Nancy Meyers combined both those interests and, in addition, decided to explore the younger-man-older-woman relationship.” Dealing with love between men and women beyond middle age wasn’t a concern,” Meyers states. “There’s a universality to what happens between Harry and Erica. Love is love, and it doesn’t matter at what age it happens, except maybe it hurts more, the older you get.”
As Meyers conceived her story – even before the actual writing process – she decided upon the actors deemed perfect to essay the roles of Harry Sanborn and Erica Barry, respectively the uncommitted playboy and successful, divorced playwright, both of whom embark on an emotional adventure unlike any they imagined. The two actors she envisioned were Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton.
Meyers had not yet worked with Nicholson, a genuine motion picture icon whose career seems to be going even stronger now than when he first became a star more than 30 years ago. But she already had a long history with Keaton, who had starred in several films Meyers co-wrote, including Baby Boom, Father of the Bride and Father of the Bride II.
Keaton recalls the first time she read Meyers’ work, the script for Baby Boom. “I loved it. I mean, what’s not to love?” she says. “There was some fantastic writing in it. Her writing was always like ‘coming home’ in a way for me”
“Nancy fought to cast me in Baby Boom,” Keaton continues, ” and this aspect of her personality is something amazing. It’s like a dog with a bone, babe. If she wants to make it happen, it happens. And that’s the way it is. Nancy is not only a great writer, she’s a ‘balls to the floor’ producer. I’m not kidding. You don’t come any stronger. She knows what she wants.”
After Meyers had worked out the first act, “I pitched it to Jack even though I only had a general view of what would happen next,” she recalls. “I went up to his house in L.A., and he seemed very interested. Jack liked the subject matter, and he was encouraging, so I went on writing in hopes that he would like the final result. Diane also expressed interest in reading the script when it was completed. It took me about 10 months to write it, and about four or five months into the process I called Jack and Diane and said, ‘It’ll take about another five months, but I think we may have something here.’”
Keaton has her own humorous memories of the process. “Nancy called me up about two-and-a-half years ago and says, ‘Okay, let’s have lunch.’ So we have lunch, and she tells me that she’s going to write this movie about a middle-aged romance, and she wants me to star with Jack Nicholson. And I’m saying ‘Yeah, right, Nancy.’ Then the next step is … Nancy saying, ‘Well, now I’m gonna start writing it.’
Uh-huh, OK, Nancy, great. That’s wonderful. ‘Okay, now I wrote it.’ Great, Nancy, that’s wonderful. ‘Okay, now I gave it to the studio and they want to do it.’ Every step of the way, Nancy is like the little train that could. She’s unbelievable like that. I’ve never met a woman like her. And she wrote a great script.”
Keaton admired the story’s universality, and the fact that it transcends age and generations. “It’s the battle of the sexes, which is always the same, in a certain sense. Of course, it gets more pronounced as you get older. I mean, why would a guy who dates a lot of young women, and is so happy with his life, fall in love with an older, demanding woman who’s every bit his equal?”
When Nicholson read the script, he agreed with Keaton’s assessment. And when the script began to fan out to Hollywood, a phalanx of actors were more than willing to follow Nicholson and Keaton into the embrace of the filmmaker’s warm, wonderful, funny and touching screenplay. “It seemed to be a very personal work to Nancy,” notes Keanu Reeves, who sought the role of Julian Mercer, Harry’s Hamptons doctor and Erica’s ardent pursuer. “It’s a beautiful story, beautiful script, absolutely lovely. I thought it was clever, enjoyable and something that doesn’t come around that often.”
“There was also a freshness to it,” Reeves continues. “A wonderful aspect of the script is the development of these characters who are so alive, searching to know themselves and each other. It’s refreshing, and something you don’t often see in Hollywood films. It’s a shame that in American cinema, knowledge and life experience aren’t really respected. Older people are either curmudgeons, or overly wise, or dying. It’s nice to see the vitality, the love, the search and the union that can still occur. And with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton in those roles, it’s funny, sexy and fun.”
