The KCET Cinema Series concluded its eight-week spring season at ArcLight Cinemas Sherman Oaks on April 12 with The Meddler. The film stars Susan Sarandon as Marnie, who moves to Los Angeles after the death of her husband. In her new hometown, she discovers The Grove, becomes an Apple fan and gets a little too close to her daughter Lori, played by Rose Byrne. The film also stars J.K. Simmons and features Jerrod Carmichael, Michael McKean and Cecily Strong as the new people who enter Marnies life in L.A. Writer/director Lorene Scafaria and producer Joy Gorman Wettels, who also collaborated on Scafarias directorial debut Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, were on hand for a Q&A session following the film. Madelyn Hammond, president of Madelyn Hammond & Associates, filled in for KCET Cinema Series host Pete Hammond as moderator.
The spring season of the KCET Cinema Series was generously sponsored by the E. Hofert Dailey Trust and featured a mix of comedies and dramas over the course of eight weeks. Tickets for the KCET Cinema Series summer season, which will take place at Santa Monicas Aero Theatre, will be on sale beginning April 21.
Below is an excerpt of Tuesday nights Q-and-A Session.
On the inspiration for The Meddler and getting Susan Sarandon for the lead role.
Lorene Scafaria: It was inspired by my mother, who moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles after my dad died. That was about six years ago. She moved to the Palazzo, right across the street from The Grove where she went all the time. She went to the Apple store and got a phone and just left me lots of messages and then I wrote the script right away, within the month. She moved out and, yeah,
It took a while before Susan was on board. I certainly worked on the script for a while, wrestling with some demons and reading it to my mom over the phone to get her approval.
I sent it cold to Susans agent, yeah, just because I was sort of fed up with how hard it was to get this made.
Joy Gorman Wettels: It was a really tough one to get made and, for a long time, people told us, make it a two-hander. Youll never get the financing for a character study about just a woman in her 60s. One of the things that was great was when Lorene said she wanted to send it to Susan Sarandon, I said, you know her agent, Shani, is a friend of mine and she posts these messages from her mother on her Facebook page every day. Shes going to be obsessed with this script. Within two days, she had read it and told us that she was sending it to Susan and we met with Susan a week later. She was obsessed with it.
On the reaction of Scafarias mother upon finding out that Susan Sarandon was playing the character based on her.
LS: Oh my God, she was so excited. She was like, uh, Daddy would be so excited to be married to Susan Sarandon.
JGW: It helps that there are photoshopped photos throughout the entire movie of Susans head on Lorenes parents photos from Lorenes childhood.
On securing financing for the film.
JGW: It was really hard at first to find financing. We did go to some financiers with just Susan and people were like, what a beautiful script, what a great fit for Susan, come back to us when you have it fully cast. Come back when you have your Lori and when you have your Zipper. it took a while. Because the Lori role is so beautiful, but she doesnt have to carry the movie, it felt like it took a little while longer than we wished for it to get to Rose, but she read it and fell in love with it and really understood how important that role was, even though the movie is Marnies movie, which is great.
Once we had our whole cast together, we actually had quite a few financiers interested. We had about five options.
LS: Only one of them, really, could reach the budget.
JGW: That we wanted.
LS: Which is very low, but I think the floor for what you could film in Los Angeles
JGW: With no tax credit by the way.
LS: With just ambitious locations and things that seemed impossible at the time, Beyonce songs playing on a loop, things like that.
On pitching the film.
JGW: In terms of the pitch, per se, something that Lorene did that was, that should be in the DVD extras, is she shot the first five minutes, the voiceover, at the Grove with her real mother, who would say, You know, Im not an actress.
LS: She was so freaked out, but we didnt even have permission from the Grove, so I told her, dont worry, were going to be really tucked away and hidden. You just have to walk around like you usually do, but its so funny how you tell somebody who is not used to acting, just smile, have a good time, like how you do when you go to the Grove and youre happy. It really worked.
JGW: It helped sell the movie. It even helped me in understanding how youre going to shoot the Grove, when Im thinking that this is probably some hundred thousand dollar a day location and we dont have tax credit. It was such a terrific selling tool. Also, it made you fall in love with the woman on whom this character is based. I think it really helped Susan understand her character as well. When we did it in three hours.
LS: When Susan saw it, she said, this is everything. She just wanted to wear my mothers tops, which she does, and carry her purse.
Madelyn Hammond interviews Lorene Scafaria (writer/director) and Joy Gorman Wettels (producer) about The Meddler at the KCET Cinema Series. | Photo: Liz Ohanesian
On working with The Grove as a major location for the film.
JGW: They also underwrote a premiere tomorrow night at the Grove which is really generous and lovely, but Lorene writes the most charismatic, passionate, beautiful love letters when she wants something and its part of the vision of her movie. A combination of, I think, Lorene explaining this beautiful true story and how much the Grove really does mean to her mother and the smart marketing opportu
