Starring Kate Hudson, John Corbett, and Joan Cusack, "Raising Helen" follows a young career woman absorbed in her work, single and having fun. Her carefree lifestyle suddenly comes to an end following the death of one of her sisters. It seems her sister's three kids are now her's to raise, and she's not in the least bit prepared to take on such a huge responsibility.
In support of the DVD release of "Raising Helen," Garry Marshall happily answered a few questions about the making of "Raising Helen," how he feels about DVDs in general, his experiences working with Kate Hudson and her mom, Goldie Hawn, and why he loves to create family films.
INTERVIEW WITH GARRY MARSHALL:
It seems like there’s a whole series of TV shows and movies with professional people on the rise who are suddenly brought back down to earth by tragedy and end up raising kids. Are you the major influence on that trend?
I don’t know who was first but there’s always a part of life where everybody’s developing things. In this big kind of workaholic situation where more than one family member has to work – you’ve got women in the work force, you’ve got men. And then things happen and people have to raise kids, whether it’s from a tragedy or not. It’s a type of premise TV shows like if they’re not doing reality shows, so I guess they all had some in the works. But we did ours, really, not based on anybody else’s story but based on the script. So I don’t know if I started it.
Do you think there is a shift in perception or in values right now where raising families seems more important in entertainment themes?
Yes, I think it’s a very common theme now. I was a bit taken aback that because so many TV shows or a couple of TV shows had the premise, “Raising Helen” had to come out a little earlier than I had hoped. Still, this theme of how to raise children is very big in Hollywood and in society. I mean let’s face it, the kids of the world, they’ve got to start to make a difference so we’re trying to raise them a little better. Maybe somebody finally figured that out, that parents have to pay attention. We went through the 90s of let’s worry about the parents and whether they’re fulfilled or not. I think in 2000 it’s good to say, “Let’s see if we can get these kids to grow up straight.”
How much involvement did you have with the bonus material on the “Raising Helen” DVD release?
Well, I’ve been doing this for a while and it seems these days the DVD is a big, big part of it. You know, you used to direct a movie. Now when you direct you’ve got a guy on one shoulder saying, “I’m making the B-roll on the DVD,” and a guy on the other shoulder saying, “I’m making the record album.” So it’s become – what is that word that was popular a few years ago? Synergy – synergy is getting involved. Synergy, I never let it get in my way. I make the movie.
I think the DVD has been fun for me. It’s a great thing for directors because you’ve got to cut some scenes out, and you’ve got to tighten the picture and make it work at a certain pace. But then there’s some scenes you love. [William] Faulkner once said that the first thing you do when you edit is cut all your little darlings, your favorite things. And that happens in film editing, too. So I got to put some of the stuff back. Some of my darlings still live on DVD!
Do you think a DVD release gives a film a second chance in the marketplace?
I certainly do think it gives it a second chance, but it also gives it an interesting thing that’s happening now. Everybody seems to be interested in how movies are made. There’s 400 "Entertainment Tonights," "Access Hollywoods," and, “Here, let’s look at this celebrity and see what they’re doing.” Something going on all over television that they like to see behind the scenes. And a DVD of the movie does help that, and I do think that it gives it another life. Plus, a lot of people like the movie and they like to watch it again and tell their friends. So I’m a big DVD fan.
Are you a fan of those who like to see behind the scenes?
I am a fan of them. I know there’s some film directors over the years we’ve been doing this – not too many – that say, “Don’t tell everybody the magic or how we do it.” I don’t think that that’s so important. I think you should know that movies are wonderful illusions or wonderful make-believe. Spielberg once said, “We don’t have to make you believe the story in the movie. We have to make you want to believe it.” And when the audience wants to believe it, they really do enjoy the makings of it, what’s behind the scenes, and all the little more of what they can get that’s not in the theater.