For Meyers, Reeves was a dead-on choice to portray the young physician. “What’s unexpected is not that Keanu is playing a doctor,” she notes. “What’s unexpected is that he’s the other man.”
Frances McDormand – whom Meyers deems “the best possible person” for the role of Zoe, Erica’s feminist studies college professor sister was drawn in by a remarkable speech written by Meyers for the character which lays down – as pithily and pungently as possible – what most women over 40 must truly think about older men forever seeking younger women. “It was that dinner table speech that did it for me,” admits the Oscar-winning actress. “And also, I would get to hang out with Diane Keaton, who I adore. She’s entered our iconic consciousness as a film actor. I think people really feel like they know her, but what they really know is her comedic genius.”
McDormand also appreciated the fact that, in the movie, “There’s a certain nod to writers like Preston Sturges and the romantic comedies of the 30s and 40s where everyone is a little wittier than the rest of us and have a little more time to say what they mean.”
Amanda Peet, who portrays Marin, Erica’s daughter, who is searching for love in all the wrong places, says she was terrified when she first read opposite Nicholson. “I mean, I was shaking like a leaf,” she confesses. “But the thing about Jack is that he’s so playful, alert and responsive.”
What made Peet so determined to win the role was her admiration for the screenplay. “It’s very truthful about being single and a bit older, and there aren’t a lot of movies out there that address that in a really complex way. Nancy’s writing is very funny, and comedy is hard. I also just thought that this script was just incredibly romantic.”
The actress also identified strongly with the role of Marin because of the script’s tender but candid depiction of the ups and downs of a mother-daughter relationship. “When I first met Nancy, I told her how much the script meant to me in terms of my relationship with my mom. I related to how close Erica and Marin were.”
“I met with an enormous number of beautiful young Hollywood women for this part,” recalls Meyers, “but when I met Amanda, I knew that she not only had the right pedigree for the kind of girl Harry Sanborn dates, but was also the right kind of person to play Erica’s daughter. There were plenty of candidates who looked like they could date Harry, but I didn’t believe they were anybody’s daughter. There’s a lot of resonance to this story for Amanda’s personal life, and that really attracted me to her for the part.”
In supporting roles, Meyers cast such fine actors as Jon Favreau as Harry’s loyal aide-de-camp Leo and, in a rare acting appearance, Starsky and Hutch star-turned-director Paul Michael Glaser as Erica’s ex-husband Dave. “The only thing that gets movies made,” notes Glaser, “contrary to what the bean counters, attorneys, agents and businessmen think, is passion. Nancy has passion, and is an extraordinarily talented and insightful writer.”
Meyers also assembled a first-rate behind-the-scenes team, including producer Bruce A. Block, a longtime creative collaborator, Oscar-winning director of photography Michael Ballhaus and production designer Jon Hutman (who had previously performed the task on What Women Want). “There’s nobody I know better equipped than Nancy to bring a literate script to life in a truly cinematic way,” observes Block. “What’s on the page goes onto the screen in a smooth, confident road.”
Filming began, and would continue for an uninterrupted first eight weeks, in what would become a home away from home for Nancy Meyers and the entire Something’s Gotta Give company … a tastefully magnificent Hamptons beach house, built in toto on Stage 26 at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. This is Erica Barry’s stylish Hamptons getaway, in which much of the film’s action takes place, and presented the actors with an environment in which to activate their characters that felt absolutely real.
Meyers’ films are visually lustrous both in their cinematography and design, and she called upon Michael Ballhaus who had previously brought New York to life on screen in films as diverse as GoodFellas, The Age of Innocence, Gangs of New York, Working Girl and Quiz Show.
“The look of the movie is important to me in terms of design,” says Meyers, “because I tend to write movies that take place in bedrooms, kitchens and living rooms rather than on grand landscapes. It’s fun for me to continue to define the characters through the places they choose to live.”
