Writer-director Steven Antin would like to set a few stories straight. First, he wasn't born in Portland. He's a native New Yorker who grew up in Los Angeles, where he and his now-famous siblings -- stylist Jonathan, Pussycat Dolls founder Robin, actor Neil -- all wound up working in showbiz. Antin barely knew Cher before she agreed to star in his new film, Burlesque, though they both reportedly dated music mogul David Geffen at different times, years ago. And contrary to the notion that he's come out of nowhere to direct the razzle-dazzliest film of the holiday season, Antin's an industry veteran who's spent a lot of time hustling to bring his passion project to the big screen after a career in which he's gone from teen movie actor to indie filmmaker to television producer and beyond.
With Burlesque, Antin changes course yet again. Imagine a modern-day Cabaret with a dash each of Gypsy and Coyote Ugly -- and 10 times the sequins, false eyelashes, and soulful crooning -- and you've got Burlesque, a glossy modern musical that pairs Christina Aguilera in her big screen debut with Oscar-winning pop icon Cher. Antin spoke with Movieline to address rumors of backstage squabbles and discuss the history of burlesque as vaudevillian entertainment, the long road he took to bring Burlesque to the big screen, his secrets to making women look beautiful, how he discovered Ian Somerhalder ("One of the most beautiful specimens I've ever seen in person"), and how help from friend David Geffen -- and Jodie Foster, circa 1988 -- made Burlesque possible.
Some folks may not realize it, but they first got to know you decades ago as the actor who played Troy in The Goonies, Rick in The Last American Virgin, and Jessie in Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl" music video. You basically spent the 1980s stealing every young guy's dream woman.
I did. I seemed to be cast in that role a lot back then. I always wanted to be a filmmaker, but I started acting when I was 9 years old. I looked a certain part that I wasn't, really. I played, you know, a high school jock with a lot of attitude or a spoiled rich kid, and I was neither of those things. I was from a very working-class family in Van Nuys. As I started to mature, I started to get more interesting roles, and I really wanted to explore other possibilities. I think that I was a competent actor, an OK actor. I don't think I was a great actor or a movie star, and I realized I wanted to be doing something else. I think that I chose the right path, because I feel confident in my ability to direct and I think I'm going to hit a lot of movies out of the park.
Did you make a specific decision to shift gears at a certain point in your career?
I don't really remember what the catalyst was, to be honest with you, but I do know there was a period of time when I really felt like I wanted to do something more than just be an actor. Actually, Inside Monkey Zetterland was originally a book of short stories that I was writing called Campfire Stories. I was doing The Accused with Jodie Foster and she knew I was writing these stories and kept saying, "Let me read them!" I was nervous to let her read them but I finally let her read several of them and the next day on the set she said, "I've got to tell you, it's not really a book." I was devastated. But then she said, "It's a movie! Why don't you write this into a movie? You've been reading scripts since you were a child; you know how to write a script, so write a script." And I did.
So we can partially thank Jodie Foster for Burlesque, because she's indirectly responsible for you becoming a writer-director in the first place?
I don't even know if she knows that, but yes!
Burlesque was not your first directing gig, but it is your biggest to date. Why was this the project that you decided to go all in for?
Well, there were several movies that I was attached to that didn't get made. I actually had a movie green lit at Disney the same week Burlesque was green lit -- a movie for Disney called Mash-Up, about a high school marching band. There are a lot of stories spinning around Burlesque that suggest that I kind of fell into this, but I had many situations that were in play, balls in the air. I'd directed a bunch of music videos, and financed and directed my own commercial spec spots, and shot Pussycat Dolls show after Pussycat Dolls show after Pussycat Dolls show and edited them at my own expense to create a director's reel for myself. The development of this movie was four years in the making, so I was writing this for nothing while I was getting paid and doing other things at other studios - producing TV shows and reality shows and things like that. I had to make a choice that week: Do I make Burlesque or do I make Mash-Up? And I chose Burlesque.
When the first trailer for Burlesque came out, it was really easy for pundits to evoke film references like Showgirls or Glitter, but it seems to more closely owe a debt to film musicals like Gypsy or Cabaret. To what extent did you try to pay homage to those classic film musicals?
