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ABOUT
THE STORY
"I
don't think there's ever going to be an end to stories about the
mother-daughter conflict," says Callie Khouri, who wrote the screenplay
and makes her directorial debut with Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya
Sisterhood. "It's a universal theme. To see things in their proper
perspective, it's important that Sidda first understand who her
mother is, as an individual and a woman, rather than just a parent."
The
Ya-Yas take extreme measures in bringing the feuding women together
because they know that's what it takes. They've had 50 years of
experience dealing with Vivi's moods, dramatic excess and outrageous
behavior. Plus, they know that as difficult as she can be, Vivi
is also a gentle soul, loving and caring and easily hurt. It seems
to them that it's high time Sidda learned this about her mother
as well. It's just not so easy to make that point while Vivi is
smashing the telephone and threatening to disown her ungrateful
daughter.
But
they vow to give it their best shot.
More
than a story about mothers and daughters," says producer Bonnie
Bruckheimer, "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood honors the
special people in our lives who help us discover who we are."
ABOUT
THE PRODUCTION
Bringing
a Favorite Novel to the Screen
On vacation in Idaho in the summer of 1997, producer Bonnie Bruckheimer
read the Rebecca Wells novel, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood,
and fell in love with it.
What
she found so compelling about the story, says Bruckheimer, is how
it demonstrates, in a humorous and compassionate way, "everyone's
desire to understand their intense childhood experiences from a
position of maturity, to accept that imperfect relationships can
be healed and that life goes on."
Bruckheimer
has two best friends she's known since high school, and is well
aware of how powerful that kind of connection can be. "We still
vacation together and talk on the phone almost every day," she says.
"I don't know what I would have done without them. They're my Ya-Yas."
Bruckheimer
produced the 1988 drama Beaches, a film beloved for its message
about the bonds of true friendship, and is still touched by the
response of fans who tell her how much that film meant to them.
"People have told me they watch Beaches every year with their best
friends," she says. "Nothing can compare to the feeling of knowing
that you've done something that affects people so personally. I
believe this film will elicit the same kind of response."
Initially
convinced that the film rights to the book must have already been
snapped up, Bruckheimer made some phone calls and happily discovered
that there had been offers but nothing was finalized. "When I told
Rebecca how passionate I was about the book," the producer recalls,
"she let me run with it. She let me take it to the studios, knowing
that even if I came crying back to her after every studio had passed,
I wasn't going to sleep until I got a deal!"
She
got that deal at Warner Bros. Pictures.
Divine
Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood came to producer Hunt Lowry's attention
in a different way. "My wife read it first," he says, "and then
began reading passages out loud to me. She kept telling me what
a great movie this would make, and I agreed." Lowry's company, Pandora,
a specialty division of Gaylord Films, recently produced the popular
coming-of-age love story A Walk to Remember, which was adapted from
Nicholas Sparks' best-selling novel.
"I
checked on it and found that Warner Bros. Pictures had the rights
and that Bonnie Bruckheimer's company was developing it," Lowry
recalls. "As it turns out, Gaylord had just made a deal with the
Studio and one of the first things that [President of Worldwide
Production] Lorenzo di Bonaventura talked about was Divine Secrets
of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. When he told me that Callie Khouri was
also involved I said 'Count us in on this project... we have to
do it!'"
Khouri,
who is best known for her Academy Award-winning screenplay Thelma
and Louise, was approached twice with an offer to adapt the novel
for the screen, but each time she was busy with other projects.
Bruckheimer, who had acquired the film rights to the story with
her producing partner at the time, Bette Midler, was eager to get
started and enlisted Mark Andrus (co-writer, As Good As it Gets),
to prepare an adaptation. Meanwhile, Khouri became available and
wanted not only to write the script but also to make Divine Secrets
her directorial debut.
Albeit
a labor of love, Khouri found that adapting the story was not an
easy process. "There are 350 pages in the book," she explains, "so
you really have to be selective. It's a difficult book to adapt
and Mark Andrus did a fantastic job, although ultimately I took
it in a slightly different direction. We both tried to make the
characters more active for the screen, without sacrificing the dialogue
that helps defines them."
