ENOUGH SAID written and directed by Nicole Holofcener, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini and Toni Collette. A Fox Searchlight release. 100 minutes. Opens Friday (September 27). For venues and times, see listings.
Wondering where all the good roles are for women in film? They’re inside Nicole Holofcener’s head.
The writer/director looked at women with body issues in Lovely & Amazing, a mother who can’t relate to her daughter in Please Give, and in Friends With Money, a woman who cleans houses to make ends meet. In her new film, Enough Said, her heroine is almost weaselly. All of her pics deal with complex, uncomfortable relationships
She’s gathered a killer cast for her latest dramedy, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, playing against type as the needy masseuse Eva, who keeps key info about the man she’s dating (James Gandolfini) from her supercool new client, played by Catherine Keener. Toni Colette’s on board as Eva’s best friend.
On her character in Veep:
“I was a huge fan of Nicole’s because I knew all her movies,” says Louis-Dreyfus at a TIFF round table, dressed down in slacks and a blazer. “And when I read the script I thought, ‘I gotta play this part.’
On why actors should not judge their characters:
“When we met, we both wondered why we hadn’t known each other for the last 20 years. We’re roughly the same age, we have kids the same age, live in the same town, have the same sensibility comedically and dramatically. It was a blind date gone good.”
Holofcener remembers that meeting.
“She’d never been offered parts like this, but once I met her I knew she could do it. She was so unlike the characters she played, and I realized, ‘Oh, she’s an actor.’ It is weird to watch somebody on television for 20 years and then have her in your house.”
Catherine Keener has been in all of Holofcener’s features. When asked why, she first answers simply.
“Love.”
That’s it?
“She said to me this time, ‘No one [meaning financiers] wants to do it, but if they do, would you do it? I think it will be a good movie,’ which is so Holofcener – genuine, humble, but with a confidence that’s not in-your-face.”
“I love Nicole’s movies,” declares Collette, who plays a smaller role, “and I would have played any part in any movie she makes. She’s so good at capturing something real and idiosyncractic, and when you see something that’s recognizable, it’s so exciting. Because I think we go to the cinema to see ourselves.”
“She told me she wanted to be in a Nicole Holofcener movie, and I was flattered, so I hired her,” kids the director about Collette. “I told her she could keep her accent, the first time she’s done that in an American film. Why shouldn’t Eva know someone from Australia?”
Amidst this love-in, the elephant in the room is the absence of Enough Said co-star James Gandolfini, who died suddenly last summer. Holofcener gets emotional when she remembers him.
“When James died I had to do the sound mix on the movie and watch for two weeks straight. It was horrible. A part of me didn’t want to release the movie. It’s just too sad,” she says shakily. “It’s so fucked up.
Choking up talking about James Gandolfini:
“He couldn’t stand being famous. He had more of a working man mentality than a movie star mentality.
“When he got on set he seemed terrified that he was miscast. I had to reassure him that he was charming, sexy and wonderful for the part.”
susanc@nowtoronto.com | @susangcole
