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Venice
Magazine Transcript. Bonnie
Hunt Bonnie
Hunt is Where the Heart is.
Photography: Dennis Mukai Hair/Makeup: Karen Scales One of the most
remarkable things about this industry is that even though there
are numerous one-trick ponies and baffling successes, sometimes
the cream really does rise to the top. For every celebrity horror
story that makes the tabloids, there are probably an equal number
of stories about courage, kindness, and perseverance that one rarely
hears about. But anybody who’s ever had the opportunity to
Meet Bonnie Hunt - much less the gift of working with her - can
truly say that the lady possesses a quality that’s not oft-mentioned
in this modern age: class.
Bonnie Hunt: I like anything Billy Wilder did - The Apartment is one of my all time favourites. But I also like romance in general, like Alfred Hichcock’s Notorious or A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - movies that were heartwarming, romantic, and made you cry as hard as you laughed. Philadelphia Story is one of my favourites. When you decided to direct, was it inevitable that it would be a romantic comedy? Don and I didn’t think of any genre, we just wrote a story. It was the same thing when it came to the roles. We wrote the characters, we didn’t write them for the actors. But, you know what? The greatest joy has been coming full circle with the story - writing it, casting it, directing it, and then seeing an audience have such a great time with the movie. How did you find your writing partner Don Lake? At Second City, and I fell in love with him. He’s one of those great combo platters of talent and kindness, and you know how rare that is. I just needed to be with safe people in order to do my best work, and he was one of them, so I feel really lucky to have him. He also appears in the movie as the hair transplant guy. How was it decided you would direct Return to Me? I had wanted to direct. I had executive produced for television and when I sold my first TV show, I didn’t think they’d ever listen to me so I wrote twenty-two episodes before I sold it. I thought it was the only way they’d believe I could actually do it. Because television was so politically exhausting for me, I thought I’d try another area to write in. After I finished Jerry Maguire, I was going to take a year off and write screenplays. I sent my tapes of the TV shows to the different studios. Every once in a while I run into somebody that gets me, but if I don’t, I just keep looking for somebody who does. MGM got me and I was offered three directing jobs the first week I went out on the directing circuit. But I said "I want to do my own movies." And MGM said, "We have a concept here about a transplant, but we don’t know what to do with it. What would you do with it?" So Don and I pitched our idea. Michael Nathanson, and the new guys there too, like Chris McGurk, were all really supportive. Now they have this movie that’s one of the highest scoring in MGM’s history and they’re really happy they believed in me. Of course, now it has to make money. It’s very modern, but it’s also a throwback to those days, one of those great films by the people you said you admired like Preston Sturges. When it’s a fairy tale setting like this, you wanna’ keep the characters as real as possible. If you look at those old movies, like Preston Sturges’, they’d have a doorman who had two lines, but had a three dimensional character. That was really important. It’s also a movie you can take kids to. I really want young girls to see this movie. It’s a nice way for them to see the way a nice relationship can start. There’s a sports term about having a ‘deep bench,’ that means you have a lot of talent to play with. I don’t need to tell you how great David Duchovny and Minnie Driver are, but all the supporting performances were equally priceless. How did you get Carroll O’ Connor? It’s Carroll
O’ Connor’s first movie in twenty-five years. I called
his agent, who said. "He doesn’t do ‘em." I
said, "Could you get a letter to him for me?" He said
sure. So Carroll called me to thank me for the letter, and I asked,
"Would you be interested?" He said, "No honey, I
don’t think so. I think it’s nice that you are writing,
