My Happy Days in Hollywood (41 page)

I got to film
Valentine’s Day
in Los Angeles, and some scenes were shot just a few blocks from my home, which made me comfortable. Filming in Los Angeles also meant that my six grandchildren all got to be in the movie, and I loved seeing them on the set. And the ensemble nature of the movie meant that no actor was on the set long enough to cause trouble. Even our biggest stars, like Julia Roberts, worked only three days, so the production pace left everyone in an upbeat, cheerful mood. It was like reunion day at camp every day, where everyone smiled big because they were spending time with old friends. The movie was the epitome of a love story, and that was why I’d been hired to direct it.

Like all of my other films, we took
Valentine’s Day
out to test audiences before the nationwide release. I like to hear the laughter from real people to tell if a joke is working. When we asked what they liked best about the movie, the answer was overwhelmingly “the humor.” I felt confident that this was the right response. It was a romantic movie, but more than that, it was a movie with big stars that could make audiences laugh. Some critics said we had too many
stars. Audiences, however, loved it. During its first four days,
Valentine’s Day
made $63 million, the highest-grossing film in the history of the Valentine’s Day holiday.

I should have been on cloud nine, and I nearly was. Except again sometimes when you are enjoying success, real life intervenes and says “Ha!” I was getting ready to go to London on February 14 when my internist Dr. Paul Rudnick told me that I had a cancerous tumor behind my tongue. I had felt a small lump on the side of my neck earlier and thought it was just a swollen lymph node. We decided to go to London and then Rome to premiere
Valentine’s Day
before returning home for a series of radiation treatments. My wife and I told only our three kids and close family about my illness.

I am a creature of habit. Every day I write a big
W
in the square on my calendar because I want it to be a “winning day.” I wrote an
L
for “losing day” on the day I found out that I had cancer.
Valentine’s Day
was breaking records at the box office, and I was wondering how painful radiation would be. I had spent most of my childhood sick in bed because of one thing or another, but radiation seemed like a whole new ball game. Plus, it was recommended that I do a combination of radiation and Erbitux chemotherapy, which sounded even scarier than radiation alone.

Barbara and I have a favorite bar, the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South. After opening
Valentine’s Day
in London and Rome, we stopped over in New York. One night we went to the bar at the Ritz. Barbara normally has a glass of champagne and I have either a cosmopolitan or a Harveys Bristol Cream on the rocks. But that night we were not in the mood for our usual drinks.

We had heard about a shot of brandy at the bar that cost two hundred dollars. We decided that night we were going to splurge. We toasted the new movie and the year ahead. We thought we should share such a fancy drink with other people, so we chose three in the bar with us: our favorite bartender, Norman; the piano player, Earl, who was on the keys that night; and the television producer Phil Rosenthal (
Everybody Loves Raymond
), because he just happened to be there and I knew him. We each took a sip and declared the brandy excellent. I remember saying a little prayer to myself that night, too:
“Thank you, God, for giving me the strength to do
Valentine’s Day
, and please give me the strength to get through radiation and chemotherapy.” The next day I appeared on Martha Stewart’s television show and made soap with her. I’m just a glass-half-full kind of guy. You don’t let cancer get you down. You go have fun with Martha on national television.

Many different types of cancer can be cured if you get them early enough. I caught mine early enough but relied on a village of people to survive the treatments. My doctors Barry Rosenbloom and Chris Rose were from the Bronx and Brooklyn. I felt secure having two guys from the neighborhood take care of me. Along with my friends Victoria Jackson and Susan Silver, my speech therapist Betty McMicken and extraordinary dentist Dan Copps were stars. I remain forever grateful to all of them.

Celebrating the Splendor of New York City

I
T WAS JANUARY 2011
, and our plane from Los Angeles to New York City was delayed, so my assistant Heather Hall and I were checking into the Park Lane Hotel near Central Park very late at night. As we approached the front desk, a sleepy clerk rose to attention and said the perfunctory “Welcome to the Park Lane. How long will you be staying with us?”

“Ninety days,” said Heather without pausing.

“Ninety days?” said the clerk, alarmed.

“Yes,” said Heather. “We are going to be here all winter.”

That’s how I began work on my seventeenth motion picture as a director. I was seventy-six years old and had just completed seven weeks of radiation and chemotherapy to combat the tumor behind my tongue. A challenge, and not something I would have planned, but I was excited to put the cancer behind me and get back to work behind the camera. I have never been a good patient. I play the part of a healthy person much better.

At the end of each day, just like I did on all my movies, I continued to open up my datebook and review the events of the day. When the day was done I would write a big
W
in the date square to signify a “winning day.” However, when I got ready to direct
New Year’s Eve
, I decided that simply getting through the day as a winner was not a strong enough statement. I needed to triumph each day. So at the end of each day on
New Year’s Eve
I would go back to my hotel
room, open my calendar, and write a
V
in the date square.
V
was for “victory” when I needed to feel like a victor most.

The script for
New Year’s Eve
came quickly after the success of
Valentine’s Day
. Katherine Fugate, who had written
Valentine’s Day
, and I seem to be holiday people. The producers, Mike Karz, Josie Rosen, and Wayne Rice, sent me her script and were excited to work with me again. Working with so many actors from different generations on
Valentine’s Day
had really appealed to me, so I decided to sign on for another ensemble cast movie. This picture followed the lives of several single people over the course of twenty-four hours on New Year’s Eve. (Coincidentally, New Year’s Eve was also important personally because it is when I asked my wife to marry me in 1962.)

