My Happy Days in Hollywood (37 page)

Why did my talk with them help? I knew it would because we all fall under the sign of Scorpio. I was born November 13, Anne’s birthday is November 12, and Heather celebrates on November 10. I know from experience that most Scorpios have the same personality. They are very ambitious, and while they might argue and complain to try to get their way, they will always deliver the goods in the end.

Disney had signed Anne to a two-picture deal, which is typical in the industry. What is also typical is that for a twenty-year-old
like Anne, trying to work out a career path is quite overwhelming. I heard she didn’t want to do the second
Princess
movie. In between
The Princess Diaries
and
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
, Anne had attracted an entourage—including agents, managers, publicists, and makeup artists, none of whom wanted her to make the second movie either. They were pressuring her to hang up her tiara because she and they thought she’d be typecast. Having been through versions of this before with the kids on my TV shows, I had empathy for the complicated insecurity of youth. Salad days often include drizzles of balsamic vinegar. I invited her to dinner to talk about our movie. Her people suggested Spago, so we went there.

She was locked into the contract; there was no way around it. So we discussed ways to make the film fun for her, including working with Julie Andrews again. While at dinner we were visited by a parade of big agents who smiled a lot and other industry insiders who were eager to be seen with Anne. But what I noticed was that two busboys came up to her sheepishly and asked Anne for autographs for their daughters. I knew at that dinner there was no question that
Princess Diaries 2
would be a big hit, and Anne Hathaway was on her way to becoming a star and my close friend ever since.

Anne was more grown up in the sequel and portrayed Princess Mia that way. Wiser, more mature, and seasoned for sure. On the first picture she was quiet and listened a lot. On the second one she had stronger opinions on plot points and dialogue. I’m fine with that as long as the star is collaborative, which Anne was. She wanted to talk a lot about her acting process and to make sure her character was not portrayed as a victim in any way.

I listened to her, and we pitched ideas around. I wanted to do a big scene that would be popular with kids. We talked about new trends like salsa dancing, which we both agreed was fun but too adult. I needed something else kid-friendly. Anne came up with a wonderful concept based on an experience from her own childhood. She’d had a girlfriend who lived in an elegant New Jersey house. When Anne would sleep over with her friends there, they would body surf down the staircases on their pillows. I changed the pillow
idea to mattresses because it sounded safer. I wrote that scene right into
Princess Diaries 2
, and it proved to be one of the most memorable in the movie.

I was grateful enough to get the chance to direct Julie Andrews the first time, but I had no idea I would get to direct her singing on-camera in
Princess Diaries 2
. This is how it happened: One night my wife and I went to dinner with Julie and her husband, Blake Edwards. Blake directed
The Pink Panther, Victor/Victoria
, and
10
among many other films, and he is someone I have admired and stolen comedy ideas from for years. We were preparing to shoot our sequel, and that night, as the four of us sat down to dinner, Blake leaned over and whispered in my ear.

“I have heard her singing in the
shower
,” he said.

“What?” I asked, not quite sure what I had heard.

“Julie,” he said. “I have heard her
singing in the shower
.”

“Oh, Blake, stop it,” she said.

But we did discuss her singing voice that night. I said if Julie did want to sing on-camera again, I would make her feel as comfortable as possible. She said if I kept the song in her range she would consider it. I also promised that if she didn’t like the way the scene turned out, we would cut it. No questions asked. I would protect her no matter what.

I went right to the music department and asked them to get to work on a song that would be well-suited for Julie’s midlevel range. We also decided to write the scene so Julie would sing a duet with the supporting actress Raven-Symoné as a birthday present for Queen Clarisse’s granddaughter, Mia. To have Julie and Anne sing on-camera would have been too much pressure.

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.

Directing Kate Hudson and the Next Generation

R
UNAWAY 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 asked 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.