it’s nice for women to do something." He, Robert Loggia, Eddie Jones, and William Brodner made such a great combination. The beauty of making a movie is the teamwork. It’s so moving to see all these strangers come together with one common goal. Those guys were so much fun. We’d be shooting till two or three in the morning and they’d go, "You want another take, Bonnie? C’mon kid, let’s do it again." They had so much respect for me and so much class. They never asked me about the size of their trailers, and their negotiating skills were hysterical. I sent the script out and Robert Loggia’s wife calls me. "Hi Bonnie, it’s Audrey Loggia. Bob’s out on the golf course. He read the script last night; I read it this morning. I loved it, he’s doing it, just let us know when he needs to be in Chicago." I hung up the phone and thought, only with that generation. Jim Belushi was also terrific. Jim brought everything to life. That scene in the kitchen when he takes his shirt off, he added the belly roll and that just killed me. Did you Meet David Alan Grier working on Jumanji? I love David, to me, he’s the funniest person I’ve ever met in this business, hand’s down. I don’t know who I can compare him with. He makes me laugh all the way deep into me soul. The chemistry you created in this movie is amazing. We made it a comfort zone. I’m an actress, and I can’t do my best work when people make me so nervous. How did you create the "comfort zone" with these actors? I guess through respect for their unique approach because every actor is different. I didn’t want anybody to feel uncomfortable, so I said, "Okay, tell me how you want to approach this," and we’d work it out together. One of the older guys had trouble hearing, and he didn’t want to say it. So I told him, "When so and so moves this, so your lines." He asked, "Why?" And I said, "I just need a cue for the camera guy because we’re all going to pull in a little bit." And his confidence was back, and he just knew he didn’t have to worry that he didn’t hear. Nobody said anything. Those moments mean more to me than the whole movie - making actors feel they can do their best work. The chemistry of the characters was on the page too, they were written with such love. Minnie also said that you looked out for her. What did she mean by that? I thought, "What would be my dream director?" They’d make sure my acting was very real and that I looked good (laughs. So, I’d say, "Lift your blouse or stand up, or maybe change that outfit now," even if we had to wait. Because in the end when she saw the movie, I wanted her to feel so good about the fact that she did it, because I’m a person and a director, and all these people said yes to me. That’s pretty nice. Why do you think they did that? David Allen Grier and David Duchovny are my friends so they said, yes. But they really did love their roles. I think this movie is going to kick David Duchovny into a completely different strata. I think so too. How did you find Joey Gian, who sings in your movie? I listened to
about 30 tapes of singers and I really didn’t know him. I heard
this voice and wondered, "Wow, who is this guy?" We had
wanted to use Tony Bennett, but he was like seventy-five grand a
day. I needed somebody who could really sing, because it was going
to be the title song for the movie. So I called my Mom, and told
her about this guy. And then I got his resume, and I saw he had
acting experience, and bonus, he’s really cute! Not only that, bet there’s also this youth obsession. I was so happy to see faces over 40 in your movie. You should have seen my crew - all white hair. My editor, Garth Craven, white hair, done a million movies, three page resume. My producer, Doc Erickson, did all of Hitchcock’s movies - seventy-five years old. I love that man so much. Doc’s one of those guys who no longer shows shock when he hears something, it’s just amusing, because he’s been through it all. "Whatever you need, Bonnie," he’d say to me. He could have done everything with his eyes closed if he wanted to. What do you think makes a great director? Respect for the storytelling, respect for the actors, respect for the writers - just respect. Speaking of storytelling, you recently worked with a great storyteller, Frank Darabont, on The Green Mile. He has such great respect for storytelling, and there’s so much joy in it. He’s thrilled to be doing it for a living. But Frank has a completely different style than I do. It’s a whole different discipline working with him. When Frank was walking towards me, I always thought he had already edited the scend in his head. He knew exactly what he wanted and you had to work within that, so for me, it was this nice discipline. But I guess I’m more like my mother. She had sever children and she’d say, "This is what I want you to do, so I hope you’ll do it. But , I understand you have your own little personality…" And that kept us in line in church. Are you going to direct again? We sold two movies to MGM at the same time and they want me to direct the other one as well so we’ll probably do that in the next year, but first I’m going to try to act in something. What was the most difficult part of directing this movie? Probably, getting up early in the morning (laughs). But I loved it and I had the stamina because I believed in the story and was so grateful to have the opportunity. There