Interview (Part 5): Julia Hart and Jordan Horowitz (“Miss Stevens”)
Entertainment Weekly calls it a “breezy indie gem”. Bilge Ebiri of the Village Voice calls it a “tight, unnerving and deceptively complex movie”. David Ehrlich of Indiwire writes, “With her directorial debut, The Keeping Room screenwriter Julia Hart proves that she belongs behind the camera.” And the New York Times has named it a Critics Pick.
It is the movie Miss Stevens and it debuted in select theaters last weekend in LA and NY, then on video on demand (VOD) beginning today.
For those of you starved for strong adult movies, I highly recommend Miss Stevens. It is a pitch perfect film… authentic… human… and entertaining.
Today in Part 5, we consider how movies like Miss Stevens and La La Land, which Jordan produced, disprove the meme going around that “movies are dead”:
Scott: Miss Stevens hits the theaters Friday, September 16th, and then available on video-on-demand. What are you two thinking at the end of this process?
Julia: It’s incredible. I can’t believe that the first movie I directed is going to be in movie theaters and people are going to be watching it. It’s terrific. I feel very lucky and very excited.
Scott: You’ve got double reason in your family to be excited because La La Land, which was written and directed by Damien Chazelle, just debuted in Venice and Telluride and Toronto to great acclaim.
In fact Jordan you tweeted something about Tom Hanks was at the post Sully screening. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before like an actor was there to promote his movie. He just stopped mid‑frame and basically said, “Hey, La La Land is awesome. You’ve got to support it.” What can you tell us about that project?
Jordan: It’s been totally surreal. It’s something I’ve been working on for six years. I met Damien a long time ago and we started developing it, me and him and another producer on it, Fred Berger, in April of 2011. It’s just been a real passion project and a bit of a dream since then.
The movie was originally developed as part of a program and was supposed to be something a bit smaller but the moment when we started developing it we very quickly we realized that it was never going to be make‑able at the numbers that we were supposed to be developing it for, in the program.
Then Damien went and made Whiplash and that obviously helped with La La Land. When Whiplash premiered at Sundance, it was clear that La La Land was going to be his next movie, that he was going to take the chips he won with Whiplash and put ’em all back on the table and make another bet.
Lionsgate and another incredible producer named Marc Platt then came onboard and everyone has been incredibly supportive of the film that we wanted to make. It’s really exciting. It’s been really inspiring to see people respond to an original, ambitious work in the way that people seem to be responding to it.
It’s just a testament to having a dream to do a thing and then realizing that dream it in the best possible way with the support of a lot of amazing people. Here we are.
Scott: You’ve got two original stories coming out within a couple months of each other, so thanks to you for doing that for those of us who appreciate original content. Then you mentioned “Counterpart.” That’s a Starz TV series written by Justin Marks, who I believe… You all are longtime acquaintances, right?
Jordan: Yeah, Justin and I, we actually went to high school together, interestingly. Weirdly, the first time I came to LA… I hadn’t seen Justin since high school. We followed each other’s lives post‑high school but we didn’t go to college together or anything.
The first time I came to LA I was driving in Beverly Hills, just randomly in my rental car, and all of a sudden Justin came out in the middle of the street. He was crossing the street really quickly, just completely randomly. I saw him and said hello and he jumped into my car and I drove him to…
Julia: I do not think I’ve heard this story. That’s amazing.
Jordan: Crazy story. He was going to the dentist or something. I don’t remember. He got in my car and we caught up and I drove him to his dentist appointment. Since then we’ve been in constant touch.
Then we started developing this project together, which was originally going to be a movie and then as we kept developing it, it became clear that it was a TV show. Then we sold it to MRC, wrote the pilot for them, packaged it, which was actually a great experience, because my skill set of putting together independent films and packaging a script with a director and an actor and selling the whole thing was… That’s sort of what we did with MRC.
That’s not the traditional network way to sell television, but we did that with MRC and then took out that package and sold it to Starz. We start production on that in November.
Scott: Was Amy Berg part of that package?
Jordan: We sold it to Starz and then we opened up a writer’s room and Amy came on at that point after we’d written the initial script, after Justin wrote that. So we brought on Morten [Tyldum] and J.K. [Simmons], took the project out, sold it to Starz, and then Amy came on after that sale.
Scott: If I’m not mistaken, did I read that it got picked up for two seasons on the strength of the scripts?
Jordan: Yeah, we got a two‑season pickup off of that pilot, J.K. starring and Morten directing the pilot. Then we opened the room. Amy and Justin opened the room and them and the writers wrote the first season of a two‑season pickup. We’re in the middle of prep right now in the first season, but it’s two 10‑episode seasons, yeah, they bought 20 episodes.
Scott: Let me end up here by talking about how lately there’s been — whatever reason — a slew of articles about how movies are dying.
I watch a movie, Miss Stevens and I look at the trailer for La La Land, and I’m thinking, that’s crazy talk. Great movies still being made. What’s your take on this meme that movies are dying?
Jordan: It’s totally ridiculous.
Julia: How many of the people who are saying that make movies?
Jordan: I don’t know. Probably none.
Julia: [laughs]
Jordan: Movies are changing. It’s just like, nothing’s dying. The way people tell stories is changing.
Julia: We finally have women who are actually getting opportunities to make them. They’re not dying, they’re being born.
Jordan: Yeah, so of course that means movies are dying.
Julia: [laughs]
Jordan: Is it the same as it was? Of course not. There’s no question that it’s not. Certain stories are now being told in the television space. And even television is completely changing. Network television, cable television, completely changing. Limited series are becoming much, much, much more viable, which is the six‑hour movie and all of that.
Julia: “Things are changing” isn’t as good clickbait.
Jordan: Yeah, exactly. “Things are changing” is not something that makes me want to read an article, because of course things are changing. But yeah, “movies are dying” — of course you read that.
Listen, does it take a whole hell of a lot more to get people to leave their home to go sit in a theater? Yeah. It really does.
But I can tell you that the scene at Telluride and in Venice and at Toronto is just as vibrant as it has ever been. Should we have to go to film festivals in order to find a true cinematic experience and prove that movies aren’t dead? I don’t know. That’s definitely something that one can argue about. But as I said, I’ve forged a career and have made only original movies so far, so if movies are dying, maybe I’m dying too.
I’ll keep doing it and I have lots of friends that are going to keep doing it too. As long as there are passionate artists and good producers and people out there that want to tell original cinematic stories — or even not original stories — I don’t think movies are going anywhere.
The thing you were talking about with Tom Hanks, about him saying that if audiences can’t embrace La La Land then we’re all doomed… I think audiences need to embrace cinema that moves them and understand that that experience is something that is really powerful, especially in today’s world. It can be a very powerful thing, it can be a very community‑driven thing. It can be a very powerful thing. And they need to make it known by buying tickets to movies, going to see them in theaters.
Time will tell. But no, I don’t think movies are dying.
For Part 1 of the interview, go here.
Part 2, here.
Part 3, here.
Part 4, here.
Here are links to some reviews of Miss Stevens:
Go here to rent the movie on iTunes.
Twitter: @juliahartowitz, @jehorowitz.