What's
essential to the story," Khouri continues, "is the idea that there
are certain people in our lives who help pull us through the difficult
times when we can't do it alone. They support us with their love
and endless humor and loyalty. This is what it means to be a Ya-Ya
kind of friend." Adds Lowry, "A Ya-Ya is someone who will go to
the front lines with you, someone with whom you're joined at the
hip and joined at the spirit."
Divine
Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood covers a time span from the late
1930's into the mid-90's. The characters age on screen from childhood
through young adulthood and into their mature years, with much of
the story told in seamless flashback sequences. According to Khouri,
the biggest directorial challenge she faced was "covering that many
years and making it look authentic, staying true to each period
and making sure that every character tracks realistically through
childhood to middle age."
Considering
the story's extended timeline and complex characters, Lowry notes
that, "for her first directing job, she didn't shy away from a challenge.
From our first meeting, I knew that she truly understood the spirit
and the passion of the story. You spend five minutes with Callie
and you see that she's definitely a Ya-Ya herself."
Ya-Yas
-- in Triplicate
Casting
the Ya-Yas proved to be the biggest challenge that the filmmakers
faced. "We had three sets of actors playing the same characters
at different ages," explains Bruckheimer. "We have Vivi as a little
girl, Vivi as a young woman, and mature Vivi, and it was important
that all three looked similar in order to maintain the continuity
of the character."
The
filmmakers held auditions for young girls, many of whom would have
been perfect for their parts, but that alone was not enough. Those
chosen also had to look believably like younger versions of the
adult Ya-Yas, played by Ellen Burstyn, Fionnula Flanagan, Shirley
Knight and Maggie Smith.
Khouri
made sure that all twelve of the Ya-Yas spent time together prior
to filming. "Aside from their physical similarity," the director
says, "they also had to show similarities in personality, which
can be conveyed in a variety of subtle ways like gestures that carry
through from childhood to young adulthood and maturity, and these
decisions needed to be made as a group before the cameras rolled."
"This
is the first time I've shared a role with two other actresses,"
says Ellen Burstyn, who portrays the present-day Vivi. "The three
of us got together at my house in California prior to the production.
We talked about the gestures and rhythms we could share as an attempt
to align ourselves with one another, and I put our discussion on
videotape. When I watch Ashley's performance now I see there's no
doubt that we're playing the same character."
Young
Caitlin Wachs, who plays Vivi as a child, took on the responsibility
earnestly by studying her two adult counterparts carefully. As she
recalls, she would imagine herself "being Ellen, or being Ashley,"
and asking herself, "How would they say this? How would they present
themselves?"
Ashley
Judd was especially aware that her interpretation of young Vivi
must illustrate what the mature Ya-Yas are telling Sidda about her
mother's past. She also felt a strong sense of responsibility toward
Ellen Burstyn.
"Ellen
and I discussed the character," Judd says. "We found out where our
ideas merged and found opportunities where our performances might
echo one another with some visual cues. She brought a lot of imagination
to the role. I learned from her. She was wonderfully gracious."
"It
was a very interesting process," says Bruckheimer, of the multi-generational
casting.
In
searching for the right actresses to portray the present-day Ya-Yas,
the filmmakers did not restrict themselves to the Southern-born.
As Bruckheimer describes it, "We didn't want to add another layer
to an already complex casting situation by adding another condition.
As it turned out, both Sandra and Ashley have southern roots but
we didn't select them because of that. The themes of the story,
of course, cross all borders." The cast ended up including Michigan
native Ellen Burstyn, Kansan Shirley Knight, Dublin-born Fionnula
Flanagan, and Maggie Smith, from Essex, England, and not a false
note among them. Like true Ya-Yas, they rose to the occasion.
When
asked about her definition of a Ya-Ya, Fionnula Flanagan immediately
responded, "You're looking at one! I understand that in Louisiana,
'Ya-Ya' also means talk, so the way I see it it's the constant chat
of a lifetime that you share with your friends." Or, to kick it
into higher gear, as Shirley Knight offers, "It basically means
women who talk a bit too much; as in yakkety-yak, yakkety-yak, ya-ya,
ya-ya, ya-ya!"
Says
Sandra Bullock of the ensemble cast dynamic, "The Ya-Yas are very
different from one another but complement each other so well that
you think they couldn't fully function independently, and these
actresses capture that perfectly. The rhythm of their scenes is
like music being played. I throw out my line as Sidda and watch
the domino effect take over.
