Home For The Holidays interviews

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Jodie Foster in AMICA
Original Period: Home for the Holidays 1995-96
Picture: Holly Hunter in Home for the Holidays (not in original source)
Date: February, 1996
Origin: AMICA 2/96, p.37
Author of article: Thomas Stratmann
Translation: Armin M. Hornetz
Description: Jodie Foster (JF) as guest editor in the premiere issue of the german magazine AMICA, talking about directing and women's liberation.

Hey Boy - I want your chair now!

In the dorado of dollar millions the roles are clearly distributed: Women play with illusions, Men make them. But Hollywood's "Boys Club" has to rethink. Jodie Foster demands a new direction.

Direction is one of the last male reservates in Hollywood. But I think it's time that women go into it. Because directors have power. They decide, how good, how creative a movie will get. The define the cut, the roles. They decide, why to prefer this light and that sound. And they have, by their work and their statements in interviews, the influence to change the consciousness, and even the conscience of the world. I comprehended this when I was eleven years old. Since then I didn't want to be actress alone, but also director.

Under female direction, some of the actual movies would have another look. The thinking pattern of most directors is very macho-like.: "People, let us make it the way that the spectators first worry about the woman, so that can be happier about the man at the end, who safes the woman." Women's power is rarely men's stuff. Supposedly, because many directors know little about women. That's why they can't help actresses with the development of a living, really human character. As an actress, unfortunately you can't do anything against that. This is how your every day looks like: You knock at a door, wear a body emphasizing costume, introduce yourself and say: "That's how I am, that's how my eyes look like, that's how my ass looks like." As an actress, I have to come to terms with that I'm an object, that I sell my gestures, every centimeter of my body and my face, the same way as my personality.

I myself make movies where women don't have to have an orgasm after 20 seconds, And I know enough of the business, to be able to protect the movie I make, and the team I work with. I don't want to say that women are automatically the more sensible directors. Kathryn Bigelow for example, makes action movies: With lots of dirt and force. On the contrary I think Jonathan Demme is the most comprehensive director I ever worked with. He's one of the few who can make movies from a woman's view.

Movie making is: Standing up at 6am, drinking bad coffee and solving problems with and between peoples. Directors have to be strong and autority. I am this. Less with the roghness of a boss but with the love of a mother. But Hollywood is a world of men, like mostly every kind of business is male. And there is the problem: In these worlds they don't think a woman is capable of managing qualities. If Hollywood has the choice between two beginners, one member of the Boys Club, the other, in absence of male attributes, not, then the sponsors decide for a member of the club of the men. "I don't know you, but i have the impression that I can trust you. You have talent, I give you 5 million dollars, make a movie." That's what men can hear. Women not.

Protest! my generation lives with the fact, that men and women are equal. Other thoughts are not progressive. Even actresses come with good directing attributes: They have experience. At the age of 3 I first stood before a camery, I played in lausy TV productions and in over 60 spots. I've seen things, I could utilize or ignore. When I say to my people:"This dialoge doesn't work. I have a better idea", then the team trusts me.

There is only one problem with my directing: The double excercise, to be actress and directresse, is immense tiring. As Jodie, the movie maker, I'm not satisfied with the average accomplishment of Jodie, the actress. The other way, as an actress I'm only satisfied with a directress who challenges me in every scene. This problem I had mainly at my first directing in "Little Man Tate". I spent two years of my life, gave everything, only to experience how the work landed on Hollywood's garbage heap of unloved movies. Because the marketing went wrong and the studio went bankrupt.

One has to fight for influence and secure it in Hollywood. That's the only way to avoid to get victim of the errors of other people. Since I have my own production firm "Egg Pictures", I try to keep everything in my hands - from choosing the actors up to the last advertising campaign. I believe, I succeeded with my new movie "Home for the Holidays" that just starts in Germany. I'm my own manager for 4 years now. That gives women like me the liberty, men don't want to confess them. When I want to throw a scene and think it should be done again, I don't have to ask one of the master producers "Is there enough time and money?" I decide.

