The Secret Garden of Caroline Thompson
Q: Someone told me that it was in the trade papers the other day that you're doing another picture with Tim.
A: More than one. There's The Nightmare Before Christmas, an idea of his and he's producing it--something he started at Disney 10 years ago with another guy, Henry Selleck, directing it. It's not animation, it's pixilation--sort of like claymation. It's a musical. Danny [her boyfriend, composer Danny Elfman] did the score and I did the script.
Q: What's that one about?
A: It's a musical about what happens when the King of Halloween takes over Christmas, and makes a real mess of it. Then, Tim and I are going to do the movie version of the Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd at Columbia.
Q: The story of the barber who kills his clients, and then they're made into meat pies by the barber's lady friend? Will you be rewriting that storyline?
A: No, I won't be rewriting it--I'll be embellishing it. There are parts where Tim might like to pursue something more.
Q: So obviously you and Tim get along really well... it sounds like you'll be working together for the next 50 years.
A: Tim and I know each other so well, we can communicate with no language, so working together really works for us. I mean, people read things how they read them, and they don't always get it. My best experiences have been with people who get it, like Tim, and also with Penelope Spheeris.
Q: Wasn't she going to direct a movie version of your book, First Born, way back when?
A: Yeah, she loved my novel and wanted to turn it into a movie, and we decided that we'd do it together, so I could learn what screenplays were about. The deal was, I'd work at her place, I'd drive in from Santa Monica and she'd cook me lunch. We worked on that project a long time, about a year. I was getting a divorce and so was she, so it was a really traumatic year for both of us. I was so grateful to have her house to go to. It was the best school I could have possibly gone to--Penelope's a great, fascinating woman, really, really smart and strong and funny. The movie never got made, but I still turn to her in times of trouble. The last time I broke up with a boyfriend, we went out to dinner--she's got a great solid core to her.
Q: So what about your current boyfriend, Danny? You met when you worked together on Edward Scissorhands?
A: No, I met him because an Orion executive thought we would work well together and introduced us at lunch, and then Danny kept calling me. Then I met him again during the scoring process of Edward Scissorhands. I'd wanted to go to Mexico for the Day of the Dead and so did my writing partner Larry, and we started to arrange a trip and invite everyone we knew to go along. But then everybody else started to drop out--including Larry--so Danny and I went down there together. The second afternoon we were there, we went and sat in this church, and just sat there for an hour while the light left the altar, and I don't know, right then I knew I could be a pal with him. Anyone who could sit there and watch the light change was my kind of guy. We just yapped and became friends and the next thing you know, I'd fallen in love with him and he with me.
Q: So it was meant to be.
A: Well, there was one other thing...[laughing] I got really drunk that weekend, and he was so sweet to me. I vomited and everything, and he was really polite, but then evidently I was extremely polite too--"Excuse me, barff..."
Q: That's true love.
A: Want to go outside and to visit with my pregnant burro, Ellie?
Q: When's the burro due?
A: Soon. She's going to have a burrito.
Q: One last question. The other day, you posed for a portrait as Lady Godiva, atop your mule, Sabrina. I'm a blonde and now, in that photo anyway, you're a blonde too. So Caroline, what do you think...do blondes have more fun?
A: No. Definitely no. That wig was too long, it was uncomfortable, it scratched.
______________
Eve Babitz interviewed her pal Donovan Leitch for our March issue.
Subscribe to the new Movieline on YouTube