Vivi
"Oh,
what a surprise. Look what the backstabbing, traitorous cats dragged
in. Look who it is -- my old ex-friends and the biological fruit
of my womb that rotted." Ellen Burstyn was attracted to the role
of Vivi because, in her estimation, "she has survived all of the
difficult, painful and tragic things that happened to her and she
understands life a little better because of it."
Plus,
Burstyn found it satisfying that the women in both the book and
script are presented as "complex, intelligent and funny. These are
whole women, not stereotypes. Often in literature and films, women
aren't recognized as multi-faceted individuals. This story represents
women as I know them and see them in life. Callie has transformed
this book into a screenplay without sacrificing depth."
Burstyn
sees Vivi as "vivacious, neurotic, selfish, funny, deep and loving.
She had youthful dreams that were never realized and a complicated
relationship with her daughter."
Khouri
fully supports Burstyn's interpretation of Vivi, saying "She brings
her own focus to the role and yet is open to other ideas as well
and there was never a moment when I hesitated about discussing anything
with her. Her performance makes you feel that there is no limit
to what she can convey."
A
bonus for Burstyn was her onscreen reunion with James Garner, who
plays Vivi's husband, Shep. "It's very sweet for me to be playing
opposite Jim," she says. "Forty-one years ago in summer stock we
worked together in John Loves Mary. We met as young talents and
now we have an opportunity to come together again as actors with
history. When I look at him now, it's as though I can see all the
years of his life and I'm sure he can see mine."
Younger
Vivi
"Don't
you look at me in that tone of voice."
Ashley
Judd read Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood when the book was
first published and immediately saw Vivi as a film role she would
enjoy playing. As she describes it, "I could easily imagine being
Vivi, I so identified with the character."
When
offered the role, Judd did not hesitate to accept. "It was a great
opportunity for me," she says, "to portray a character whose development
follows a realistic arc.
"She's
definitely a survivor," Judd continues. "Vivi is a force of nature
-- full of life, energy and potential. Due to a series of tragedies
she experiences as a young girl, some of that passion gets drained
out of her. She's able to survive because of her friends - the Ya-Yas."
To
understand the various facets of Vivi's personality, Judd kept a
diary during production and referred to the book to organize into
categories the things that Vivi said or were said about her.
Khouri
believes that Judd completely captures the character. "Vivi definitely
has passion," says Khouri, "and that can work negatively as well
as positively. In those moments when Vivi is kicking up her heels,
Ashley is radiant and you really feel that she's having fun. It's
pure joy. Then in the darker moments, Ashley leaves no doubt about
the abject desperation Vivi feels. It's a beautifully nuanced performance."
Sidda
Lee
"I
can hear the ice clinking in your glass... the sounds of my happy
childhood. God, I need a Xanax."
My
character introduces the story," says Sandra Bullock of Sidda Lee
Walker. "Sidda becomes the catalyst who brings all the past and
present situations together. She's the daughter of the craziest
Ya-Ya, Vivi."
Because
of her misunderstanding of certain harrowing family events, for
which she blames her mother, Sidda is on the verge of making a huge
mistake by rejecting a marriage proposal from her longtime live-in
boyfriend Connor McGill. "She's afraid that if she gets married
she will do to her own children what she remembers her mother doing
to her," Bullock explains. "This is when the Ya-Yas step in to help.
They take the bull by the horns, meaning that they drug Sidda and
hold her against her will, forcing her to hear them out. They introduce
her to her mama's secret scrapbook, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya
Sisterhood, and they use it to explain some of Vivi's over-the-top
behavior."
Khouri
avidly pursued Bullock for the role of Sidda, going as far as contacting
her on holiday in Germany to discuss the project. As Bullock recalls
the conversation, "she explained exactly why she saw me as Sidda."
A fan of the book, Bullock was eventually convinced to accept the
part because of Khouri's insight into the story and the characters.
"Plus," Bullock admits, "she had so many exceptional actors committed,
I didn't want to miss the opportunity to be part of such a stellar
ensemble."
Says
Khouri of working with Bullock, "she was a complete and utter joy.
She came in with ideas, fully enthused and at the same time completely
easy and open. Honestly, I shouldn't be so candid about how great
she is because I don't want her to work with anyone else but me
from now on!"
