Alexis is being known for her role as Rory Gilmore on TV's The Gilmore Girls, for which she recently won the 2002 Family Friendly Forum Award for Best Actress in a Drama.
Jonathan Jackson is best known for his role as Lucky Spencer on ABC-TV’s “General Hospital" for which he was nominated for six Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Younger Leading Actor, winning the award three times.
Although Babbitt wrote the novel in 1975, Tuck Everlasting is considered by many a classic, if not for it's bitter sweet love story, Victorian setting, and immortality themes, then for it's huge popularity among teens and school districts across the country who have included it on required reading lists.
Targeted solidly at the family film-going segment, the film nonetheless has attracted conservative Christian criticism for what one critic describes as "pagan metaphors...couched within an environmental message about protecting sacred nature."
Just before the movie was released I had the opportunity to talk with Tuck's director, Jay Russell. Pleasant and gracious, image Jay's voice with a slight Arkansan drawl softened by a few years in New York where he earned his MFA in filmmaking.
[Published interviews are often edited for understanding and space. What follows is an unedited transcript of the interview with Jay Russell.]
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Williams: Tell me a little about your upbringing and the presence or absence of any religious faith in your life? Russell: I grew up in Arkansas, raised conservative and classic Southern Baptist. I was always interested in religion as a big topic. While in college I took courses in world religions and philosophy and did as much studying in that as I could. My wife was raised as a practicing Catholic and we sort of blend the two at this point. Williams: Wow! Southern Baptist and Catholic! Russell: Yea, we get it from two different directions. (chuckles)
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Russell: I don't know if it specifically affects or helps me decide a film to make, however, I think because of the interest in philosophy and spirituality that is part of who I am. I'm sure it guides me in terms of the themes I'm interested in when I read a book or a script.
Williams: How were you involved in the development of Tuck Everlasting.
Russell: I came in, I would say, in the middle. The main producer, Jane Startz, used to run Scholastic Films. Jane had been working on this project for quite some time. She's the one who got the rights to the book and has just been very determined to get this movie made. It took her quite a long time, I believe something like eight years or so. When I was approached, I had jus finished My Dog Skip and Jane glad to say thought that I'd be the right filmmaker for this project. So she approached me first with the book. I'm happy she did that. I read the book first and then a script that had been written up to that point in the development process. And while I think the script was fine it hadn't completely captured the depth of the themes of the book, so I was glad I had read the book first. So, that's where I came in. So Jane and I worked with subsequent screenwriters to work harder at trying to capture this practically inadaptable book.
Williams: So, how long were you involved in script development?
Russell: Once I get my claws or teeth into a project I like to go. So, it moved relatively swiftly. Within a year after I got involved we were shooting the movie.
Williams: How long was the production?
Russell: We shot the principal photography in 38 days, which is fast in Hollywood terms. And this was a difficult physical production.
Williams: I read the Tuck cabin, lake as located in a fairly inaccessible mountain cove and valley that required you to build seemingly endless staircase up the side of a mountain, ramps and slides for construction equipment and gear, and rope banisters. Even then the cast and crew had to walk along a narrow hiker's path to the location.
Russell: Yeah, it was about a half-mile hike in and out each day. We were able to leave some of the equipment there but not all of it, naturally. And like the scene at the waterfall where the kids are swimming was a mile hike in and out. I think when you're trying to get location like that in a film they tend not to be by a parking lot. So, there were days when my crew was wondering if they were working for Hertzog rather than for me.
Williams: Well, I'll tell you the waterfall scene and Jesse's "Eiffel Tower" in the woods location were worth the effort. Pass that on if it means anything.
Russell: Well, I'm glad you felt so, because you got Jesse, a character who is reveling in his Eden and his natural playground and you've got to portray that visually.
Williams: It worked. So, how long were you in post?
Russell: Pretty standard, about 20 weeks.
Williams: What's the official budget on the film?
Russell: I think the official bottom line was $18 [million] and change.
Williams: This morning, I noticed on the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com) that there is a 1980 version of the book. Are you familiar with it?