Still I'm an exception in the Boys Club. To let more women lead productions and direct movies, it needs more men who give women a chance. My promoters were the big old men of Hollywood, the fatherly men. These people knew me since my childhood days, they knew that I'm reliable, and they said "Jodie, I give you a chance. If it doesn't work at first, don't worry, there will be a second movie for you" I had luck. And now I'm bound to it, and I want to help other women into the club.

[mario]

Another one from that time

Jodie Foster in Treffpunkt Kino
Original Period: Home for the Holidays 1995-96
Picture: Publicity shot for Home for the Holidays (not in original source)
Date: February, 1996
Origin: Treffpunkt Kino 2/96,p.12-13
Author of article: rp
Translation: Armin M. Hornetz
Description: Jodie Foster (JF) in an interview with the german movie magazine "Treffpunkt Kino" (TK) about Familienfest und andere Schwierigkeiten (Home for the Holidays).

"I don't want to be a mini-mogul"

TK: Other than in your first directing work "Das Wunderkind Tate" (Little Man Tate), you didn't act in "Familienfest und andere Schwierigkeiten"?

JF: With the double burden, I loose the joy of directing. I love to sit at the set, and watch how things develop. And I want to keep the privilege, to have ideas, and that needs some amount of spare time. If you act and direct, there are no surprises anymore.

TK: How would you describe your own directing style?

JF: As a director I use my personal voice. I narrate tragic stories, but they'll be presented easily and lightheartedly.

TK: "Familienfest und andere Schwierigkeiten" can't be put into a special genre...

JF: I make author-movies and see my life from a humourous perspective. Often, I have to laugh about it. I hope that's a sign that I grew-up adult. Comedy is the best way for me to deal with the tragic aspects of life. There are burping or farting people - that's part of the family band. The humour isn't very subtile, but very direct.

TK: Your role in "Maverick" showed, that you are made for comedies.

JF: A sense of humour can only develop by maturity. I had to learn, not to take myself terribly seriously, not always be 'cool', and to be willing to make movies about death. But I have quite a light, funny side, that shows every now and again.

TK: With your production company "Egg Pictures" you're producing your own stuff. What does this power mean for you?

JF: I don't need to have more of it. I'm privileged enough and don't want to be a mini-mogul. He only has to do with wicked and not interesting things. I want to develop more integer movie stuffs, which originate from a collective consciousness, to which the audience admits because of personal reasons.

[mario]

Jodie Foster in TVMovie
Original Period: Home for the Holidays 1995-96
Picture: Jodie Foster (not in original source)
Date: 9. February, 1996
Origin: TVMovie 4/96, p.198
Author of article: Edmund Brettschneider (EB)
Translation: Armin M. Hornetz
Description: Interview with Jodie Foster(JF) talking about directing.
- no title -

EB: "Home for The Holidays" is your first movie, in which you only directed but did not act. Are you weary of acting? Will you produce movies in the future?

JF: For heavens sake, no! I've been co-producer of "Das Wunderkind Tate" (Little Man Tate), but that's nothing for me. Directing is more pleasing, but there's nothing that liberates me more than acting. I can imagine to do both in the future.

EB: You know the business from before and from behind the camera - is there anything left that can intimidate you?

JF: Sure. Before every directing job I'm fluttering. At "Familienfest..." I really was anxious the first day.

EB Anxious? What for?

JF We met for the first sample. One was late. So we stood around and waited silently. I saw all the actors in a room, one ego bigger than the other. How should I bring them all together? But then I told myself: Plough yourself through. Cling to the text, and flatten everything standing in your way.

EB: Ah, the perception of force?

JF: That has nothing to do with force. It's the job of the director to take over the word of command.

EB: In your directing work it's about conflictful, personal relations...

JF: ... because that's what's most fascinating for me. And where it's missing, I try to build such into the story. Nothing interests me more than what happens between two people, how strange they behave, how they're lying to each other. Why they say the one thing but mean something completely different. I find it more exciting than any action story.

