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The Dilemma

Coverage by Nobuhiro Hosoki

Story : Longtime friends Ronny (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Kevin James) are partners in an auto-design firm. They are hard at work on a presentation for a dream project that would really launch their company. Then Ronny spots Nick's wife out with another man , and in the process of investigating the possible affair, he learns that Nick has a few secrets of his own. As the presentation nears, Ronny agonizes over what might happen if the truth gets out.

 

Q&A with Ron Howard

 

(Q): Welcome to our guests. How are you both doing?

(Ron Howard): Fine. I’ve still got my talk show clothes on. I would have been a little more casual.

(Q): There are secrets being kept from the audience of course as well and I’m interesting in how this evolved tonally for you while shooting, in the editing room, and how you think you did?

(Ron Howard): Well it was a good, strong script by Allan Loeb. I didn’t develop it; Brian Grazer, my partner at Imagine, it was his idea. In fact it was kind of born out of a moment where he saw a woman with red hair walking down the street being kind of affectionate. My wife Cheryl has red hair, shoulder length red hair, and he spotted it and said maybe that could be Cheryl, but this person was being very affectionate to a big, buff guy who was definitely not me.

And so Brian got a little worried about it but when he saw the woman turn it wasn’t Cheryl, and he came and told me about it and we had a laugh. And then he started mentioning it to other people and it always would kick off a round of pretty spirited conversation. He mentioned that to Vince Vaughn and together they cooked up the idea of this movie, brought in Allan Loeb, really developed it on their own, I knew about it, it was there at Imagine, and when I read it I really wanted it.

My antennae were really tuned to try to find a contemporary, unusual, edgier sort of comedy because I had had a really good experience working in and around “Arrested Development.” It reminded me that I missed directing comedy. People working towards generating laughs. And yet I didn’t want it to just feel, sound, echo other comedies that I’d done and other tones, and when I found this I thought this is fresh, it’s full of surprises, the story twists and turns, I bet it could do so even more, and Vince Vaughn is a perfect guy as a fan to see between this rock and this hard place.

I knew it would be funny and I knew he could take it even further, and directorially I thought I could do something with it beyond just sort of put the camera in a place so it stayed out of the way of the jokes. Because of the comedy, psychological thriller, Sal Totino, the cinematographer, and I could do something a little more filmic and interesting with it.

(Q): I want to get to a clip. Maybe you can introduce this with Channing Tatum.

(Ron Howard): We’re sort of jumping in and out of order because I don’t want people to necessarily get a sense of the film exactly except it’s a story of friendship. This feeling that with the Vince Vaughn character sees Winona Ryder, who is supposed to be married to Kevin James, kissing Channing Tatum. And right at that point Vince and Kevin are not only life long friends but they’re also business partners in their own independent company.

They’re up against a pressurized deadline. Kevin has been in a little bit of a slump, he’s emotionally fried. Vince when he makes his discovery doesn’t know how to approach him and he begins to start to make sure that it really happened, understand how he can head it off at the pass, what are his options? And at a certain point he finally decides that he really needs to confront Channing Tatum, who I don’t know who Channing Tatum channeled, some buddy of his, I don’t want to meet the guy, because whoever Channing channeled is pretty out there and really hilarious. And Channing did a fantastic job not only with what was written but also improvising along with Vince. So this is a scene where they’re confronting each other. They’ve had one confrontation that got very physical and now this is the aftermath, the next day of that.

(Q): I want to break it down by character; just really quickly so we can get a better feel of what exactly is going on in this film and what’s going on with these characters. Let’s start with Vince Vaughn’s character, Ronny.

(Ron Howard): He’s a wonderful guy, he thinks in his own unique way, he’s one of those guys that kind of says and does the inappropriate sort of extreme thing, but it’s always from a place of trying to achieve something that makes sense, which is why he can be attractive to somebody as grounded, intelligent, and lovely as Jennifer Connelly. They are a long time couple, he’s on the brink of actually popping the question, this elusive guy, he’s had a gambling problem at one point in his life, things are looking really good, and he’s really at this point of turning a corner in a lot of ways.

So this is a story of that particularly kind of person having the rug pulled completely out from under him. So it’s not just what would you do, it’s what would this guy do? And what does it mean to him, his emotional stability? How does he respond? And of course we want him to deal with it in a comedic way, but we found that the more honest we were about it all, the more truthful it seemed, that the funnier the spikes were, We began to discover that during this long editorial process and preview screening process.

