“˜Meet the Parents,’ “˜Meet the Fockers’ screenwriter Jim Herzfeld to speak on campus about film industry
Inaugural Oakie Comedy Lecture
Today, 7 p.m.
Macgowan Hall Little Theater, FREE
By Metta-Marie Kongsved
May 1, 2011 11:45 p.m.
Screenwriter Jim Herzfeld is best known for the box office smash hits “Meet the Parents” and “Meet the Fockers,” which in total grossed close to a billion dollars at the box office. Tonight, Herzfeld will visit Macgowan Hall’s Little Theater for a chat with Richard Walter, a professor in screenwriting at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, about the ins and outs of the film industry. Walter was also one of Herzfeld’s first screenwriting professors when Herzfeld was a student at the film school in the early 1980s. Herzfeld met with The Daily Bruin’s Mette-Marie Kongsved to talk about screenwriting, Robert De Niro and his thoughts on “Little Fockers.”
Daily Bruin: Why do you think the first two “Meet the Parents” movies struck such a chord with audiences around the world?
Jim Herzfeld: The simplest answer is that everybody at some point has to ingratiate themselves to somebody else’s family. I mean, if you don’t get married ever, maybe you wouldn’t. But everybody can relate to being an outsider trying to join some kind of group. But it was never calculated that, “Oh, this will be a great movie, because everyone can relate to it.” It was just one of those things where the execution and the approach was fresh and funny, and taking something as traditional of a ritual as that and combining it with humor is pretty effective.
DB: What did you think when you learned who was being cast to be in the movie?
JH: We got (Robert) De Niro first and then we got (Ben) Stiller. Once you have somebody of De Niro’s stature, and someone who you are that familiar with, they then bring a whole new level and depth to the role. As soon as we had cast De Niro, I had to go back to my draft and write up the conflict and tension between the two of them, because De Niro was such an iconic presence. But it is also not without its challenges. When you get someone like that, there is also a lot of power and politics involved. But great casting is definitely key. At one point, “Meet the Parents” was going to be directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Jim Carrey and that would’ve probably been a hit, but maybe not as much of a hit. It would’ve been a different movie.
DB: Are you sick of always having to talk about “Meet the Parents” and “Meet the Fockers”?
JH: I don’t think anybody who has had something that is recognizable doesn’t appreciate that. There are screenwriters in this world who have worked for 20-plus years, like myself, and they run into people at a cocktail party who will ask, “˜What have you written?’ They will rattle off their best-known credit and it still gets a blank stare. So it’s nice to have a couple of movies that almost everybody, if they haven’t seen it, they are at least aware of it.
DB: Why weren’t you involved with “Little Fockers”?
JH: First of all, I was busy, but second of all, Jay Roach (director of “Meet the Parents” and “Meet the Fockers”) and his assistant at the time Larry Stuckey had done a lot of work on “Meet the Fockers,” so when it came time to talk about a third one, Jay said, “I’d like Larry to have a shot at it and launch his career.” But when “Little Fockers” came out, underperformed, it was horribly reviewed.
DB: It tanked, basically.
JH: I wouldn’t say it tanked. Ultimately, it’s one of those movies that will probably turn a profit eventually, but when I went to see it, I was sad by what I saw. I know that if I had been involved and Jay had been involved, there is stuff that would’ve never made it on screen. It’s a little sad when you realize you’ve created characters that people have a certain fondness for and then to see them go down like that, but ultimately it’s a business and decisions are made that often aren’t the best creatively. But it pretty much put the nail in the coffin on that. I don’t know if there was going to be a fourth, but there is certainly not going to be now.
DB: Why do you write? Is it because you can’t help it or because you’re good at it and it pays the bills?
JH: It’s probably a combination of both. But it’s a career of extremes. It can be the best job, when you come out with a big hit and you make great money. Sometimes you can’t believe you’re lucky enough to do it, and then there are other times when you’re just like, “Oh my god, why am I in this business? It’s a crazy business.”
Email Kongsved at [email protected].
