After directing three acclaimed documentaries on boxing (the Oscar-nominated Against the Ropes), film producer Robert Evans (The Kid Stays in the Picture) and teenagers (American Teen), director Nanette Burstein was finally ready to make the leap to helming a feature film.
Burstein, 40, an NYU film school grad, looked over a bunch of scripts before she settled on Going the Distance, a romantic comedy about a long distance relationship between an aspiring West Coast-based newspaper reporter and a New York City music promoter.
Playing a hand in her decision were the words of her one-time subject, super-producer Evans. “Robert Evans is all about show business himself,” says Burstein, during a stop in Philadelphia, about the former Paramount studio head behind such films as The Godfather and Marathon Man. “He’s told me all kinds of great things that are true pearls of wisdom about how the business works. I called him after American Teen screened the Sundance Film Festival and told him I wanted to make a feature. He said, ‘You have to make a love story, kid.’ He’s a big fan of love stories–after all, he did produce Love Story!”
While Burstein broke into the business via docus and serious reality TV (like the terrific, underseen IFC series Film School), she claims she has always been interested in making features.
“From the beginning I have been interested in both (documentaries and features). I had done three docus and I was ready for something different. I definitely think all of the documentaries were calling cards, especially because of the nature of the documentaries. They unfold like dramas and they have humor.”
The Going the Distance script reminded Burstein of “Judd Apatow humor,” but also had elements of Annie Hall and other comedy favorites of hers.
In Going the Distance, Drew Barrymore plays the female lead opposite real-life boyfriend Justin Long. The film also boasts a first-rate supporting comic cast that includes Christina Applegate and Jim Gaffigan as Barrymore’s sarcastic sister and deadpan brother-in-law, and Jason Sudeikis (SNL) and Charlie Day (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) as Long’s wisecracking friends. The film, shot mostly in New York locations over nine weeks, is deservedly rated ‘R’ for its high level of profanity, sexual situations and male nudity.
In making her first feature, Burstein discovered that both the easiest and hardest part of the process was the same: control.
“Every moment of every day, I was in charge of sets, production design, wardrobe, cinematography, acting—everything,” laughs Burstein, who also co-owns a pub in the SoHo section of Manhattan with her husband, Scott Anderson, and The Perfect Storm author Sebastian Junger. “There were long hours and I could be working any time of the day and night. We had to accommodate cast members who had complicated schedules, so we shot days and nights, too.”
One may think with having a cast headed by Barrymore, herself a seasoned producer and director, the highly valued control factor may have been at stake for first-timer Burstein. But the director says Barrymore stuck to her role and added reassurance when needed.
“She respectfully stuck to being an actress, but she added all of her knowledge and experience at the same time,” says Burstein, who allowed her performers to improvise after a few weeks of rehearsal while screenwriters Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (who penned the upcoming Alexander Payne/George Clooney film The Descendants) worked with them.
In fact, Payne (Sideways) and Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air) are current director role models for Burstein, who sees their work in many ways similar to the movies of a different era she loves. “The movies of the ‘70s led me to Robert Evans,” says Burstein. “The movies like The Graduate, Harold & Maude and Chinatown had real characters and real stories.”
Burstein hopes that in some way Going the Distance emulates the films she loves. One of the themes of her effort, however, is how people communicate by way of technology these days: Barrymore and Long text-message, e-mail and use cell phones and webcams to stay in touch while living thousands of miles apart.
“The whole act of communicating is less sociable,” professes Burstein, a New Yorker who once had a long distance romance with someone in Los Angeles. “It’s particularly frustrating when you are far away. Consider the scene in the film where they (Barrymore and Long) are having phone sex unsuccessfully. And instead of talking to people these days, you text them. I don’t think it’s a healthy thing.”