Palm Springs Life 2008
Interview with Charles Evered
Writer/Director

written by Tod Goldberg

What brought you to the desert in the first place?
I was invited to be a Visiting Professor at UCR's Palm Desert Graduate Center. I brought the whole family with me, and we had a ball living in the desert for nine months.

"What lead you to tackle the subject of Adopt a Sailor on the screen after you'd done it to such acclaim on the stage?"
Well, for me it was an opportunity for the story to reach more people. And also, I'm a playwright making the transition to becoming a film director, so it was important that I work on a canvas I was familiar with. And the story of Adopt a Sailor is one I really believe in and feel close to, so I knew that while being on a set might be unfamiliar territory for me, the story at least would be something I knew my way around.

"How much did the process of adapting it change the kind of story you'd originally penned for the stage?"
Actually, the screenplay is quite a bit different from the original short play. The short play that premiered in 2002 had a story that centered around the attacks of 9/11. I know that while the attacks are still very much ingrained in the fabric of our lives, dramatizing those events can be tricky. I knew that in adapting it into a screenplay, there would have to be more of a sense of "timelessness" to it, ---less specificity in a way. It's the story of a young sailor from Arkansas who spends a couple hours with a very sophisticated couple from New York City. That alone presents conflict, in terms of a potential clash of cultures. In the film version, we learn right off there is a "war" going on---but I don't name a country and I don't name a president, because Adopt a Sailor is not a political movie. It's a movie about people and relationships set against a volatile world. I wanted this movie to make sense today as well as one hundred years from now, and so I tried to keep it out of the weeds that way.

"When you decided to shoot the film in the desert, did it change the way you thought about the story?"
Overall, not really. The decision to shoot in the desert had more to do with Kim Waltrip just being a smart producer. She knew that if we could achieve the same effect by shooting it locally, that would free us up to spend more time and money on the things that mattered----like getting first rate actors, and an amazing crew. Kim and I did a lot of location scouting,---coast to coast. We looked at apartments in New York City, we looked in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Los Angeles, lots of places. In the end, it made sense to shoot the interiors where Kim had resources and contacts that could make the film better. To her credit, Kim never pressured me to shoot in any one place. She would have agreed to shoot wherever I wanted. In the end, though----shooting in Palm Desert solved a lot of problems right off so we could concentrate on what mattered----the actors and the story. Because the truth is, lets face it---we've all seen 100 million dollar movies shot in some of the most breathtaking locations in the world, but if you don't care about the story or the characters, I don't care if you shoot your movie on Pluto, no one is going to care. Location may be everything in real estate, but in movie making, you should pick a location that is smart and puts less pressure on the overall production. That's what we did with Adopt a Sailor. That said, remember, we also filmed all over New York City, so while it's a "little film"---it's a little film with a huge scope. My first day of work as a film director was shooting on the deck of a huge navy war ship, the USS Wasp. Our entire crew was flown out to the ship in navy helicopters. We shot in Times Square, we shot in the Port Authority Bus Terminal, we shot in Central Park, Columbus Circle, Lincoln Center and the Upper West Side. We literally had the full support of the United States Navy behind us, as they had to sign off on the script before approving the use of millions of dollars of their resources----such as the helicopters, the ship, a navy military technical advisor, etc. Plus, we were given access to hundreds of crew members from the Wasp that served as extras in the film. All the effort and money used to produce this movie is on the screen, and that's something Kim and I are really proud of.

"You've worked in all the mediums now---plays, film and television---- is there a different process for you, as a writer, for each?"
Well, of couse the skill set is different, but the basic elements remain the same. Create characters your audience can feel invested in, put those characters in situations in which they have to overcome something either externally or within themselves, then find a resolution that is true and hopefully entertaining. That's the basic rule I use for everything I write. My mentor and professor at Yale was George Roy Hill, who directed The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, etc. Basically what George drilled into my head was----"story first." If you find a great story, cast some great actors in the roles, then your job as a director is to basically turn the camera on and get out of their way. I'm not---especially in this first film, trying to impress anyone with my prowess as a filmaking virtuoso. I shot Adopt a Sailor for story. I didn't try to be Martin Scorcese, I just tried to make the story accessible and watchable for people. Adopt a Sailor is just what it is. It's an art film, really----about three people who have dinner in a New York apartment over one evening. That's it, that's the movie. It's what they all go through during this evening that hopefully makes it meaningful. It's not Transformers or Lawrence of Arabia. We're just trying to tell the story of these three people, and hopefully, on some level, other people will find their own lives and experiences reflected in it.