I have final cut, but this was one of the most interesting exercises of screening for audiences, getting feedback, and sort of zeroing in on a spot where the movie truly was a ride, the twists and turns were enjoyable and not confusing, the characters were edgy but still winning and entertaining, and these were all the things I wanted in support of these themes.

(Q): How did you develop the character with Vince Vaughn? How does this unfold, how does it evolve over the course of development, rehearsals, shooting?

(Ron Howard): Well Vince is a really fascinating guy, incredibly talented. He’s not really a comic; he’s not a guy that only thinks about trying to be funny. He really thinks in terms of ideas and the world around him, and he’s got a really particular, unique point of view about things, but it’s fun, it’s smart, it’s interesting, and it’s very unique. So talking about this idea and how it might unfold turned out to be very creative and it did keep evolving.

But all the other actors joined into this process, not only in the rehearsal period but on into the filming. It’s not like scenes entirely changed, but we would do the scripted scenes and then I would really invite these free takes and people could put their own stamp on the characters, whether it was comedy, or in some of the more emotional, even dramatic scenes, where people like Jennifer Connelly and Winona Ryder made huge contributions by bringing even more truth to their characters. So it did just keep evolving as we went along.

(Q): You were talking about developing the character with Vince Vaughn and also the interactivity between character development. How does developing Ronny’s character, how did that inform developing Nick, played by Kevin James?

(Ron Howard): Largely the Nick character was defined and in some ways he was born because of Brian imagining “What would I do if I saw your wife cheating?” Brian is mercurial, emotional, his mind moves quickly from subject to subject and possibilities possibilities, and I’m a little more dug in, myopic, and quietly I’m pretty wound up and emotional about what I’m doing. So the characters reflected that in a way. This is not a classic Kevin James character in that Vince is the one who’s more physically funny in the movie and Kevin is driving an idea, and the comedy kind of comes out of that anxiety and it’s a sense that this is a really bright guy but at an emotionally sensitive, vulnerable time.

And Kevin really loved that about the script and he signed on. And it was for the opportunity to sort of stretch himself a little bit because this was a different comedic tone for him, a chance to work with Vince, and a chance to have a different role in a modern comedy. He gets his laugh and stuff but he also creates some nice emotional moments and he really is proud of that.

(Q): We have a couple clips here.

(Ron Howard): They’ve had a dry spell and Ronny’s just set up an opportunity to get in and talk to some executives. They’re car designers, automotive engineers, they’ve got a big idea, and it’s been Kevin James’ dream to get funding for this idea. Vince went to some comedic extremes to get him the opportunity. This is sort of the beginnings of the Ronny-Nick relationship and the way their dynamic works when things are good.

So it’s early in the movie and that’s a scene that lets us know kind of how they operate and how things go, and this is before the rug gets pulled out from under Ronny. And by the way, the movie is not solely about solving that one issue. There’s a domino effect. These people have known each other a long time and they’ve all got secrets, they’ve all got choices they’ve made somewhere along the line, and those things get revealed, and part of the question is trust, what does it mean, how is it defined, the truth, when is it a weapon or a gift? Sort of lofty, philosophical ideas, but developed for laughs.

(Q): And obviously Winona Ryder and Jennifer Connelly’s characters play into this equation as well. How did you enter that into this whole dynamic and how did you flesh that out?

(Ron Howard): Actors were really attracted to the script because of this combination of tones. The idea that it felt real and yet there are some pretty outrageous places that even the script went to and we kind of all knew that as we got it on its feet and began working with it the comedy would go even higher. But the possibility of working both sides of that was exciting to everyone and both Jennifer and Winona enjoyed the idea of being around a comedy but not having to be goofy, broad, or trying to reach for the jokes.

The comedy coming from their characters would again, come from the truth. In the rehearsal period Winona, who is really classically trained, very disciplined, but it’s almost like old school Hollywood; where are my marks, what are my lines, syllable by syllable, beat by beat, where am I going to put my hand on a particular line? Very, very disciplined, thoughtful performances that she gives. And here I was just saying “I don’t know where your hand should go.

