goes into preparing and making films what I was strongly taught as the grandchild of
Frank Capra, one of the things my grandfather always told me was that never set out to
start a picture until the script is finished and Rob is a strong believer of that and two
weeks before all his principal photography, he does two weeks of rehearsals and the script
is finished so what you see on the screen was written before we started shooting the
picture.
TA:
And in the order it comes out.
FC:
And basically in the order, obviously when you make motion pictures, a lot of times you
have to shoot out of continuity due to actors availability or locations, but basically yes
everything you see on the picture is from the heart and soul of what Rob set out to put on
the screen.
TA:
I am also curious because the casting of the parents on both sides is so fabulous, I want
to see a movie just Jane Meadows and Tom Posten, how many people? And you know what,
that’s just really one scene and the way it is teased I thought there would be more
of that Bob and Caroline, Allison and Ted, Ben…
FC:
Well that scene was ironically the hardest scene in the picture to shoot and it took us
about three days to shoot so I think that after three days of all the six we said
that’s enough to be in this movie and any movie and by the end of those three days we
were all crazy, the rest of the 200 behind the cameras but it was a very fabulous scene.
TA:
And tells us you have been an assistant director a number of times in your career and you
have produced a number of times, have you ever directed yourself?
FC:
Have not directed myself all my backgrounds all been in production this has been my 40th
picture that I’ve been involved with. All behind the camera all production oriented
from a producing stand point
TA:
And what’s your next project?
FC:
Don’t know yet.
TA:
You don’t know yet.
FC:
Just finishing up this one.
TA:
Now you’re going to be, I heard you’re going to be with Gore tomorrow, is that
your next project?
FC:
There’s a little dinner, a little fundraiser we have obviously the Los Angeles
premiere of this picture and this opens up, fingers crossed obviously until very good
response to all the people across the country Friday, this Friday.
TA:
And how is it testing so far?
FC:
This should be the choice right here, my first choice, it has been testing very well, yep,
well received.
TA:
Do we have questions in the audience?
FC:
Yes sir. (Audience member asks a question) That Rob always from the beginning of having
this idea his mind was always set on Bruce and Michelle Pfeiffer to play both of these
roles he never questioned it, his first two choices and only choices.
TA:
And I am sure he has told you why.
FC:
Just got instinct Bruce is the guy for this I know he is capable and want to give him the
opportunity to play this type of role and sure enough obviously once you see for yourself
in the picture, Bruce is a very talented actor and Michelle I have done two pictures with.
TA:
You did Deep End of the Ocean.
FC:
Yeah, I executive produced Deep End of The Ocean
and Michelle Pfeiffer is in my opinion right along with Bruce as both of our most talented
actors right now.
TA:
Do we have any other questions? One over here.
Audience
Member: I loved the movie and I thought Eric Clapton’s music was perfect.
TA:
The music is very good.
AM:
How does that work, does he get a rough-cut or does he get a script first, how does that
work?
FC:
Ironically this is something that when we set out to do the picture we didn’t have in
mind how to approach Eric Clapton before shooting this picture we know we would have to
put an arrangement of songs together that represented the different generations that you
saw in the picture and there was a theme that Rob kinda knew that he wanted but actually
until we really finished the picture and Rob ended coming out of the editing room with a
picture and not only a very fast talented director but a very fast talented editor in
cutting this picture in about five days to seven days he came out knowing that the ideal
scenario would be some type of theme instead of putting in songs that we all would meaning
the audience associate with say from the sixties to the seventies to the eighties,
nineties representing their stages in the part of the picture as you see their history
transcend in front of you and to go to someone like Eric Clapton obviously, who was the
ideal choice that music that he did write for the picture came out fabulously. Rob could
and myself couldn’t be any happier
TA:
There’s a question right here.
AM:
I have always wondered that when the directors in the movies do you direct him or I always
wondered how that worked?
FC:
Rob doesn’t need that much directing but yeah basically he’s grown up in
television obviously he has had a talented knack for being in front of the camera. But
once the camera goes on he’s good he does confide back in me how the framing was, how
the taping was and how the other actors relation to the framing and in the scene and
whether or not there was any over lapping of dialogue. So yes I do have to give so
guidance but basically not from an acting stand point and as we all know we have seen Rob
and still do today on television quite often in all of his All In The Family shows.
AM:
There were phrases in this movie that particularly in the argument scene that were taken
directly out of my own marriage I didn’t think that everyone had these types of
phrases like designated driver sort of a thing.
TA:
Is that your husband?
AM:
Yes I…
TA:
And you agree to this.
AM:
I was wondering I know you said that the script was finished before you began filming it,
I was wondering how close to script the scenes were in other words did it have any
improvisation or freedom to change this around the main characters, the actors?
