By Gregg Shapiro
Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel in "Life as We Know It," now playing in theaters. Photos: Warner Bros.
After making TV a priority, director Greg Berlanti is moving back into movies with "Life as We Know It," the new Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel romantic-comedy. It's the out creator's first turn as director since gay favorite "The Broken Hearts Club," released 10 years ago. But Berlanti, who also executive produces ABC's drama "Brothers & Sisters," won't stop there; he's continuing his film streak as writer/producer of the Ryan Reynolds-starring comic book flick "Green Lantern," releasing next year. "If the last 10 years were about running TV shows," he says, "I would very much like the next 10 years to be about making movies."
Berlanti, 38, also spoke with Between The Lines about getting Duhamel down to his skivvies for "Life as We Know It," casting a gay couple for the movie, and why he finally moved back to films.
What was it about the screenplay for "Life as We Know It" that made you want to direct the movie?
First of all, I got to page 20, 25 of it and the parents died. I thought, Wow! So many times these days romantic comedies don't go to these places. I really loved, right off the bat, that it wasn't afraid to go to all these different places. It wasn't afraid to blend tones, and that was really appealing to me.
It's been 10 years since "The Broken Hearts Club," your film directorial debut. Since then, you've been very busy with various television projects, like "Brothers & Sisters" and the new series, "No Ordinary Family." No one would ever accuse you of slacking off, but did you miss working in the cinematic realm?
Definitely. I finished with "Broken Hearts," and in addition to taking over the duties for "Dawson's (Creek)," I created my first show with "Everwood," and that really filled me up. For me, the primary thing that I enjoy the most about this business is creating an emotional experience for the audience. I was able to do that every week.
About three years ago I started to get rundown by the pace of television and said, "OK, I want to make my way back into features where I know it's crazy in a whole different way. But you have more time to do something great. More time to cast it, more time to shoot it, more time to edit it." That's what was appealing about that to me.
The movie begins when Holly (Heigl) and Messer (Duhamel) meet on a blind date that goes wrong. Have you had any luck when it comes to blind dates?
I've been on a few blind dates. They're almost always bad (laughs).
There is a famous quote attributed to comedian/writer W.C. Fields about never working with children or animals.
Yes! He was a smart man. There was actually a lost part of that quote that goes, "especially triplets." That's what I tell everybody.
Right, because the Clagett triplets play baby Sophie.
It was crazy, but it was a lot of fun. It was a logistical nightmare in terms of planning their eating and sleeping schedules and how to shoot them in and out of a scene. Having to drop shots all the time and figure out a way to pick them back up.
Obviously, they alter the mood of everyone on the set. I say it was a lot like having a drunk lead actor wandering around, because you never know what mood they're going to be in. They're happy all of a sudden and then everybody else is happy – and then they're screaming. It was a little nuts.
GLBT audiences will probably like the inclusion of gay neighbors Ted (Rob Huebel) and Gary (Bill Brochtrup) in "Life As We Know It."
They were not in the original script. But then none of the neighbors were in the original script. I wanted to add a group of neighbors who acted as a Greek chorus, watching these people.
For me, I didn't just want six straight, white people. We've got to change this up somehow and make it more normal for someone like me, (and represent) the way I think families and neighborhoods are changing. We included this couple and they're not there for any more comic relief than any of the other couples, but they just happen to be gay.
Also, as we can see on the poster, gay viewers will also appreciate…
Josh's physique (laughs). He's very unassuming about his looks and very dedicated to acting. I always like when the characters make the jokes that you know the audience is thinking. There were shots of him running with his shirt off and things like that and he said, "That's gratuitous. I don't want to do that. I only want to do stuff that feels like what Messer would be doing in the moment." I said, "Fine."
So the day came when we were doing shots of the baby walking around the house in her diaper and one of my friends was there and said, "Why don't you see if Josh will imitate the baby and be in his sneakers and underwear, walking around with the bottle (of beer)?" I went over to him and said, "You're never going to want to do this, because you didn't want to run without your shirt on, but will you walk like the baby?" He was so game. He goes, "That's really funny. I'm going to do it." While he was doing it, I said there's a chance that this will be on the poster and it will be marketed this way and it will be in the trailer, and sure enough it was.
It will bring in the gays.
We hope!
