My Happy Days in Hollywood by Garry Marshall

Author:Garry Marshall
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780307885029
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2012-04-24T07:00:00+00:00

12. NOTHING IN COMMON

Working with the Great Ones—Hanks and Gleason

IHAD A COMPLICATED relationship with my father. He taught me many things, including how to be in charge and a leader, but we did not have the same close relationship I saw other sons have with their dads growing up in the Bronx. He sometimes treated my sisters and me like business colleagues, as if we shared the cubicle next to him. There wasn’t much I could do to repair the distance between me and my dad, even after he moved to Hollywood and worked with me at Paramount. I did, however, make a pledge to myself that if I ever had a son of my own I would hug him a lot, and tell him how much I loved him and was proud of him. I was able to do that when my son, Scott, was born.

I was thinking a lot about fathers and sons as I set out to direct my third movie, Nothing in Common, written by Rick Podell and Michael Preminger. The story of an adult son forming a relationship late in life with his dad was set to shoot in Chicago. That’s when it became clear to me that a lot of the movie business is out of town. The problem with that is that I am a homebody. I love my San Fernando Valley house and my office, which are a five-minute drive apart. But the good news about Nothing in Common was that at the time my daughter Lori was going to Northwestern University, my alma mater, just outside of Chicago. So at least I would have family close by.

I had worked with producers Jerry Bruckheimer on Young Doctors in Love and Michael Phillips on The Flamingo Kid, and both ran in mainstream Hollywood studio circles. But Nothing in Common came to me from another direction. Alexandra Rose showed up at my office one day with the script. She said she was a big fan of The Flamingo Kid and had been one of the producers on both Norma Rae and I Wanna Hold Your Hand. Alex was bright, ambitious, and kind. She was a Phi Beta Kappa from Wisconsin who had the looks and brains to work with anyone. I’m glad she picked me. The moment I met Alex we got along, and I liked that she was a healthy person and took care of herself through yoga and a macrobiotic diet. After years of smoking and bad eating, I was trying to take care of myself, too, and she was a good example.

Tom Hanks was attached to the script for Nothing in Common from the beginning. It is the story of a hotshot advertising executive who must balance his demanding job with the unraveling of his parents’ marriage and health. The movie centers on the relationship between the son and his father, a Willy Loman–style character whose professional and personal lives are falling apart. I knew Tom casually from passing him on the Paramount lot, where he filmed his series Bosom Buddies near our Happy Days soundstage.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.