[mario]

Jodie Foster in Interview
Translation Period: Home for the Holidays 1995-96
Picture: Holly Hunter in Home for the Holidays (not in original source)
Date: November, 1995
Origin: Interview November 1995, p. 110-14
Author of article: Jodie Foster
Description: Jodie Foster (JF) interviews Holly Hunter (HH).
Holly Hunter
This month's Home for the Holidays offers the intriguing combination of Holly Hunter directed BY JODIE FOSTER. The movie is the story of a single mom, played by Hunter, who strives to communicate with the different members of her eccentric family during a Thanksgiving weekend. Typical for both actress and director, it's one of those stories that addresses something everyone can relate to. When they met recently, they talked about why this film struck a nerve with them individually, about some of their needs and drives, and about the connection between acting, directing, and heeling.
I like to refer to Holly Hunter as "The Suction Cup." We all know her trademark ferocius intesity, which can focus on someone during a movie scene and make them feel as if they've been zapped by a powerful alien, left entranced an immobile like a bunny in the headlights. No one - man, woman, or beast - can resist Holly's magnetic high beams. So it's no wonder that the person I would choose to help train my thirteen-week-old boxer puppy, Lucy, would be Georgia's own mistress of the no-nonsense stare. It's a little-known fact that, in tenth grade, Holly took eighth place in a national poultry-judgin contest. Unfortunately, that fact might conjure up some images of feather-plucking and ungodly squawking from the contestants. But when Holly and I met for the following converstation, it was all softness and praise. She knows her beasts.

We hooked up at the Skywalker Ranch, George Lucas's film compound in Northern California, while we were finishing the sound mix on Home for the Holidays, the film Holly stars in and I direct. We chose a stretch of grape arbors overlooking a duck pond, the perfect picture-book setting for Lucy's first adventure in heeling. There we were - two chicks and a bitch, sitting around talking discipline.

JF: Did you ever have dogs?

HH: I've never had a dog on my own as an adult, but I grew up with an infinite number of dogs. Hound dogs, weimaraners, setters, Dobermans, rottweilers. We had millions of dogs.

JF: Did you train them?

HH: No.

JF: They just ran wild and crazy?

HH: Some of those dogs were really intelligent. This German shepherd-Doberman we had was unbelievably sharp, and so were all the weimaraners. We trained them to hunt, but you don't have to do a whole lot to train them. They know so much by instinct, like how to flesh out a quail, for example.

JF: Are you kidding?

HH: When they're little puppies - thirteen weeks or so - they're pointing already. You know, they see a bird over there, they're pointing.

JF: Oh, they'll put one leg up?

HH: Yeah. Be really still and put their noses out. But we never trained our dogs like you're training Lucy. It's so elegant, so dignified, to see this dog that is so well-trained.

JF: I think dogs enjoy it because they know they have boundaries and when it's appropriate to be wild and crazy. I've been training Lucy to run to all the bases at the softball field, but now she cheats. When I get to third base, she knows that I'm going to run home so she just goes from second to the end, so that she'll beat me.

HH: [laughs] I think all this training gives a vocabulary to the relationship you have with her; it will just become more defined.

JF: I've been wanting to train a dog for years, but I wanted to make sure that I had enough time to really be there, to be able to do it right.

HH: Did you have a dog when you were young?

JF: I had a tiny Yorkshire terrier that I lost. It was when the car arrived to take me to the Cannes Film Festival in 1976. He heard the driver at the door and I think he was scared - he was yapping and yapping. He was kind of looking at me and he flew down the stairs and banged into a wall.

HH: And died?

JF: And died. He was in convulsions, blood squirting out everywhere. I locked myself in the bathroom and wouldn't come out. I freaked out.

HH: How old were you?

JF: About thirteen. I got on the plane and my mom said, "We'll get another dog." I said, "I don't want another dog." [pause] At Cannes, we ended up winning the Palme d'Or for Taxi Driver, and I decided that, to be successful, I'd had to give up the only thing in my live that I loved and watch it die in my arms. For the rest of my live I would be completely unhappy and sad. [laughs] Like, it was a bargain with the devil! For a while, I didn't want to be successful, because of that. I would never mention it. It became a ritual.

HH: Like a sacred covenant.

JF: Yes. See, It's actually kind of big deal for me to get my own dog. In fact, this whole last year has felt so charmed. And, of course, Holly, there's been Home for the Holidays, the movie that we've done. So, has it been a charmed year for you, too?