"Going from stage to screen, how difficult of a process was it?"
Well for me, it wasn't difficult because the script attracted such amazing actors and I consider my strength as a director to be my ability to work with actors. I've had some fantastic actors appear in my plays, and my theatrical mentor is Austin Pendleton, who is a brilliant theatre director. What I learned from Austin is----treat actors with the respect they deserve. I'm not a loud director on the set. If I have real direction to give an actor, I pull them aside and we just talk between ourselves. I give actors the benefit of the doubt. When you have people like Bebe Neuwirth and Peter Coyote, who have won Tonys and Emmys and worked with directors like Polanski, Weir, Spielberg, etc----what are you going to tell them? So I just had little private discussions with them. Peter and Bebe are brilliant in this movie. People will see both of them in an entirely new light. They think they know Bebe as that character in Cheers? Well, that character disappears in this film, because Bebe shows a level of vulnerability on screen in Adopt a Sailor that she's never shown before. And Peter is the same way----he's not just a handsome stud in this film, with this great raspy voice. He's edgy, hilariously funny and warm, all at the same time. The strength of Adopt a Sailor are the performances, I can tell that already----and I'm proud of that. And as for Ethan, he's just a revelation, he really is. He has natural film acting skill. Maybe it is hereditary, who knows?

"Does where you live effect the kind of stories you want to tell?"
Well, I've been pretty nomadic most of my life, but now that I have kids in school I understand I have to provide some kind of continuity for them. My wife, (Wendy Rolfe Evered), is a brilliant actress who understands the business really well. Our full time home is in Princeton, New Jersey, and it has been a couple years now. When I work out here in California, I just rent places depending on my teaching schedule at UCR, and what my writing schedule is. LA is funny though. If I go to a coffee shop in LA, the place is teaming with writers and actors and everybody is talking deals and points and fame and all that stuff. That's why if I'm in California, I'd rather be in the desert than in LA, anytime. The desert has a nice "apartness" that LA can't give you. You can think and dream in the desert. But, does where I live effect what I write? To tell you the truth, I don't think so. I'd like to think I could live anywhere and I would still write the stories I feel compelled to write. I always think of Emily Dickinson, sitting up in that little bedroom in Amherst, Massachusetts, hardly leaving her little town at all, and yet what she wrote enveloped an entire universe of emotions.

"How did you and your producer Kim Waltrip find each other?"
Well, our first contact came from the fact that her son Griffin and my kids were in the same school in Palm Desert. Then I started hearing about this force of nature all over town, "Kim Waltrip." It seemed like everyone knew her, and she does amazing work for charity. Then I remember bumping into her at some event and she mentioned that she had several films in development as a producer, and I remember being really impressed as to how articulate she was. She didn't seem like the usual "producer type" to me. She has a sense of humor, is refined and really smart. And as a former actress, she really knows how to deal with talent and has a great instinct for story. So, when I had a draft of "Adopt" ready to show, I remember sending it to her via email---kind of on a lark, and I'm not exaggerating when I say she wrote me back less than two hours later and simply said: "I am making this film. It is necessary that this film be made." ---I'll never forget it. Kim hit the ground running, and when our Executive Producer Michael Marix, (Kim's partner at WonderStar Productions) became involved, the movie was green lit from there. Both Mike and Kim are dream producers because all they wanted to do was facilitate my vision. Kim literally did it all. She made deals, carried equipment, made sandwiches, drove the actors around, gave story notes. I mean she is literally a "hands on" producer. She wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty. And Mike Marix is a class act. The guy could not have been more generous. He was hands on about giving us and the cast everything we needed. He put me up in his guest house and treated me and my family like royalty. And he treated the cast and crew exceptionally well also. And the guy never butted in creatively. He just said: "Make your movie, tell me if you need anything." He came by the set exactly once, and it wasn't to tell us how to do things. He just wanted to make sure we were comfortable, that everyone was happy. It was like a protective father coming down and just checking on his kids, then I never saw him on the set again. I swear, I tell other directors this and they tell me it'll never happen this way for me again, and I'm sure they're right. This was a dream gig for me, but I'm also aware I may never be this lucky again. Now of course everyone wants to work with Kim and Mike, and who could blame them?