Teensy
"I'm
making you coffee -- the real kind, good ol' Louisiana chicory,
not that fancy New York swill."
Fionnula
Flanagan read the script for Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
before reading the book and was struck both times by the humor of
the story. "It made me laugh," she remembers. "It's wonderful to
have a story about the kind of friends you make as a little girl
that you keep throughout your whole life. The Ya-Yas are always
true to each other. They bicker and squabble, they have fall-outs
and fall-back-ins, but their friendship endures."
Says
Khouri, "Fionnula gives the character not only a joyous sense of
humor but a formidable fierceness when it's necessary."
Teensy
is the one who understands Vivi in ways that the other Ya-Yas don't,"
Flanagan explains. "Because Vivi was engaged to Teensy's brother
Jack, who was killed in the war, these two women will always share
that grief."
Teensy
is also the one of the four most easily identified as the wealthy
Ya-Ya. "I get to drive this magnificent butter-yellow Rolls Royce
Corniche," says Flanagan, "which I'm enjoying enormously and expect
the production to give me as a present when we wrap."
Having
immersed herself in all things Ya-Ya for the duration of production,
Flanagan developed a strong sense of what defines the moniker and
how it extends beyond a book or a film, or beyond any particular
culture or country. "I met a woman on the ferry the other day,"
she recalls, "and I was explaining to her how Maggie, Shirley and
I had eaten lunch and then wanted to go shopping but discovered
we only had 10 minutes left. And she said, earnestly, 'Oh honey,
we just have them fix our lunch while we're shoppin.' I thought,
'Here's a true blue Ya-Ya.'"
Necie
"We
are going straight to hell."
Having
played serious roles for most of her career, Knight finds it "extraordinarily
amusing that lately I'm being cast in humorous parts. I'm a dramatic
actress, but it's fun for me. Necie is the nice one, the quiet one.
She approaches things with more trepidation than her more daring
friends, and is the one who always says, 'I don't think we should
be doing this, y'all,' but then joins right in anyway."
Knight
shared a Ya-Ya-like camaraderie with three high school girlfriends.
"We called our selves the Topnotchers and we were a clique, so I
completely understand that aspect of the film. We were together
all through high school and we still talk and see each other."
Primarily
a theater actress, Knight jokes that films are "kind of restful.
You get days off and you don't work as hard. On the other hand,
it can be more of an immediate challenge because you don't have
a lot of time for rehearsal. You're required to instantly bring
your character to the fore."
About
Knight, Khouri says, "She's just incredible. If you don't watch
her she'll walk away with every scene, without saying a word."
Demonstrating
how the Ya-Ya spirit is not confined by culture or nationality,
Knight relates a story about encountering some fans with Maggie
Smith and Fionnula Flanagan while visiting the Wilmington neighborhood
during production. "They were southern ladies, they had the proper
accents of course and had read the book, and they said without hesitation
that we would be perfect for the parts."
Caro
"You
know how those Yankees like to make us all out to be a bunch of
swamp-water, alligator-wrestling bigots."
While
Maggie Smith enjoyed the book "enormously" and was excited about
taking on the role of Caro, she was concerned about developing a
credible southern accent. "It's not easy to speak with a southern
accent," she admits. "I've seen many actors try and fail to get
it right and I truly didn't want that to happen. We had an excellent
dialect coach, Lilene Mansell, who was on set at all times, and
she was positively wonderful with her notes and help."
With
her patois locked in, Smith set about developing what she calls
"the wackiest of the Ya-Yas" -- Caro. "Caro drags an oxygen tank
around with her," Smith explains, "because she's obviously been
a very heavy smoker and is now paying the price by having to survive
on oxygen, which probably makes her more short-tempered than ever.
Honestly, what convinced me to accept the role was that I liked
Caro very much. She's forthright. She's the one who tells Vivi what's
what and how she ought to get it straightened out."
Caro
is also the one who gets to fire off some of the funniest lines
in the film with her deadpan wit and husky cough. "Maggie Smith
is hysterical," says co-star Shirley Knight.
Khouri
agrees. "She's funny and brilliant. I'm sure that everyone who has
ever worked with her has run out of adjectives. She's just a miracle."
As
a mother of two boys, Smith's view of the mother/daughter conflict
comes solely from a daughter's perspective. "With my sons," she
says, "It's a slightly different dynamic. But I know that relationships
between mother and daughter can be a difficult and complex. Sometimes
things never get resolved."