HH: Well, I've found that the people I've enjoyed working with the most are people who have taken it on themselves to take possession of a movie when they make it. When I signed on to do this movie with you, it seemed there was no particular formula you had in mind; it was about seeing how fully you could create it, and then whatever would come would come later. To me, that seemed to be the way that it was with the Coen brothers on Raising Arizona [1987], too, and even with Jim [James L. Brooks] on Broadcast News [1987]. Even though Broadcast News was a bigger, more commercial kind of movie. Jim definitely conceives his films that way, so you don't know exactly ho it's going to end up. There's always that unknown answer, so no one involved in making it ever feels they're in a gun-for-hire situation. I I were going to direct, that's what I would want to do. Those more spontaneous kind of movies are the kinds that I like to see. I do like to see more commercial movies, too, but it's not like I feel we need more of them.

JF: I know. There's this whole tendency these days to talk about a movie in terms of how much it made in the first weekend. I sometimes think people think of the entire film industry as a bunch of people looking for mechandising opportunities.

HH: I'm not that way. I think it's really odd, too, that the public is so privy to how much money the actors make and what the movie cost. It seems to me to be beside the point. When I go to a movie I really don't want to think about the money. I want to see the story.

JF: I feel the money part is permeating everything. Either that, or I'm just becoming more and more sensitive about it. There's also the photo-shot thing, the image thing, where the public now opens a magazine and says, "Hey, she's wearing whatever lingerie. That photographer - that's the one who did that great book on Ethiopia!" It just feels like everybody is experiencing movies through image and not through content anymore.

HH: It's the same with people knowing absolutely everything there is to know about an actor. I actually think the more personal information you have about an actor, the more you have to carve out for yourself when you go to a movie and see them in it. More and more movies have been pressured to allow reporters and TV cameras to come onto the set while you're working, and I find that a real violation. Acting, for me, is the last vestige of doing something that I would like to feel really naive about, and I like to feel very protected when I'm doing it. It's an arena where you may not know what the answers are, may not know what a scene is about when you're doing it. It's a creative place and it's too private, too personal, to be violated.

JF: The bigger the movie you made, the harder that gets to protect.

HH: Yeah, but I've always managed to protect that, to keep it as a very special place for me.

JF: Do you want to direct?

HH: I don't know. I'm asked that all the time. The main thing you need to direct is a story that you can personally commit to and I don't have a story yet that I feel that way about, that makes me feel like I want to be the person responsible for it.

JF: That makes you feel, "I have a voice that's more appropriate than anyone else's for this subject -"

HH: And I want to be the one to-bring it to the screen.

JF: That's very much in the auteur spirit. I just don't know how directors can agree to do a movie that is about martians or cars. I mean, what do I know about martians? To make a decision on a movie requires commitment, and it requires authorship. The reason I did Little Man Tate [1991] was because I had been obsessed with J. D. Salinger's short stories for a long time and wanted to deal with the whiz-kid phenomenon, which Salinger explores with the Glass family in Franny and Zooey.

HH: Where you happy with the way Little Man Tate turned out?

JF: I think it's a good first movie but it wasn't spontaneous enough. There probably should have been a lot more messy stuff in that movie than I was willing to allow. I think I was too controlling. Because it's told from the perspective of a little boy who's trying to organize his thoughts and his life, it ended up being schematic.

HH: If there's a crack, that would be the easiest one for that movie to fall into. Probably the most forgivable one, though, because the boy is so intelligent, and intelligence has a sensible order about it. Also, the Dianne Wiest character was so anal. I didn't think it was such a bad thing that it was so controlled, because you were dealing with a controlled environment.

JF: The movie assumed Fred Tate's tone - which is so careful and precise and spare - because he's in every scene. What's interseting about Home for the Holidays, our movie, is that there's so many different points of view. It's not just your character's, Claudia's, story - the points of view shift as each new character arrives home for Thanksgiving. You have Adele and Henry's world [Claudia's parents, played by Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning], and then you have Tommy's and Joanne's worlds [Tommy is Claudia's gay brother, played by Robert Downey, Jr., and Joanne is their married sister, played by Cynthia Stevenson). The tone shifts all over the place, and somehow the chaos is managed, but it's still about Chaos.

