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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 8 September 2017
Like mother, like daughter,

Meyers-Shyer directs her rom-com

By LINDSEY BAHR just made her first narrative there to do for their com-
AP Film Writer film, generational female pany...they need the fran-
LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the directors are as rare as they chise... It has to be a global
world of the romantic com- come. win for them.”
edy, writer, director and It was just something Mey- Meyers wasn’t quite pre-
producer Nancy Meyers is ers-Shyer always wanted pared for the limitations
unparalleled. Her six films, to do. She grew up on her of the independent world,
including “What Women parents’ film sets, which she but took it in stride.
Want,” ‘’It’s Complicated” liked, and even acted in a “Making an independent
In this Aug. 24, 2017 photo, Hallie Meyers-Shyer, left, writer/
director of the film “Home Again,” poses for a portrait with her and “Something’s Gotta few, which she didn’t. film for me was way more
mother, the film’s producer Nancy Meyers, at the Four Seasons Give” have grossed over “I was not meant to be difficult than making a film
Hotel in Los Angeles. $1.4 billion worldwide — on screen, that’s for sure,” with my daughter,” she
Associated Press and that’s not even count- Meyers-Shyer laughs. says.
ing those she co-wrote with It wasn’t until she was an Meyers-Shyer knows she
her director ex-husband adult that she started to has an advantage to most
Charles Shyer (“Father of realize just how influential first-time directors too.
the Bride”). their work had been. She’d “Being a daughter of
So when their daughter, notice people quoting lines people who made movies
Hallie Meyers-Shyer, 30, from “The Holiday” or “Fa- helps you know people, it
decided that she was ther of the Bride” in conver- helps you get some meets
ready to make her first film, sation and think, “My mom with some people who
“Home Again,” a roman- wrote that!” know your parents,” Mey-
tic comedy starring Reese “Home Again” is very much ers-Shyer says.
Witherspoon as a recently informed by and an hom- “But nobody is going to
separated mother of two, age to her mother’s mov- give you money to make a
there was only one opin- ies, which often center movie or star in your movie
ion she knew she needed: around divorced women, for those reasons.”
Mom’s. their picturesque homes That includes getting With-
“I wanted help. I wanted and the men coming in erspoon to agree to star,
her opinion. I like her opin- and out of their lives — ex- which Meyers says was a
ion in every aspect of my husbands, playboys, or combination of the script,
life,” Meyers-Shyer says. handsome young things knowing that Meyers would
“When I first decided to who don’t blink at wooing be producing and the fact
make the movie (my dad) an older woman. This also that she’d be helping a
said, ‘I know from experi- introduces a Hollywood el- young female filmmaker
ence there’s no better part- ement — taken from per- start her career.
ner in making a movie.’” sonal experience and a “She changed Hallie’s
Seated together in a res- romanticizing of 1970s Los life,” Meyers says “I can’t
taurant booth in the Brent- Angeles (something her stop thanking her,” adds
wood Country Mart, Mey- mother just finds funny). Meyers-Shyer. As with any
ers, 67, doesn’t remember Witherspoon’s character film, the pressure to suc-
offering to produce “Home is the daughter of a John ceed is high on a personal
Again,” but she liked her Cassavetes or Peter Bog- level, but recent headlines
daughter’s idea to have danovich-like director and are also hoping for “Home
three 20-something men a ‘70s starlet played by Again” to “save” or “bring
move in with a single mom. Candice Bergen. The three back” the romantic com-
Meyers’ only stipulation was lodgers are aspiring film- edy which is a tall order for
that they hold their meet- makers thrilled to be in prox- any film. “When we started
ings near her home in Brent- imity to such Hollywood I never thought you were
wood. It’s is how the restau- royalty, and, of course all single handedly bringing
rant in the white-paneled, fall for Witherspoon. back the genre. One of our
sun soaked “country mart,” They made the film outside early reviews is “the best
which fittingly looks straight of the studio system. Mey- romantic comedy in years”
out of one of her movies, ers-Shyer didn’t even try and as great as that is,
became their de facto to pitch it to the big shops we also might be the only
headquarters throughout knowing that an original one,” laughs Meyers.
production. rom-com from a first time She slyly adds: “I know ‘The
There was also a little po- filmmaker would be an im- Big Sick’ is a romantic com-
etic symmetry in making it possible sell. edy.”
when they did. At 29, Mey- “They do not make these Reviews, which came out
ers-Shyer was the same kinds of movies,” says Mey- after this interview was
age her mother was when ers, who even with her ped- conducted, have been
she made her first film, “Pri- igree and successes, strug- harsh, but jabs at magazine
vate Benjamin.” gled to get “The Intern” quality interior decorating
Among Hollywood families, made just a few years ago. or perceived superficial-
it’s not uncommon for the “Some of my friends are ity are both all-too familiar
children of directors to pur- studio people. They like and also have yet to bring
sue something in the busi- these kinds of movies. They down a Meyers film. That,
ness, but aside from Sofia just can’t make them right and, they prove eminently
Coppola, whose mother now. It’s not what they’re re-watchable.q