Jocelyn Moorhouse can’t believe it’s been 30 years since “Muriel’s Wedding.” The Australian filmmaker produced the hit indie, directed by her husband and frequent collaborator P.J. Hogan, and said there will likely be some anniversary screenings and festival appearances in store this year. “The National Film and Sound Archive in Australia is restoring it,” she notes. “Which makes us feel old because they were saying they need to preserve the footage before it starts corroding. I guess we all start corroding at some point.”
So it’s fitting that Moorhouse is returning to weddings with her new film, “The Fabulous Four,” hitting theaters this week. Moorhouse directed the comedy, which features Bette Midler, Susan Sarandon, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Megan Mullally as old friends who reunite for the wedding of Midler’s character, Marilyn. The only problem is, Marilyn fell out years ago with Lou, Sarandon’s uptight surgeon and old resentments are still going strong.
Moorhouse was sent the Ann Marie Allison and Jenna Milly script by producer Richard B. Lewis and loved that it was about older women. “I thought it was a great idea, a little bit ‘The Golden Girls,’ a bit ‘Steel Magnolias,’” she notes. “And I figured I could get some legends in it – and I sure did.”
I loved Bette Midler in this movie and thought she was cast a little against type — I feel like I normally would have seen her in the Susan Sarandon role.
It’s funny you say that because I remember when I first spoke to Bette, she’s like, “Are you sure? What if I played the doctor?” But she is just the life of the party, and I remember her from movies like “The Rose,” where she was a wild child and very sexy. And irresistible to men.
Did she take much convincing?
Not when she heard I was out to Susan Sarandon, who she just loves. And Susan is cast a bit against type, too. She can play deadly serious but also goofy. And Lou sees herself as a deadly serious person while in truth she’s a crazy cat lady and a bit eccentric — and they love her for that.
I would think one of the hardest things about working with these four women would be not laughing and ruining takes.
Well, I definitely ruined a few. Megan was hilarious. She did a lot of improvising, and we never knew what she was going to say half the time. Sheryl Lee found her hilarious and would crack quite a bit.
You’ve been working not just the independent film scene, but in different countries. How have you seen it sort of morph and change over the last 30 years?
It’s changed a lot. When I started in the industry back in the ‘90s, I thought I would only work in film — ‘I’ll never do television.’ Maybe because I started in television as a writer. And back then in Australia, it was low-budget television and people weren’t encouraged to take risks. And so that’s massively changed. But in the last 10 years, TV has become a place where you can do really fabulous, imaginative, cinematic things. Sometimes you get more freedom in television than you do in movies. So now I love working in both movies and television.
From the start, you’ve had such a great eye for talent. I believe you’re the first person to cast Jared Leto in a movie with “How to Make an American Quilt.”
Well, Claire Danes was in that film, and she had done “My So-Called Life” with him and said I had to test Jared. And of course, I had to put him in the movie. That was an easy call.
You also cast Hugo Weaving and Russell Crowe in “Proof,” your feature film debut. This was early in their careers. Did you find them both from their stage work?
I loved working with those lads. They were very charismatic and talented, and I could tell they were going to go a long way. I’d seen them both on stage, but we had this fantastic casting agent who made sure I saw everybody that might be right for the role. I was blown away when we did a chemistry read with them. Hugo was playing a blind man and so he couldn’t make eye contact with Russell. Yet he had such empathy towards Hugo’s character, it was so moving. I thought, “This is going to be very powerful.”
Obviously, Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths were huge discoveries in “Muriel’s Wedding.”
God, they were babies. And pretty much unknown. Toni was only 20; she turned 21 on our set, and we had a big cake for it. And I hadn’t seen Rachel Griffiths in anything. We’d originally imagined something a little different for Rhonda, maybe someone a bit more low energy. But Rachel came in and blew us all away. She was hilarious and brilliant, like a small bonfire.
Of course, Toni was gorgeous and hilarious from the word go. I think they were both among the first people we saw, and our producer Lynda [House] and I fell madly in love with her. I remember P.J. going, “It can’t be that easy. We can’t have found her on day one. We have to keep looking.” And I think he kept looking for like, another month and a half. And finally, we just sat him down, and [said], “You know, it’s Toni Collette,” and he’s like, “Yeah, you’re right. I just had to make sure.”
What do you credit your good eye to when casting?
I guess I’m looking for someone who’s going to fascinate me. And I’m looking for someone who just clicks in my head. I guess I would say it’s a little bit like falling in love. You don’t know what they’re gonna be like [when] they come in, they start doing the lines, and something just kind of melts in my heart. It sounds corny, but I do fall in love a little bit. And I can see them playing the role. I want to keep seeing them in the movie. I do love casting because it’s like finding the right instrument. I suppose if I was a composer and I was arranging a piece of music, I’d ask what’s the best instrument to play this melody. So, it’s like I’m casting an orchestra, except I’m casting a movie.
Speaking of music, I have to ask: who thought of Michael Bolton for his appearance in “The Fabulous Four”?
In the script, it was a mature popstar that the women would all know from their youth. And it turned out he was with my agency, CAA. Of course, he was a fixture in my 20s – everyone knew that fabulous mullet and his iconic love songs. So we asked him to do it. And a lot of people showed up on set when he was there – lots of family and friends, even the writer.
He’s been doing a bit of comedy lately. Did he improvise at all?
Yeah, a little bit. He was surrounded by these women who were being so sweet to him and encouraging him to. He seemed very pleased by the whole thing and to be there with the ladies.
It’s an intimidating cast but he did great with them.
He’s great. Michael Bolton. He doesn’t have to prove anything.
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