When you direct a movie, every character has to be some part of your personality. It was so obvious to me that Claudia, Joanne, and Tommy are three different parts of me. So you unconsciously orchestrate that and show how they fight with each other and resolve things. Oh, what about that reshoot of the scene we did with Cynthia?

HH It really helps the movie.

JF: It's an incredible moment. [After a disastrous Thanksgiving diner in Home for the Holidays, Joanne insults Claudia and Tommy and goes home with her husband and children. Then Claudia comes to confront Joanne while she's working out.] People were having a hard time accepting that Joanne was so unrelenting in never having a regret about the way that she treats Claudia. But now she has a moment where she gets off her StairMaster and starts to cry but changes her mind and then gets back on the StairMaster and carries on walking. It's so sad.

HH: Did you see Smoke?

JF: No.

HH: Oh, you have to see it. There's one character in it who's extraordinary unrelenting. But she's onscreen for just a short period of time. You're not ready for her to have any kind of regret or any kind of reflective moment of wishing for something more for herself. You really just want to see her two-dimensional, just one big color that's full of rage, hatred, and resentment. And that's what she is. But then she does have a moment of regret and it's so affecting. With Joanne in Home for the Holidays, you're really ready for that kind of moment after having seen so much of her life.

JF: Yeah, I think you can accept the fact that people don't change, but you need to see a glimmer of them wishing they could.

HH: Well, people do do that, even if it's sentimental. Actually, that's what I see the most. People who are really blind to their lives will have this big sentimental, dramatic moment where they wished that their life could be different. They wish that they could change this one part of themselves. Often it's accompanied by alcohol or whatever.

JF: As an actor, I often play characters who are brave about things that I'm just not good about in my life. In a weird way, if I can spend six months doing that in my role, maybe I can even attempt it in my own life. I just don't think I'm a very emotional or brave person, but I attempt to play characters that are. The woman in Sommersby [1993] was a big character for me because that movie brought up an interesting issue - how do people manage to deceive themselves? Because if you deceive yourself, you live a much riskier life. Sometimes, in order to cope, people will unconsciously create scenarios for themselves so that they can survive intact. People will lie to themselves a little bit, say, to keep a long-term relationship going, so they have the will to continue in it. You know, the guy you're with, you hate these ten things that he does, some of which feed right into some part of yourself that you're totally ashamed of. To go through with that, you might have to say to yourself, "Well, maybe he'll change."

HH: I really admire people who are extraordinarily tolerant and patient. But it's possible to confuse tolerance and patience with shameful compromise, where you're letting something happen that's a violation of yourself, where you're deceiving yourself and saying, "I will put up with this, because, hey, we're all human and I understand."

JF: It's such a luxury to be able to work that out in a therapeutic way in certain roles. Otherwise, standing on a movie set in someone else's clothes with a bunch of people putting compresses on your face is not that interesting to me. I have to have this huge monologue or dialogue about what I'm doing in a movie or I just don't know why I'm doing it. I've no idea why it's becoming harder and harder for me to find movies that fit into that category now.

HH: Do you think that it has to do with the fact that you're directing now and that is fulfilling?

JF: Yes, it is fulfilling. But there is something great about performance and about not just talking about something but actually doing it and making it physical and visceral. Tell me about this movie Crash that you're doing next.

HH: It's based on the J. G. Ballard novel and it's about these characters who experience violent acts and eroticize them instead of being victimized by them. They use them as a kind of sexual outlet. I think it's interesting because normally we perceive violent situations as being diminishing or crippling, and with these people, that's not even an option. Scars and wounds and braces and wheelchairs are vehicles that enable them to perceive the world in a much more erotic way than they've done before. I've just finished the book called Bob Flanagan: Supermasochist. Bob Flanagan is this guy who has cystic fibrosis. As an infant, he had all this incredibly traumatic, painful stuff done to him by doctors, but he just took comfort in the pain. Then he eroticized the comfort and made it a way of life. In fact, he turned it into performance art.

