Listen To Or Read Roundtable Interview: Producers Chris Columbus, Brunson Green, And Michael Barnathan Talk THE HELP

Special thanks to DreamWorks, I got to participate in the press roundtable interview with producers Brunson Green & Chris Columbus & Michael Barnathan who all produced the upcoming inspiring adaptation THE HELP which opens this weekend.
I got to ask them about the project’s rocky start and how it eventually got housed at DreamWorks
DreamWorks sent me transcript from the roundtable session with Columbus, Green & Barnathan that happened with other press members but I’ve also uploaded the audio from the roundtable session that I was a part of. So you have those two options after this jump..

Audio From Columbus, Green & Barnathan Roundtable That I Participated In

DreamWorks’ Transcript Of Columbus, Green & Barnathan Roundtable That I Didn’t Participate In

BG : My name is Brunson Green. We are all Producers on “The Help”

CC : Chris Columbus, Producer.

MB : And Michael Barnathan, Producer.

Q : My question is I’m just amazed this movie was made. It’s an incredible movie but it’s 2011, it’s from an era, a bygone era that a lot of people don’t want to revisit. How did you do it?

CC : We originally told them that ‘Spiderman’ would be in the movie and then we cut him out at the last minute.

BG : The Robots are gone.

CC : The Robots are gone. It was a long journey. I’ll let Brunson start because Brunson and Tate had a relationship and Kathryn Stockett prior to us getting involved.

[00:01:13]
BG : Well I think we were so proud that our friend Kathryn had actually written a novel and it was good. It was actually great. I mean, when, um, Tate sent it to me, uh, to, I was in New York and he said to me, I read it basically in 10 hours cause I was getting on a plane. I ended the movie in the middle of Coach on the middle seat, bawling, and smiling at the same time. It was like, I: had a sense of pride and you know, I was just emotionally moved by the book. And so, uh, Tate really thought it would make a fantastic movie and that everybody can somehow relate to it in some way because everyone’s had a caretaker, whether it’s an Aunt, or, um, a Nanny or a mother, and it really, I think, it resonated with so many people in Hollywood that read the book.

[00:02:05]
A lot of, you know, cause Hollywood’s run by a lot of women now that are, um, read a lot of books and are really smart, and um…

MB : Have children.

BG : Yeah, and have had children.

MB : And caretakers.
BG : It was a little bit of a hurdle to, you know, get somebody to do, actually sign the check and do it but uh, with the help of Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan we got it done.

CC : Yeah, well Tate and I, uh, have known each other for about 5, or 6, 7 years. I can’t really remember now but Tate, he showed me, uh, his first short film called “Chicken Party” and I thought it was hilarious and funny. It was a 20 minute film with Allison Janney and I said, well show me what you’ve got next and then these guys did a small movie for $800,000 called “Pretty Ugly People”, again which was very funny.

[00:02:47]
And we supported through the festival run. Uh, and then he met with me and said, uh, the movie I really want to do when I do, if you refer to it as big Hollywood movie, that’s the way I thought of it as, he gave me the manuscript to this so the book hadn’t been, um, written, I mean, hadn’t been published yet. It was written, so I looked at the Manuscript and I heard what the idea was and I thought well, I’m gonna give it to my wife to read because it sounds like something she might like and I, you know, at the time, it seemed like Chick Lit. That’s what I thought it was. I mean, I have to be honest with you. So my wife read it in a weekend and said, this is an amazing book. You guys should really consider making this a film. So I read it on that Monday and was, that was the end of it. I said OK, we, when you get the script, we’ll support you.

[00:03:26]
And he said, and we never even checked him out, by the way, which is kind of irresponsible but Kay, uh, Tate said Oh Kathryn Stockett said I’m the only one who can direct this movie. And I just OK, we said OK, that’s fine. We didn’t see if there was a piece of paper or anything so he — he finished the script. We sent it a lot of places, a lot of Studios rejected it. No one wanted to, they were nervous about doing it with essentially, not a first time Director, but a second time Director, who would be given a fairly sizable budget, well over $800,000. And uh, DreamWorks, Steven Spielberg, who I’ve had a relationship with since the, 1982, uh, and Stacey Snider really responded to the material, thought Steven said, Tate wrote a wonderful script and uh, they agreed to support him as Director.

[00:04:13]
And that’s — that’s where, that helped. It also helped that the book never left the, you know, the New York Times Best Seller list so a lot of people who passed on it suddenly were looking at, you know, reading their Sunday New York Times every, and seeing that this book is not going anywhere. It’s not leaving. It’s still #1 on the Paperback list.

