Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 10 augusT 2017
Jeannette Walls’ life is now

a major motion picture

By LINDSEY BAHR ry turned Oscar-nominee, her sister Lori wondering,
AP Film Writer and the “unadaptable” “Who is this Naomi Watts
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Author ‘’Life of Pi.” character anyway?”
Jeannette Walls already As Walls says, “If he knew But she needn’t have wor-
scraped away at the dark how to make a movie ried, Walls said. Cretton
truths, joy and hardship of about a Bengal tiger and had met, and quite liked
her eccentric upbringing to an orangutan and a boat Rose Mary Walls.
write her memoir “The Glass maybe he’d know how to “Rose Mary is a fascinating
Castle.” Now she’s living it make a movie about my woman. She’s very easy to
This image released by Lionsgate shows Brie Larson as Jean- all over again, but this time family.” fall in love with. Like most of
nette Walls in “The Glass Castle.”
Associated Press as an audience to her own For Netter it was a simple the Walls family members
life as her memories and call. she is just completely her-
words are acted out in a “There’s kind of a general self and if you don’t like it,
big screen adaptation of theme with my movies. I screw you,” Cretton said.
her book starring Brie Lar- like to give people hope. I “There’s something so en-
son as herself and Woody like triumph of the human dearing about that.”
Harrelson as her father. It spirit. I like people to feel He even decided to use
hits theaters Friday. like their lives can prosper,” her real paintings in the film.
With some 2.7 million copies he says. “I just love that “She was ambivalent about
sold, odds are most people there was a sense of hope him using them,” Jeannette
know at least something that came out of this book, Walls says. “I knew that was
about Walls’ story. Born to either because of how you mom’s phony way of say-
charismatic, bohemian were raised or in spite of ing that she was nervous
and occasionally distract- how you were raised.” that they were going to
ed parents, Rex and Rose The key for both was in make fun of her art work.”
Mary Walls, she and her the choice of Destin Dan- The heart of the movie,
three siblings spent their iel Cretton to direct. Cret- however, is Rex Walls — the
youths bouncing around ton had previously made complicated, alcoholic,
from state to state and the indie “Short Term 12,” and too-brilliant for his lot
house to house, always ei- which put both himself on patriarch of the family, who
ther teetering on or deep in the map as a humanist di- died in 1994. Woody Harrel-
a state of poverty. The fam- rector and also made audi- son took on the challenge
ily later settled in Welch, ences take note of Larson of the part.
West Virginia where Rex as a talent to be reckoned “It was almost surreal
Walls fell further into his al- with.n Larson would even- watching him. The first
coholism and the children tually come on board to time I saw him in charac-
plotted, and eventually ex- play Jeannette as an adult ter I started trembling and
ecuted their escapes. in the film. crying,” the author says.
The film, fanciful as it might “As soon as it got in his “Woody understood dad
still sound to its author, has hands I felt safe,” Walls on some deep cosmic level
been a long-time com- says. “There’s no cheap that was just bizarre.”
ing. Walls’ book was op- emotional blackmailing, The film wasn’t the end of
tioned around the time it it’s this bizarre combination Walls’ journey through the
hit shelves in 2005. of love and hate and joy past, either. “The Glass
Walls never even indulged and despair and triumph Castle” ends with footage
in the “who would play and you feel all of these of the real family, cobbled
me” game. things simultaneously and together from the remain-
“It would have seemed like that’s kind of what my life ing family photographs, a
hubris,” she says. was like.” And while the documentary about the
Plus, bestselling status movie is very much her life, squat her parents lived in in
aside, it wasn’t an entirely Walls chose to take a sup- New York, and some new
straightforward path to porting role in the produc- footage too — which was,
theaters. There were a few tion — always there to help to the surprise of Netter
screenwriters who Walls with a question, or to fight and Cretton, the first time
says didn’t quite know for a particular moment to the whole family had been
what to do with it, or poked be included, but ultimately together since Rex Walls’
fun at her unconventional letting the filmmakers drive death.
parents and the rural en- the ship. “I was told I would hate it.
virons. “The Glass Castle” Even when it came down I love it,” Jeannette Walls
the movie seemed as far- to casting, Walls was much says of seeing her life on
fetched as the one Rex more concerned about the big screen. “It’s being
Walls kept promising he who would play her family understood and having my
was going build for his fam- members than herself. She complicated, weird fam-
ily. remembers her mother was ily portrayed in a way that
Then, producer Gil Net- worried that the film was is true. I’m not interested in
ter swooped in to save the going to paint her as “a bad being flattered or compli-
day. guy.” When Naomi Watts mented or glorified, what
Netter had made both was cast in the role, Walls I’m interested in is being
“The Blind Side,” a true sto- says her mother called up understood. q