A
veteran of the stage, Smith found assurance in Khouri's directing
style. "In the theater," she says, "I'm accustomed to working my
way right straight through a piece. I find it disconcerting going
backwards and forwards in a film. It's a great help to have a guide
like Callie setting my focus and pulling all the segments together."
Shep,
a Man with the Patience of a Saint
"I
tried to keep up and then I tried to stay out of your way. But I
knew when I first laid eyes on you, there was no one like you in
the world. When I said for better or worse, I knew it was a coin
toss."
James
Garner is Shep Walker, Vivi's long-suffering husband and Sidda's
father.
Shep
is a relatively quiet character, in comparison to the hullabaloo
that surrounds him, but that does not mean he is insignificant or
that he had any less of an influence in shaping his daughter's life.
Perhaps Sidda gets her empathy from him, and her longing for serene
places in which to lie still and contemplate. Certainly without
his patience and love, both Vivi's life and Sidda's would have been
much more difficult than they can imagine.
When
asked why Shep stays with Vivi, James Garner answers simply, "He
loves her dearly." It's as plain as that.
"James
Garner plays Shep beautifully," says Khouri. "Such a warm, loving
man," she says of both the character and the actor. "Shep's strength
is his ability to accept things as they are. He loved this woman
so much that he chose to hang in there when maybe someone else would
have thrown in the towel. He accepted Vivi for what she was and
took the bad with the good, keeping the family together through
the hardest times."
Shep
is aware from the beginning that he was not Vivi's first choice.
"She was in love with someone else who went off to war and never
came back," Garner explains, "and she took the next best thing,
which was Shep." Perhaps the fact that he had no illusions help
him through the rough times, Garner considers. "Without his patience,
they never would have made it."
Addressing
his character's reticence, Garner says wisely, "sometimes silence
is better than all the rhetoric you can offer. Shep stays out of
it. He observes and he cares for his wife and daughter a great deal,
but he keeps his distance. Of course, when Sidda needs him, for
example, at times when Vivi is distant, Shep is there."
As
for the Ya-Yas, "he accepts them as he does Vivi," says Garner,
recognizing that, "They're a part of her."
Connor
McGill, Sidda's Fiance
-- A Man Catching His First Glimpse of What He's Getting Himself
Into
"How
has your old man hung in there for forty-odd years?"
Versatile
Scottish-born actor Angus Macfadyen, best known for his role of
Robert the Bruce in Mel Gibson's Braveheart, believes that the characters
Connor and Shep "are very similar creatures" in that they're both
patient and endlessly loyal to the women that they truly love but
don't always understand.
Khouri
also sees Conner as "kind of a younger version of Shep."
However,
the difference between them is that while Shep has opted to take
the path of least resistance over the years by being silently supportive,
Connor is more inclined to step into the fray and speak his mind.
Consequently, he risks getting his head snapped off from time to
time, both by Sidda and whole Ya-Ya crew, but he also manages to
get a word in now and then, and occasionally they even listen to
him.
With
humor, persistence, and above all, honesty, Macfadyen's Connor throws
himself into the current situation with Sidda and her mother, and
with Sidda and himself, to the extent that he pursues Sidda from
New York to Louisiana rather than waiting for her to decide the
outcome of their relationships on her own. He refuses to have his
opinions discounted, come hell or high water... or Ya-Ya resistance.
In
describing Connor's first meeting with the volatile Vivi, Macfadyen
says "It starts out quite confrontationally, because he doesn't
want to put up with any of her nonsense and he makes that clear.
To his surprise, she ends up respecting that. She understands that
he's prepared to accept her as she is but he's also going to go
ahead and say what he thinks, which is actually very much like the
code she has with her girlfriends. They end up having a good laugh
about it. Callie and I discussed it and agreed that Connor needed
to have a great sense of humor."
Still,
for all of the young man's efforts, Macfadyen admits that "Connor
is a bit of an outsider, looking into this rather insane world of
anger and emotion, neurosis, drama. He comes from an entirely different
place."
Accommodating
a 60-Year Span of Time
Since
the film covers three different time periods, the late 1930s and
early 40s, the 1960s and the 1990s, the production had to return
to the same locations three and four times, meticulously re-dressing
and aging each set," says executive producer Mary McLaglen. That
logistic challenge fell largely to production designer David J.
