From: Hollywood Reporter (Online)
New Line's 'Sam' a standout for awards season Oct. 19, 2001
By Martin A. Grove
"Sam" standout: In a normal year, which 2001 sadly is not, in mid-October we'd be talking about likely Oscar and Golden Globe contenders rather than about what new security arrangements are likely to be in place for those telecasts.
While it can be argued that in the post-Sept. 11 world, awards are too trivial to think about, it can also be argued that President Bush was right in saying we need to get back to doing the business of America. From that perspective, the fact that Hollywood's prime awards events will go on as planned is very good news.
Having enjoyed an early look at New Line Cinema's "I Am Sam," I welcomed the opportunity to focus today on its production with Jessie Nelson, its director and co-screenwriter with Kristine Johnson. "Sam," which I expect will resonate with awards voters, critics and moviegoers, opens Dec. 28 with exclusive runs in New York and L.A., and will expand Jan. 11 to about 200 theaters.
In the PG-13 rated drama, Sean Penn plays a mentally challenged single parent trying to raise a 7 year-old daughter. Michelle Pfeiffer is the self-absorbed lawyer who agrees, reluctantly at first, to help him try to get his child back from a foster home. Both Penn and Pfeiffer deliverr stand-out performances that are good bets to be recognized this awards season. Produced by Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz, Richard Solomon and Nelson, "Sam" co-stars Dianne Wiest, Richard Schiff, Doug Hutchinson, Loretta Devine and Laura Dern.
Nelson made her directorial debut with "Corrina, Corrina," starring Whoopi Goldberg and Ray Liotta, and followed that by co-writing "Stepmom," starring Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon. She went on to co-write and produce with Alan Zweibel "The Story of Us," which starred Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer and was directed by Rob Reiner.
"This film came to be right around the time that my daughter was born and I was feeling kind of overwhelmed as a new parent," Nelson told me. "She had colic and there were all kinds of things that I felt like I didn't know. I felt a little like a mentally challenged parent. In walked a friend of mine (Johnson) to visit my child and she shared with me that she was thinking of exploring this idea about a disabled father. This was six years ago. I thought it was a brilliant metaphor for what every parent must feel in some way -- that they feel they have these huge strengths in certain areas and then that we're all flawed or incomplete in other areas. And then it also intrigued me (with) the notion of, 'What if someone only knew how to love and didn't know how to bring all the intellectual gifts that so many of us are given by our parents -- the music and the literature and the this and the that?'
"So she and I started researching the idea together and going to a center called L.A. GOAL, a center for people with disabilities (such as autism, mental retardation and learning and neurological challenges including epilepsy and cerebral palsy). The woman who ran the center said that she would let us come and (observe). It's a work and art program. They work half the day, so they have jobs, and then the other half of the day they do art projects. So it's a really lovely place. She said that they would let us into their lives only if we stayed and did the research for about three months, so that we didn't get a superficial picture of what was going on but that we really got to know them. And that was an incredible gift."
Asked how that evolved into the movie, Nelson explained, "It was one of those situations where the research just gave us so much. I mean, first of all, the humor and the bravery and the spirit of the people just came through to us every day. Like the video night scene (in the movie in which Penn and his closest pals, also mentally challenged, watch movies together). We went to video night (at L.A. GOAL). We met with them at (the restaurant that in the film is) IHOP -- for them it was Denny's. Their love of the Beatles came across as we were doing the research. So much of what we learned in the research found its way into the script. We stopped researching after several months and then we began to write it together."
Did Nelson and Johnson have actors in mind as they were writing? "I always wanted someone like Sean for the role," Nelson replied. "I wanted an extraordinarily brilliant actor in that role rather than just what studios often want (which is) a gigantic movie star. Fairly early on in the process, after my draft, his agent, Brian Gersh, who is now is manager, called me and said, 'You know, this is the kind of movie Sean Penn would really love because he's a father and because he really fights in his life for the truth and what he feels is the truth.' So he felt that thematically Sean would really relate to it. I think that (Gersh) had been slipped (the script at that point) or he had read it or maybe he just knew what it was about."
At that point, the screenplay went to Penn to read. "I wrote Sean a long letter with the screenplay," Nelson said. "Sean called me and said how beautiful he thought it was and that he loved the role and that he would love to meet. At the time, he was going to Italy to make the movie 'Up at the Villa' and, oddly enough, I was taking my family on a vacation to the same area of Italy at the exact same time. So our first meeting was actually in Italy. I think we met finally in Sienna. I remember feeling like, 'I'll be lucky if I get to this meeting because I don't speak a word of Italian and my cab driver doesn't speak a word of English.' Somehow we made our way in 45 minutes to this little village."
Obviously, Penn agreed to make the movie. "We talked a lot about the film and our ideas and our lives and where we came from in our work," she said.
"I remember at one point he got up and I had this idea for a moment in the movie and he walked as Sam for just a minute. I remember thinking, 'Oh, my God, there he is. There he is -- the whole character right there.' So without ever formally saying yes, he said yes."
After bringing Penn on board, Nelson was in a much stronger position to get her movie made, but it still wasn't easy. "And then (there was) the challenge of finding a studio that will make the movie the way you really see the movie," she pointed out. "At the time, we were at Fox. This was a different regime at Fox (than is there now) and they had a kind of different vision for the movie than I did. I had a writing-directing deal at the time at Fox and had written it under that deal. They liked the script. They just wanted to turn it into a vehicle for a huge movie star. It's not like they wanted to change it. They just saw the movie in that way. We slowly, slowly extricated it from there. We were just given a couple of days to set it up at another place. At the time, Mike DeLuca and Claire Rudnick Polstein were (heading production) at New Line. They read it and fell in love with it. We told them our dream cast and how we wanted to do it and they were completely in synch with that. And so we took it there and were just thrilled."
