Tense meetings with executives.
Forcing kids to cry.
Director Barry Sonnenfeld relives that and more in this exclusive retrospective on the beloved' 90s hit.
Addams Family Barry Sonnenfeld CR: HBG.Credit: HBG
Mr. Scott Rudin has dropped off a script for you.
Hes asked that you read it in the next two hours and meet him at Hugos Restaurant.
I would soon discover this was classic Scott.
Barry Sonnenfeld Call Your Mother CR: Hachette Books.Hachette Books
The renowned film and theater producer always left messages, but never wanted to speak to you.
Im sitting here and my message light suddenly went on.
Yes, Mr. Sonnenfeld.
Addams Family Barry Sonnenfeld CR: HBG.HBG
Mr. Rudin left word.
Im sitting right here.
Did you try my room?
Addams Family Barry Sonnenfeld CR: HBG.HBG
Mr. Rudin did not want to disturb.
Scott just wanted to remind you he was out there.
The bellman brought up an 8.5 x 11 envelope.
In it was the script forThe Addams Family, along with a note saying I should direct it.
I was in LA working on Misery for Rob Reiner.
It was the second time I had been his cinematographer, the first beingWhen Harry Met Sally.
Sweetie and I read the script and agreed it wasnt very good.
Rudin wants me to direct this.
The script isnt very good, and Im not a director.
But you could be.
Yeah, but the script isnt very good.
Youll make it better.
I dont know how to talk to actors.
You do it all the time.
So, I should meet Rudin and say…?
Then tell him the truth about the script.
Maybe he knows its no good.
I mean, I love Charles Addams.
But this script…
Take the meeting.
He is ruthless, pathological, lying, mean, a dictator, and a lousy collaborator.
I met Rudin at Hugos, on Santa Monica near La Cienega.
The nice Rudin showed up.
Two Pasta Papas and two iced teas, Rudin told the waiter.
Thanks for sending me the script.
Walter started his response by saying, Tommy, Im going to err on the side of honesty.
Well, Ba,for some strange reason, Rudin was choosing honesty.
I guess he wanted to get it out of the way.
I sent the script to Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam and they both passed.
Someone who was a visual stylist.
Dont forget I was the studio executive onBigandRaising Arizona, both brilliantly shot by you.
I know what you’re able to do.
This cant look like a typical comedy.
The movie has to create a world and be amazing to look atlike Charles Addams drawings.
So thats why youre here.
All the good directors passed.
I gave Rudin my notes on all the things wrong with the script.
It was jokey instead of funny, the plot was a mess and the characters were goofy.
The genius of Charles Addams cartoons is that they are dark and smart.
I could be honest with Scott, since I wasnt looking for the job.
I was a successful, nicely paid Director of Photography.
Besides, no studio was going to hire me to direct.
Everything you said about this script, and about Charles Addams is exactly why you should direct this show.
For five hours a week, Rudin can be the most charming person on the planet.
If I can get Orion to hire you as the director, will you do it?
I promise we will get the script to a place where you and I will both be happy.
Then the Pasta Papas arrived.
Spaghetti with garlic, parsley, parmesan cheese, bacon, turkey sausage, scallions, and scrambled eggs.
I picked around the plate, basically having some breakfast eggs.
Rudin never touched his.
Scott and I met the Orion executives.
These four individuals were total gentlemen.
Orion was known as a filmmaker friendly studio.
Scott and I were offered the traditional coffee or water then got down to business.
And that doesnt include P&A [Prints and Advertising].
It was a disaster.
Barry intends to use no visual effects or animatronic hands.
All of his effects will be in camera, with an actors real hand.
Thank you, Scott.
Scott did most of the talking.
I sensed their take-away was they trusted Scottat least creativelyand I seemed like a nice boy.
They said I was hired and the movie green lit subject to cast and budget.
Take yes for an answer.
Rudin brought his friend Paul Rudnick on to do an uncredited page one rewrite.
Paul is one of the funniest people Ive ever met and really understood the tone of Addams cartoons.
We finally had a script.
Scotts screaming was fierce.
I realized the only way to deal with it was to out-juvenile him.
Im in the fort.
Get out of the fort right now, Sonnenfeld.
I am busy and this is stupid.
Seriously, Sonnenfeld.GET OUT OF THE FORT.I have work to do.
If you say youre sorry, and promise not to yell, Ill get out of the fort.
We have work to do.
Hed bend over and scream at me, but hed never remove a pillow and say,
Schmuck.
There is no fort.
Five months after the start of filming, we were slogging towards a wrap.
But we werent done yet.
After the Addams Family are kicked out of their home by Fester and his mother.
The family moves into a crappy motel with a motor court.
Gomez is a shiftless lay about receiving cranial massages from Thing.
The evening we filmed this scene, both versions of Rudin reared their ugly heads.
It was an incredibly tough day for me personally.
Sweetie was home in New York City, in the hospital.
Several times while filming, I feared Sweetie was dying, and this was one of them.
The doctors were going to operate the next morning to see if she had cancer or was totally fine.
The bad Rudin almost made me miss the plane.
Anjelica did a great job reading the story to the kindergarteners.
We had two cameras so we could shoot various angles of kids at once.
I had the five year olds stare in rapt silence as they listened to the story.
Obviously, the kids should be freaked out.
We rolled cameras and I said to the kindergarteners, Look sad.
I looked at my watch and thought, Time to go.
I think we got it.
Rudin, sitting in his chair watching the video monitor frantically motioned me over.
You dont have this.
We dont need a lot of stuff.
We can go out on Morticia, I lied.
You dont have this.
Those kids have to cry.
Come on, man.
How am I going to make a bunch of five-year-old kids cry?
I dont have a lot of time….
I mean, Sweetie.
She might be dying.
Rudin countered, The teamster has the car running and is at the exit right down that corridor.
It takes fifteen minutes this time of night to get to the airport [lie].
Right now, your job is to make those kids cry.
Tell them to cry?
Whatever it takes, Barry.
Those kids have to cry.
Youre going to make them cry?
asked one of the camera operators.
Good luck, he silently schmucked.
[see Chapter 18, Kidney Stones]
Just roll the damn camera, I thought.
You guys did great.
A smart ass adorable blonde curly haired boy said, Hes just kidding.
Didnt your parents tell you?
Whenever you work on a movie set you have to get a measles shot.
Im surprised your parents didnt mention it.
Man, this was a horrible, horrible thing I was doing.
Every child in the classroom is sobbing.
I see the camera teams panning from one kid to the next.
I know we have the shot.
Cut, I yell.
Out of the corner of my eye I see a burley red-faced, red-necked dad barreling towards me.
Luckily the classroom has two exits.
Im going to kill you.
My driver, sees whats happening and, opens the rear drivers side door.
I run past him and dive into the car.
I made my flight and spent the five hours of red-eyeing deeply worried about Sweetie.
There was no other explanation for her blood levels than cancer.
She was going to die.
I asked Sweetie how she was feeling.
A little groggy, but fine.
Well, I feel pretty horrible.
If youre ok, can you sit in the chair and let me lie down?
The nurse came in to give Sweetie some pain killers.
I think he needs those more than I do, Sweetie said.
Excerpted from BARRY SONNENFELD CALL YOUR MOTHER: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker by Barry Sonnenfeld.
Available from Hachette Books, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
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