“The whole house is meant to be Erica’s dream house,” observes production designer Jon Hutman. The idea is that this is the house which Erica Barry, a very successful New York playwright, has built for herself after her divorce – a haven to write in. It’s essentially a two-bedroom shingle-style house for Erica and her daughter Marin, or a guest who wants to come out to the ideal getaway from Manhattan, where space is at a premium. It not only reflects Erica’s taste and my taste, but Nancy’s taste probably most of all, because the story is very much from her heart and all of her films are beautiful to look at. Nancy is very involved with the specifics, and she and I discuss every color, every piece of furniture, every fabric. It’s very much a reflection of her aesthetic.
“But one thing that was very important to us,” continues Hutman, “was that the house still felt like it was a strong reflection of Erica’s character, and that it was a house that someone lived in, not generic or sterile in any way.”
Erica’s beach house was inspired not only by a real house in Southampton – at which the company would film exteriors later in the production schedule – but by several others which Meyers, Hutman and their team saw when they visited the Hamptons. Every detail in the house, from the fabric on the sofas to the paintings, photographs and framed memorabilia on the walls, to the dishes and crockery in the kitchen pantry, looked and seemed real, because they were real.
“Nancy wanted the house to reflect a woman living alone for the first time in her 50s,” adds set decorator Beth Rubino. “We fabricated a great deal of what you see in the house. We made or augmented most of the furnishings. Nancy truly appreciates patina and quality. She enjoyed the fact that some of the pieces in the kitchen were 19th century originals from Provence, while others were purchased from e-Bay for $1.99. And still they looked great next to one another.”
Because of Erica’s position as a major figure in New York theatre, Rubino created Playbills bearing the fictitious titles of her plays, bound copies of the plays, framed letters from stage luminaries (such as an original from George S. Kaufman) and even Tony and Drama Desk Awards for her office in the beach house. Another extraordinary feature is Erica’s personal library, displayed in the vast living room. “I’m passionate about books and passionate about detail,” notes Rubino, “and I really think that what defines a person is what’s on their bookshelf. So I sat down and did a breakdown of subjects that I thought would be applicable for Erica Barry: travel, theatre, finance, divorce, photography, architecture and design. Then I rented 300 feet of books from the Strand Bookstore in New York City, which is the only vendor who can supply on that type of scale.”
Every day, bundles of fresh flowers and greens were carted into Stage 26 to lend the beach house even greater verisimilitude. “When you live in the Hamptons, extremely manicured landscaping and constant fresh flowers can be typical in these homes,” says Rubino. “On camera there’s a subtle difference between fresh and artificial flowers. I tried to use fresh cut flowers exclusively. There was the added bonus of their scent, which Diane appreciated and complimented.”
Adds Hutman, “It feels like we’re in a real house. It’s easy to forget that we’re in fact on a set, other than all of the equipment, and looking up to see the soundstage ceiling.”
Hutman was also called upon to create two dazzling New York restaurants on the Sony soundstages as well, both sleekly cosmopolitan but with differing atmospheres. For the first restaurant, in which the movie opens and eventually returns, “I want the audience to see these restaurants and feel like wow, that’s a place I want to go,” he says. This unnamed restaurant is shimmering, redolent of glamorous, upper crust New York. Utterly contemporary with deco tones and lovely wood paneling, a fountain in the center of the large room acted almost as an anchor to what surrounds it. The second restaurant hints at Asian Fusion, with subtle, lacy woodwork and low-hanging lamps.
Filming on the famed Hennessy Street (aka “Annie Street”) on the Warner Bros. Backlot, three full-sized New York streets were transformed by Hutman, Rubino and their crews into an artful amalgamation of the West Village and Tribeca. More than 25 storefronts got the makeover, and suddenly the streets came alive with hip shops, restaurants, cafes and coffee houses, a typically New York fruit and flower stand, residences and subway stations. With the addition of appropriately clothed extras, New York City taxicabs and street and traffic lights, one would be hard-pressed to tell the street apart from the real thing. The purpose of the re-creation was for an intense sidewalk argument between Harry and Erica, which would have been logistically difficult, if not impossible, during the production’s location shooting in New York.