We’re going to shoot it again, see where your hand goes when it goes.” At one point we were riffing during the rehearsal period and I honestly thought I could see Winona eyes spinning in opposite directions as Vince was going. And then she sort of settled down and dove into it, and she generated laughs during the course of the movie but she also created some very powerful, very emotionally truthful, vulnerable moments. So did Jennifer Connelly. 

(Q): I think Winona Ryder is kind of a new discovery almost. It’s a new Winona Ryder. She is the story of this film as far as I’m concerned. How did she get involved?

(Ron Howard): She came in to meet on it and I was interested in meeting with her but I was thinking of her honestly more for the Jennifer Connelly role for the possibility of Vince’s would-be fiancé. I met her and in all honesty, and this shows a little bit of Vince’s out of the box thinking, he said “Wow. I wonder what she would be like as Geneva, the one who goes head to head.” The character was written in kind of an ice queen sort of a way and I immediately thought well that would be so interesting with her sensitivity and vulnerability and yet her dramatic chops. It might be very interesting, but I wasn’t certain, and I actually asked her to come in and do some scenes with Vince.

And then she came in and easily convinced us that she had what it took to really surprise audiences. And the key word there is probably surprise because it’s great to have these great comedy stars, I as a director wanted to try to create as many twists and turns in the plot but also surprise you with the casting. And so things like Winona in that role, Channing Tatum playing this kind of out of control Zip character, tattooed, crazy guy. Queen Latifah playing this automotive executive who’s kind of surprising in her own right. These were casting choices I wanted to make to try and surprise the audience.

(Q): We’re entering an era now in Hollywood where films like “The Social Network” and “Black Swan” are getting a lot of attention and actually doing well at the box office on fairly limited budgets compared to other films, and the creative freedom is greater on these films as well. You’ve both worked for a while in this business, where do you see this going and how will it effect your jobs from the director’s chair and then as an actor as well?

(Ron Howard): It definitely is changing, and the definition and cost of any studio movie, that’s shifting too. First of all, a character driven story is riskier in their minds. A comedy slightly less so, so having a movie that would attract this kind of cast led by Vince and Kevin gives the studio a little more confidence and they’re willing to invest a bit more in it. But even this probably cost 25 or 30% less this year than it might have two years ago, and so they are enforcing a kind of a discipline, which everyone has to respond to, and it’s probably a very healthy thing.

But I think it’s very exciting what’s happening, and the fact that people are proving over and over again that you actually can make movies for less and make really good movies, and thankfully audiences are showing up. There’s nothing better, nothing better for all of us than a film like “Black Swan” proving to be commercially viable. As dark, as unexpected, and I happen to really enjoy it and be riveted by it, so it’s effective to me.

But it’s not like anything else, and yet it’s finding its audience in a significant enough way that companies feel like they can actually make that a business model and rely upon it. “True Grit” cracking a hundred million dollars, that’s great, that’s spectacular for people who still want to get out there and take risks with the movies they make.

(Q): And of course the one film that we want to see has paradigm effects, the number one film of course is the “Arrested Development” movie. Is this movie happening?

(Ron Howard): I should give you Mitch’s email so you can all swamp him. Mitch Hurwitz, the creator of “Arrested Development,” and I spoke very recently and he’s working on it. The fact of the matter is that his television company and his television business and the recent series with Will Arnett was really eating up a great deal of time. He loved it, it’s not going to go forward, and I think now he actually has the window to focus on “Arrested Development.”

But it’s going to be his first feature directing situation, it’s “Arrested Development,” something that is precious to him, and he knows that there are going to be high expectations, and he won’t go forward to meet some kind of release date. He’ll go forward when he thinks he has something cool and funny and fresh.

(Q): Who has a question out there?

(Q): What was it like when you directed “The Grinch”? And what was it like working with Jim Carrey?

(Ron Howard): Jim Carrey is an amazing talent and in a way physically he is so spontaneous and surprised me so often that in a lot of ways when I was working with Vince on “The Dilemma” I was reminded of kind that same sort of inventiveness. Jim’s is a little more physical, at least it was on “The Grinch,” and Vince almost entirely verbal. But it was great. He was creative; it was unbelievable what he could do through that suit. This was sort of pre CG characters, everybody was wearing makeup.

