My Happy Days in Hollywood (31 page)

When I’m not directing movies, I’m at my Falcon Theatre in Burbank, California, where I produce a new season of plays each year alongside my daughter Kathleen Marshall LaGambina and Sherry Greczmiel.
(Photo by Ron Batzdorff)

I call this picture from the set of
New Year’s Eve
the Oscar winners shot. Hilary Swank, Robert De Niro, and Halle Berry all have gold statues at home.
(
New Year’s Eve
photo by Andy Schwartz, © New Line Productions, Inc. All rights reserved)

I try to include at least one of my grandchildren in most of my movies because I think it brings me good luck. Spending time on the set or off with my grandkids is one of the things that makes me smile the most. Here I’m on the beach with my grandson Sam, an entertainer of the future.
(Photo by Scott Marshall)

When someone comes in and interviews for a job with me, one of the first questions I ask them is, “Do you play softball?” It remains one of my passions. I have won three championships pitching for the Indians in the senior league.
(Photo by Heather Hall)

Valentine’s Day
gave me the chance to work with some veteran actors like Shirley MacLaine and Hector Elizondo, as well as wonderful new actors like Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift.
(
Valentine’s Day
photo by Ron Batzdorff, © New Line Productions, Inc. All rights reserved)

Here I am with the cast of
Keeping Up with the Steins
, which was directed by my son Scott. Pictured here are Jeremy Piven, Daryl Sabara, and Neil Diamond.
(Courtesy of Miramax)

My daughter Lori and I had the pleasure of appearing on
The Oprah Winfrey Show
when we wrote our first book together.
(Courtesy of
sgreenphoto.com
)

Working with the ensemble cast on
Valentine’s Day
gave me the chance to work with so many different actors, including the versatile Jamie Foxx.
(
Valentine’s Day
photo by Ron Batzdorff, © New Line Productions, Inc. All rights reserved)

I like seeking new creative adventures even late in my life. I never directed an opera before Plácido Domingo asked me to direct the
Grand Duchess of Gerolstein
, which opened the Los Angeles Opera’s 2005 season.
(Courtesy of Lee Salem Photography)

Building Stories in a Post Office and a New Career as an Actor

A
FTER THE DISAPPOINTMENT
of
Exit to Eden
, I again wasn’t sure what I wanted to do next. I turned sixty years old that November, and I took my whole family to Paris for Thanksgiving. It was an exciting time because we were all together as a family, but I still worried about my next movie. If a director is only as good as his last movie, I didn’t want to be forever saddled with the less than memorable
Exit to Eden
. After all, I’d helped convince Jackie Gleason to do
Nothing in Common
so his last picture wouldn’t be
Smokey and the Bandit II
. So I had to live by my own advice and look for another movie to direct, to redeem myself at least in the eyes of Hollywood, a very tough set of eyes.

While I was searching for another movie to direct, a funny thing happened. I got interested in acting. I have always liked acting because when I’m not in charge of a movie set I can relax, hang out, and eat at the craft service table. When you spend your life being a boss, it can be therapeutic to let someone else be in charge once in a while. I loved acting in my sister Penny’s movie
A League of Their Own
, and before that in Albert Brooks’s cult hit movie
Lost in America
. I acted from time to time in my own television shows and other people’s movies, but I never wanted to become a regular in anyone else’s television series. I changed my mind when I crossed paths with Candice Bergen when she was starring in her classic series
Murphy Brown
.

I had known Candice for many years and long admired her
famous ventriloquist father, Edgar Bergen, who went to my alma mater, Northwestern. When I was working with Debbie Reynolds in the 1960s on the movie
How Sweet It Is!
I would see Candice at Debbie’s house. She and Debbie’s daughter, Carrie Fisher, were childhood friends who had slumber parties together. They would be running around the house in their pajamas while I was working with Debbie. Flash forward to when the producers of
Murphy Brown
called and asked if I wanted to be in an episode with Candice. I jumped at the chance to work with her and the rest of the talented cast. As an adult actress Candice loved to laugh, but she also wanted to be dignified and not zany or crazy. She encouraged the other actors around her to be comic foils to protect her more formal, stoic, and very funny character.

Murphy Brown
had started filming in 1988. When the producers called me it was already 1994, and the show was well-established with a loyal audience. They called me to assist with an episode featuring a cameo appearance by Candice’s husband, Louis Malle, the famous French film director, whom she’d married in 1980. Candice felt he was a little nervous because he didn’t really understand “television people.” The writing staff discussed bringing me in, because I had worked in both television and movies. I was introduced as Stan Lansing, the head of the network that produced Murphy’s news program. I came to the set, met Louis, and we got along great. It was a pleasure for me to work alongside him, and I learned something about his filmmaking, too. He was a lovely, talented artist.