Notes Rubino, “As a native New Yorker, I’m aware that New York streets have certain density, textures and layers that are very difficult to achieve and reproduce on a back lot. One of my pet peeves is when movies don’t give New York its full representation. There’s a layer of grit that’s usually left out. Jon designed a complex street that allowed us to try and get all those layers in. I think the crew’s dedication and hard work really shows.”
Hutman created numerous other environments on soundstages and local Los Angeles locations that doubled New York beautifully, including a picture-perfect re-creation of the interior of East Hampton’s famed Barefoot Contessa gourmet food store, which was created out of a Hollywood building designed by famed architect Julia Morgan in 1926. As with the beach house and the Barefoot Contessa, in which Los Angeles interiors would eventually match up perfectly with their New York exterior counterparts, Hutman and Meyers discovered a perfect match for a Broadway theater inside the Grand Theatre, a remarkable structure in downtown Los Angeles built in 1928. The sequence shot there is a terse encounter between Harry and Erica that takes place onstage during her new play’s rehearsal. For crew members, watching Nicholson and Keaton go through their dramatic and comedic paces, was like having a free ticket to the best show in town.
While the sets were being dressed around them, the stars were being dressed for style and comfort with the same minute attention to detail. “Nancy and I went through the script scene-by-scene,” recalls costume designer Suzanne McCabe, “and we talked about the various needs of each character and the dramatic arc of each scene. We initially went through the broad strokes of everything, and then as we shot, did everything through a magnifying glass.”
“Harry Sanborn is an entrepreneurial but offbeat businessman, a New York character who likes to hang around a lot of different groups of people, so he’s a bit of a fashion chameleon,” explains McCabe. “We worked at different angles, and ended up dressing Jack as a conservative guy who has a bit of an edge, wearing very beautiful, expensive clothes but oddly combined. We created a city look for Harry, but also a very casual beach look for his scenes in the Hamptons.
“By the same token,” McCabe continues, “when we meet Erica, she’s at her beach house where she both relaxes and writes. Even though we wanted her to look attractive, it was also essential to Nancy that her clothes be comfortable for long hours of writing. So we dressed Diane almost entirely in comfy tee-shirts and turtlenecks, which figure so prominently in the script.”
“Keanu plays a Hamptons doctor who is simultaneously casual, yet neat and preppy, and it was important to Keanu to keep the wardrobe realistic and unflashy,” says McCabe. “And Frances McDormand, who plays a feminist professor, really knows, as one who lives in New York, how such people actually dress there.”
For Marin, McCabe says, “We were really going for a classic, Upper East Side kind of girl who went to prep school, and was always stylish and sophisticated.”
It was also up to McCabe to make sure that all of the extras, whether in Los Angeles, the Hamptons, New York City or Paris, were properly attired, and thousands of outfits were acquired to make certain that sequences set in New York but filmed in Los Angeles would still have the appropriate look.
After the completion of West Coast filming, Meyers and Company packed up their crates and headed east, disembarking at that blessed tip of eastern Long Island known as The Hamptons, where much of the action of Something’s Gotta Give takes place. Meyers proceeded to film three weeks of exterior sequences with Nicholson, Keaton, Reeves, McDormand and Peet on locations of natural beauty and privileged chic, taking full advantage of both.
Much of the shooting took place on Flying Point Beach, where the beautiful communities of Southampton and Water Mill practically converge, as beautiful a stretch of sand as one is likely to find in the continental United States, dotted with classic beach houses, and tall grass waving atop sand dunes. But it was no vacation for the film’s company, as they battled the challenge of moving heavy equipment around on mounds of sand, as well as New York’s wildly unpredictable late spring weather, which saw broiling sun one minute to be followed in short order by all manner of natural permutations, including rain, wind and fog – often on the same day. What was determined to be the worst May weather in longer than anyone could remember bedeviled Meyers and company, as they literally shot between the raindrops. Exteriors were also filmed at the lovely Southampton beach house, which served as the original inspiration for Jon Hutman’s amazing interior set 3000 miles to the west.
