Joe Roth has been the studio boss of both 20th Century Fox and Disney, and he's just launched his third major production company. So what in the world is he doing directing Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones in this summer's America's Sweethearts.
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The clichéd utterance "But what I really want to do is direct" did not become the much-derided mantra it is by rolling too many times off the tongues of studio heads. Superstar actors hungry for a little respect and a whole lot of control are the ones who traditionally harbor the ridiculed ambition. Yet Joe Roth, who in the past 10 years has run both 20th Century Fox and Disney, might just as well have made "But what I really want to do is direct" his motto, because that is what he's always wanted to do. Despite a more than full-time job running his new company, Revolution Studios, which is committed to making 36 movies in five years for release via Sony Pictures, he's just directed his fourth movie. And it's some movie. America's Sweethearts, a comedy set in Hollywood, features no less than Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cusack and Billy Crystal (who cowrote the script with Analyze This scribe Peter Tolan).
Roth, a 53-year-old New Yorker who attended Boston University with the idea of becoming a sportswriter, was sidetracked into showbiz early on when he got involved with a comedy improv troupe that included Chevy Chase and Laraine Newman and produced their movie Tunnelvision, a $250,000 quickie that made roughly S17 million in theaters in 1976. For the next decade he produced a series of small pictures before finally raising the money to direct his first movie, the Rocky-esque boxing drama Streets of Gold, which tanked. Second time out he scored with Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise, and, with the intention of directing again, cofounded (with James G. Robinson) the production company Morgan Creek, which turned out Young Guns, Major League and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
Morgan Creeks success led, in 1989, to Roth's being named chairman of 20th Century Fox right on the heels of his third directorial effort, the Universal comedy Coupe de Ville. At Fox, Roth's low-key, talent-friendly style helped him forge close relationships with James Cameron, Bruce Willis and John Hughes, and he had success with the Home Alone and Die Hard series, as well as White Men Can't Jump and The Last of the Mohicans. Roth left Fox in 1992 to create Caravan Pictures, but before he managed to direct any of the company's films, he was recruited to replace Jeffrey Katzenberg as chairman of Walt Disney Pictures, where, for the next five years, he notched such successes as A Bug's Life, Con Air, Armageddon, The Waterboy, The Sixth Sense and the critically acclaimed The Insider.
But what he really wanted to do was direct. Roth resigned from Disney last year and quickly formed Revolution Studios, which announced itself to the world with three-picture, nonexclusive deals with Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis, along with a deal with Adam Sandier to star and produce, and commitments from such moviemak¬ers as Paul Thomas Anderson, Lawrence Kasdan and Martin Brest. And, yes, he got himself a movie to direct: America's Sweethearts, the tale of a Hollywood assistant (Julia Roberts) searching for love and happiness amid the frantic attempts of a crazed Hollywood publicist (Billy Crystal) to keep the world from knowing that the married stars of a new movie (Catherine Zeta-Jones and John Cusack) are at each others throats. The plotline's temperamental stars, eccentric director and barely controlled chaos are all aspects of a world Roth knows from firsthand observation.
STEPHEN REBELLO: Didn't anyone suggest to you that directing a big summer film with major stars while starting up a new company committed to producing a heavy slate of films for Sony Pictures might be pushing the envelope a bit much?
JOE ROTH: You're right. I just kept saying, "It'll be OK, it's a 10-week shoot, almost all of it local." In the end, I finally said, "You know what? This movie has got to be part of it all. It's good for me and it's good for the company." It also says that Revolution is not just like every other company. Revolution's employees have a tent to creatively fulfill themselves.
Q: How did you come to be directing America's Sweethearts in the middle of launching a company on the scale of Revolution?
A: It came about when Billy Crystal's manager let me know that a really funny script Billy had written with Peter Tolan wasn't going to get made by Castle Rock. I read it and it really was funny. Billy wanted to direct, but he was doing the HBO movie about Roger Maris, 61*, so he wasn't really available. But he did want to play the male half of the movie star couple at the center of the story.
Q: So how was it you ended up directing and Billy ended up playing another role?