MB : In fact, Stacey, uh, we had given her the book to Stacey right before — right before Christmas, and um, she wasn’t sure and I think she had kind of called up and said, she goes, we have a lot of stuff in the ’60s. They were doing a Martin Luther King project, I think, and they just weren’t sure and over the Christmas holiday, everyone was talking about “The Help.” That Christmas, suddenly, the book was, everyone was buying the book. Everyone was reading it, everyone was talking about it. She came back right after the holiday, and she called us and she said, is it too late?

[00:05:03]
And we had had been in conversations with another Studio, and I said No, it’s not too late but you better hurry up, and we were in there, I think the next day, or 2 days later, and — and then it was really a love fest, like Brunson was describing because we walked into a room where everybody felt the same way about what we were trying to do, and Tate’s point of view, led by Tate’s point of view, uh, which I think, he had put into the script, you know, from the book his Adaptation, and he was, uh, you know, I think they were excited with Chris’ support, DreamWorks.
[00:05:37]
They felt comfortable with Tate, you know, knowing that Chris supported it. And uh, it was — it was one of the best experiences, I think, we’ve had making a movie, considering how difficult a subject, you know, it could be considered.

Q : Along those lines, when you describe it, these movies often turn out to be Lifetime movies. And when you describe the movie, it sounds like, and then you go see it and it’s not that. It’s not a [SOUNDS LIKE: Brew line] at all. How do avoid that pitfall? It seems like no one is able to avoid?

[00:06:07]
MB : I think a lot of it had to do with, uh, Tate’s adaptation of the book. I think he took– We read the book, I mean, I read the book to be honest, the first time, and I thought, these are great characters but this should probably be a Lifetime movie or a Mini-series, you know.

CC : Well I also think it’s a difficult tran — transition. In other words, it’s very difficult to adapt this book as a Screenwriter because it’s told from 3 different points of view. So it’s not a Cinematic, you know, slam dunk, in any sense of the word so Tate, what Michael is saying is Tate’s script was fantastic, and it really avoided all the Lifetime pitfalls.

[00:06:46]
BG : It’s devices that Tate has used in the past. It’s — it’s kind of like he — he mixes Drama with humor, which I think really, you’re kind of shocked and — and pulled down because of some really traumatic, traumatic event and all of a sudden, you’re laughing with tears, and so that’s — that’s like a really good mix that kind of keeps you on a roller coaster that is — is entertaining and, um, you know, sticks with you.

MB : And it was one of the things he said to us, from the beginning, that was very important, that it maintain, is that humor, which is something Chris has done very well in some of his films.

CC : Some.

[00:07:22]
MB : Well some aren’t that funny. [LAUGHS] Uh, in most of his, in all of his films, um, and um, and I think that helped to fight the Melodrama, which is where, I think they usually end up on Lifetime, no, which is not bad but it’s sort of a good format, a small screen for a Melodrama. Um, and I think Casting helped. And I think we — we pushed very hard, Tate pushed very hard for, to find things that felt, uh, truthful to him, as he described it. And sometimes, he couldn’t explain it to us. It would just be, someone would walk in a room, and he felt it, you know.

[00:08:03]
I think that was particularly true with Jessica Chastain, who was someone, you know, we didn’t meet. We knew she was talented but we didn’t immediately get what Tate was seeing, and he saw this broken, uh, person, this innocence that Celia had and he was completely right because that — that, you know, Jessica is spectacular in the movie. And I think all those Casting choices, you know, starting with, you know, Jessica, Viola, Emma, Bryce, everything, uh, made — made each role very particular and very truthful, and very specific as opposed to it being and feeling some movies you see on Lifetime. I think that helped tremendously.

Q : We already had a crying session with Jessica this morning. That was our first. Get the Kleenex out. That being said, you know, and I read the book, like when it first came out, and I thought, Gee, this would be a great movie. Um, and I wasn’t thinking Lifetime. This would be a great movie but nobody will ever do this. You guys did, so Congratulations!

[00:09:06]
CC : Thank you.

Q : But one of the things that I think that the movie captures, that many people don’t realize and I was at least old enough to be around in 1961 or ’62, is that I’ve always thought that White people and Black people in the South, had the most interesting relationship in Race relations because — because basically, Black people always raised White people. I mean, that was always the parent, and nobody’s ever really kind of dealt with that, I don’t think until this movie. Um, could you speak to that a little bit. And it really did make the relationships unique.