It was extremely challenging on a design level and there were some limitations. Just a year or two later I was kind of wishing we could make the movie all over again because even what we could have done to just augment the look of some of the characters and help with the Seussian physics of that world would have been frankly a lot cooler and a lot more practical to achieve.

(Q): So is that a realm you want to revisit then with CGI being what it is now, motion capture, etcetera?

(Ron Howard): I mean if I found the right story. I’m actually not looking at things in terms of genre or cinematic, directorial exercises anymore. There was a time in my career when I really did. I love the medium, I wanted to learn it, I wanted to prove to other people that I was versatile. But now I just look for stories that interest me that I think have a chance to feel fresh and original. Characters that I think are going to provide really interested performance opportunities for actors that I want to work with. And look I love to work. My kids are grown, I plan to make a lot of movies, I’ve got good energy, and I don’t want to check myself too much. I want to keep exploring, pushing it, and sort of just following my instincts. It’s a good creative ride.

(Q): Since you also have experience in the acting field as well as the directing field what kind of advice would you give a new budding actor to help them grow in the industry?

(Ron Howard): Well I want to let Clint answer that too but I’ll through in a couple things. First, you’ve got to be working out, I mean as an actor. So whether that’s being in plays, scene study, whatever it is. I also highly recommend improv, even if you have no interest in comedy particularly. There is something fantastic about actors who are adept at improv and have actually trained for it because they bring a lot of life and vitality, even if they’re sticking to the words.

And I think that the big thing is to throw yourself into a constant cycle of working and being around other people who are taking it seriously and out there going after it, even if you have to do it for free. But there’s such a different between an actor who walks in for an audition who is sharp, tuned up, frankly just a little too busy to even be there because as soon as this audition is over they’ve got to run back to either their job or the play they’re doing or the thing they’re writing. You feel it if they’re tuned.

And the other thing I mentioned, the writing, it’s good to write even if you feel like you’re never going to sell a thing, even if you don’t care about being a screenwriter. It’s another creative outlet and there’s nothing that tunes your mind to what the needs of the narrative are than being free with your own writing.

(Q): When you rehearse how long do you rehearse for and do you rehearse the whole script? And what do you think is the difference between filming with rehearsed artists and not rehearsed? 

(Ron Howard): Different filmmakers approach that in different ways. I am always trying to create the environment where I think this particular set of actors is going to really excel. I like to rehearse mostly because I want to understand what the actors think about the material, if they have any concerns about it, so that on the day we’re not bumping into somebody saying “I just don’t understand this scene. I don’t believe in it,” or something. But you can go much further with it if the actors are really interested and willing.

But some actors feel that that’s going to shut down their spontaneity and I try to respect that and then ride a line where we go through the entire script, we come to terms with what is happening in all the scenes, why it’s happening, my point of view about it, their point of view about it, if a writing adjustment needs to be made let’s consider it, and make sure that that’s clear. If the actors are willing to go further, as they were in this one, as they have been in some other, I think it’s great.

But at that point it’s kind of more up to the actors than it is up to me. I don’t ask them but I sense it and then I either push the rehearsals further or I start to dial back and have them save it for the camera. So for me it’s always a process of what do these actors need in order to really fly, to really score, to give the audience the best possible look at what these actors have to offer? So I take it project by project.

(Q): You were dealing with an actor, Vince Vaughn, and Kevin James as well, who are pretty much really well known for their improv abilities in the comic world. How did you as a director go about drawing the line between what they wanted to do in terms of their spontaneity and improv and what you wanted from them as a director?

(Ron Howard): Well I didn’t draw the line. In fact I very intentionally went out and erased a line because we had worked on the script, we had a good script, they believed in it as well. We understood the parameters of the story and these guys are very savvy about that. But I wanted them to feel the freedom to create, to generate the comedy, and that surprise for me is how much heart came out of that. But I knew that I was going to take the material back, and the actors knew, and make those decisions in the editing room.

I wasn’t going to try to press that upon them. Now once in a while they improvised something that I really liked and I would actually ask them to do it again in a different camera angle. And sometimes that’s easier said than done but these guys are pros and very often were able to do that. But they were also the ones appreciating what was written, what had been arrived at during the rehearsal process, and they wanted to make sure that we had good versions of that. As Vince likes to say, “I don’t want to go out there and have to be shooting three pointers all day.” He wants to run set plays.

