Main Page
Interviews Menu
Alphabetical Menu
Chronological Menu

Paul Weitz, writer/director of Moving On






Roadside Attractions releases Moving On nationwide on March 17th, 2023.


NYC MOVIE GURU: How did you find the right balance between entertaining the audience and provoking them emotionally?

Paul Weitz: The editing room, I feel, is like a funhouse. I don't mean that it's fun; I mean as in like you're looking at mirrors that are sometimes distorting. I think that movies play differently to a full audience. I'm seeing it in front of audiences now and, luckily, things that I was hoping that they were going to respond to, laugh at and gasp at, they did. That's very different from someone seeing it on their own. It's really different from me watching it for the 500th time in the editing room---where it's like you chew your food so much that you can't find the flavor. I think that, if anything, there was some pressure to take the most dramatic aspect of Moving On and water it down just a tiny bit, but I didn't want to do that. That's why I want to do certain films for as little as I can budget-wise as opposed to as much as I can. There's a really heavy scene there for Jane Fonda and I knew that I really wanted to see what she did with that scene. If there was something that Jane thought was fake or wasn't right or was inappropriate, either comically or dramatically, then I would've taken it out. Also, as a filmmaker, you don't know how weird you are. It's weird to be a filmmaker, so my sense of taste of what's appropriate might not sync up, but you have to do it. The story just writes itself and then you're carving it and hoping that you don't damage anything,

NYC MOVIE GURU: Between Claire and Evelyn, which of them do you think is more emotionally mature and introspective?

PW: I think that Evelyn is more emotionally mature because she's rueful. She's deeply ironic and really lonely. Part of why she's lonely is that she had a big love of her life which was her cello which, at a certain point, if you have arthritis, you can't do anymore. She has been playing the cello since she was 5 years old, probably, and she's a really high-level artist which also means that she's an athlete, but she can't do it anymore. She hues close to Evelyn in that she's also a kid. Jane's character, Claire, is very clearly looking back on her life and trying to figure out what the hell happened and trying to make up for something as well, but Evelyn [does that] as well. The reason why there are all these scenes with kids and Evelyn in the movie is because when she was born, it was not typical for a lesbian woman to have a kid, so, consequently, at this point, she doesn't have a kid or grandkids. Whether she would've chosen to or not, I'm not sure, but she's clearly great with kids. She's being a surrogate grandmother to different people in the movie. I think of Evelyn as like Snoopy---like how she comes in and breaks into Howard's eulogy, and you're not sure if she just got lost in the chapel, but actually it's clear that she just wanted to fuck with him. That's the essence of Evelyn. In terms of Claire, there's a love story there that she's sort of rekindling something which is not her intention at all. I think that Jane Fonda was really able to be clear about somebody who had various things to escape---not only the crime that happened to Evelyn, but also what her childhood was. I just let Jane bring whatever she wanted into that. Like, she said to me that this woman's dad was in the military and she moved around a lot as a kid, and the place that she saw a loving family was with their third friend's family. Those are the people who are okay with her marrying a black man. In a way, I think that emotional maturity has to include childishness. I don't think that Claire has allowed herself to be a child in the movie, and she's maybe finding it during the course of it. Hooking up with Ralph is a childlike thing and, in a nice way, a kind of youthful thing to do.

NYC MOVIE GURU: How accurate would it be to say that Claire and Evelyn are both learning how to love and accept their true selves? How do you think Claire sees herself?

PW: That's true. I really like the idea that someone in their 80's can have a beginning as opposed to an ending. One of the meanings of the movie's title to me is not the move on of "Get over this thing that happened to you.", but, "Move on with 'It's possible to move on'." I think that Claire starts to have fun with Evelyn during the course of the movie. She has fun with Ralph, too. Part of what Jane was doing with the character is that she was constraining herself physically. I didn't even realize it until she told me and then I realized it. She wasn't allowing herself to move in the way that she normally moves--and certainly not in the way that she does in Grace & Frankie. I think that that's true. Part of the key of being okay with yourself is being open to other people sometimes, so I think that friendship is key in Moving On.

NYC MOVIE GURU: How would you define a grown up? How is anyone a grown up if we're still in the process of growing up?

PW: I think that we're not. So long as there's curiosity and you can feel yourself changing, that's the key to life no matter what age you are. The whole thing, in a way, is a romp and adventure that Claire and Evelyn are having, but, at the same time, it's about the most serious stuff that you can have.

NYC MOVIE GURU: What advice would you give to Claire and Evelyn if they were to ask you how to channel their anger?

PW: There's a scene in the movie where they're at Evelyn's place and they see a photo of the two of them at age 20 with their third friend. They look at each other and start singing a song together. Unfortunately, it was a really popular song and really expensive, so I wasn't able to put it in the movie. In terms of channeling your rage, I think that it's just so important to talk to people about it, and to be okay with using people as sounding boards and opening up. It's really hard to do that in life, if someone has wronged you at whatever level, to talk about it and to talk about how you feel. The big thing for me, at the end of this movie, is that Claire had this romance with Ralph and he asks her to go to lunch, and she replies, "I'd love to, but I'm going to hang out with my friend." That, to me, is the function that Lily and Jane serve for each other, frankly. They've both been through the battles of being in Hollywood, being a public figure and being inherently political, but they're really there for each other, and that's something really beautiful.

Main Page
Interviews Menu
Alphabetical Menu
Chronological Menu


______________________________________________________
Avi Offer
The NYC Movie Guru
themovieguru101@yahoo.com
Privacy Policy