Russell: Not until we were deep into the process, and then I didn't want to see it because I didn't want to be influenced one way or another by it. So, I waited until we were deep into editing and then the temptation just overcame me and I said "I better take a look at this and see if there is anything I can learn one way or another, something to gain or something to avoid. It was quite interesting. Clearly it was, and admirably so, a home grown project with not professional actors which made our budget seem like a Titanic budget. It was interesting to see where they had chosen certain approaches that we had chosen as well. But, then we had gone in certain direction that they had not. It was an interesting exercise but I think that was all it was.
Williams: Let's talk some about the messages in Tuck Everlasting. During development was there any discussion about what moral message might or might not be conveyed in the final film?
Russell: Yeah, we did discuss it quite a bit. Particularly the screenwriter who did the lion share of the work which was Jim Hart. In fact, one of the reasons I wanted Jim to write on this piece is that if you look at his body of film work he prances around this theme of immortality. Is it good or is it bad, that is immortality on this Earth. Is that a good thing or is that a bad thing? Because he wrote Hook for Stephen Spielberg, he wrote the adaptation of Dracula for Coppola, and he did the adaptation of Contact. So Jim has been dancing this idea for those three movies. So, we discussed a great deal what exactly was the bottom line of philosophy of this piece. And it's stated in the row boat scene by William Hurt's character (Angus Tuck). In fact that's a tough scene for an actor to play because you're asking the actor to state the theme of the movie and I believe that's hard to pull off in a believable and conversational way. But I thought he did a good job.
Williams: Yeah, he underplays things so well you believe him. What is it exactly that Angus says to Winnie?
Russell: In one sentence he states the theme which is "Do not fear death; fear the unlived life."
Williams: There a line that Miles has: "Immortality is not all the preachers crack it up to be." But Miles isn't talking about the kind of immortality that Christian preachers talk about is he?
Russell: Yea. Well, first of all, obviously Miles is a very bitter character and to me likely the most complex character in the piece. Instead of "eternal immortality", immortality on earth for has become hell for him. When Miles says "It's not all the preachers crack it up to be." he is taking a bitter, cynical point of view, as someone would in his case. And I think that's accurate.
Williams: Is he equivocating?
Russell: I think we see a melt in him in that scene. But at his most cynical, and his angriest, I think he is angry at God at that point. I feel that he thinks that God has played an awful trick on him. He is angry. But when we see him melt in that scene, I think we understanding where the anger is coming from. He is confused. He's horribly confused, because he's got himself outside of the "plan" as we know it.
Williams: The gravesite burial scene at the end of the movie is very Christian. It speaks of the resurrection with our "Lord Jesus Christ" and how our corrupt bodies will be made incorruptible. But I also noticed that the voice of the minister was mixed very low under the music. It was hard to hear the lines. Was there an effort to keep that understated, because the presence of those lines makes a significant point that was hard to hear in light of Miles' comments.
Russell: Well, first of all, you did hear it. Secondly, someone said to me once "It's easier to get people to listen to what you're saying if you speak in a whisper opposed to a loud voice.
Williams: Okay!
Russell: And I felt that by being very subtle with that it was going to force the audience's ears to arch up a little bit, and given the fact that you remember it so clearly we might have accomplished it.
Williams: Well, actually I was looking for it. Someone else had told me about it, but it was hard to hear. And had I not been to so many Christian funerals I probably would not have recognized it as easily.
Russell: I've had a lot of people, who are not looking for it really zero in on it. They do pick it up. In an early version it was played without the music and then interestingly you didn't listen to it at all.
Williams: It came off like preaching?
Russell: Yea, and at times like that people have a natural tendency to flip the OFF switch.
Williams: That's a wonderful point. Is the grave site funeral scene and the particular words of the minister in the book?
Russell: No. No, that is not in the book.
Williams: How did that get added?
Russell: We were looking for an appropriate copy to be read at the grave site, and we read all different kinds of passages. And what we used not only fit the scene but it seemed to fit the philosophy of the movie.
Williams: One Christian critics said of Tuck Everlasting "It relies upon pagan metaphors like the Wheel of Time and The Circle of Life couched with an environmental message about protecting sacred nature." Do you think that's true or a fair comment about the movie?
