Miss Pettigrew’s Long Trip to Hollywood (Frances McDormand, Amy Adams)

Miss Pettigrew’s Long Trip to Hollywood (Frances McDormand, Amy Adams)

[Music] my mother wrote all her books before I was born but I can tell you the story about Miss Pettigrew how it came to be written in those days my father worked came home for lunch and my mother when she was washing up the dishes went through the dialogue in her mind she said specifically was when she was doing the dishes and she did this for 6 weeks from start to finish she then produced it to her agents and they said we cannot publish this book it it’s ree it’s naughty and it was completely unlike a previous two books they wanted a country you know Riven sort of story Miss petre was about as far as that you could possibly get so she cut a deal she said no this is a winner this book they said if you would write another book we will publish it so she wrote a third book called up yonder which was loving the farms and then they published as Petty grew and she was dead right from this one day dropped out of the blue into her lap she was going to save her everything it offered her Winford wasn’t necessarily ahead of her time in any way but she was telling a story about women who exist oh dear how untidy thought Miss pedigree and yes not clean it is not politically correct in any way whoever had charge here was a a some of the most interesting moments for me is where Delissa character is is literally physically shaken her wits are shaken out of her by a man that’s in love with her The Irate young man grasped her shoulders and began to shake her soundly you have to be careful with that you know want to hurt the girls these days it’s like well in fact some girls need a good Shake Up Now what do you say it’s very very modern in its take and it’s a very modern piece people stuck with very modern dilemas she got to her feet abruptly went into the bedroom and returned with a small packet that’s cocaine said Miss Leos there’s all sorts of things that you wouldn’t have thought were were existing at that time period it discusses a girl hopping in and out of various suitors beds I’ll see you back at mine later it might be 1939 but these are characters we recognize from the modern day first stop West End next stop Hollywood it was uh published in England it was published in America it was published in Australia um she was just signing the German rights uh when she thought this isn’t going to last and the war came and she was uh then started negotiating the film rights initially with universal and she was about to sign those when Pearl Harbor came along so she said I’m fed never to make a film the lady who was going to play Miss pettigru was Billy Burke who played the Good Witch and The Wizard of O and it was going to be a musical cuz musicals were all the rage in 1939 40 when I came across the book I just found it oddly life airing uh she’s wonderfully ordinary and it’s just oddly uplifting you finished the book can think that the world is a better place and that all things are possible and I suppose we just wanted to make a film that captured that spirit so pleased to have helped helped you’ve just made me the happiest man in the world around that time we brought Francis McDormand in very unusual for an actress to attach herself essentially to a book seem to have made quite an impression on him yes I do don’t I I’ve never done this before I’ve never gotten involved in a book to a screenplay to a film I don’t have the attention span really it’s amazing this worked out the way it did I can see I have no choice you’re clearly in danger thank you Nelly Bellflower and Steven Garrett brought it to me two of the producers and asked me if I was interested and I said I would love to be the character in the title I could really see myself I knew that it wasn’t a stretch it wasn’t something I wasn’t capable of doing in fact I was probably the best person for the job my dear the woman can do anything anything so we had a very interesting package but this was some years ago still but at the point in which we did a development deal with Focus you go through what’s called due diligence just as we were about to close the deal I had a call from uh focuses lawyers in Los Angeles who said these rights that you purport to have you don’t in fact have I said what do you mean and he said well Winfred Watson actually sold the movie rights to a Hollywood studio in 1939 and I said oh and he said yes and not just to any old Hollywood studio but to us Universal Studios which owns Focus I said Ah that’s interesting and he said yes better than that she did it again in 1954 so this canny old lady who sadly at that point had actually died and so was no longer around to sort of corroborate or not this story I’m sure innocently but had basically sold the rights to the same book three times so Universal very graciously allowed us to continue to be attached as producers to this project that they in fact had owned for more than half a century so my respect and admiration for wi Watson sword I thought she was a great writer it turned out she was also a rather brilliant businesswoman am I that’s very kind of you to say a book is a book a film is a film they’re two different art forms not wildly different because obviously there are links upon but they’re an art form and therefore I have absolutely no Hang-Ups about oh but my mother wrote this and my mother wrote that and this is a film they’ve changed it nonsense they’ve got to change it because a book is written at a different pace a lot depends on individual words that are put in that can be funny or taken this way or could be heartbreaking Etc a film you’re dealing for a far wider audience for a start um and I think you’ve got to be your story has got to have probably a little more dramatic movement in it than the original book we live in uncertain times my goodness there could be a war any day I think the book has more thinking and less action in it and less of a sense that if anybody gets their decisions wrong in the film they are really back in the soup kitchen and in a very desperate situation Transformations work both ways going it would take me 30 seconds to put you back in the soup kitchen Cube I just thought it was important to get that across that these people were living in an entirely in a man’s world and they had to tow the line and use manipulation and all sorts of Wilds in order to survive and prosper every day I wake up and I think if I make the wrong move I could be out on that street with no clothes no food no job do you know what that’s like yes I do she never talked about the war in the book she never mentions that London is on the eve of declaring war with Germany and it became important to us historically because it adds a certain dramatic tension to a film that’s not necessary in a book she was really interested in telling a story about Delia’s World in London and what happens when somebody like Miss pedru enters a world like Delissa it’s not necessarily that miss pedru is not going to survive without Delissa where we’ve kind of put the stakes up higher I wouldn’t say that my mother was a miss pety I think she was probably more like a Miss Leos what time is it maybe slightly more intelligent than Miss Leos it’s 5 minutes past 10 in the morning I believe so oh God she was extraordinarily good-looking at youth went in for beauty competition a very very clever and she was very fond of met not in an unpleasant way don’t worry she was absolutely one man woman she loved a good time she loved parties she loved um champagne and she she uh she just loved life I must admit she was a very a tough lady she was interviewed by BBC television in her own home in the Northeast BBC North uh she lived in Newcastle all Al life and uh so she was interviewed on her 94th birthday uh about the republication of the book and she said then that it was her favorite book I never write an unhappy ending she said it’s she’s totally against unhappy endings I’ll never forget this day in all my life you are giving it the perfect finish from what I’ve seen of the film my mother would be delighted I’m delighted said

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