The Life Of The Party - Frontiers

Writer/director Randal Kleiser, on bringing the latest AIDS-themed film, "It's My Party," to the silver screen.

By Daniel Vaillancourt

This has been the best response I've ever had to anything I've worked on, Randal Kleiser says, during a telephone interview from his hotel room in Park City, Utah, follow-ing the January world premiere of his new film, It's My Party, at the Sundance Film Festival. The audience gave us a standing ovation, and they were all crying. It was just wonderful.

Written, directed, and co-produced by Kleiser, It's My Party was inspired by his former lover Harry Stein's life and death. The film stars Eric Roberts as Nick Stark, a gay man with AIDS who, rather than succumb to the rav ages of the disease, chooses to take his own life following a two-day gathering of family and friends. Gregory Harrison co-stars as Nick's former lover, Brandon Theis, a role Kleiser based on himself. I think I made the character into a bit more of a villain than I am to make it more interesting, the writer director says with a chuckle.

Kleiser whose eclectic list of credits includes Grease, The Blue Lagoon, Summer Lovers, White Fang and Honey, I Blew Up the Kids says he called in every favor owed him in assembling the cast and crew that would help him realize his vision. Many of the actors involved in the project - Christopher Atkins, Bruce Davison, Gregory Harrison, Olivia Newton-John-had worked with Kleiser previously. Others such as Marlee Matlin, Roddy McDowall, and Bronson Pinchot - contacted the director personally to voice their desire to partici pate in the making of the film. The star-studded roster of players also includes Margaret Cho, Nina Foch, Lee Grant, Devon Gummersall, Michael Kearns, Sally Kellerman, Greg Louganis, Paul Regina and George Segal.

It's My Party is sure to intensify the public debate surrounding a person's right to die. Kleiser admits that already, people have said to him such things as: If only my father had seen this movie. He didn't want to suffer, and he ended up suffering terribly before he died. This could have inspired him to figure out another way to han dle the situation.

Below, Kleiser reveals more about breathing life into Party.

What made you decide to write the script for It's My Party?
Well, the death of Harry was what triggered me to sit down. The night of that death, I began writing.

So Harry actually did have a two-day farewell gathering.
Yes. And that's what triggered it. Then I just didn't do anything else until I finished [the film), which was just recently. So, it's been three years of work.

What are some of the emotions you went through in completing the screenplay and during filming?
It was therapeutic in a way, and it was difficult. It was made easier by the fact that everybody connected with the project got totally behind it and supported what I was trying to accomplish, including the crew, who worked for less than they would normally work for. The actors all worked for scale. And the composer, Basil Poledouris, who normally gets $350,000 for a score, did this for me for one dollar.

How difficult was it to get the film made in Hollywood? How receptive were the studios?
It was turned down by everybody I went to. I went to the majors, I went to the independents, and I couldn't get anybody to back it until I met John Calley at United Artists. He used to be a producer, he produced Remains of the Day, and now he runs United Artists. He liked it, and said that if we could get this movie made, United Artists would distribute it. When you have a distribution deal, it allows you to raise money because it's kind of like a guarantee the movie will have some life rather than be on the shelf. So, that allowed us to raise the money to make the film.

What were some of the reasons people gave you for turning it down?
Well, as an example, I went to the people who did Longtime Companion, and they said, Listen, we made Longtime Companion, and it didn't make that much money. It was very hard to market. We've done that, and we just can't do that anymore. We don't want to try that again. It was too tough. So I went other places, and they just said, This is too dark or We don't envision lines around the block to see this movie. Because this kind of a story has to be done a certain way or else it's just totally depressing. What all of us tried to do was to make it a celebration of life rather than a movie about death.

There was such warmth and intimacy between the characters in the film, so much love flowing from each frame. I believe that goes beyond great writing, acting and directing. How do you think such poignancy was captured on film?
I've never worked with a group of actors who were more totally behind the project. They showed up every day with enthusiasm, just wanting to support what was going on. Because a lot of it was a party scene, everybody was in the shots. A lot of times when I've worked on movies with a lot of people, the stars will come up and say, Can you shoot my close-ups and let me go home, and then shoot everyone else? In this case no one ever said that, and they were as enthusiastic about being way off in the distance emptying ashtrays behind someone else's dialogue scene as they were about being in close-ups. [Laughs] I'd never experienced that. They checked their egos at the door, and they were just all like one support-ive family because they wanted to help me make this movie. That's what came across in the film. You can sense that. Nobody's trying to push anyone out of the way and get a better shot. No one's trying to upstage anybody. It's all just working together.

