Interview: ‘The Last Five Years’ Director Richard LaGravenese

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CHICAGO – The movie musical seems to revive every year, and writer/director Richard LaGravenese puts his spin on the genre with a modern touch. A couple, portrayed by Jeremy Jordan and Anna Kendrick, goes through the ups and downs of a relationship while belting out appropriate tunes in “The Last Five Years.”

The film is based on the stage play by Jason Robert Brown, and is the type of musical that is entirely sung. The songs are sad (“Still Hurting”), hilarious (“Summer in Ohio”) and poignant (“If I Didn’t Believe in You”) and are rendered by the couple in a direct and modern approach through LaGravenese’s direction.

Jeremy Jordan, Anna Kendrick
Jeremy Jordan and Anna Kendrick in ‘The Last Five Years’
Photo credit: RADIUS-TWC

Richard LaGravenese is an influential screenwriter of the past 25 years, who has worked with some of the most notable directors of his generation, including Terry Gilliam (“The Fisher King”), Robert Redford (“The Horse Whisperer”), Clint Eastwood (“The Bridges of Madison County”) and Barbra Streisand (“The Mirror Has Two Faces”). He was also the wordsmith responsible for the recent Liberace HBO film, “Behind the Candelabra.” His directing credits include the documentary “A Decade Under the Influence” (2003) and “Beautiful Creatures” (2013).

HollywoodChicago.com talked to Richard LaGravenese at last October’s Chicago International Film Festival, both about this remarkable new musical film and his adventurous career.

HollywoodChicago.com: This is a musical! What kind of study did you do on the art of the movie musical, and which one informed ‘5 Years’ the most?

Richard LaGravenese: It was really just a process of osmosis, I am a musical theater geek. I was in summer stock, I was a dancer and a singer. I have loved musicals since I was a boy – so it all of them. I’m sure Jeremy Jordan riding in the water taxi referenced ‘Funny Girl,’ and when I filmed ‘The Schmuel Song’ – which at first I didn’t understand – became about why he was singing, and that was a reference to Judy Garland in ‘A Star is Born.’ In that scene in the movie, Judy ran around the apartment entertaining James Mason because he’s depressed, and Jeremy does the same thing during his song. So there were bits and pieces, but mostly it was subconscious, and not on purpose.

HollywoodChicago.com: How did you approach the particular staging and camera choreography as a director?

LaGravenese: As Steven Sondheim has said, content dictates style. When I first heard the score – and unlike the stage version, where they sing mostly to the audience – I heard it as playable scenes. And that adds a whole other layer through the camera. So my interpretation of the song becomes your song, because your reaction to it gives it a whole other layer. I wanted it to be organic, and as rooted to the real world as possible. I’m asking the audience to take a leap, these people in this movie sing and don’t talk – so I wanted it to be as simple as possible.

HollywoodChicago.com: What do you think admirers of the original stage musical will love about your adaptation?

LaGravenese: I pretty much kept the form as it is, except now they sing to each other. rather than to the audience. The song order is exactly as it was on stage, except I expanded it to the real world. So far at the screenings, the feedback has been positive. The originators of the stage play love it, they feel now it’s even more of an emotional piece.

HollywoodChicago.com: Anna Kendrick is breaking out with her songster chops in a big way, with this, ‘Pitch Perfect’ and ‘Into the Woods’? What it your take on her approach to musical material, in the way she creates character for the songs?

LaGravenese: Part of this film was putting into context what these songs were about, both as she was singing them and as she was listening to them. Anna is one of the smartest actors I have worked with, she thinks like a filmmaker. When she comes on set she is aware of everything, and would say ‘is that going to cut with this scene’ and would come up with ideas that were fantastic. For the song ‘If I Didn’t Believe in You,’ it was her idea for when the lyric comes up ‘I will not fail, because I cannot win’ that the audience see her reaction to this cruel line, and he doesn’t see it. It knocked me out, and we did it. She was a collaborator.

HollywoodChicago.com: The show stopper comes about the middle of the film, ‘Summer in Ohio,’ with the Kendrick dancing in regional theater. What is the psychology of placement regarding the show stopper, in your opinion?

LaGravenese: The structure in the film is unusual, in terms of musical theater. You could say that ‘Summer in Ohio’ is the Act One finale, because its a big number. Also, to start the stage play and the film with a ballad, and then go to an up tempo number [‘Shiksa Goddess’] is very unusual. And since that first song is a sad ballad, the character of Kathy doesn’t get the audience on her side until later.

Jeremy Jordan, Anna Kendrick
‘The Last Five Years,’ Directed by Richard LaGravenese
Photo credit: RADIUS-TWC

HollywoodChicago.com: Jeremy Jordan is a veteran Broadway musical baby. What habits did you want him to lose about being a stage musical actor, to create a more personal note as a movie musical actor?

LaGravenese: Jeremy has an amazing singing voice, and he can access his breath and sound at any angle. He’s learning, and what I’m proud of is that he dug deep emotionally and learned about the stillness in filming the songs. On stage, it’s about projection. On film, it’s about stillness and emotion, and he learned it well. In the song ‘If I Didn’t Believe in You,’ I had him audition with it, because I felt I would cast the actor that could do that number, that number is the whole show. It starts out supportive, and ends up being cruel and angry. If he could get that range, I knew he’d get the rest of the show.

