The Making of “Adaptation” | The New Yorker
I didn’t hold shut monitor of what was happening with “Adaptation,” as a result of I used to be busy with my very own work and, frankly, I didn’t anticipate a lot to come back of it moreover the standard Hollywood noise. I used to be amazed when Ed invited me to his manufacturing places of work to brainstorm casting concepts. This made the film appear extra actual than I had imagined. The producers had been most eager about whom I pictured enjoying me. I drew a clean. “Purple hair!” one mentioned. “Julianne Moore!” Another person mentioned, “Jodie Foster”—blond hair, however she may dye it. We kibbitzed for some time. It felt like a celebration recreation, naming actors, as if that had been all you needed to do to conjure them into your movie. Lastly, somebody mentioned, “Meryl Streep.” What a loony thought: probably the most admired feminine actor within the nation on this outlandish film.
Because it occurred, I did have a little bit of historical past with Streep. In my sophomore yr of faculty, once I was residence in Cleveland for the vacations, my pal Lisa requested if I needed to be an additional in a film being shot within the metropolis. I had by no means heard of the director, and I believed that the title, “The Deer Hunter,” sounded foolish. I hadn’t heard of the actors in it, both, besides Robert De Niro, who had appeared not too long ago in “Taxi Driver.” However I didn’t have a lot else to do, so I went alongside. For shut to 6 hours, in a Russian Orthodox cathedral in an previous working-class Cleveland neighborhood, we performed the friends at a marriage of the characters Steve (John Savage) and Angela (Rutanya Alda). The marriage celebration included Christopher Walken, John Cazale, and Streep. The scene was shot and reshot a number of instances, which baffled me, as I had by no means been on a film set earlier than. I believed nothing would come of the film or anybody in it. After it was launched, in 1978, “The Deer Hunter” gained Oscars for Greatest Image, Greatest Director, Greatest Movie Enhancing, Greatest Sound, and, for Walken, Greatest Supporting Actor. It was not the primary—nor the final—time my predictions proved barely askew.
By the point “Adaptation” was forged, Meryl Streep reigned in Hollywood. The movie was totally different from something she had executed earlier than, however she informed me a couple of years later that her youngsters had beloved the script and badgered her to take the position, so she did. Nicolas Cage was rumored to be eager about enjoying Charlie and his fictitious twin, Donald. A lot of actors vied for a shot at enjoying the Kaufman brothers. Whereas casting was below manner, I occurred to be at a movie screening in New York, seated subsequent to John Turturro. We mentioned hiya and launched ourselves. He acknowledged my identify and started pitching me passionately on why he ought to get the Charlie/Donald position. In the long run, although, Cage received the position—that’s, the roles.
Probably the most enjoyable I had with the movie prep was the afternoon I spent with the film’s costume designer, Casey Storm. He needed to see my garments so he may outfit the fictional Susan Orlean appropriately. At the moment, I favored vaguely goth concoctions. I met Casey on the door of my residence sporting a Comme des Garçons gown—black wool with straps and buckles—dreaming that he would possibly make one thing prefer it for Streep to put on within the movie. Over the following hour or so, I modelled my favourite outfits. However, on the finish of the afternoon, he informed me, “We have to make the journalist seem like a journalist.” In different phrases, he wouldn’t be utilizing any of my garments.
I assumed that I might no less than meet with Streep in order that she may examine my mannerisms and choose up my Ohio accent. I straightened up my New Yorker workplace, anticipating a name any day asserting that she was heading over. I discussed it to associates at work—one thing alongside the traces of “Oh, Meryl Streep is perhaps dropping by, simply in case you see a stranger wandering round,” and tried to think about which gestures of mine she would possibly deal with. Time handed. Extra time handed. I lastly known as Ed and requested him when Meryl was coming to see me. He informed me she didn’t have to, as a result of she had already created the character on her personal.
Manufacturing on “Adaptation” started in 2001, and that spring, I used to be invited to be an additional. They’d be taking pictures a scene set in a grocery retailer through which Charlie, performed by Cage, notices two ladies muttering to one another about how odd he appears. I used to be provided the possibility to be one of many mutterers. I used to be surprised once we received to the soundstage. My e-book had felt like such a personal enterprise—written within the solitary, typically leaden quiet at my desk—however now it had bloomed right into a mini metropolis, an industrial advanced, with dozens of crew members racing round, and an expanse of vans, dressing-room trailers, and concession tables. Aside from that sooner or later in Cleveland, this was the one time I’d been on a film set, and it was the primary time I’d seen one thing of mine lifted off the web page and into the three-dimensional fictional world.
My husband, John Gillespie, had flown to L.A. with me, and once we arrived on the set, a scene was being shot through which Charlie meets with an government. A number of individuals milled round, neatening the realm, touching up Cage’s make-up. I observed a slight determine with a froth of curly hair standing a couple of yards away from me: the actual Charlie Kaufman. I stammered and mentioned hiya, including, “That is type of embarrassing for me.” “It’s extra embarrassing for me,” he mentioned, and rushed out the door. I don’t bear in mind seeing him on set once more the remainder of my time in Los Angeles. Anyway, I used to be preoccupied by my position as an additional; we shot the scene, nevertheless it ended up getting reduce. Unexpectedly, John was pressed into service, as effectively, enjoying David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, in a scene set within the journal’s places of work, faithfully reproduced below the new Hollywood skies. That one was reduce, too.