JF: As a kind of therapy, in a way?

HH: Yeah, it was a healing thing. That's the extreme example that I've stumbled on in reading around the subject of Crash. A lot of Ballard's stuff is about redefining eroticism.

JF: Talking about a film like this makes me realize I won't take a role unless I already have some kind of interest in the subject. It's always something that, for some reason, has been working on me.

HH: And then a movie comes along.... Yeah, I've had that happen a lot, too. That's one of the reasons why you found Home for the Holidays.

JF: It's a weird thing when you stumble on something. Even though it may be a mess, you somehow know that for the next two years of your life, you're going to be obessed with it. [to Lucy]Come here, come here.... Are you going to leave those people with the chocolate cake alone?

You know, she's not like other dogs. I took her to the beach and she saw other dogs there and played with them for a while, but when I said , "Come on, let's go," she did.

HH: She's become pretty attached to you.

JF: [to Lucy] Come, come Lucy. Bring your stick. [Lucy barks] Training a dog is a bit like being a director. Good directors tell you where you're heading, and they encourage you to fly and you figure out how to get there. But if someone's flailing in the wind and improvising all over the place, that makes everything unstable and you have to call them to heel. Ah, philosophy....

[mario]

German only....

Jodie Foster in tip - Berlin Magazin
Translation Period: Home for the Holidays 1995-96
Picture: Jodie Foster (not in original source)
Date: February, 1996
Interviewer: Gunter Goeckenjan (tip)
Description: Interview with Jodie Foster (JF) talking about directing Home for the Holidays.

Holly war mein Wunsch

"Home for the Holidays" ist der zweite Film, fuer den JODIE FOSTER hinter der Kamera stand. Im Wettbewerb der Berlinale wird der Star die hintergruendige Familienkomoedie selbst vorstellen. Unter dem Titel "Familienfest und andere Schwierigkeiten" kommt der Film anschliessend in unsere Kinos.
tip: "Home for the Holidays" ist der erste Jodie-Foster-Film ohne die Schauspielerin Jodie Foster. Haben Sie waehrend der Vorbereitungen jemals ueberlegt, eine Rolle zu uebernehmen?

JF: Nein! Holly Hunter war von Anfang an meine Wunschbesetzung. Wir schickten ihr eine der ersten Drehbuchfassungen, und sie reagierte sofort. Sie rief mich gleich am ersten Tag an und fragte: "Wann fangen wir an?"

tip: Warum wollten Sie diesmal vor der Kamera keine Rolle spielen?

JF: Wenn du beide Jobs gleichzeitig machtst, geht es dir ziemlich schlecht. Du bist nur erschoepft, und dann macht dir das, was du als Schauspielerin machst, ebensowenig Spass wie das, was du als Regisseurin tust.

tip: Wird ein Film schlechter, wenn die Hauptdarstellerin auch Regie fuehrt?

JF: Ich bin nicht ganz sicher. Auf jeden Fall ist es problematisch. Wenn man beide Rollen uebernimmt, erhaelt man keine zufaelligen Highlights, nichts bewegt sich in eine unvorhergesehene Richtung. Die gegenseitige Inspiration bleibt voellig aus. Du machst als Schauspieler, was du als Regisseur haben willst und gehst dann weiter zum naechsten Kapitel. Das reduziert die darstellerischen Moeglichkeiten. Man erhaelt keine ueberraschenden Leistungen und Wendungen.

tip: In "Das Wunderkind Tate" haben Sie Regie gefuehrt und eine Hauptrolle gespielt. Moegen Sie den Film nicht?

JF: Fuer einen Debuetfilm ist er ganz gut. Heute habe ich allerdings den Eindruck, dass ich alles zu sehr kontrolliert habe. Damals musste alles bis ins kleinste Detail geplant werden, und das beeinflusst natuerlich das Endergebnis. Fuer einen ersten Film war das ein angemessenes Vorgehen. Ein zweites Mal wollte ich das nicht noch einmal machen.

tip: "Das Wunderkind Tate" war linear und schematisch. Verglichen damit ist "Home for the Holidays" ein inzeniertes Chaos. Die Erzaehlstruktur fuegt hier die Szenen locker zusammen und erlaubt Umwege und das Verweilen bei den Kleinigkeiten.