A: I thought it was crazy that he wanted to play the movie star. I thought he should play the publicist who's behind the whole thing, the guy trying to get the married stars through the press junket for the movie without anyone finding out they're really getting divorced. I also thought everyone in the movie should be 20 years younger. I told Billy, "I love the script and I'd like to buy it from you and have you play the publicist. I don't know who's going to direct it." We made the deal and I sent the script right away to Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, who works with Julia Roberts, and she said, "This is great for Julia." I called Billy saying, "How would you like it if I got Julia Roberts and I directed it?" He said, "If you could deliver her, then I suppose the answer would be yes." Julia called up and said, "This script is really funny. I'd love to do it." I talked to her about my directing it and she said, "Why not? "We'll have a lot of fun and it'll be great."
Q: It's well known that you and Julia are friends. What exactly is the history of your long association with her?
A: I'd been running Fox for a month or two when I saw Julia in Mystic Pizza. I didn't even know she was Eric's sister, and I said, "Whoa--she's going to be a star." Nothing else she'd made had come out yet, and I tracked down her agent and said, "This girl's going to be a movie star. I'd like to be in business with her." About this time, we were casting a Gene Hackman movie to be directed by Michael Apted, Class Action. I got a call on a cell phone from Julia, who was on Hollywood Boulevard shooting this movie called 3000--it was later titled Pretty Woman--and she said, "Hey, I hear you're a fan of mine. You've got a script I really like, Class Action." I said, "You're too young for it." She came back with, "No, no, I'll come in and audition. You'll see, I'll be really great for it." I told her, "Listen to me, I think you're going to be a huge star but you're too young to play a 27-year-old lawyer and the daughter of Gene Hackman." She said, "Well, I think you're wrong," and we had a little "discussion." After I hung up, I called her agent and went, "Wow, what a firecracker."
Q: And you kept the firecracker in mind?
A: Two months later, the draft comes in for Sleeping With the Enemy, which I thought was perfect for her. I called her and said, "Now, why don't you do this picture?" and she did. We became close on that film. She was about to get married to Kiefer Sutherland at the end of it and I was going to throw her wedding at Fox, but she canceled it three days before it was supposed to happen. I've been in business and in contact with her since then, which is 11 years now. Julia is kind of a daughter to me and a very loyal person. As I said to her earlier today, "I've been with you through thick, thin, thinner, thinnest, thickest, whatever." I've supported her company, Shoelace, at Fox, at Caravan, at Disney and now here at Revolution.
Q: The movies you and she have been involved with together are an interesting road map of both of your careers. You made Sleeping With the Enemy and Dying Young with her when you ran Fox. When you ran Disney, you made I Love Trouble and Runaway Bride with her. And now you're directing her in America's Sweethearts for your new company. How did you get to the point of running Fox and being able to hire Julia Roberts to begin with?
A: Years and years ago, I raised $6 million and took out a second mortgage on my house so that I could direct Streets of Gold. Nobody came to see it and I couldn't pay the second mortgage, but because I was a "director," CAA signed me. I got Revenge of the Nerds. I prepped that film in four weeks, shot it in six, and we put it out seven weeks later. It's not something I did a terrific job on, but it made money. I paid off my house, and I said, "Oh, so there's actually a business here." So I started Morgan Creek as a way to get better material and protect myself as a director. Morgan Creek worked terrifically. In a short amount of time we made a lot of successful movies, like Young Guns, Major League and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The problem is that I've always been a better businessman than artist.
Q: And that catapulted you to the top of 20th Century Fox?
A: Being an ambitious person, I gave up being a director because of the business part of my brain. Also, because I was an ex-athlete, winning means more to me than it should. I realized I wasn't going to be Steven Spielberg or George Lucas, but running a studio, maybe I could be their equivalent. It was also going to give me the chance to be home and raise my children. When Rupert Murdoch and Barry Diller hired me to run 20th Century Fox, I'd already accepted the directing assignment Coupe de Ville for Morgan Creek at Universal, so the first day on the set of Coupe de Ville I'm realizing, "No one knows, but the day I finish shooting, I'm going to take over at Fox."
Q: There's been all sorts of speculation about why you left Fox and started your second production company, Caravan. What's the truth?