Hollywood came to the picture-perfect village of East Hampton, perhaps the most famous of the area’s tony hamlets, when Nicholson, Keaton, McDormand and Peet filmed a sequence on the famed Newtown Lane shopping street, culminating in their entering the actual Barefoot Contessa. Although the residents of the Hamptons are hardly starstruck – considering the fact that so many stars and other luminaries actually live there, either full or part time – there was still a considerable crowd of suitably impressed locals patiently watching the film’s stars at work. Due to the rain, filming also took place inside of East Hampton Studios, a fully equipped facility nestled in a forest just a few miles from the famed village.
Traveling from the tip of “the Island” to the more crowded and turbulent environs of New York City, Meyers, along with her cast and crew, shot at a bewildering assortment of locations in just a week’s time, beginning on lower Broadway and then heading to the East side, West side and all around the town. A 19th century townhouse with contemporary interior design on East 78th Street provided the location for Harry Sanborn’s domicile, Central Park played itself magnificently, as it always does, and for a montage establishing the New York high life, Meyers actually shot in some of the city’s chicest establishments, including Mark’t in the meat packing district, the Tribeca Grand Hotel and the uber-hip Aureole restaurant on East 61st Street.
And then there was the day when the company was filming outside of Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre, better known as the day ‘When Jack Met Bill.’ Arriving at a speaking engagement across the street from the theatre on West 47th Street, former President Clinton learned that his friend Nicholson was shooting just a few steps away. The exuberant and boisterous New York crowd that had already assembled to catch a glimpse of Jack Nicholson went crazy as they saw these two glowing examples of American royalty embracing in the middle of 47th Street, as did the paparazzi photographers who couldn’t believe their good fortune. With the company still shooting that evening, the former President returned to the set after his speech and spent some time sitting next to Nancy Meyers in “video village” watching the monitors as the cameras rolled. Later that night, rewarding the patience of the fans, Nicholson emerged from the theatre to greet the hundreds of fans lining the street, shaking hands and posing for photographs, as is his tradition to show appreciation for his 40 years of stardom. And the next day, the temperature climbed to nearly record levels after an all-time record for the rainiest June in New York history.
“Every movie should be so lucky as to wind up in Paris,” notes producer Block, surely speaking for members of the Something’s Gotta Give company fortunate enough to make the journey to the City of Lights for the final leg of filming, where they were joined by a fresh team of Gallic crewpersons. The first of several locations – all of them befittingly beautiful and historical – was Le Grand Colbert brasserie, a magnificent Belle Epoque dining room, which would be anyone’s idea of the perfect place for a romantic Parisian rendezvous. Positively Proustian, Le Grand Colbert received minor and temporary renovations by production designer Jon Hutman to further enhance its fin de siècle atmosphere.
Other gorgeous locales included the Plaza Atheneé, perhaps the grandest of the city’s grand hotels, the Pont d’Arcole, a lovely structure spanning the Seine and overlooking the Hotel de Ville on the Right Bank and the Conciergerie on the Left Bank.
Throughout the shoot, all agreed that bringing Something’s Gotta Give to cinematic life was a joy. “I felt that Jack and Diane were part of the process with me early on, because I was writing the script with them in mind,” says Meyers. “I felt bonded to them because I put myself out there in thinking, and hoping, that they would be in the movie. Jack took direction as well as any actor I’ve ever worked with. I already had a relationship with Diane stretching back many years where I felt I could say anything, and she would be okay with it. There was a certain looseness on the set and mutual respect that allowed us all to be ourselves.”
“Jack is very soulful,” continues Meyers, “and a master of the closeup. He finds moments to play like no one ever. Diane is so unique, a complete original. Her energy can really drive a scene. Jack and Diane were both very respectful of the script and very well prepared, which actually allowed them great freedom to try out different ways of playing the scenes.”
Keaton took inspiration from her director. “With Nancy, there’s always a sense of her saying, ‘Go ahead, do what you do. I enjoy watching you and I appreciate you.’ It says so much for directors like Nancy who have that quality of being a great audience for their actors. That’s the kind of director you want to work for because you want to give it a little bit more.”