There are many homages in the movie, and really it makes sense for the movie to be one giant homage -- because that's what burlesque is. I don't know that many people have connected that linear thread. Burlesque in its original form in Europe in the 1700s was a pastiche of entertainment that was all taken from other things; popular plays of the time, popular songs of the time, parody, political events -- it was all sort of a big fun pastiche of entertainment and parodies and song and dance taken from other shows. Really, it was homage to anything that was popular at the time, and that's why it appealed to mass culture. It had nothing to do with the sexually charged burlesque that people know today. People brought their families to burlesque shows -- it was an offshoot of early vaudeville. So it made sense for the whole movie to be homage, and I really hope that people at some point tie that together. There's something a little bigger and smarter here that movie people are sort of connecting.
Numbers like "Long John Blues" show that humorous, playful side of burlesque -- and so does Kristen Bell, who's absolutely fearless in her performance, particularly in that scene.
So fearless. She really came full speed ahead at me, met with me and said, "I want to do this." Kristen Bell is rare as an actress, because she's the type of actor who jumps out of a plane without a parachute -- from a totally fearless place, which is really refreshing and inspiring. She has complete faith and support in the filmmaking process and the director.
Speaking of supporting cast members who make an impression, you cast Cam Gigandet as Christina's love interest and have him appear fully nude, save for a strategically placed box of snacks. Was that an ad-libbed moment or do you have some sort of brilliant product placement deal in place with the Famous Amos cookies people?
[Laughs] Gosh, we so didn't! There are so many things in this movie that make me wonder if I'm going to benefit from any of it. I re-wrote the lyrics to Christina's song "But I'm a Good Girl," and I talk about the Beverly Hills Hotel, Dan Tana's, the Chateau, Agent Provocateur... that's really a love song and homage to Los Angeles. I keep wondering, am I going to get a free steak at Dan Tana's for this?
Surely at least one. That brings up a question of setting; this aspirational showbiz tale could easily be a New York story or a Los Angeles story -- why did you set it in Hollywood?
I'm an L.A. guy. Actually I was born in Queens, in New York, contrary to what IMDB and what different people write online. Somehow there was this weird thing where someone said I was born in Portland, and I just was not. It's so wrong. So for the record, I was born in New York City. I've always had a love affair with New York City and I've threatened to get an apartment there one day. But it just made sense for me to set Burlesque on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. It's a place I know intimately well and love, and I think there's a great story to be told with L.A.
Yes, we did.
Of the stories that have circulated about the production of Burlesque, some of them focus on the two of you and your personal relationship. What do you say to those rumors?
They're really not relevant. It's just sort of funny, really, because the stories are far more juicy and salacious than the truth. The truth is that there just are not that many interesting stories to tell behind the scenes on this movie. Under the best of circumstances, there's all sorts of drama in making a movie and it's very intense. There's a lot at stake for everybody, so tensions run high. People are extremely passionate about what they're doing -- hopefully! And that was the case here. There was a lot of passion in making this movie. A lot of relationships and people who knew each other pretty well. But again, under the best of circumstances it's really tense. We had some of the best circumstances and some trying circumstances on this movie, and I think every movie does. Because it's Christina, it's Cher -- it's ripe. It's a movie because they're such colorful characters, but I think people want to say, "What happened behind the scenes? It's actually not them, there's more to tell!" But it's just inaccurate.
What was your relationship with Cher like before making Burlesque?
We didn't know each other that well many years ago, but we'd met several times and hung out. There, oddly, were some pictures taken of us that seem to have surfaced.
I was like, where did that come from? I don't even remember taking the picture, and I don't think she did either. We weren't best friends that many years ago, but we knew each other. She was really nice to me, and I was really nice to her. I've always been a huge fan of hers but we had to get re-acquainted during this process.
Is it true that Geffen was the one who helped you convince Cher to come out of semi-retirement as an actor to be in your film?
Yes. I had actually been having conversations with Cher's manager about Cher and she had talked to Cher about the movie. We wanted to send Cher the script but we were still working on it, revising it and changing it. Christina was already on board but we realized we needed to do work on the other character, Tess. We'd already been discussing Cher, but while we were doing the work, Clint sent the script to David just to read it as a friend - I was unaware of this - and David read it and said, "Wow, you should get Cher!" Clint said, "Steven loves the idea of Cher! We all want Cher!" I think he actually sent her the script, or an email or a text, and Cher called her manager and said, "I hear that they want me to do this movie, Burlesque..." One thing led to another and it took quite a while, but we finally met with her. It was a long process getting her on board.