A: Doing Edward Scissorhands with Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder, plus the Die Hard and Home Alone movies, Raising Arizona and Barton Fink, Grand Canyon--all kinds of different stuff--that was really fun. But after a couple of years, the other side j kicked in, the side that says, "Gee, you've gotta be ambitious, you've gotta get a bigger job." I had the most successful three-year period in the history of Fox from a financial standpoint. Diller had left the studio and I went to Rupert Murdoch and said, "When I came on, I took a minimum because I'd never done the job I before. In Hollywood, if you succeed, I you get a new contract." Murdoch said. "You make enough money," and I said, "Well, that's not good enough." We still talk to each other--he's a partner in my new company--but I went off and created Caravan, another new business vehicle I hoped would allow me to direct.
Q: So how did you end up running Disney?
A: I wasn't getting to direct anyway, so I sold Caravan and went to Disney when Frank Wells and Michael Eisner approached me with the offer to run the motion picture group. I went years without wanting to direct, but then three projects came along that really made me want to direct. I read High Fidelity, really loved it and thought very long and hard about directing it. The Hurricane came along and I thought, "God, I want to direct this movie," and I brought Denzel Washington into it, but ultimately I chickened out. Remember the Titans came along and I was chomping at the bit again. I went to Michael and said, "I can tell you right now, come Christmastime, I'm going to give you six months' notice. I feel like I need to be involved more creatively." That was that. I started Revolution. Once again, it's a vehicle set up to protect artists, to be in full control of its content, its marketing and its distribution, and to own its negatives.
Q: And you're finally directing again. And Julia Roberts is starring in your movie. Did anyone warn you against directing someone you think the world of?
A: Adam Sandier said [doing a Sandier imitation], "You're crazy to work together." I said, "Don't worry about it. It'll be fine." And it is. It's more than fine. She's terrific in the movie and doing something that's going to surprise some people. I think she had a great time with John Cusack and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Three or four scenes that Julia and Catherine have together are some of the very best in the movie.
Q: How did you interest Catherine Zeta-Jones in this project?
A: When it came time to cast the fabulous movie-star role, we had to have someone who looked so glamorous that Cusack's character would choose her over Julia's character. That's a very short list. John had told me, having worked with Catherine in High Fidelity, "This girl is great. She's brave, a real mean actress with a great sense of humor she really hasn't had a chance to show." I loved her right away. She's like an Ava Gardner--just unbelievably glamorous.
Q: And working with her?
A; Oh, God. Catherine is an old-fashioned movie star, but at the same time completely modern in her willingness and capability to do absolutely anything. She plays a very unsympathetic character here without any apologies. I'd come on the set every day and see how incredibly glamorous she is and go, "How is this possible?" Oh, is she fantastic. For me, she's the real surprise of the movie. Catherine would sit in her trailer and sine to karaoke all day long. There was a very good spirit on this movie. In the ballroom scene finale, these actors were making each other laugh so hard that I think they'll be surprised at the reaction shots I've used of them. What I've done is use takes of them long after they'd "broken" their roles because they were laughing so hard. That stuff isn't considered usable, but I'm hoping people will find it as funny as I do.
Q: Part of Catherine Zeta-Jones's background is in musical theater and I've heard there's a musical sequence in your movie. A: Part of the plot is that I this movie-star couple is promoting a movie they star in. When I found out Catherine was a dancer, I made the movie-Within-a-movie a dance sequence. Chris Walken is also a dancer and, in a kind of Bob Fosse sequence, I have him dancing with her as he directs her in a dance number. That was fun.
Q: You and John Cusack go a long way back. Any surprises there when directing him?
A: I love this kid. If you're not someone ready to handle an actor who's nonstop effervescent, with tons of ideas, he's not your guy. He'd come knocking at my door saying, "What if we do the scene this way?" But he'll also tell you, "I'll do anything you want, I'll go left, right, whatever," and he will.
Q: Robert Downey Jr. was going to be in this film until he got arrested in Palm Springs. How did all that come down?
A: He was supposed to play the Latin lover of Catherine's character, a role now played by Hank Azaria. Robert and I actually had lunch together the day before he went to Palm Springs. When he got busted, I was left with a completely untenable situation. The other actors had definite ?
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