Bomba, working closely with director of photography, John Bailey
and costume designer Gary Jones.
Bomba
read Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood a year and a half before
he was hired to design the film. "As soon as I read anything," he
says, "I start to visualize it." Rather than re-read the book, he
then designed the sets based on his memory, the script, and Khouri's
suggestions, going back to the book only for specific details pertinent
to Pecan Grove, Vivi's home or the Spring Creek cabin.
Bomba
found the project both challenging and enjoyable, relying upon the
work of Degas to set the proper mood. "Degas spent a short time
in the late 1800s in New Orleans," he explains, "and I referenced
the colors of his paintings from that time. What interested me most
was the monochromatic theme with a strong accent color. One painting,
called The Rehearsal, is golden with a splash of red, so I started
with that image, keeping in mind the reality of Louisiana and its
hues. I chose color values indicative of the late 30s, early 40s
and into the 60s, when avocado, gold and bright orange were popular,
and did variations of the Degas palette for each period."
Costume
designer Gary Jones, who also begins to visualize scenes and, in
particular, clothing, immediately upon reading a book, was able
to harmonize the costumes completely with the production designer's
choice of color. "Clothing either matches the overall palette or
opposes it," says Jones, "depending upon which way it needs to be.
In this case we were working toward a cohesive tone set by the director
and production designer, using the book for support. For example,
Vivi is known to have a penchant for sunflowers. For my work, that
meant not sunflowers strictly but lots of gold and yellow for her,
and David was already using those tones in his sets."
The
main action of the film takes place at Pecan Grove Plantation, Vivi's
home, which, according to Bomba, was the most difficult location
to find. "I was a little discouraged at not immediately finding
Pecan Grove," he says, "or a house that had the presentation it
needed. We were looking for something that had a sense of character
because the house holds a lot of pain and ages through the story
just as the characters do."
After
exhausting the options in the Wilmington area, locations manager
Mike Hewitt started looking further outside "the zone." He finally
struck gold in Faison, North Carolina with his discovery of Buckner
Hill House, a 150-year-old antebellum house listed in the National
Register of Historic Houses. Although more than an hour's drive
from Wilmington, everyone agreed that the magnificent structure
was well worth the commute. Aside from having the correct look,
its placement atop a hill ensured that there was nothing visible
around it to interfere with filming.
Inside
the house is a central hallway with four rooms downstairs and four
upstairs," says Bomba. "Each room has dual entrances so that staging,
blocking and filming was less restricted. It gave the camera more
options and offered me, as the designer, infinite possibilities.
Our director of photography, John Bailey, took particular advantage
of the architecture."
"The
high-ceiling rooms made it possible to rig overhead," says Bailey
of the Buckner Hill House. "It offered lots of windows and doorways
through which light and camera positions could be secured while
leaving easy access for actors and crew. Overall, it had many of
the advantages of working on a stage set, even though it was a practical
location."
The
Spring Creek cabin, where the Ya-Yas take Sidda, was created in
two parts. The exterior was an existing structure found on the bank
of a lake at Orton Plantation and the interior was specially built
on a stage at Screen Gems Studios, with the exception of one room
in which Bailey was able to film at the Cabin itself.
Bomba
was very specific about the look and feel of the cabin. "I didn't
want it to be cliched or cute," he says, adding that the room "needed
a womb-like feeling, because this is where the Ya-Yas bring Sidda
to heal and renew herself. Through a collaborative effort with Jim
Farrell and John Jensen, our painters and carpenters, we put together
the accents and details that give it a homogenous effect, as we
would expect from the input of generations of women who used it."
To
signify the passage of time at both locations, the crew would carefully
chip a little paint from the legs of a chair or replace some pieces
of furniture entirely. The Pecan Grove kitchen appeared completely
remodeled in the 1960s because updating a kitchen is exactly the
kind of thing a family would do. Externally, landscaping provided
another important visual cue. Small trees were replaced with larger
versions of themselves, shrubs made taller.
Bomba
credits director Callie Khouri as an inspiration. "She didn't dictate
every single element, but provided important specifics and let me
embellish. If I proposed an idea, she would be almost like a vitamin,
giving me a boost to see it through."