HollywoodChicago.com: Within a matter of days, you lost two artists that you had intimate contact with through your screenplays. How were Robin Williams [‘The Fisher King’] and Lauren Bacall [‘The Mirror Has Two Faces’] similar as artists, and what voice do you think each of them brought to your writing?

LaGravenese: Similar? I don’t know. [laughs] Robin’s passing was a gut punch, I read on Twitter that somebody had written ‘f**k the Red Knight’ [a symbol for depression in the film]. Robin had his demons, as many of us do, and it hurts to me that he was in pain, and no one was around to get him out of it. He was so generous, and when he hugged me he would put his head in the crook of my neck like a puppy. I wouldn’t have the career I had, if he hadn’t said ‘yes’ to doing ‘The Fisher King.’ He was so fantastic in it.

Lauren Bacall was a grande dame. She was of an era that I am obsessed with, those black & white films that I watch over and over. And I remember her being grateful and proud of the work she did on ‘The Mirror Has Two Faces.’ Her work on it, and Barbra’s work with her, made me really proud to have written that part for her. It was my connection to old Hollywood.

HollywoodChicago.com: You wrote the screenplay to ‘The Ref.’ What did you and Marie Weiss want to say about the particulars of the Christmas holiday, and what do you think of its life as a cult classic twenty years later?

LaGravenese: I’m very proud of that film. I don’t know what to say, without insulting my in-laws. [laughs] I was using a lot of experience in that screenplay, and it was a chance for me to get a lot of bile out, in terms of marriage and family. I had the greatest bunch of actors to work with, and it was an amazing experience.

HollywoodChicago.com: The list of directors who have interpreted your written screenplay material is astounding. Of all of them, which piece of advice or compliment stands out, and what were the circumstances of them making the statement to you?

Richard LaGravenese
Director Richard LaGravenese in Chicago, October of 2014
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

LaGravenese: I remember Terry Gilliam acknowledging to me that every idea is valuable, and that the director is like a captain. He told me a story about the film ‘Brazil,’ where he told a producer that his opinion didn’t mean any more to him than any of his assistants on the set. Probably less. He always said his job was to get the best ideas.

Clint Eastwood gave me a piece of advice when I adapted ‘Bridges of Madison County.’ I’ had thrown away the book, but he made me put certain lines back in. He felt that they were touchstones for the reader, and no matter what I felt we had to respect the reader, and we had to give them those touchstones.

HollywoodChicago.com: There were some controversy involving ‘Behind the Candelabra,’ including the claim by Scott Thorson that he was 16 when he first met Liberace. You were fairly frank in the screenplay. Did you have to leave some things out as to not make it completely salacious, for the memory of Lee’s sake?

LaGravenese: Well, I thought I didn’t leave anything out. I never thought the ‘popper scene’ would stay in, and it did. I did the screenplay for Steven Soderbergh, because I loved the project, but it took four years to get made. I thought he was 19 years old when they met, and I will say he was more of a babe-in-the-woods type then what was portrayed in the film.

HollywoodChicago.com: What was the experience like doing ‘A Decade Under the Influence.’ What did you have access to in regard to those great filmmakers, and what did you personally learn about their journeys that helped your journey as a filmmaker?

LaGravenese: Teddy [co-director Ted Demme] was my best friend, and we started the interviews together – and he did three in New York City, and I did three in Los Angeles in December of 2001. Then we took a break, and then Teddy died.in January 13th, 2002. Now I had this project thrust upon me, to finish all by myself. I had to pull in a lot of favors, and rely on a lot of friends. I ended up doing twelve of the interviews, and other people like Alexander Payne ended up doing the other interviews.

Anyway, the amazing part of that was sitting with the filmmakers. It gave me a perspective regarding a modern filmmaking culture we’re in now, as opposed to the studio system of the early film industry. Peter Bogdanovich gave me the perspective that when the film industry began, the early directors would have made 70 films before they got a big hit. Nowadays, nobody is allowed to develop their craft. For example, if you hit with the first film, and get to make your second film, you’re either crushed on that second one, or by some miracle you maintain your career. It’s about the money, and the immediacy now.

StarRead our full film review of “The Last Five Years”.

HollywoodChicago.com: What was Peter Bogdanovich’s theory as to why that happens?

LaGravenese: Peter was talking about his period of success, along with Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, William Friedkin and the like, was that all of them had made huge hits in their second or third film. They had the power because of their hits, but no experience in filmmaking to maintain that level of career. They all eventually self destructed, at least a little bit. They were focused on the mansions, cars and women, and not on making movies.

HollywoodChicago.com: We were born around the same time [early 1960s]. What has our generation contributed to social or cultural history that you think is significant, and how do you think we’ll be remembered?

LaGravenese: I somehow think that as technology changes – virtually day-by-day – and how the way we create things changes so rapidly, maybe it’s up to our generation to keep a grip on humanity in the midst of it all, so we don’t get too lost.

”The Last Five Years” continues its U.S. release in Chicago on Feb. 20, 2015 exclusively at the Logan Theatre. Featuring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan. Adapted and directed by Richard LaGravenese. Rated “PG-13”.

HollywoodChicago.com senior staff writer Patrick McDonald

By PATRICK McDONALD
Writer, Editorial Coordinator
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

© 2015 Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

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