One From the Heart

By Michael Tunison
Entertainment Today

Return To Me may be Bonnie Hunt's official directorial debut, but by all accounts the old-fashioned romance isn't her first experience telling people what to do and where to go. Not only did the Chicago native put in plenty of behind-the-camera time executive-producing the two TV shows she wrote and starred in - The Building and The Bonnie Hunt Show - but, as her Return To Me co-star James Belushi points out, directing the action comes naturally to her in her personal life as well.
"If you go out to lunch with her, she's directing," Belushi says. "If the waiter brings the plate, she'll go, 'Do that again,' and the waiter will have to set the plate down right. She's constantly directing."
A onetime nurse at Northwestern University Hospital, Hunt got her start as a performer working with the famed Chicago comedy company Second City. The warmth she projects onscreen combined with her sharp comic timing quickly made her a hot commodity as a character actress in TV series such as Grand and Davis Rules and films such as Rain Man, Dave, Only You and Beethoven. In recent years, she's given memorable supporting performances in Jerry Maguire, The Green Mile and Random Hearts.
Written by Hunt and regular collaborator Don Lake, Return To Me follows the heartstring-pulling amorous adventures of a Chicago builder (The X-Files heartthrob David Duchovny) after he's devastated by the death of his wife in a car accident. A new relationship with a smart-mouthed waitress (Minnie Driver) starts to revive him emotionally, but there's a significant speed bump on the horizon: Unknown to the hero, Driver's character was the recipient of his late wife's donated heart.
Entertainment Today spoke to Hunt one-on-one soon after MGM, pleased with the high scores the film is receiving from test audiences, signed her up for a two-year directing deal. Hunt's next project for the studio will be another relationship comedy, Anniversary, once again scripted by her and Lake.
Entertainment Today: At what point did you decide you wanted to direct a film?
Bonnie Hunt: They came to me. I did my television series, and that was really tough. The politics of that process is so exhausting, you would never believe it. I mean, you spend so much time with the politics, the actual work is like your time off. But those were my calling cards. I kind of failed by my own standards, which led to my success. I sent [TV episodes] to MGM. They were my little stories, the way I would tell a story - with strong characterizations, a nice story for a foundation, a little improvisation sprinkled in to make it all natural and believable. And MGM came to me and said, 'We want you to direct.'
ET: Once you had the script together, it seems like the project came together relatively quickly.
BH: When I was in it, it felt like it was taking forever. But comparatively, from the other experiences my friends that are filmmakers have had, we did move very fast. But the script got the response. The writing served us well in that respect. The actors wanted to do these roles. So it did move quickly.
ET: I understand you encouraged a lot of improvisation on the set. Does that come from your Second City background?
BH: Yeah, and don't I ache to do it when I'm in somebody else's movie. And you can't, because you're hired to do what they need you to do, and so that really pushed me to want to direct. Plus, when actors are together and they're up on their feet, the words do need to be altered sometimes. Not only because they're actually physically moving now, walking and talking, but because of the actor who is saying it. Maybe the character has a little bit of a different way he talks now, and you're seeing it differently. And I felt it was to my benefit to go with that flow. I had my script, I believed in it, I wrote every word, [the words] were precious to me, but I would be foolish not to have an open mind to let other people's ideas benefit me. That's what directors do. Directors bring the scenes to life.
ET: With your background producing television, how intimidating was the idea of directing a feature?
BH: I was scared. It's like anything - you wish for it and you work for it and you tell people you can do it, then you're like, 'Oh my God, you're letting me do it? I hope I don't screw up!' And I didn't want anybody to regret that they had said OK to me. That's a lot of pressure, but a lot of pressure equals all this great opportunity.
ET: You've had a lot of encouraging feedback about the film. Has it changed your thinking about where you might go with your career?
BH: You know what? I don't think that way. I always think I'll go to where the good story is, if it's my story or somebody else's story. If I'm lucky enough to have a great director call me up and say, 'I'm sending this great story and I want you to be a part of it,' that's equally as thrilling to me. It doesn't seem like less of an opportunity than doing all of the things I did in this movie. I mean, I have a deal in place with MGM for the next couple of years, and I'll be doing another movie with them. So it's exciting to go into it again, but I hope I can do what I did with this movie, which was while I was in pre-production [on Return To Me] I was able to do Random Hearts and The Green Mile as an actress.
ET: What was your favorite part of the whole process of getting the film to the screen?
BH: The teamwork. I love the editing. I love doing the music because I got to be with the musicians in the studio and I got to co-produce with [composer] Nicholas Pike four of the songs in the movie. And working with the actors and watching them grow from one take to the next, and then having it become so real and believable. The whole process is great. And learning from the people like [editor] Garth Craven and [cinematographer] Lazlo Kovacs. Doc Erickson, my executive producer, did all of Hitchcock's films. This guy's in his 70s and he's a genius. So for me, the best part of it was learning from these guys.
ET: What was the biggest change going from television to making a feature?
BH: To me, it felt like maybe at the end I had more of a chance to have somebody actually listen. On television you're writing for yourself creatively, but you also have to have a tease at the beginning, you have so many seconds before a commercial, then you take a break, then you have to write something interesting so they'll come back later. It's all about teasing and keeping the audience coming back instead of just letting a movie unfold naturally, so a movie felt much better for me. Because I knew that if people were gonna make the choice to come in, at least they're captive. They're gonna sit and watch and give you a chance. Just take your time and they'll start to believe.
ET: There's still a lot of frustration about how few women directors there are in Hollywood. Yet you didn't seem to face much resistance to the idea of you directing this film.
BH: I think I faced it in television. When I sold my first series, I had written all the episodes first because I didn't think they would believe I could do it. To be a woman that's starring and writing in a show - I thought that would be a little hard for them to take. But that was my predisposition. That's what I thought they'd be thinking. And it was true - I think it was kind of disconcerting for some of the executives I dealt with in television that I was a gal on my own. So there are obstacles, but it really depends on the individual you're dealing with. It's not, 'Oh, it's a woman, you can't do it.' That's not a general thing anymore - I haven't seen that. But there are certain individuals that it's tougher with than others.
ET: What advice would you give to a young person just starting out in the business today?
BH: To educate yourself in as many areas of this business as possible. As an actor on a set, I've always kind of gotten around. Talked to the cinematographer - just learned form everybody, watched everybody, observed, listened. I think that's the most important thing, because the more you know about it, the more you are prepared for every aspect of it. You have to have a good perspective, and it has to be from all the different angles. I was a nurse, so I had a nice job. I had a certain desperation because I wanted to [act] so badly, but I didn't have the financial desperation. I hate to sound like somebody's dad, but it's good to have something to fall back on. Especially if you're a writer or an actor, it's great to have something to draw from. That nursing background helps me every day.