(Q): So you’ve used improvisation for this film, how about some of the other films? Was that used or did you have somebody on set maybe rewriting the script, especially in your dramas?

(Ron Howard): It really varies. “A Beautiful Mind” was highly scripted. There were some changes during the rehearsal period. Akiva Goldsman was around, occasionally there’d be something, particularly Russell Crowe would come in and have some ideas, but it was all very well prepared. However, a very poignant scene that I was involved with I guess over 20 years ago now in “Cocoon,” there’s this fishing scene, it’s kind of a well known scene.

Wilford Brimley’s out there fishing with his grandson and he’s talking about he might not see the boy and he might go off into space and it was a nicely written page and a half scene. And Wilford, who’s a really good improvisational actor, not so much reaching for comedy, although he could be funny and some of the funny lines in that movie came from improvs and him throwing lines in. But he came to me and he said “You know, we could shoot that scene and it would be fine, but why don’t you just let me talk to the boy?”

And I basically said “That’s great, Wilford. I just want to know that at some point if I don’t think we’re getting it with you just talking to the boy then we need to go back to the script,” and he said “Okay, that’s fine.” Well I wound up shooting four takes with three cameras, each one a different side, we never went near the script, and it wound up being a nine minute improv that was edited down by Mike Hill, one of my editors, down to this really poignant two and a half minute scene.

And it’s something I’m as proud of as anything I’ve ever, ever been involved with, and all I had to do was listen to Wilfred say “Why don’t you just let me talk to the boy?” and facilitate that. And you know Michael Keaton is a terrific improvisational actor. Jim Carrey. And so it’s exciting, I appreciate it when it’s there, but again it really depends on the actors. I’ll tell you one other circumstance; “Frost/Nixon.” Beautifully written, brilliant play by Peter Morgan, wonderfully adapted. He’s not a playwright primarily, he’s a screenwriter, he did a wonderful adaptation.

But one of the things that I really wanted to do is create kind of a spontaneity around it. And so I cast Oliver and I cast Sam Rockwell and I basically gave these guys a green light that whenever they were in a group, whenever they were around Michael Sheen, playing David Frost, or anyone else, that any time they wanted to throw anything in they could. Because I knew that the head to head stuff, these guys had done it in the play, it was brilliant, I didn’t want to impose that upon them, but I wanted to breathe this kind of vitality into it.

And Clint played the stage manager in that, he wasn’t going for jokes but he didn’t have any scripted dialog. But it was just constantly fill in, interrupt, interrupt the president here, and I tried to give that this sort of feeling of reality in and around this highly disciplined, carefully scripted, brilliant piece of writing.

(Q): Thank you for bringing up Russell because you may not be aware that half the audience here tonight is from Australia. And we’re here because the industry is really struggling and yet there are great performers, obviously, and great directors as well that are doing awesome things. And you mentioned your choices in stories and so I guess first we’d like to invite you to come down to Australia and spend some time, maybe pick some of those stories and revive the industry. But also maybe have some thought on how we all choose those stories, because we’ve got really talented people in Australia but the industry it’s not kicking. A good movie will gross $300,000 and we’re like wow.

(Ron Howard): It’s very difficult for me to presume to offer any real advice, but I was talking to some people, really astute movie goers, theater goers, sophisticated people, and we were running through movies that they’d liked recently, plays they’d seen. And I was listening and I didn’t even get into the conversation, but the fact of the matter is the ones they liked were the stories that had freshness and had a hook.

People want to be drawn into something and really entertained and when possible surprised with a twist or a turn. That need is there. So it’s difficult to find stories that can cut through, and I think we’re all facing that in a world where there’s so much else to do with our time that’s cool and exciting and engrossing. So you need to keep digging for those stories that actually would get people’s attention.

One of the reasons we’re doing this movie was as a concept Brian had tested it out at a lot of different gatherings and dinner parties and found that people liked to talk about the subject. So for us it’s not a formulaic movie, that’s a risk, but at least it’s an idea that we think has a chance to resonate with people once they’ve seen and maybe cut through.

(Q): We were talking about “Animal Kingdom,” which is a great Australian film. You guys are doing great work so by all means keep it up. Check out “The Dilemma” this weekend. Thank you very much.

End.