Recalling
the ongoing effort that went into creating sets to support a progressing
timeline, Khouri offers an example of the kind of details that would
spring to mind. "Sometimes we'd have to stop and ask ourselves,
'were cell phones really that small in the early 90s?'"
Because
of this kind of minute attention to detail, Bailey was able to film
the various time periods in a way that maintained what he calls
the dramatic line of the film.
"Even
though there are different periods of time," Bailey explains, "we
are seeing all of it from the perspective of Sidda's visualization.
The flow of time in her mind moves naturally back and forth, it's
associative and continuous. She walks through a doorway and a memory
hits her and suddenly we're back in the 1960s. I did not want to
do anything with the camera that would interfere with that natural
flow by dramatically isolating the time periods with a dissolve
or different lighting. The changes that define the different time
periods come from the production design, the actors, the costumes
and hairstyles and so on. As a cinematographer, sometimes the smartest
thing you can do is stay out of the way instead of trying to impose
another style."
Bailey
credits the collaborative atmosphere of the production and his early
involvement in production, for allowing him to develop this strategy.
"Having the cinematographer in on the decision-making process early
helps draw the different threads together," he says. "Production
design, costumes, makeup, hair -- all those things that affect how
the image is going to be recorded. If you deal with that early on,
you can arrive at a lighting and photographic method that works;
otherwise, if you come in later, you find yourself doing a lot of
compensatory things to achieve effects that are not already there."
Likewise,
Jones cites collaboration on the set as a great help to him, as
he sorted out the various costumes for the multi-generational cast,
a process he says was both "an extraordinary amount of work and
a complete joy." For weeks, he and his staff pored over books, magazines
and catalogues and collected examples of clothing from stores on
both the east and west coast from various sources until they had
accumulated enough material not only to represent the three periods
but to allow Khouri her choice of styles for each actor and each
period.
"Callie
came by," says Jones of the early decision-making process, "and
I had a room full of period dresses and accessories that we put
into huge piles and went over. We wanted real clothes, not costumes.
You cannot simply say 'this is from the right period, therefore
you must wear it.' It must be right for that particular character,
as well as that actor."
Working
closely with Khouri, it was Jones who designed the distinctive Ya-Ya
hats worn by the young friends that help originally define them
as Ya-Yas. The hats were meant not only to look as though children's
hands had fashioned them, but more importantly, had to retain that
youthful quality even when worn by the same grown-up girls some
50 years later.
Life
Imitates Art
Maybe
it was the spell cast by the project and the location, or maybe
it was just the undeniable chemistry of these high-spirited women
together in one place, but it became obvious to everyone before
long that Ellen Burstyn, Fionnula Flanagan, Shirley Knight and Maggie
Smith had made the transition from playing Ya-Yas to actually being
Ya-Yas.
Executive
producer Lisa Stewart relates one incident during production. "They
went to the Outer Banks for a field trip one weekend," she says.
"Fionnula was driving, just as her character Teensy would be driving.
They all stayed in the one hotel room. They called me Sunday morning
to say they were having a hilarious time and did they actually have
to come back to work?"
Smith
also recalls that weekend. "We have great fun, I have to say. We
went out and whizzed along the Outer Banks, which is just sensational,
and it was like the film, really, all of us fooling around (or horsing
about, which is what we call it in England). It was just great."
Says
Stewart, "They're truly a remarkable group of women. Endlessly entertaining."
Ashley
Judd found herself so involved with the production that she wasn't
eager to move on when her scenes were done. "I chose to stay around
the set for a few days after I had wrapped, even though I hadn't
been home for months," she explains, "because I really wanted to
see the next incarnation of the Ya-Yas and watch them play off one
another the way I had done with the younger versions of the Ya-Yas."
Too
much fun on the set? Well, yes. "One of the most exciting things
about this project," Callie Khouri says, "is that we had as much
fun making the movie as people have had reading the book. It's been
a blast. There were times when I thought, 'I hope we can keep this
under the radar and nobody finds out how much fun we're having because
they'll make us stop.'"
Striking
the Right Note
Complementing
the film is an eclectic and evocative soundtrack with selections
representing each decade from the story's 60-year time span. A delicious
offering of blues, rock, traditional gospel, updated romantic classics
and spicy Cajun tracks, each song rings true to the Ya-Yas' distinctly
southern roots and helps define significant moments of their lives.