Russell: I think that anytime you begin to approach philosophical issues I think people instantly read into it what they want. I'm not going to argue the critic's point because I don't think that's what I should be doing in my position. But I would offer up, just as food for thought for that particular writer, that in traditional Judeo-Christian thought God did create this planet and world as we know it, and nature as something for us here and not something to be destroyed. I would argue that it's not pagan or naturalistic at all.
Williams: You've studied religion and philosophy, is there some sort of pagan connection to the Wheel of Time or The Cycle of Life?
Russell: Again, I think if you want to read things into it, you can go off entirely in that direction and one path might lead to some wicken thought, but that was never the intention of Natalie Babbitt the author. It doesn't bother me if people want to read things in and start to debate it. I think that's a good thing. It's fun watching the movie with kids, but one of the greatest thrills I've had on this movie is to follow them into the lobby after the movie and have them begin to debate it.
Williams: You must have been with a much more mature group of kids that I was with last night. I can't recall when I've heard so much young laughter and giggles when Jesse and Winnie kiss.
Russell: The one preview in particular I'm thinking about was out here in the Valley. There were a lot of kids in the 12-15 age group.
Williams: That's definitely older that the group I was with last night. There has been a lot of criticism within Christian circles of what is perceived that Disney is against traditional Judeo-Christian values. Was there an awareness within your development group that movies with Judeo-Christian themes and values, and I'm not talking about overt "message" films, help the box office?
Russell: The only thing I can refer to is my own experience. There were a number of life and spiritual themes in my previous movie, My Dog Skip. As we got ready to release that film Warner Brothers was concerned that a lot of this stuff was going over the heads of kids and therefore they wouldn't be interested in the film. What they surprisingly found is that kids are very interested in this stuff, and they're riveted by it. And I think that's because no one ever talks to them about it anymore. They're just put in front of the PlayStation and that's that.
Williams: You had a pretty powerful cast in Tuck. [Not counting Jay's first independent film out of grad school, this is only his second film. Aside from teen leads (Alexis Bledel and Jonathan Jackson), Jay was handed an incredible line up that included William Hurt, Sissy Spacek, Ben Kingsley, Amy Irving, and Victor Garber.] Were you apprehensive about directing such a strong cast?
Russell: Well, at first glance it can certainly be intimidating. I remember the first read through, when I had the entire cast sitting around a table in front of me, there certainly was, if you had looked closely, pools of cold sweat that formed on my forehead. But like anything else, when it comes time to build the house, you have to start picking up boards, hammers and nails. And all of apprehension goes away and you get down to work. I find that's the solution for me. When I get nervous or intimidated with something, like the scale of a project, when you get down and just start hammering the nails that's what you're there to do.
Williams: Did you do anything specific to gain the casts' confidence in you?
Russell: I've worked with a number of actors now, and there seems to be a common theme with all of them, and that is they are looking to the director for guidance, for a vision. They want the director to be the general leading the troops. At least the good actors feel that way. Knowing that, I try to give them a sense that although I may be internally questioning myself about what I am doing, I certainly cannot convey that to the cast. They have to believe I know exactly what we're doing.
Williams: Looking at the gap in time between End of the Line (1988) [Jay's first independent film] and My Dog Skip (2000) [his first studio film] did your independent project back them make you think twice about working on features, or what was the difference between working on your own project and a project for Disney?
Russell: It was exactly the process of going from independent to studio which led me to exit ramp off the freeway for a while. After End of the Line I got a number of what are known infamously as development deals out here; I was living in New York at the time. I moved from New York to Los Angeles, got caught up in the whole studio development process and found myself utterly confused, and really depressed in the sense of questioning why I wanted to be a filmmaker in the first place. The day came when I told myself and my family, "Enough!" I'm going to do something else, or we're going to move back to New York. That was the day that led me toward feature filmmaking again. Because I began working on documentaries of all sorts, and I was putting film through a camera again. There was no development. It was go out and experience it in real time. And that's just much more about who I am. Like I told you at the top of the conversation, when I got onto Tuck things started to move very quickly. I'm the kind of person that likes someone else to do the architectural planning of the house. But I like to build it. I don't like to talk about it. I like to do it.