FC:
You know Rob is very good about that is why when he rehearses with his actors previous to
shooting little quirks and little nicks and knacks of dialogue will come out and get
transcend down on the page which then get used on the screen but in regards to that all
those things really came out of the collaboration of Rob, Alan Szwybell and Jesse Nelson
and that was really the goal which was to look for all those little things that everyone
could relate to that has been in a relationship or a marriage or this time or longer or
shorter.
TA:
Now I’ve talked to Rob Reiner about it and he’s so very eloquent talking about
this movie and what’s amazing about him is that he’s almost funnier then the
movie he’s so bright and he’s so funnier and he’s so passionate that he
carries you along that we just talked about this to see the designated driver scene and
you know you just insightful into about how marriages are with everyone juggling.
He’s very shrewd and very wise but still very funny.
FC:
Very funny, the washer fluid thing was there from the beginning because he knew
that’s one of the man’s faults it’s little thing like that…
TA:
And the fact that woman get crazy about it why should inspire such rage, air in the tire,
and what I think is also interesting is that we watch it as an audience together. Rob
knows that he is heading towards that one Michelle Pfeiffer monologue at the end he knows
that everything is pitched that when you reach that moment you’re really there and I
figured watching it that I’d know watching it that I assume that they would stay
together you would know that it would be obvious yet when they are in that range rover or
whatever that big green car is, Explorer, I drive an ’86 Chevy it was my
father-in-laws’, the big paper, but there’s really a moment where I went I
really think that they’re not going to stay together and because he creates that
emotional motion that one point where you go “it’s going to do it”, that
really sets it up for her brilliant speech at the end.
FC:
Oh, absolutely, that the whole thing basically you could see in the picture was
telling two stories which made it really difficult in that the editing room you had to be
careful and specific because you are telling two stories, two different arches, one is in
a positive way from the very beginning of the relationship arching up right to left and
the other one is in the present arching right to left downward when you tell two crossing
stories it did make it difficult that's where all the creativity that Rob, you know had
from the performances given in the pictures went into the editing room and he knew right
away that is the real building block is for rebound speech at the end to let Bruce know
obviously know where she has always been coming from her heart and soul.
TA:
Another one of the good performances is the Rita Wilson performance, people always say,
people in Hollywood always say it's not that she's you know, Mrs. Tom Hanks it's that he's
Mr. Rita Wilson. And you can see this, watching this strength in her. Now there was
another question right there.
AM:
Hi yes, ever since that classic scene in When Harry
Met Sally, and he, Mr. Reiner cast the mother you have to wonder if there was any
family member that was mysteriously cast in this film.
FC:
Well, the only family member that was mysteriously cast in was actually the writer, Jesse
Nelson was the realtor in the apartment and Alan Szwybell played the camp counselor right
at the end of the shot where after Bruce has his kinda of over the top greeting to his son
where he takes it a little too far from missing him so much just as they leave frame Alan
Szwybell crosses over and says "good morning" to two of the camp kids.
TA:
More questions?
AM: Yes,
what is the story with the…
TA:
We're going to go up here.
AM
Oh, ok…ok take this one then you can come back.
TA:
Two for the road similarities?
FC:
Um, yeah it paralleled there a little bit…I felt that it did.
AM:
Oh, what was the story with Paul Reiser, he didn't get any credits I was sort of surprised
to see him…oh no where was he?
TA:
I know he's in the press notes.
AM:
No, he wasn't listed in the movie and he wasn't in the end
FC:
I would have to go back and look at the front credits…
AM:
I was kinda surprised
TA:
I was surprised because he has a pretty prominent place in the…
AM:
But I didn't see it on the end
TA:
But he's there
AM:
He was…ok.
FC:
And rightfully so Paul actually only work with us two days on the picture and it was very
hard to maintain the off-camera quietness because he was very hysterical.
TA:
Back there up in the right
AM:
Thank you, first congratulations on making a fine film and I am looking forward toward
your directorial debut like the family tradition is carried on I am sure it will be
beautifully done and I am sure you're looking for the right material right now, right?
FC:
Yes thank you.
AM:
Now my question, from what you said I am very interested in knowing the atmosphere of the
set was it a very serious set or was it light?
FC:
Um, it's another reason, I have a lot of specific reasons for guiding my own
career and working with the people I enjoy to work with and one of the main reasons
working with Rob is exactly that is very light, positive experience, every time Rob sets
out to do a picture I mean he also believes in the enjoyment of making the picture is part
of the whole experience and making movies is not easy. It's very, very tough, it's very
stressful you're under a lot of constraints…
TA:
A few egos involved.
FC:
A few egos involved. But with Rob he believes it’s the whole process and the
experience is a big part of it and its very good experience when you work on a Rob Reiner
picture.
TA:
Back in the middle.
AM:
To go back to the story for a moment because they presenting both sides of the story and
even though I expected to take a Michelle Phillips' side, I found her to be a pain in the
ass and I was much more sympathetic to Bruce Willis I found his to be much more compelling
in presentation now was that deliberate in the way it was planned or was it just come out
that way, until her very last scene that is?