JF: Fuer mich ist "Home for the Holidays" das Ergebnis eines Reifeprozesses. Denn das Erwachsenenleben ist chaotisch, so vieles in unserem Leben ergibt keinen Sinn. "Das Wunderkind Tate" dagegen wurde aus der Perspektive eines achtjaehrigen Jungen erzaehlt, der versucht, sich irgendwie ueber sein Leben klarzuwerden. Da war diese Erzaehlweise nicht ganz fehl am pPlatze.

tip: Waren die Dreharbeiten von "Home for the Holidays" auch spontan und chaotisch?

JF: Wenn man die magischen Momente, die Spontanitaet und die Qualitaeten freier Improvisation gewinnen will, muss man das Chaos zulassen. Man muss aber vermeiden, dass alles darin ertrinkt. Unsere Arbeitsweise koennte man ein organisiertes Chaos nennen.

tip: Hatten Sie ein fertiges Drehbuch?

JF: Wir haben lange an dem Drehbuch gearbeitet. Dann haben wir Lesungen mit den Schausoielern abgehalten. Waehrend dieser Phase wurde der Text weiter verbessert. Zwei Wochen vor dem Drehbeginn fingen wir an zu proben. Dadurch aenderte sich noch einmal sehr viel am Buch. Waehrend der Dreharbeiten hat dann vor allem Robert Downey Jr. seine Dialoge spontan veraendert: Bei jedem Take, den wir drehten, kam etwas vollkommen anderes aus seinem Mund. Das war ziemlich lustig.

tip: haben Sie ihn fuer diese Rolle genommen, weil Sie sein Improvisationstalent wollten?

JF: Allerding. Er ist einer der kreativsten und fruchtbarsten Schauspieler, die ich kenne. Mir war aber nicht klar wie brilliant er ist.

tip: Wie definieren Sie Iíhre Rolle als Regisseurin, was geben Sie in dieser Rolle?

JF: In all den JAhren im Filmgeschaeft habe ich gelernt, dass Regisseure eine aehnliche Funktion haben, wie gute Eltern. Jeder erwartet vom Regisseur, dass er oder sie Selbstsicherheit austrahlt und weiss, wo es lang geht. Der Regisseur muss praezise auf sein Arbeitsziel zusteuern. Dabei muss er den Schauspielern den Absprung ermoeglichen. Und er achtet darauf, dass sie ankommen. Wenn Schauspieler hier und da einen Fehler machen, ist das auch nicht schlimm. Dann versuchen sie es eben noch einmal. Aufpassen muss jemand, der sie unterstuetzt, der sie liebt und der gleichzeitig das Ziel nicht aus den Augen verliert. Das erlaubt ihnen, sich in neue Richtungen zu bewegen, und Gebiete zu erobern, Grenzen zu ueberstreiten, von denen sie vorher nichts wussten. Deshalb ist es wichtig, dass sie auch einmal etwas wirklich Dummes tun koennen. Schliesslich ist da jemand, der die Verantwortung traegt und den Film schon im Kopf hat.

tip: Wenn Sie eine Geschichte verfilmen, brauchen Sie als Regisseur eine Beziehung zu ihr, brauchen Sie eine emotionale Gemeinsamkeit mit den Charakteren darin?

JF: Auf jeden Fall. Natuerlich muessen das keine autobiografischen Situationen sein. Ich kann aber auch nicht verstehen, wie Regisseure Filme machen koennen, die von Erfahrungen ausgehen, welche sie selbst nicht nachvollziehen koennen. Waehrend der Dreharbeiten wird irgendwann einmal jemand fragen: "Traegt er jetzt eine gruene oder eine blaue Krawatte?" Wenn man keine innere Beziehung zu dem entsprechenden Charakter hat, kann man nicht einmal solche Kleinigkeiten entscheiden. Wenn ich eine Entscheidung am Set treffe, muss ich wissen, nicht raten.

tip: Ist Ihre Motivation aehnlich , wenn Sie eine Rolle uebernehmen?

