Headline
First time feature director Noam Murro makes it
all sound so easy. One day you’re directing commercials,
and the next you’re working with the likes of Dennis Quaid,
Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church and recent Oscar nominee
Ellen Page. Not that he’s taking any of it for granted.
It’s been a long journey for Murro who started out as an
architect before he moved into commercials and then film. He was
supposed to make his film debut with The Ring 2, but “that
all went to hell,” he laughs. Ultimately however, it turned
out to be a “blessing,” he says, “because it
just made me hungrier.” The result of that hunger is Smart
People, a story about a cranky professor (Quaid) who struggles
to come to terms with a new romance and a freeloading brother.
“It was a good movie to begin with because I didn’t
have to worry about outdoing the first one.” Gaynor Flynn
caught up with Murro during the snow bound festival and here’s
what he had to say.
How did you come across
this project?
Basically what happens is you get this envelope
from your manager and they drop it by your door once a day, or
once a week and you start reading and you go oh man. And you toss
it away, or recycle it I should say now, everybody’s green.
And this one came up and you start reading it and an hour later
you put it down and you go I want to do this. And then it goes
through the trajectory of any independent film, it goes away and
comes back, it goes away, comes back and finally we were able
to make it with the help of everybody.
So why didn’t
this one go to the recycling bin?
You know I think what spoke to me is it didn’t
take itself too seriously. It dealt with serious issues in a very
light way and I like that because it wasn’t self-important,
it wasn’t pompous. It had a tone and an originality that
I thought was different. It dealt with the same old issues that
all movies deal with in that arena, but it least it had a voice.
So that’s what it’s about. It’s about finding
something that has an original voice and this one dealt with very
smart people who are actually incredibly stupid emotionally. I
mean you can’t ask for more in a first picture. I’m
going to ask for more for my second picture.
Speaking of a first
film, you assembled an amazing cast. Can you talk about that?
Dennis Quaid came first and I flew to New York
and we met in a hotel and we didn’t talk about the movie
at all. Not one word.
What did you talk
about?
I don’t know, how you doing, I’m okay,
how are you doing? Oh New York this that and I think we just checked
each other out and I think that’s what it’s all about
at the end of the day. It’s about when you work with people
they just check you out. They can’t assess how good you
are from meeting you for five minutes but they can assess what
kind of person you are probably because there all very smart and
sensitive. And Denis got it first and then we went down the line
and that’s how it went.
Why Sarah Jessica
Parker?
Well there’s two things. Under all this star power,
there’s a real person and people connect to it and I guess
every woman in the world connects to it and I think that’s
what its really about. Its about her ability to be really normal
and I guess believable and that’s what people want to see
and there was an opportunity for both of us to showcase that part
of her because she’s not Carrie Bradshaw and I don’t
think she is Carrie in the movie.
Was that a concern?
It’s not a concern you actually sit down
and talk about. You don’t go, let’s not do Carrie
Bradshaw. Sure you have it in the back of your head because it’s
such an established character. It’s like if you work with
Bob Di Nero, you don’t want him to do Travis Bickle, well
you do but not in a romantic comedy. And I think this is a romantic
comedy you want something else and I think that’s what this
was about, trying to find a voice that was true to the film and
true to her and she came up with that and to your question how
did we get all these people? I think I’m the luckiest man
alive. You beg and you pray and they come in or they don’t.
What about Ellen Page?
When you cast her you couldn’t have known about Juno?
We shot this before Juno and if you meet someone
whose talent is of that magnitude you just can’t ignore
it. And we all talked about it during the shooting, it’s
unbelievable it really is. You work with somebody this good you
go I don’t know what to say.
Did you see a lot
of girls her age before you chose her?
Yes a lot and there are tonnes of great talented
people but nobody who embodies this effortless oozing genius talent.
It’s like Meryl Streep. It’s unbelievable.
I only asked, because
I wondered if you changed the script to accommodate her because
she can handle that underage maturity.
You know we got her three days before we started
shooting. We didn’t have time to change anything. But I
talked to her agent and I said I really love for her to be in
the movie because she’d just become available, I don’t
remember the story. And I saw Hard Candy and I was mesmerised
by her and she read the script and she said, yeah lets meet and
she was in Halifax where she lives and I was in Pittsburgh prepping
and she said why don’t you come over but basically I didn’t
really want to go and she sensed it and she suggested we meet
in the middle. So we both met at Concourse C in New York airport
for exactly seven minutes before we had connecting flights. We
went to a burger joint, and I said do you want to do the movie
and she said okay and she went to her flight and I went to mine.
Thomas Haden Church
can’t help but steal scenes right? Did he have an impact
on the script at all?
Again by the nature of the movie he’s the
least damaged person in it, so of course you’ll be able
to connect to him the easiest. And he is who is he. You can’t
miss him if you flew over him. So he has that power and I’m
grateful for that because it balances or does something for the
movie that allows you to laugh out loud and you juggle all these
kinds of balls, you try to keep it light you try to keep it heavy
in parts, you know.
Is he difficult to
reign in, I can imagine him on set constantly goofing around.
What do you think {laughs}
What was your relationship
with the screenwriter?
We’re very good friends. I knew Mark [Poirier]
through the script. I read the script and it’s been a long
time in the pipeline before this got going, and in that time we
got very close and we have other projects and Mark is incredibly
talented and sensitive guy and we got along and that’s what
its about.
What’s he like
because he’s very particular in the film about English literature.
He’s very exact, so I wondered if he’s like that in
real life?
No his partner is a teacher in Fordham University
in English literature. Believe me he comes from that background.
His father is a professor, so he grew up in that environment.
He’s versed in that world more than I am for sure.
What were you doing
before this film?
Commercials.
Are you still going
to dabble?
Yeah. I love them.
What are some that
you have done that we might know?
There’s a few, I have a website, www.biscuitfilmworks.com
check it out.
Did you always want
to make the move into feature filmmaking?
I think every commercials director wants to do
that. I was offered quite a few pictures by the studio system,
that were very big.
Like The Ring 2 right,
which other ones were you offered?
Yeah The Ring 2, there’s a bunch and I thought
that I wanted to do something a bit more personal not that you
necessarily have more control. That’s not the issue because
I think the studio system does offer you some control, depends
on what you do. Its not about that, its about having the ability
to deal with subject matter that’s a little bit more complex
than you normally find available in the studio system. You only
get to do your first picture once.
What’s next?
There’s a lot of stuff going on but I’m
Jewish so there’s no way I’m going to tell you because
I’m afraid I’m going to jinx it.
Gaynor Flynn