FC:
Actually on the basis of Michelle Pfeiffer's character in the picture it was always
intended that way she was not easy she was very tough and he does kind of gravitate to
from an audience stand point you do gravitate to him being the sympathetic one in the
relationship I think not only do you feel sympathetic for him you do you feel kind of
sorry for him I mean this poor guy can't do anything right. She's very strong but on the
other hand is very weak in a couple places that are sort of hard to see and hard to find
obviously toward to end all of those weaknesses her real heart and soul come out in her
monologue. In her last speech in the picture.
TA:
But what I have to say since being a mom and I think that I'm not going to be alone here
that I found her very sympathetic. Should I give her you know a lot of, you know she's
carrying a lot and it takes as she says I could identify with which is what happened to
that woman in the funny hat, you know she's been beaten down because of all the
responsibilities that the mother has so that makes it a very modern situation in something
I don't see it clearly whose the good guy and whose the bad guy and you know. Her, I can
see both sides but it's so hard when you're in a relationship that's what this whole
movie's about looking at the other person through different eyes
FC:
Correct and I think if you recall back on the picture the two characters are mirrored
against each other so they're a little camouflaged and Rob always intend that so it's all
about peaks and valleys that's why again I mentioned we were telling two stories one from
the past towards the present and one from the present continuing the present which is the
downhill one.
TA:
Do we have any questions back there? Meryl, are there any questions up there? There's a
question, I'm sorry. Right here a question.
AM: Yeah,
relative to that Michelle Pfeiffer monologue climatic scene, can you tell us what you know
about the preparation or what went into the development of the acting in that fabulous
scene? Or privately were you not present when they rehearsed it?
FC:
Um, again Rob picks his scenes, he doesn't rehearse the whole entire script
before principal photography scenes here and there Michelle again I was fortunate to do
two pictures in a row with her both were dramatic pictures both had pretty heavy acting
load that she carried and represented in both pictures, Deep End of the Ocean and this
picture. I will have to say my hat's off to her, she is an actress who shows up every
vowel and consonant of those words is right there and every time, every take it's right on
the head of the nail, she hits it every time.
TA:
She gets better and better as an actress.
FC:
Absolutely.
TA:
Do we have time for one last question? Back there one question.
AM:
Yeah I was wonderin' if you could speak about your grandfather and story you could tells
us about him.
FC:
Well there's a lot of stories, I was fortunate obviously to grown up in a film
family under not being bias at all, greatest director of our time. Countlessly I have seen
his pictures over and over again specifically my favorite picture that he directed was the
picture called Lost Horizons with Ronald Coleman
because of the story telling of characters involved to me is still a beautiful piece of
storytelling, the searching of one man searching for something in himself and not finding
and not believing it and then going back to look for it but growing up under, I was very
close to my grandfather and I am sure a lot of you have seen a lot of his pictures and
adore them specifically It's A Wonderful Life
which is his, was his all time favorite film personally. The only comedic storywriting off
the top of my head and can tell you is regards to Lost Horizons that picture at the time
was Columbia's most expensive movie it was done in 1937 that picture today it would have
been to cost about 30 or 40 million dollars which is doesn't seem like a lot but back then
I think it was about 3 and half million dollars and went way over schedule went way over
budget but that was specifically because a lot of the sets, they need a set to find a
place before they fall into Shangri-La and when the airplane crashes there are all these
scenes where they need frost coming out of the actor's mouth so at first they thought, ok
we can reproduce this on the sound stage at the studios. So they built these elaborate
sets, the plane and the snow and then they realized, well how do we get the frost, the
mist coming out of their mouths that crashed in the Himalayas, so they went to the special
effects man and he built these little retainer cages for the actors and of course they
were going to fit in there mouths and he said, I got this great idea we'll put little
pieces of dry ice in there. Well of course my grandfather looked at the cast and said, we
need to fit all the actors for these and of course they all said, not me. So there was one
person who volunteered of course what my grandfather thought would happen was this dry ice
stuck to the top of the gentleman's mouth and a couple of this teeth fell out, so the idea
of reproducing frost back then in the special effects era they ended up shooting all of
that in downtown Los Angeles in what is the meat district which is all the meat market
down there in the freezers so they opened up all the freezers downtown in the warehouses
and foamed in the whole set then shot all of the plane crash sequence there but as far as
growing up under Frank Capra it's been a real privilege, a real honor myself and I try to
gear myself towards the types of scripts and projects that tell the stories of people and
really what people are about today, you know humanistic story-telling.
TA:
We didn't ask you, are you married?
FC:
Engaged.
TA:
Ah, congratulations
FC:
Thank you from a lovely lady named Sicily, amazing enough where my grandfather's
from Bisenpuno, Sicily. Thank you.