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Forget Home Movies - When Maura Tierney and Husband Billy Morrissette made a family film, it went all the way to Sundance. We caught up with them for a lovely round of He said/ She said.
"Were trying to be the new John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands," jokes
actor/director Billy Morrissette of his partnership with his wife of 10 years,
ER star Maura Tierney.
Seems the pair is off to a pretty fine start. Scotland, PA – Morrissette’s
hilarious 2001 debut both as a screenwriter and a director – was invited
to be part of last year’s Sundance Film Festival. And like most overnight
successes, it was a long time in the making.
The film’s central idea was born some 20 years before, as a teenage Morrissette
toiled at the local Dairy Queen, amusing himself with fantasies of deep-frying
his boss. Two decades later, the L.A. based commercial actor tuned in to a discussion
of the bard’s MacBeth on National Public Radio as he wended his way through
traffic – and had an epiphany. As Tierney watched in wonder, Morrissette
bought a computer the following day and wrote himself a screenplay.
The result? MacBeth, circa 1975. The coveted kingdom is now a small-town Pennsylvania
burger joint in which a polyester clad Mr. and Mrs. M. toil daily – the
greasy kingdom Pat McBeth wants for her own.
ACT ONE: READY TO ROLL ‘EM
Says Morrissette: “This is exactly my audience: They know there is a play called ‘MacBeth’ by Shakespeare. And they pretty much know they kill somebody. That’s who I care about.”
Billy: All of a sudden, me, the commercial actor driving through L.A., was standing in front of 300 people, acting like I knew what I was doing. And positive I didn’t know what I was doing…
Maura: Everybody kind of had more experience in what they were doing than Billy. So my heart kind of went out to him. I tried to be quiet about it, but I just really wanted him to do a good job.
Billy: The biggest thing I learned is that when you direct you really have to make all the decisions. You’re the president. I was literally George Bush with that “deer in headlights” look, directing the movie. Like, “Wow, how did I become president? What the hell just happened here?!”
MY OLD LADY…McBETH
When it came time to cast his mod Mrs. McBeth, Morrisette knew exactly where to find is perfect, potty-mouthed Pat. She lived in his house.
Maura: There’s a scene in the movie where I say, “F*** f***ity f***!” and I said to Billy, “Nobody talks like this!” He said, “Oh really? ‘Cause that is exactly what you said the other day when you walked into the…” It was actually hard to find stuff [from] my performance for the trailer, because I have obscenities in all my lines.
Billy: Maura never takes my directions. Never ever ever. That was the great thing about directing her on film – I never get to “wear the pants” at home.
Maura: Did he tell you about how when I didn’t want to get in the pool? It wasn’t in the script! I was like, “I’m sorry, show me where it says that in the script that she has to be in the pool! I can’t seem to find that anywhere…” But it’s one of the funniest scenes in the film. I can’t believe I gave him any s*** about it.
Billy: Maura Tierney came down and re-edited her parts – yes she did! I love Maura’s work in everything, so I was actually a little casual with my editing her. She would come in the editing room and say, “There’s a better take than that.” And I’m like, “No, No!…I…you’re great!” And she would play around a little bit, show me and I’d be, “Oh, that one is better."
DRAMITIS PERSONAE
…some more “dramatis” than others. James LeGros as Joe “Mac”
McBeth
Maura: Do you know a movie called My New Gun? Odd little film. Written and directed by a woman. Like, 10 years ago, I saw that movie. I was like, “Who is that guy? That guy’s so cool; he did [Scotland].
Andy Dick, Timothy “Speed” Levitch and Amy Smart as the three witches,
reinterpreted as hippies in keeping with the times.
Billy: Gawd, it was a disaster! It was oil and water, believe me! Two insane
personalities, constantly at each other. In fact there is a moment in the movie
where Andy slaps [Speed] in the face – he just did that improv –
and Speed is shocked. So then he jumps on him and we kept the whole thing in.
It was nothing less than a freak show. Which is what I was going for…
Christopher Walken as Lt. McDuff.
Maura: I was very nervous about that too, because it was Billy’s first
time and Walken’s a very unique individual. And in Walken’s first
scene, he’s working with this 16-year old boy, who was wonderful. He was
the casting director’s son. But he had never really worked professionally
before. So Walken walks on and his first acting partner is…a boy who had
never worked before!
SUNDANCE: THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY
So what if a little film called “In the Bedroom” was also on the
docket.
Billy: I certainly never did a film that eve came close to Sundance as an actor…and
Maura’s films were too big to get into Sundance. It was one big blur for
me. Ten long, exciting days of nuttiness. Plus everyone looks so funny, ‘cause
they’re all in those warm clothes…in ski jackets. Everyone looks
like they’re from Boston all of a sudden.
Maura: I didn’t get to go to Sundance because of my work on ER. I missed the first screening of it – the premiere screening! That was really sad for me because I was so proud of Billy. And I couldn’t go. I was in Chicago doing exteriors and I was soooo bitter. I was with Noah Wyle and I was like, “I am just not going to get over this. I am going to be a big baby about this for the whole day.” It was an opportunity that you never really have again – it was Billy’s moment.
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
Maura: I’d like to do an action movie…or a musical. I’d like to do something really physical. I’ve never done that before. The unfortunate thing about musicals is that I can’t sing. But running around and singing just seems like a really liberating experience.
Billy: I actually [wrote] a smaller movie than Scotland P.A. (My Dead Boyfriend) and it will get made, mark my words. I think I just have to do a bigger one first. I have to do Penis, Indiana [Morrissette’s self-described “commercial” film], and when that becomes a hit, I am going to pull My Dead Boyfriend out of the pack, and you are going to love it.
Maura: Oh God, he’s so attached to that title! I’m like, “All right….good luck to ya!” [Pause] I am building an empire. I just decided that last week.
FROM N.R. TO E.R.
“You don’t see many actresses that have successfully gone from
a sitcom to a drama- it just doesn’t happen that often,” says Billy
Morrissette of his wife’s glitch-free glide from the role of radio producer
Lisa Miller on the acclaimed comedy NewsRadio to that of the angsty nurse Abby
Lockhart on NBC’s veteran smash hit ER. “I’ve known how talented
Maura is since 1988, so to watch it happen was the greatest thing.”
“It worked out beautifully for me because I was on it for half a season
as a med-student,” Tierney admits, “and when Julianna [Margulies]
left, I could be the nurse character and nobody was going, ‘Well who’s
Julianna’s replacement?!”
As for Abby’s latest travails, first with her bipolar mother (Sally Field)
and now an equally affected brother (Thomas Everett Scott), Tierney is philosophic.
“The head writer said to me the other day, ‘Well you know, it’s
the disease we picked,’ Because the disease is really frustrating. It’s
ongoing – something that you have to deal with over and over again. I
mean you can’t just wrap it up or get cured or die…”
At least she has Carter. Or does she…?