Caffeinated Clint
Helmer of the new pic, “The Holiday”
Nancy Meyers is fast developing a reputation as the go-to woman for Christmas rom-coms. After “What Women Want” and “Something’s Gotta Give”, the filmmaker returns with “The Holiday”.
First of all, this film is simply perfect; it is perfect in its simplicity.
NM: Simple is hard. Simplicity is the hardest thing to achieve in anything. In clothing design, art, or films. The simple solution is the hard one to get to sometimes, and you’re very relieved when you get there.
I’ve heard that the idea of this romantic comedy started a few years ago when you were planning a vacation. Was it from your experiences on the internet?
NM: Part of the idea came from the fact that I was online and I wanted to rent a house in Italy or France. I was looking on various websites for vacation homes. There are beautiful websites that show fabulous houses available in places like Tuscany and Provence. I was typing in all sorts of things, and getting really excited, finding all these beautiful houses,
and as I was typing in all this information there appeared a question: “Where is your house?” I felt that was strange, and then I realized I was on a home exchange website where you have to switch your house to get one of these houses. Have you heard of this?
I had never heard of it. So, I started investigating. It just sounded interesting, I didn’t come up with the movie based on this experience, but I was working on a movie and I wondered about how I could bring it all together and it got connected. It was purely accidental. However, I have had the experience of living in another’s house. For example, when I’m shooting a movie out of the area, I usually stay in a house rather than a hotel, so I’ve lived in someone else’s house, I know what that’s like, but I’ve never given mine to be lived in by others.
If you could swap your house, with whom would you swap with?
NM: I would like to swap houses with a friend who lives in Long Island. He has a house in the Hamptons. It’s the absolute perfect house. I think I would like to live in that house, but I don’t know if he would want my house! [Laughs.] I also wouldn’t mind swapping homes with somebody with a great apartment in Paris.
How did you choose your main cast?
NM: Cameron is the typical “California girl.” She’s beautiful, she’s from California, and to me, just represents that environment. Naturally, Kate is the perfect “English girl.” I actually didn’t think that I could get either of them for the movie at first, because each is in only half the film. They both star in their own movies, but in this case, each role is half the story. As it turned out, they both seemed to love not having the pressure of being in every scene.
What about the men?
NM: Jude is the perfect age and he’s never done a movie like this. I always like it when people haven’t done the exact kind of part that they are chosen for, because they each step out a little bit. Jack had a different role. Kate also stepped up in her role. Cameron had a more mature role than she has played before. I think everyone in this movie plays a different type of role that they’ve never played before.
NM: Eli especially was fantastic! He turned 90 during the filming of this movie.
The scene in the auditorium was wonderful and I saw the audience in the movie theatre sobbing. The role of Eli Wallach was very important. As he compares the old and the new, is there criticism about the ‘new’ Hollywood?
NM: Eli as Arthur reminisces about how things used to be in the movie business, and it really was the way he describes. He criticizes how studios are now owned by conglomerates. He says that now box office scores are reported on television like baseball statistics. It didn’t used to be that way. It didn’t used to be all about how it does on the first day. What makes a movie great is not about how it does in one day.
An important part, in all your projects, is the music. How was it in creating the score?
NM: Hans Zimmer wrote the score and I think he’s brilliant. He did the score for Something’s Gotta Give, so it’s my second time working with him. He really works very hard at understanding me. When I go to his studio, he sits at his piano and says, “Talk to me about the scene.” He’s an actor. He wants direction. Looking at him, there’s a big screen in front of the piano. As I explain each scene, I tell him what the character is feeling and where she will be looking, and why. For example, when I showed him the beginning of the movie where Kate looked away from Rufus, I explained, “See that look, that’s because she loves him so much she can’t look at him.” He responds and understands. I think that’s why he’s such a good film composer, because he’s a filmmaker.
Do you also play music on the set?
NM: Yes, I make CDs and play music all the time. You’ll have to ask the actors if they like it. I sort of force it on them.
Tell me about the garden scene, it was like a sixties style montage.
NM: We shot the scene at a beautiful house out in the country. I am a big fan of certain styles of filmmaking in the sixties. I wanted to do a sixties style montage: having fun, playing around, falling in love and it was fun to do.
How do you build a character through costuming?
We discuss it. Cameron has great clothes in the movie. She’s 5’11”, and very slim, so everything you put on her, you want to find a place for her to wear it in the movie. It’s lots of fun, but it’s about character. We do talk about what the character actually would wear. I knew I wanted her in white pajamas at the beginning of the movie. I just wanted her running around in the white pajamas she wears with the sleeves rolled up. That, to me, is one of her most important costumes.
And Kate’s clothes are very “English.” We worked very hard to make the girls not dress alike. We didn’t want everyone looking like all the clothes were from L.A. Even though there’s a very homogenous thing in the world with fashion right now. You can go to practically every city in the world and there’s a Gap. Everybody’s got Prada. But it was important to separate the way they looked.
Are you an impulsive person? Would you jump on a plane as these girls did?
NM: I’m not impulsive, but I have the ability to be spontaneous. I’m very thoughtful about my decisions. I can fantasize about taking off to another country, but I wouldn’t do it. I don’t think I could see a house on the internet, pack my bags, and just go. I can relate to the fact that if I did go, after getting there and not liking it after a few hours, I could pack my bags and go back. I could imagine that part being more like something I would do.
Should love make us cry or laugh? Do you find humor in the drama of love?
NM: The way Kate talks about love and how it happens, and how it messes things up, how she ponders love in the beginning of the movie is really me talking. It’s just fascinating to me about how people couple; what they choose, what they avoid, and their fears. I observe a lot through myself, my reactions, and through people around me. I don’t know if I’ll be making any more movies about love. I feel as if I’ve written a lot about it. And it’s not just writing about love, but making films about it, and editing it, and so I feel a bit empty at this time, like I’ve said so much about the subject. Unless I start to feel something different.
Since this movie is about Christmas, where will you spend the Holiday?
NM: I will be going to Mexico with my family. I’ve been working very hard, so I need a break. Normally, I am at home where Christmas can be a lot of hard work for me. This year I’ll be on vacation.
THE HOLIDAY commences on Boxing Day across Australia
