Dressed nattily in a blue pin-striped suit, Steve Martin looked around the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto for his muse. He spotted Claire Danes, in a simple red dress and offered her his arm as they walked in for an interview just after the press screened their latest movie Shopgirl, which Martin adapted from a novel about an older guy who falls for a young girl at a clothing store counter.
Critics at the Toronto International Film Festival raved about the simple romance, which includes a younger suitor too, played by Jason Schwartzman. The movie is directed by British director Anand Tucker, a wild-haired guy who looks like a younger version of Tim Burton — and since Burton was in town at the festival, too, they were often confused for each other.
The team was in town to talk about the making of Martin‘s “little movie”–little when compared to the big budget blockbusters he has coming up like The Pink Panther and Cheaper by The Dozen 2. Danes comes across as shy and aloof, almost embarrassed when the attention is more on her rather than her boyfriend, Billy Crudup, who has a film at the Toronto Festival, Trust the Man. She has big movies coming up, The Family Stone and The Flock, but remains low-key about it, and prefers to talk about this upcoming “little” movie. Danes may be under-the-radar as far as the general public knows her, but she’s sought out as a young actress. In fact, she was the only former co-star that two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster looked up and talked to during the time the both of them were in Toronto (and Jodie had a lot of friends and former co-stars in town!)
Shopgirl, like many Martin has scripted, (Bowfinger, L.A. Story, The Jerk) is set in Los Angeles, and the city where he lives and loves is as much of a character as the shopgirl and her older and younger boyfriends. Director Tucker said he won about half of the arguments he had with the screenwriter/actor when discussing the film, and Martin gave in some of the times “because I had to own the film too, I did have strong opinions, and I did love Los Angeles, even though I am an outsider.”
Schwartzman said he and his longtime friend Danes had to get a bit drunk on vodka before doing their sex scenes–she denies it, but does talk about why she did her first nude scene in a film. “I was really embarrassed about it and we are really good friends, so it was a bit bizarre.” Schwartzman confessed.
During the casual interview, Martin kept looking over at Danes and seemed as entranced by her as his character Ray Porter is with Mirabelle in the movie.
How was doing this movie as compared to other movies you wrote about Los Angeles, like L.A. Story?
Steve Martin: “Well, L.A. Story is a very different kind of film, in that the City of L.A. is a character that is mystical, magical, it speaks, it talks, but here it’s a background character. You know, those back shots of Mirabelle’s apartment, where she’s got a $600 a month apartment, yet an entire view of the city, which often happens in L.A. I like L.A., I’ve lived there my whole life.”
Is there a part of Ray Porter who is you?
Martin: “A little bit, like any of them, some of this, some of that, some of this. Some of it is just about men, some of it’s talking to men.”
How was casting the role of Mirabelle?
Martin: “I knew it was a juicy part, that’s what I felt, and I wanted, or we, wanted to make sure we got the exact right actress because I felt we had a lot of choices. Because actresses don’t get a role that’s meaty, juicy, crying, this, emotional, you know, sexy, and it was a very short list before we got to Claire [Danes]. I mean, we had lunch, we knew that she was what we wanted.”
Were you disappointed that you wouldn’t be taking a comedic role?
Martin: [Laughs] “Well, I couldn’t have, I’m the wrong age, first of all. I always knew what the movie was, and I always knew what the role was, so there were no surprises to me.”
Is this film influenced by a European style?
Martin: “Only by genre, would it be European. But the American films aren’t quite made like this, well certainly Lost in Translation is an American film, but certainly this movie is in that genre. But, I guess us older folks say yeah, it is kind of European. Basically it’s a really American film, I mean, it’s about Americana.”
Why do you think you have such insights into women?
Martin: “For me, as I was writing the book, the hardest part to write was Ray Porter, and it took me a while to figure out why. Because when I look at the opposite sex, I know what’s interesting to me. I’m listening, and I’m finding, ‘Oh that story is interesting, and that aspect is interesting, that’s interesting,’ so I can write about a woman and going this is going to be good, but when you’re writing about a man because I am one, I know the thoughts, I know the feelings, but I don’t know what’s interesting. So it was really hard to kind of pick and choose, but it’s easy to be an observer and an appreciator of the opposite sex.”
What are you trying to say about the American way of life?
Martin: “Oh! Well, I wouldn’t say that the subject is that large, it’s really just about people living in L.A., in a Hollywood environment, in a rich environment, poor environment. The big difference about L.A. is it’s spread out. And yet, you can get from Beverly Hills to Silver Lake in 20 minutes, and it seems like it’s forever away but it’s not. Sometimes you’re driving in L.A., at like 6 p.m. as the sun is going down, and suddenly you’re elevated on the freeway, you’re not even expecting it, and there’s lights and mountains and sea, and all you’re doing is, you’re in your car, and you can be suddenly overwhelmed with this good feeling.”
Does Ray see a therapist?
Martin: “This is my dirty secret, and the dirty secret is, in the book, Ray does not see a psychiatrist, because the narrator, the omniscient narrator, can tell you exactly what he’s thinking, but in the movie I couldn’t do that, and I hated to resort to a psychiatrist, but I wracked my brain – he didn’t have a friend, you know. I can’t put him on the phone, going yeah well I’m thinking this, I’m thinking this, it would be boring. And Anand [Tucker] the director did a brilliant thing, when you never cut to the shrink. And I thought it really made the scene, it didn’t make it like a psychiatrist scene.”
The triangular relationship never has that resolution scene.
Martin: “Well, the thing about a triangle is they can’t work out, unless suddenly all three of them are happy living together.” [Laughs]
It seems like each of the main characters has an issue with intimacy, don’t they?
Martin: “All I know is, this is to me, a character study of a young woman. It’s about what happens to her, and how she is affected, how she grows, which is also another corny word, and how she moves from one point of her life to another.”
What drew you to this character?
Claire Danes: “She’s very clever and she’s emotionally savvy. She’s an artist and an observer but not aggressive. I can identify with her to an extent because she is so well drawn. I mean, she’s creative, and I’d like to think that I am, and she’s pretty sensitive as I am.”
How difficult was it to do your first nude scene on film?
Danes: “Yeah, I’m not a flasher typically, but I think that the nudity was important. You have to look at it this way: one, they were in a sexual relationship which was the dominant reason they were together initially, even though it grows into something more complex than that. Two, it’s an erotic story and I think that needed to be recognized, but also she’s really unsure of herself in some ways and very sure, confident and even bold in other [ways], so I think I found that compelling and kind of paradoxical.”
Where do you think Steve Martin gets such great insight into women?
Danes: “How true! I don’t know! It’s really impressive, that he’s been able to draw this woman, so convincingly and so compassionately. I don’t know, I think he’s known a few of them. It’s really interesting, because it actually relates to the previous question, we talked about this being a European movie, and an American movie, and I think well Anand’s European, but I think, you know, he could actually have a really – he could create a vivid portrait of L.A., because it was a little alien.”
What do you think Mirabelle sees in Ray and Jeremy [Schwartzman’s character]?
Danes: “Jeremy’s a mess, but isn’t he the charming one. And he’s not offering enough, when she initially meets him, you know, he’s not ready. That’s crystal clear. But when she re-encounters him, and sees the transformation that he’s undergone, no matter how superficial, I think she trusts that he’s moving in some way. And I think he really likes her, and that’s a pretty powerful aphrodisiac. If somebody likes me, I’m inclined to like them.”