What made you think that Christina Aguilera and Cher would make the perfect duo to carry the film?
Christina and Cher were always in my head while writing and developing the movie. I knew Christina was right for the role of Ali. I wanted somebody who could obviously sing, who had a spectacular voice and could hit it out of the park and was appealing, who could really land the role as an actress. When I saw Christina on Saturday Night Live doing those skits, she was so funny, I knew she had the chops. I met with her and we had many conversations and I just fell madly in love with her. I thought, "I know this woman could do this." And my instincts were right about her. It was the same with Cher. She plays Tess, this woman who in the face of great adversity pulls herself up by her bootstraps and rises like a phoenix. That's Cher. I wanted a great actress, someone who could sing, and someone you really believed would run a burlesque club, and Cher embodied those things more than anybody.
There are directors who can somehow manage to make the most lovely actresses look not-so-great, but in Burlesque everyone is luminous.
I'm so happy that you noticed! Not that many people have said that to me, but I paid such excruciating attention to that detail. I love shooting women. I love women. I love making women look beautiful, and I think women like Christina and Cher -- and all women -- love to look beautiful. I had endless conversations with Bojan Bazelli, our director of photography, about how we were going to shoot this movie. The lighting is key. There are lots of lights in this movie, and it makes the sets very hot, but it's a lot of beautiful backlighting, soft fill, tricks, and smoke and mirrors -- so many elements went into creating a beautiful world and making sure the women looked beautiful. Also, Kristofer Buckle is a genius make-up artist. We had Martin Samuel and Cindy Williams, the make-up, the hair, the costumes. But it's about film stock, camera lenses, lighting, a lot of smoke and mirrors and tricks that lend themselves to making women look beautiful.
Did that make Burlesque more complicated than the average production?
It took a lot of prep. It couldn't take time during the making of the movie or slow us down, because we had a really tight schedule that I had to stick to. There are stories floating around that I went over-schedule, and that's not true -- we went one day over, for additional photography. I had to make my days every single day; I did between 50 and 70 set-ups a day, which is almost unheard of. It was a really long script! A hundred and thirty-six page script, and I shot it in 70 days.
Is it strange that coming into Burlesque, many folks don't realize that you've done so much before -- like your previous acting roles or the series that you created, Young Americans?
A lot of people don't. Every now and then there are people like you who saw it and loved it. But stylistically, Young Americans was a staggeringly beautiful show, and a lot of attention was paid to detail in creating a beautiful world and environment.
The other thing that an entirely new generation may not realize they have to thank you for is introducing the world to Ian Somerhalder, who made his acting debut in Young Americans.
Oh yeah! I found Ian Somerhalder. He had never acted before, but his picture came across my desk and I said, "Get that kid in here! I think he could play the role of Hamilton." I just liked the way he looks and I wanted to see if he can do it. He was a Guess model at the time and they kept saying, "He's doing a shoot for Guess," and kept cancelling. I said, "But I want to meet him for a TV series!" Finally he came in and I took him to the network and coached him. I actually shot him myself in my office and went through a long process of helping to get him on TV.
Was he not already sold on transitioning into acting at the time?
He was sort of thinking about it, exploring it, and he was going out for things. But he hadn't done any [acting]. He was just a model. Not just a model -- he was a successful, beautiful young model, but I knew when he came to my office that there was something special about this guy.
Does that mean you keep up with him on The Vampire Diaries?
I do sometimes, because Ian's like my son! I feel like his dad. I love it. He's great, such a charming, lovely, fabulous guy. You would love him. He's also an incredibly bright, thoughtful, earthy guy. Really smart. He is really one of the most beautiful specimens I've ever seen in person. He's so staggeringly beautiful that it's jaw-dropping. You know what they said to me at The WB? "You're putting too much make-up on him, there's too much blush on his cheeks." I'm like, "He doesn't wear any make-up. That's his f***ing skin." He's one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen, and he's a fabulous guy.
[Photos: WireImage]