Produced
by multiple Grammy Award-winning producer and musician T Bone Burnett,
this diverse collection of songs was compiled by Burnett with help
from noted composer David Mansfield and director Callie Khouri,
who tapped into the musical rhythms of her own Texas and Kentucky
background to find pieces with precisely the right resonance for
each scene. More than a retrospective of popular tunes of the day,
it was essential to Khouri that the soundtrack was authentic to
the region and to the characters. "These are songs that Vivi, Necie,
Teensy and Caro would likely have listened to and danced to," she
says. "When I hear this music, I imagine being in the room with
them."
Together,
Khouri and Burnett spent more than a year reviewing hundreds of
CDs. When it came time to narrow the field, Khouri found their instincts
to be remarkably in sync. "We instantly spoke the same language,"
she recalls of the collaborative effort. "Our musical sensibilities
and taste overlapped."
Khouri
listened to the music while writing her screenplay, and by the time
production began she was already sure about some of the selections,
for example, Taj Mahal's rendition of the Fats Waller classic Keeping
Out of Mischief Now, and the beautiful Dimming of the Day, by Richard
and Linda Thompson. "I didn't know exactly where they would go,"
says Khouri, "but there was no doubt they would be in the film."
The
Taj Mahal piece is heard at young Vivi's big birthday party, where
the blues legend himself plays a cameo as a bandleader. Dimming
of the Day, Khouri explains, "was re-arranged to add more strings
to the original guitar and banjo, and underscores beautifully a
poignant scene in which Ellen Burstyn as Vivi, alone in her garden
one night, does an impromptu dance that reminds her of her childhood."
Likewise,
Ann Savoy's French Cajun tracks provide the right mix of passion,
high spirits and haunting ambiguity to a party where Ashley Judd
as Vivi learns her fiance is going to war, and later, legendary
gospel singer Mahalia Jackson's Walk in Jerusalum adds inspiration
to a scene in which young mother Vivi and little Sidda share an
intensely joyful hour soaring in the sky on a prop plane ride.
Two
original songs make their debut on the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya
Sisterhood soundtrack. Waitin' for You was composed and performed
especially for the film by Bob Dylan, a longtime friend and associate
of Burnett and Mansfield from their days touring together with Dylan's
Rolling Thunder Review. Dylan wrote Waitin' for You after seeing
an early screening, and it plays over the film's end credits. Lauryn
Hill, who stormed the 1999 Grammy Awards with 11 nominations and
a record-breaking five awards for her first album, The Miseducation
of Lauryn Hill, contributed Selah, a soul-baring song about redemption.
Backed
for the first time by a big band with a 12-piece horn section, assembled
by Burnett, and using old-fashioned microphones for a subtle vintage
sound, critically acclaimed vocalist Macy Gray recorded Billie Holidays'
My Mother's Son in Law, an upbeat song with a touch of humor, just
right for a scene in which the young Ya-Yas cut loose one humid
summer night by driving around in their pajamas in a convertible
with the top down to cool off.
Music
legend Tony Bennett's contribution to the soundtrack, a soulful
rendition of a Nat King Cole song, If Yesterday Could Only Be Tomorrow,
was quite a coincidence. Some years earlier, the singer had encountered
Fred Cole, Nat's brother, on a plane, and Cole proposed that Bennett
cover that very song. In the ensuing years, the possibility had
remained in the back of Bennett's mind. When approached to record
the song for the Divine Secrets soundtrack, he recognized it as
something he was clearly meant to do, especially after seeing how
perfectly its gently nostalgic lyrics capture the essence of the
story.
Grammy
Award-winner Alison Krauss performs the poignant Sitting at the
Window of My Room, a new song written and arranged especially for
the Divine Secrets soundtrack by T Bone Burnett and David Mansfield,
which blends a number of musical styles and highlights Krauss' clear
and passionate voice.
Also
featured on the soundtrack are Jimmy Reed's Found Love, Little Rain
and Ain't That Loving You Baby; a buoyant The World Exploded into
Love, from Texas rocker Bob Schneider; Lonely Avenue, from Ray Charles;
Jade Vincent's Drug State; Slim Harpo's Got Love if You Want It;
and Assi Dans le Fenetre de ma Chambre, from Blind Uncle Gaspard.
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