I had never directed a movie after cancer treatment. And the fact was that very few people in my life even knew I was sick. I underwent treatment from February through April 2010. Even during my treatments I worked nearly every day and played softball once a week. I couldn’t hit the ball out of the infield, but I could still play. When I started pre-production on
New Year’s Eve
in the fall of 2010, many people thought I just looked thin. Before cancer I weighed 206 pounds. I started
New Year’s Eve
weighing 164. Cast and crew members would ask me about my health, but I would just shrug it off as stress. Of course, I was a little afraid that my health might fail in the middle of the production. But I couldn’t let that fear show to my cast and crew. My job as a director was to lead them.

The biggest problem we had right away was casting. We didn’t have anyone. I was told if I didn’t put together a cast quickly, the movie might not be made and our financing would go to another film. However, I never lost faith. I knew that once I attracted a few high-profile actors, I could attract more. I tried to think of an actor I could call personally and ask to be in the movie. I knew my sister had worked with Robert De Niro in
Awakenings
, which I considered Penny’s best movie. De Niro is such a heavy hitter I thought he might be the perfect actor to start with. I got his phone number, and on a Sunday afternoon I called him and basically said, “Come shoot with me for five days in New York and we’ll have some laughs.” He was in the mood to laugh and said “Yes.” Penny later told him the
part was dramatic, but it took place in a bed, so he wouldn’t have to move around a lot.

Before his first day on the set, I asked Penny if she had any advice on directing De Niro. She said, “He doesn’t like shouting. So don’t stand at the monitor and call out to him. Whispering is better for him.” He also didn’t like pranks. I found out that 2011, the year we started
New Year’s Eve
, was the thirty-fifth anniversary of his movie
Taxi Driver
. The producers thought for the gag reel De Niro might be willing to look into the mirror of the hospital room we were shooting in and utter his famous line “You looking at me?” But he wouldn’t do it even for the gag reel. He’s a shy, introspective, serious, and dedicated actor. He is not a prankster. A few days later, however, he did two pranks for the gag reel just to show me he could.

Even with De Niro casting was coming together slowly. I heard that a deal was on the table to get the rock star Jon Bon Jovi. I was excited, but I needed to hear back from him so I could start looking for an actress to cast opposite him. Frustrated that I still hadn’t heard anything, I called Penny again for help. “Penny, you know Bon Jovi. Will you call him up and see if he’s going to say yes or no to my picture?” Penny called back in an hour to tell me she said, “Are you going to do my brother’s movie or not?” Bon Jovi said “Yes,” and then I knew how to proceed. Never underestimate the power of your sister.

With Bon Jovi in place we went after another A-list star: Halle Berry. She initially accepted the part of the ex-girlfriend chef to Bon Jovi’s rock star character. However, the day before she was supposed to come to the set, Halle called and said she couldn’t make it. She was involved in a custody case involving her daughter in California, and the judge wouldn’t let her leave the state. As luck would have it, she was free a few weeks later, so we decided to cast her in another part: the nurse opposite De Niro. Ultimately, I think it was a better part for her life and her acting talents. So file that under the heading “Sometimes the casting gods are on your side and make things come out better than expected.”

Working with Halle Berry was one of the highlights of the
movie for me. She was so happy to be working and not stuck inside a courtroom. She rarely went to her trailer to hide or to rest. Instead, she preferred to hang out on the set and chat with the cast and crew. Even with all of the drama going on in her personal life, she looked beautiful, and we did our best to help her cheer up. There is a scene at the end of the movie when she gets all dressed up for New Year’s Eve and then walks through a hospital hallway. I noticed all the extras were acting pretty blasé about seeing her character walk by them, as if they saw this kind of thing every day. I said, “People! Are you crazy? A beautiful girl walks by in a great dress. You have to react!”

By the end of her time with us, Halle was so relaxed she was even up for a prank or two. We had balloons from another scene on the set, and she sucked some helium and did a funny scene with a Minnie Mouse voice. She was also a big hit in our gag reel, where we featured a few blooper scenes in which she broke down in giggles. The bottom line was that she rose to the challenge and gave 100 percent in her acting with De Niro. There is a scene in which she cries with her boyfriend, and when you watch that scene you just know that she was born to become a movie star. Also, having served in the army, I like to acknowledge our servicemen in our movies.

For years I have made it clear that I like shooting in Los Angeles. But on
New Year’s Eve
we saved a ton of money by shooting in New York City because they offered us many location incentives. The budget for the film was originally $67 million, but if we shot it in New York, we’d save $10 million right off the top. We shot in two museums, and the funny thing about that was how we surprised the visiting patrons with our film crew. It is not every day you go to a museum and see a Cézanne, a Monet, and a Bon Jovi.

The schedule was for a forty-eight-day shoot, and we would have complete access to Times Square, which was unprecedented for a movie. The location and how we dressed the set were essential because the night of New Year’s Eve and the gigantic ball were almost main characters in the film. I was lucky enough to get the unflappable and innovative production designer Mark Friedberg, who had last worked with me on
Runaway Bride
in Baltimore.

What I didn’t know was that this would be one of my most challenging shoots, not because of the actors or the script but because of the weather. The winter of 2011 was one of New York City’s worst. Each day I would show up to the set not knowing what we were going to shoot. I would just say, “What can we shoot?” My assistant Greg, who is religious, prayed each day for better weather, but we never got it. It rained and snowed, and it got to the point that it wasn’t a matter of whether I was going to wear a hat and gloves to work but only which color I would choose. The weather made this physically the hardest movie of my career. We had to shoot on many streets and rooftops throughout New York. Even shooting the ball was difficult because we had to climb three flights of stairs—with no elevator—to get to it. I was feeling twenty-two years old inside, but when the wind cut right through me, I felt like a tired seventy-six-year-old man who just wanted to go back to my hotel, sip soup, and watch a sitcom. Recuperating from cancer didn’t help.