"Did you intentionally match up two veteran actors with Ethan Peck, who is largely an unknown quantity filmwise at this point?"
I didn't think consciously about it, but looking back, it makes a lot of sense. Once the script got around to agencies, we got tons of submissions for the part of the sailor, and lots of the submissions were actors you've heard of from TV and film. But, Kim and I also auditioned lots and lots of actors as well. We had auditions from coast to coast, and even a session in the desert. In the end, it just became obvious that this sailor had to be kind of magical, and should bring no baggage with him, no pre-conceptions. And so when Ethan walked in, we were pretty intrigued but after he read for us, it was like a light went on. His grandfather is Gregory Peck, but I have to be honest with you: it just didn't matter to me. Ethan's last name could have been "Jones" and he still would have gotten the part. The other producers in the room, Mark Victor and Sherri Halperin recognized that as well. And another producer, Audrey Loggia, felt the same way about Ethan. He just won us all over. Ethan is amazing in the movie, and he's someone who I promise you is going to be a star whether he wants to be or not. I'm just glad we got him while we could afford him.

"You joined the navy reserves at a relatively later stage in your life. What inspired you to join, and did it effect you as a writer?"
I sold a script called "Carrier" to Spielberg's Dreamworks and went down to do research on an aircraft carrier in San Diego. This was 1998, I think. Part of the research was meeting the young enlisted sailors that live on the carrier, sometimes six months at a time. I was living a typical Hollywood writer's life then, getting paid pretty terrific money to write stuff that never got made, but I can't say I was happy or fulfilled. Somehow meeting those kids who were making less than twenty grand and working 16 hour days put my pampered Hollywood existance into perspective for me. It just so happened that the navy captain who was our tour guide started pitching me the Direct Commission Program they had in the navy, where people like me could join the navy and not have to go the usual route of the academy or a long training process to become an officer. And so I joined. I could tell you, my agent at the time was more than a little surprised. And the kicker was, I thought I would become an officer right away, you know, thinking, "Hey, I've got a Masters from Yale, doesn't that mean anything?" Well, not so much. It took a year for me to get placed in the officer program, because there were just no spaces available. So, my first year in the reserves was spent up at Point Mugu as an enlisted person, picking up cigarette butts and sweeping parking lots. So, I would be "hollywood writer guy" during the week, then on weekends I would make $80 for two days picking up cigarette butts. And ya know what? Guess which made me happier? It was the best thing that ever happend to me. Somehow sitting around Starbucks and bitching with my friends about our agents seemed trivial compared to the kind of experiences I was having. And I was no kid in my teens. I joined up when I was about 33. But the experiences it has given me, the people it has exposed me to---its just been an honor to serve, even in the pathetically small way I did. It made me a better writer, a better father and a better person. To me, it isn't about the military even, it's about service. Whether you do it volunteering for the homeless, or for the Peace Corps, whatever, but just living for something greater than your own self interest---it's the best training a writer could hope for.

"What's up next for you?"
I just recently finished a script called "Beautiful Day," about a father who has one last chance to come to terms with his estranged daughter. I'm going to direct that one as well, hopefully starting in October.

General info:

Budget of Adopt a Sailor: Less than Spiderman 3.
Shooting time: We shot about 4 or 5 days in New York City, then about 12 days in Palm Desert.

Locales used in desert: We shot the interiors in a private residence in Palm Desert that we converted into a soundstage, then we shot a day at Bel-Air Greens, a golf course in Palm Springs. The owner, Tony Avila, could not have been more helpful. Also, desert locals Dan Ball and Patrick Evans make cameos in the film, and American Medical Response lent us an ambulance for the shoot as well. The desert community really came together and supported us. Plans for Adopt a Sailor: This summer we'll have some select screenings. But to me, it feels like fall is the right time to let this film out into the world. Kim's already gotten quite a bit of interest from distributors, but right now it seems kind of smart to keep our options open. Hopefully it'll play at some festivals and from there, honestly, who knows? To us, truthfully, it's already surpassed our expectations. We made a movie. It actually exists. Unlike most people in the business, we're not just having lunch after lunch talking about making movies----we actually went out and did it. And, it was made for the right reasons. It doesn't degrade humanity, there are no scantily dressed teenage girls being tortured in it, there are no "saws," no spattering blood everywhere. We made a movie we can be proud of no matter how many people end up seeing it-----and at the end of the day----that just isn't such a bad thing.
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