1939 ‘The Women’ remade with Meg Ryan
Ruthe Stein
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Toward the end of the Depression in 1939, movie audiences were treated to a lush drama about adultery and female friendships in which almost all of the female characters were fabulously wealthy and flaunted their riches by dressing in silk and satin. The men stayed in the background – very far in the background. It was the conceit of “The Women,” as the film was called, that no men appear onscreen. They’re crucial to the plot, but are only talked about and “heard from” in phone conversations, where you can’t hear what the party on the other end of the line is saying.
The remake of “The Women” also is a female-only zone. But other liberties have been taken with the creaky script. For instance, the part of the countess – a regal figure played by Mary Boland – has morphed into a reefer-smoking Hollywood agent nicknamed “the countess” and performed by a feisty Bette Midler. New characters also have been added.
Remaining are the three principal roles: Mary, the wife with the cheating husband; Sylvia, her best friend; and Crystal, the shopgirl who is the other woman. In the original, they’re played respectively by Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell and Joan Crawford. Their replacements are Meg Ryan, Annette Bening and Eva Mendes. For more than a decade, Diane English, best known as the creator of “Murphy Brown,” has toiled on this material, hoping to rework it in a way that makes sense for 21st century audiences. It finally came together with English having not only a screenwriting credit but a director’s one as well. It’s the first motion picture she’s directed. English talks about the arduous process of giving birth to “The Women” redux.
Q: How did you become involved with the project?
A: In 1994, I read in Variety that it was going to be remade, and I knew they didn’t have a writer. In the beginning, I was just going to write it. In 1995, we had Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts attached. Originally, Meg was going to play the Rosalind Russell role and Julia the Norma Shearer one. Then Jim Brooks came on board to direct, and he thought they should switch roles. Julia really sparked to that idea. Then Jim had to go off and direct “As Good as It Gets,” and Julia went off to do a movie, and then Meg went off, and there I was all by myself.
Q: Sounds like the Shearer role was a harder one to sell. How did you talk Ryan into playing it?
A: Well, it was really a thankless role. She drove the story, but she didn’t have much else to do other than wring her hands. I worked on making that character more interesting and complex. That took additional drafts.
Q: No one in her clique was exactly fascinating.
A: No, they were society ladies, spoiled rotten. They were the ladies that lunch, and they were very mean to each other. They were very wealthy, and they were all trying to hang onto their husbands.
You know the story behind it? Clare Boothe Luce wrote the play (on which both movies are based) after she married Henry Luce (founder of the Time magazine empire). Suddenly, she was spending time with these society women. She couldn’t stand it. She locked herself in her office and wrote “The Women” in a week. It was really a satire, a poison-pen letter to these women. My movie is more about embracing (their lifestyles).
Q: You’ve given almost all of the women jobs. I gather that was intentional.
A: The only reason to remake any movie is to have something new to say. Otherwise, don’t touch it. Women have come so far in 70 years, and I wanted to reflect that. So yes, Annette is a magazine editor. Meg works as a fashion designer for her father’s clothing company. Eva works behind a perfume counter, but she is also an aspiring actress. They have very full lives. They’re multitasking because that is what it is like for women today. They have boyfriends, husbands. There’s a lot going on in their lives.
The old movie had the tagline “It’s all about the men.” My movie is all about the women. I am less interested in the relationship between Mary and her husband and more interested in her friendship with Sylvia. I want the audience to care about the betrayal that occurs between the two women.
Q: You kept the central conceit, that no men appear onscreen.
A: I didn’t think “The Women” was the greatest movie ever made. But I really responded to the fact of an all-female cast. So I kept it that you don’t even see men in the background. Not even in a photograph.
Q: Did any of the powers that be in Hollywood object to the no-men rule?
A: A couple of people said if I would cast the role of Stephen Haines (the cheating husband), I would find it easier to get financing.
Q: Are there other things you kept from the 1939 film?
A: Fans of the original will recognize the color Jungle Red. It is a very iconic nail varnish from the original movie. You see it in a scene in the bathroom. It’s really quick and biting, hopefully.
Q: Ryan has this thicket of long, curly, blond hair. Sometimes it even hides her face. But later on in the movie, she starts wearing her hair straight. What was the significance of the new do?
A: We wanted a big hair change because when women change their lives, often they change their hair. We didn’t want to cut it because then you get involved with lots of wigs. So we came up with this curly look in the beginning that symbolized what was inside of her brain.
Q: Was it hard to get financing?
A: Yes, because it was a time when the film industry was hostile to movies about women. Ultimately, we made the movie as an independent.
Q: I noticed Mick Jagger is listed as one of the producers. How did that come about?
A: He has a very smart woman running his film company. I met her five years ago. She read about my project and that it was stalled, and she read it and said she loved it and would help me get it made. Mick had to read the script, and he equally loved it, so off we went.