I think one of the most moving relationships portrayed in the film is that between Nick and his gay, teen-age nephew, Andrew, played beautifully by Devon Gummersall of My So-Called Life. Why was it important for you to address some of the issues facing gay youth today?
I don't think anyone has. I've never seen a film that dealt with that. And also, I haven't seen a film that deals with role models. One of the things I've always found kind of unfortunate is that gay people don't have role models in literature or film. There's nobody of whom you can say, Ah, I'd like to live my life like that. And so, this movie was exploring that a little bit. Nick and Brandon were role models for Andrew.

It's My Party will inevitably be compared with Philadelphia. How similar, how different, do you feel the films are?
I liked Philadelphia. I think it was a wonderful groundbreaking project, and in a way, probably paved the way for John Calley to say, Yes, I'll take this gamble. Philadelphia is more about the politics of AIDS, it seems to me although there was a lot of family stuff. This movie is more about how everyone is affected [by AIDS], not only physically, but the dynamics of relationships, and the dynamics of losing a generation of friends. It is the next step in exploring what's going on what has been going on for the last 15 years.

The relationship between Nick and Brandon in It's My Party is infinitely more convincing than that between the Tom Hanks' and Antonio Banderas' characters in Philadelphia. The kiss Eric and Gregory share near the end of the film is certainly one of the most unabashed ones ever seen in a major Hollywood studio release. Tell me about the filming of that scene.
I purposely shot the movie in order of the script so that when we got to the end and everyone knew that it was going to be over that the party was going to be literally over-that that dynamic would permeate the set. Keeping [the kissing) scene near the end allowed Greg and Eric to really get to know each other as people, and they knew that it was very important to me that this work. And so, they were really just trusting me to guide this moment to work. And I was trusting them to really get into it and experience the feelings rather than just go through the mechanics.

At the core of It's My Party is the controversial, complex issue of a person's right to die. If you were in Nick's position, would you make a similar choice?
I don't know. I know a lot of friends of mine have said they would do that, and then when they really were facing death, they backed out. I don't know how I would act. If I get to that point, I might have to make a decision. I don't think I would want to be going through what another one of my friends went through, which was having a catheter in his heart-a morphine pump pumping morphine directly into his heart and still being in agony. I don't think I would end up being in that position.

Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, there's much humor in the film. Did the funny lines come naturally to you as you were writing, or were they developed through improvisation with the actors?
Actually, I came up with some of those lines. But I have a lot of friends in the industry, and I sent my script around to guys who are known for this. For instance, to Bruce Vilanch, who writes for the Academy Awards and writes Bette Midler's act. He did a pass and gave me some [funny lines). And John Paragon, who was on Pee-Wee's Playhouse, read it and gave me a couple of lines.
Bronson Pinchot is like Robin Williams. Every time we shot something, he would give me a different punch line. He had those all lined up. I would do a take, and he'd give me one punch line at the end. Then we'd do another take, and he'd give me another one. So, you know, a lot of people helped with the humor. I love the moment with Margaret Cho and Bronson where they're talking about the Ten Commandments quote. I wrote that quote out, but then Bronson did that whole thing where he's talking about the hair, and Margaret laughs and imitates him. And then Bronson threw in the thing at the end [about it being) a Vidal Sassoon commercial. That was where everybody was working together.

What do you hope It's My Party will achieve?
I hope it will change people's thinking a little bit about all the issues that are in it: relationships, gay people, assisted suicide. All of those things. Preaching to the converted is not something that helps anything, but hope-fully this movie will reach beyond the people who would normally see it. If we get straight audiences into the the-ater, I think it might change their thinking about this.

What do you think or what do you hope we will see in future AIDS-themed films?
It would be nice if there didn't have to be any more AIDS-themed films. I guess that's being a little optimistic, but I'd rather see movies about people and relationships. If AIDS comes into it as a story point or to illuminate something that would make more sense to me than just making a movie about AIDS. This movie is not about AIDS. It's about people and how AIDS came into their lives and changed things. That's pretty much how I feel about it.

Although I've appreciated Philadelphia and NBC's Serving in Silence starring Glenn Close as Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer, I wonder when we will see a love story between two men or two women that doesn't need the backdrop of AIDS or of gays-in-the-military to be palatable to a mainstream audience.
Well, it depends how these other ones do, I guess. And it depends on the climate. I mean, right now the climate's not so great with most people out there. But, I don't know. I mean, it would be nice to see that all happen. It's hard to tell how the tide of public perception will swing.

Who knows? Maybe you'll write and direct such a love story one of these days.
Maybe.

What did you learn from making this film?
That just going with instincts is very rewarding.

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