Elizabethtown has something for everybody.
It has Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, heartbreak, love, loss, and my favorite director, Cameron Crowe. Besides making great movies like Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky, he made the Arizona Cardinals a Hollywood movie star in Jerry Maguire. Below, Cameron talks about his newest movie, Elizabethtown, and he also shares an enthusiastic praise towards ASU.
The State Press (SP): What made you get Paula Dean to the set? What did she bring to the set food wise and mood wise?
Cameron Crowe (CC): She's just a natural. I wanted an actress that could cook, hug, talk, and love. She did all of those things. I was sent a video of her on the Food Network. We watched it and fell in love. In Elizabethtown, she's cooking her famous ho-cakes when Orlando comes in the beginning family scene. She brought ho-cakes and natural ability.
SP: What is your process of integrating music in your films?
CC: It's my background. Some people come from sports and have sports in their movies, and often music helps the movie's story come together. This movie is like a radio station. There are hints of music all over the place: an album cover or poster on the wall. Yes, there is a lot of music in this movie, but that's not going to be case in my next one.
SP: What was your original inspiration for creating this story?
CC: My own father's funeral was in Kentucky. I love the feeling and remembering of my dad and my father's history.
SP: Even though you took Elizabethtown to film festivals, why was it always unfinished?
CC: I kept working on the movie because that's my process. We had a cut before the Toronto Film Festival too, but I was still learning the movie with audiences. I heard Curtis Hanson did the same thing with 8 Mile and he learned from that. Since then, I've made a couple tweaks and that was the finished version.
SP: People are comparing Elizabethtown to last year's Garden State; do you think that's an accurate comparison?
CC: To tell you the truth, I never saw Garden State until after I finished the Elizabethtown. I was playing some Shins music, and people said to me it feels like Garden State. I love Zach Braff's work. I loved Garden State, but didn't see any similarities. When I was working on Elizabethtown, Zach Braff working near by. We shared scenes together and agreed that our two movies were part of a genre that we loved, musical character studies. Garden State is more kinship to The Graduate than Elizabethtown. Both of these movies though are about two real characters, love, and loss with some great music. It's about creating characters that people feel are real and relatable.
SP: Why did you shoot a major scene at the location of the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial?
CC: I visited it and was really taken aback. It is a tribute to humanity. The survivor tree is the most inspiring, and I knew nothing about it. During the road trip sequence, Orlando Bloom's character needs to know what his life is in perspective to the real world. This tree survived the blast.
SP: What would Kirsten Dunst's character, Claire, say about Susan Sarandon's name Holly?
CC: Holly's have been kind of, but not as festive as their name implies. Sometimes serious and sometimes a lot of fun. It's a compelling name. They're expected to be flamboyant but not always.
I wanted to show that Holly (Sarandon) could grieve in her own way and how she comes to find a moment of grace in front of everybody, and that's how she communicates best of all.
SP: Jerry Maguire shows some of the best Arizona Cardinal highlights I've ever seen, why did you pick the Cardinals to play and beat the Cowboys?
CC: It seemed almost unthinkable at the time. I like the Sun Devils and Cardinals and where they played. I always wanted to film there. I loved the players and had them in the mix too. The best line in the entire movie comes from Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) when he says, "I'm a Sun Devil man!."
Reach the reporter at monis.rose@asu.edu.
