Rob Reiner Flips For ‘Flipped’
Posted August 25, 2010 12:16 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Look back on Rob Reiner’s career as a director and you’ll find tons of his movies positioned high on many “Best Of” lists. This Is Spinal Tap is generally considered to be the best music mockumentary. Stand By Me has a strong fan base and many people consider it to be the best coming-of-age film (and one of the best adaptations of a Stephen King story). When Harry Met Sally is the best romantic comedy ever made in my books, and The Princess Bride is among the best family fantasy flicks. Reiner has also made many other highly regarded films such as Misery, A Few Good Men, and The Bucket List.
His most recent film, an adaptation of Wendelin Van Draanen’s novel Flipped, could be to this generation what Stand By Me was to kids growing up in the ‘80s. Set in the ‘60s, the story flips between the perspectives of grade eight students Bryce and Juli and shows them falling in love for the first time. It’s a sweet, funny film that is loaded with typical Reiner charm and has been embraced by both kids and adults alike.
CityNews.ca spoke with Reiner about how he was turned onto the book, the process of shooting a period piece, and his thoughts about a big screen version of All in the Family. Read our Q&A below.
Brian McKechnie: When did you first come across the novel for ‘Flipped’?
Rob Reiner: It was introduced to me by my son Nick who was 11 at the time. He was in the fifth grade and was assigned the book in school and brought it home and we read it together. I literally flipped over it.
BM: Did you immediately want to turn it into a movie?
RR: As I was reading it I was totally taken by how insightful it was in terms of capturing what boys and girls really go through when they are experiencing those first feelings of love. I love the convention of flipping back and forth between the boy’s point of view and the girl’s point of view, and by the end of it, I realized that both Nick and I were really enjoying it on different levels. He was just starting to experience those kinds of things and I was looking back on the time that I had my first love. [Nick] was actually the one who said, ‘Dad, I think this would make a really good movie.’
BM: Was it hard to find the right actors to play Bryce and Juli?
RR: It was hard to find Bryce. I had seen Madeline Carroll [Juli] in Swing Vote where she played Kevin Costner’s daughter and she was the first person I saw to read for this and she was absolutely spot-on perfect. On the other hand, finding Callan McAuliffe [Bryce] was very difficult. We looked everywhere and couldn’t find the right kid with the right look and the right intelligence and sexuality at that young age, and it was actually [through] an Internet video from Australia that we found him. He’s an Aussie and has a thick Australian accent and he’s able to put on this perfect American accent. We flew him in and he read with Madeline and they were perfect together.
BM: I had no clue he was Australian.
RR: When we were doing the film I kept thinking, ‘Is he going to slip out of the accent? Is he going to be able to maintain it?’ It was like a water faucet being turned on and off. The minute I’d say ‘cut’ he’d have the thick Aussie accent and the minute I’d say ‘roll’ he’d be right back into the American accent.
BM: Is it any different making a period piece today than it was when you made ‘Stand By Me’?
RR: No, it’s the same. You still have to go back and find the cars and the clothes and all the props and everything. For me it’s not difficult because it’s when I came of age and I have very vivid memories of what it was like back then.
BM: What do you consider the biggest challenge of doing a period piece?
RR: It’s not as much a challenge doing a period piece as it is doing this particular period piece because of the back-and-forth nature of the perspectives. Going from the boy’s point of view to the girl’s point of view was difficult to keep track of. You shoot things out of sequence to begin with, and then within the sequences we were shooting out of sequence. We would get pretty mixed up. Even the script supervisor would have a tough time following it sometimes.
BM: You had a hand in writing the script for ‘Flipped’, which is something you haven’t done for many years. Why did you decide to write again?
RR: Actually I’ve written on every film I’ve done; I just haven’t taken the credit. This one I did because there was no other writers besides me and Andy [Scheinman]. On other projects there have been other writers involved and as a director I don’t like to lobby for credit unless it’s something I worked on just by myself.
BM: I’ve heard for many years that a big screen version of ‘All in the Family’ was being produced. What are your thoughts on that?
RR: First of all, the main character is no longer with us. Carroll O’Connor died a number of years ago and I can’t imagine how we would ever do it without him. It really wouldn’t be All in the Family.
BM: What about returning to television?
RR: I never say never to things. Right now I’m enjoying making films, whether it’s on HBO or in theatres, and as long as I find the idea I’m interested in, I’ll go ahead and do it.
BM: What do you hope the audience gets out of ‘Flipped’?
RR: I hope they have a great shared experience. We’ve shown this to three generations of people and whether it’s kids, parents, or grandparents, they all get something out of it and they all can enjoy it together. I also hope they take away the idea of the impact that family has on how kids grow up.
BM: What are you working on next?
I’ve got a project I’m working on that I just sent to an actor. It doesn’t have a title yet but will hopefully be a life-embracing story like Flipped or The Bucket List. As I get older I’m finding life more precious and I’m trying to find themes that will embrace that.
Flipped is in theatres on August 27.
brian.mckechnie@citynews.rogers.com
Top image: Rob Reiner on the set of Flipped with Madeline Carroll and Callan McAuliffe. Courtesy Warner Bros.