JF: Nein. Ich suche mir die Filme, in denen ich spiele, nach anderen Kriterien aus, als die, bei denen ich mich als Regisseur engagiere. Als Schauspielerin geht es mir darum zu erfahren, wer ich vielleicht sein koennte. Meine Rollen sind Schatten meiner selbst, Leben, die ich nicht lebe. In die schluepfe ich fuer ein paar Monate, um zu sehen, wie die Welt aus dieser Perspektive aussieht. Mit den Geschichten, die ich als Regisseurin machen moechte, strebe ich nach Leichtigkeit. Das Gegenteil davon suche ich als Schauspielerin. Da bewege ich mich eher in Richtung Drama. Wenn ich Regie fuehre, brauche ich eine gute Geschichte, die etwas von meinen Ideen und Standpunkten ausdrueckt. Wenn ich eine Rolle spiele, dann erwarte ich, dass diese Person ganz anders ist, als ich es bin. Ich will von dieser Person etwas lernen.

tip: Und was lernen Sie von den Charakteren, die Sie spielen

JF: Durch "Nell" habe ich beispielsweise erfahren, wie es ist, emotional voellig offen zu sein. Durch meine Figur in "Sommersby" konnte ich erkunden, wie es ist, wenn Menschen sich selbst betruegen.

tip: Welchem der Charaktere in "Home for the Holidays" fuehlen Sie sich am naechsten?

JF: Ich selbst erkenne mich auf die eine oder andere Weise in jedem der drei Kinder wieder. Ich glaube aber, dass man das so noch nicht erlebt haben muss, um sich in die Personen hineinversetzen zu koennen.

tip: Was bedeuten Familienfeste fuer Sie persoenlich?

JF: Ich liebe Feiertage. Ich koche gern und meine Schwestern auch. Bei Thanksgiving und Ostern geht es bei uns, mehr als bei den anderen Festen, ums Essen. Fuer mich bedeuten sie sonst nichts. Natuerlich ist mir auch der Druck solcher Tage nicht fremd. Ich finde es sehr hart, mit der Familie um den Tisch zu sitzen, sie bei den Haenden zu fassen und zu sagen: "Dies sind die Leute, fuer die ich sterben wuerde! Das ist der Kreis derer, die ich bedingungslos liebe!" Warum sollte ich an einem bestimmten Kalendertag bestimmte Gefuehle haben? Die meisten Thanksgiving-Tage mit meiner Familie waren ganz okay. Ich erinnere mich aber an ein Thanksgiving mit der Familie eines Freundes. Bei denen war es eines dieser bizarren Rituale weisser Amerikaner. Alle fuenf Minuten wurde ein Witz ueber eine andere Gesellschaftsschicht oder eine andere Rasse gemacht. Gefeiert wurde das grosse Wir. Aber was hatte ich mit diesem Wir-gegen-die-anderen zu tun? Ich war nicht zu Wir geworden. Fuer diese Leute war Thanksgiving dazu da, sich selbst zu bestaetigen, dass sie die menschliche Rassen waren. Damit will ich nichts zu tun haben, selbst wenn es nur einmal im Jahr gefeiert wird. Ih wollte mich nicht von denen, die sich selbst als Insider feiern, vereinnahmen lassen, nur weil ich die gleiche Haarfarbe habe, wie sie. Ich fuehle mich viel mehr zu den Aussenseitern hinzugezogen.

tip: Im Gegensatz zu den ueblichen Familienfilmen der Traumfabrik zeigt Ihr "Home for the Holidays" die Familie nicht als Ort der Harmonie.

JF: An irgendeinem Punkt des Erwachsenwerdens erkennt jeder Amerikaner, dass der amerikanische Traum sehr weit von der Wirklichkeit entfernt ist. Amerika ist auf eine hoffnungsvolle Art auf einen Traum aufgebaut. Darin kann jeder aussehen wie Morgan Fairchild, darin kann jeder 70 Millionen Dollar in einer Gameshow gewinnen. Darin haelt die Liebe ewig, und Kinder sind den Eltern so wichtig wie ihre Augaepfel. Leider ist all das nicht wahr.

[artfuldodger]

Thanks, Bernie.