As for her onscreen romantic counterpart, “As audience members, we’ve watched Jack do everything,” notes Keaton, “and he has become a legend. I knew him many years ago when we did Reds together, and now having done this was a much fuller experience because I got to know him much better. And knowing Jack is like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. You don’t know what hit you half the time. What’s it like to be Jack Nicholson? Who knows? ‘Cause there’s nobody like him, and there will never be anybody like him. Many great movie stars have incredible careers, but I don’t think anyone’s had as incredible a career as Jack. He’s a real adventurer. I mean, he’s a risk-taker as an actor, and in that way he’s an artist like no one else. With Jack, the script is first, and when he read Nancy’s script, that was the decisive moment for him. There’s a real integrity about the choices Jack makes. He’s very singular and authentic. Jack went where he had to go while filming this movie because we’re telling a lovely, hopeful story for people, that there’s a chance all of us can, in some way, find somebody’s who’s our perfect sparring partner.”
On the set, Meyers often plays appropriate music between scenes, and even takes, to help establish a mood (much of it eventually finding its way into the final version). Diane Keaton also believes in music as a mood-setter, and could often be seen walking to and from set with her personal CD player, getting into the spirit of things. Notes Meyers, “Sometimes, instead of going up to Jack and Diane and saying something, I’ll play a song with a certain kind of feeling that sets the mood and the tone. I think music is such a big part of movies. It seems sort of crazy that it’s usually added afterwards. So the more I could find it up front and fill the actors in on what the feeling of the scene was going to be, the more I felt they could feel it.”
Nicholson and Keaton’s fellow stars, as experienced as they themselves are, were thoroughly delighted to be in the company of such luminaries. “For me, it’s been such a great experience acting with Jack and Diane,” enthuses Reeves. “These are exceptional actors. Jack’s craft and spontaneity are remarkable, and Diane shares those same remarkable qualities. I feel lucky to have been around and to have had a chance to share some time with them.”
McDormand enjoyed the rapport that she had with Diane Keaton and Amanda Peet in their many scenes together. “When the three of us were in a frame, we always kind of felt like the female equivalent of the Marx Brothers,” she laughs. And initially, Peet was somewhat intimidated to be working with Keaton, “because I’m a crazed fan of her work. Annie Hall, Love and Death, Manhattan, Interiors… my friends and I were quoting those movies all the time, so when I started working with Diane I had terrible, terrible nerves.”
For all involved, Something’s Gotta Give was an adventure that lasted nearly half a year, a piece of everyone’s life. “Part of the moviemaking experience that’s never talked about enough is the process,” says Keaton. “Our still photographer, Bob Marshak, would post a lot of amazing photographs of what it is to experience making a movie together, both the crew and the actors. It’s a big, fat, six-month long camping trip. When you get a chance to look at the process, it’s amazing. For me, the adventure of making a movie is all about performing with the crew, who become an extended family. The alliances you experience while you’re sharing these incredible moments together are unforgettable.
“I got to work with Frances McDormand, who I think is just a genius,” Keaton continues. “And Keanu Reeves – what a doll. Here’s this guy, who’s like a god to so many people, who’s such a well-raised, respectful gentleman. I got to work with Amanda Peet, a beautiful young woman who’s going to be a big movie star. And enough cannot be said about the experience with Jack. To have worked with him 20 years ago and then to work with him now, to get to know him, be around him, see what this man is and what he brings to the plate, is extraordinary.”
At the end of the day, Meyers hopes that audiences will share the passion and humanity that she brought to her script and her film. “I hope it’s a movie that’s different from what they’ve seen before… and I’d be very glad if it makes people hopeful that love is always possible.”
Directed by: Nancy Meyers
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Keanu Reeves, Amanda Peet, Frances McDormand, Jon Favreau, Paul Michael Glaser, Rachel Ticotin
Screenplay by: Nancy Meyers
Production Design by: Jon Hutman
Cinematography by: Michael Ballhaus
Film Editing by: Joe Hutshing
Costume Design by: Suzanne McCabe
Set Decoration by: Beth A. Rubino
Music by: Hans Zimmer
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, brief nudity and strong language.
Studio: Columbia Pictures