were some days that were long and tough, but not compared to working in the cancer ward and having some family find out their loved one is really sick. I’m reminded of my perspective often because I’m still in touch with all of those people. I still do fundraising for the doctors I worked with. So when I was feeling exhausted, I’d either think of that or of my mother with seven kids under the age of ten and think, "Oh, this is nothing compared to that." You grew up in Chicago? Yes, right in the city with my six brothers and sisters. All my brothers and sisters are in the movie, and my Mom, and my 13 nieces and nephews. My brother said to me after seeing the movie, "Isn’t it great that MGM let you make a 25 million dollar home movie?" One night my Mom was on the set and it was like two in the morning and I went "Dammit!" She hit me on the back of the head and said, "Don’t use that kind of language!" One of the grips told me later he’s been doing movies for 25 years and had never seen a director scolded by her mother. But to her, I’m still who I was in the sixth grade. She’s the original director. At the screening at Chicago, my Mom was telling me, "Get a picture of Molly and Kate with cousin Rita." So I’m just about to take the picture and she goes, "Are you aiming it right? Have you got them all in the frame?" I went, "Mom, I just directed a 25 million dollar movie!" My brothers were almost falling out of their seats laughing so hard. She’s my mother, she tells me how it’s done. What does your family think of all this? There can be no bigger thrill than being in Chicago and the marquee at McClure Court Theatre downtown says "MGM and Bonnie Hunt present Return to Me," and having my six brothers and sisters there with my Mom and all my aunts and uncles in their eighties. We sent limos for all of them. We also had all of the nurses I used to work with at the hospital and the doctors I used to work for, and some of the patients. Everybody from the old neighbourhood, because they’re all represented in the movie. For me to see my Mom seeing the movie was incredible. My Dad died really young leaving her with seven kids, but she did all right, she really did. I just love her so much. She always said she gave birth to her audience. Did she encourage your foray into the arts? Well, we always had a great love and respect for storytelling, everyone in our family, whether it was at the corner coffee shop or the dinner table or whatever. When I was working as a nurse I got hired by Second City, so I worked both jobs at the same time, for a long time - eight shows a week. My patients got so involved with my carer, they would cut out my reviews and put them next to their beds. The whole cast would come over and we would do the show at the hospital. Both worlds kind of brought out the best in one another, in everybody. When I got my first part in a movie, which was Rain Man, I ran all the way back to the hospital at lunch, because I went on my lunch hour for the callback. And when I got the job, I ran from room to room, and all the patients were so thrilled. Then one day, a patient told me to go to L.A. and fail, because he said that one of the biggest regrets in his life had been he feared failure. He only had a few months to live. I thought, "How can you argue with that? I’ll go over there, I’ll fair and I’ll come back." And the rest is history (laughs). That’s a pretty valuable thing for somebody to teach you when you’re twenty years old. I think about those people all the time. I feel like maybe they’ve given me all of my luck. When you were a little girl, what did you dream of becoming? For the first twenty years of my life I dreamed of having my own room because I have my three other sisters with me. But all my brothers and sisters were really funny and entertaining and I was a professional audience from the time I was born. I kind of stole pieces from all their personalities and made up one for myself. But my Mom loved movies. She would circle them in t he TV Guide and if they were on at midnight, she’d wake us up at 11:30 and make Chef Boyardee pizza and we would get up and watch a movie. It’s a great fond memory. My brother Pat always joked that everytime another kid was born, the pizza got thinner. She would push on that dough to make it stretch. By the time I was born you could see through it. She was amazing. From that beginning, after all you’ve accomplished, you you’ve feel like you’ve made it yet? I guess I felt I made it when I graduated nursing school and the rest is bonus. And when people hear the name Bonnie Hunt, what would you like them to think? That there will be sincerity of character…But I think most people think, "Is she related to Helen Hunt?" (laughs) |
Venice:
When you were growing up, what was your favourite romantic comedy?