Casting Michelle Pfeiffer to play opposite Penn followed. "I had always imagined Michelle (in the role)," Nelson told me. "She and I had done another movie together called 'The Story of Us.' I knew her from that. New Line was thrilled with the idea of having her in the movie and coupling her with Sean. So I called her and asked her to read the script and then she came aboard. I think she was very excited about the idea of working with Sean, loved the material and, I think, recognized that it was a different kind of role for her. I think that's wonderful to put someone in a role that you normally wouldn't see them in. People associate Sean with darker movies and I think it's wonderful to see this hopeful, more uplifting side of him and the kind of darker side of Michelle that we normally don't see. What was interesting is that both Michelle and Sean had studied with the same acting teacher. Interestingly enough, a lot of people in my cast did. Her name is Peggy Feurey. Although they're very different as actors, I think the basic approach that she gave them made them have a lot in common in their processes. So it was really wonderful to have them working together. There was a lot of harmony in that."
Although the project goes back six years, things took a fast turn in the end. "Once we got it to New Line, which was about a year and a half ago, it all started happening very quickly," she said. "They were excited about working with Sean. They were excited about working with Michelle. Once we got those deals closed, they green lit the movie and we were just kind of rolling really quickly at that point. We started pre-production in the fall (of 2000). We had a very, very quick pre-production. We started shooting in January (of 2001). We had about 45 days (to shoot). We could have used a little more. You know, it's a challenge when you have a child in a movie because you're only allowed to work them a certain amount of hours a day. So you don't really get your full shooting days."
Often, directors cast identical twins to play a child's role so they can extend their shooting days. Nelson didn't do that, casting young Dakota Fanning in the part of Penn's daughter and getting a terrific performance from her. Fanning, 6, is no stranger to cameras, however, having begun her career at the age of 5 by doing a Tide commercial. Since then she's been seen on such TV shows as "ER," "Ally McBeal," "The Practice," "Malcolm In The Middle" and "Spin City" and in the movie "Tomcats."
"Dakota was just too brilliant to not cast," Nelson said, explaining why she didn't go the twins route. "And then we made the decision at that point to cast some of the actors with disabilities in other roles (as Penn's closest friends), which was really exciting for me."
Did that make it harder for her as a director? "Yes and no," she replied, "because they brought with them such truth and when they were on the set, the set became a very special place because it really opened up everybody's hearts. Normally, people on sets can get grumpy. They can get (wrapped up in) all the stuff that we all fall into. But when you have people who are so innocent and open and kind around you, it kind of brings out the best in everybody. So it was really special days the days that they were with us."\
Another of Penn's friends in the film, but one who definitely isn't mentally challenged, is Dianne Wiest, who also delivers an awards-worthy performance in "Sam" as Penn's neighbor and helper in terms of looking after his daughter. "(Johnson) and I had always had her in our mind when we were creating (the role of) Annie," Nelson said. "Initially, before she even read it, we heard that she couldn't do it because of her schedule on a television show in New York. So we worked and worked and worked to get her part down to four days so she could just fly in and be with us and fly right home. We kept banging on her door and finally (agent) Sam Cohn gave it to her to read and she called the next day and just said, 'I have to be part of this. We're going to make this work.' And she was a real joy to have on the set. Such a lovely person. She's a very magical soul with a twinkle in her eye."
Asked what challenges she recalls from production, Nelson said, "Well, since we didn't have enough time, there were days when we were shooting three or four highly emotional scenes in one day. So it was a real challenge to keep everybody's energy up. To keep the crew's energy up. To keep the actors in a good place for them to modulate themselves so they had enough energy to keep going. Certain scenes would take longer than we imagined, which would mean we didn't have as much time to shoot other scenes. We had babies. We had dogs. There was a moment when I looked at Sean and I thought, you know, they say it's such a challenge to work with kids and dogs and I'd put in this scene six dogs, a kid and several actors with mental disabilities. Not one dog, but six! But, you know, he loves that and so do I because when you have all these different factors going on at once it forces the scene to be more spontaneous because you don't really know what's going to happen. You don't know what line one of the actors with a mental disability is going to throw to you (or) when they're going to be doing the script or when they're going to be improvising. You don't know when the dog is going to twist you up in the chain and you'll get a great comedic moment. You don't know what the kid's going to do at that moment. Sean thrives on that. He thrives on things that keep him very honest and in the moment and I love to work that way, too, so in a certain way we were very well partnered."
"Sam" was shot in L.A., but not because the script called for it. "It was part of the fact that I have a six year old daughter and I didn't want to be away from her," Nelson noted. "So I went 'poof' on the computer and (said), 'We'll make it in L.A.' Initially, I had written it for New York and as she got older and was in school, I thought, 'No, no, no, no no. It's going to be in L.A.' Also, so much of the research for us was realizing the bus routes that these people would take (in order to get around town on their own). So L.A. gave us that. There was a wonderful feeling of how they have to navigate through this city, which is pretty challenging for any of us."
"Sam" wound up costing, she said, "in the $20 millionish (budget range)" and certainly looks like it cost more. "People really cut their fees," Nelson explained. "My crew really cut their fees. We had a shortened amount of time to do everything. In a certain way, it was like guerilla filmmaking."
Nelson screened the completed film for L.A. GOAL with wonderful reaction from people there. "We had a wonderful day. We went and showed it to the group where we had done all our research and we watched it with them," she said. "They were just sobbing and talking to the screen and applauding certain scenes. I don't think they felt like their lives had been represented in many films and it was pretty amazing for them. They're also going to be designing our title sequence. Some of the artists with disabilities have helped create a title sequence. It's very beautiful art that they design. So they've really become a part of it."