[00:09:44]
CC : I think it starts from the Novel really. I mean, I think what you’re talking about never existed on the page so I, um, part of that is probably why it connects to so many, and I have to be honest with you, it connects to so many women because I was still on the Beach 2 weeks ago, and every woman on the Beach was reading the Paperback version. And I think it steams from great material, and great material, Kathryn Stockett was, had a strong enough vision to realize that the relationships between those Maids and — and those children, uh, were extremely emotional, and it connects to an audience in a very, almost primal way.

[00:10:24]
It connects to women, it connects to Mother, and ultimately, the movie connects to men which is the most surprising and wonderful thing about the movie so I think those relationships start form a really, really strong Novel.

Q : There’s also something, I think the Drama, I think is — is so powerful but it’s also a powerful social documentary, social history. I’d like you to speak the importance of getting that right because we so often see the Hollywood version where the only White characters who are depicted, are sympathetic. They really, Oh, we’re so sorry that this is happening to you, when in fact, I think the reality is that the attitudes that are portrayed in the film are, you know, very reflective of what it was like, being old enough to remember. I know they were — they were that way. So how important is that to get it right for an Audience today, that might not believe that these attitudes existed?
[00:11:13]
CC : It stems from — it stems from the Director, and it stems from, uh, certainly, the people who have lived it. Certainly, we were great, we were great supporters of the Team making the movie and we were there the entire time but we learned things about the set that we had knew known. So that the sense of detail and nuances that Tate was able to bring to the movie, I don’t think anyone else could have directed this film because he and Brunson and Kathryn Stockett understood that world. And that is something that you, once you’ve lived through it, um, it’s the most truthful side of a Director. And that’s where it becomes real and that’s why there is a sense of extreme authenticity in the film, and — and it stems — it stems from the Novel and it stems from Tate’s knowledge of every detail.

[00:12:01]
BG : Um, I think that, uh, Tate always had Viola in his mind but, and once again, this movie has kind of had the luck of timing. And Viola was on, uh, was doing “Fences” on Broadway and we didn’t think that we were gonna be able to actually get her but, um, because of scheduling problems but what happened was we had a slight delay in our production and it worked out perfectly and Tate and I met, um, Viola for a lunch and you know, she asked some really difficult questions of Tate, kind of like what her character motivation is, and like why is she doing this, blah, blah, blah, and it really made Tate A) respect her even more than he already did, and B) it made him improve the script and make changes based on her perspective as a, a Black woman.

[00:12:56]
And after — after, instead of her asking for a role, it was more of like I may take this because, but, these are problems I have. He was — he was sold. It’s like OK, we want to wait for her. You know, and the timing worked out perfectly.

MB : And that dialogue continued throughout the movie because everybody — everybody, most of the Actresses were pretty, kind of easy, in a way. And Viola would like, you know, Sunday, she’d show up at Tate’s house, and she goes, we got to talk. And they’d sit for hours, just going through the next week’s work because she took everything so, you know, she knew how important it was for her to do this role. She knew that, um, there was something inside her that didn’t want to do it because she didn’t want to play the Mammy. And um, but she knew it was important and she knew she had to get it right.

[00:13:49]
And if there was anything, any word, any feeling, anything that didn’t seem truthful, and Tate felt the same way but they would, they’d be there on a Sunday, you know, going at it, and people are out in the Pool swimming and Barbequing and Tate… What are Tate and Viola doing in the bedroom? So it was…

Q : Octavia, um, with regard to staying on Casting, she even said herself, you know, there was Monique. There’s Queen Latifah. Was there any concern? Octavia is a scene stealer in the movie but she’s not a well known Actress that would fit into that?

[00:14:24]
BG : She was the first, Octavia was the first person Tate said, I want to play Minny. So he knew that when he gave us the script. He had her in mind and he wouldn’t budge. Uh, a lot of people suggested meeting some other people and Tate said No, she’s playing Minny. So he knew that. Yeah, he did say he would — would not make the movie without her. And Chris said, what do you mean? You won’t make the movie without her. He goes, just tell Tate, you know, you can’t make a movie like that in Hollywood. Tate really didn’t care. I mean, he sat in front of Spielberg and Stacey Snider at the Studio, and said, well she’s got to be in the movie.

[00:14:57]
And one thing, you know, Tate and I have worked Octavia for 12 years on stuff. I mean, whether it’s like a stupid little video we do over the weekend, or like “Pretty Ugly People’ and so we knew what she was capable of. We knew what she could do. And so, actually as a courtesy, Octavia, just come in and read one scene of the lines. I promise you they’re gonna love it, blah blah blah. She comes in and literally, the question ended. As soon as — as soon as Chris, and Michael and the Studio saw her do one scene, OK, done.

[00:15:32]
CC : I mean, it’s difficult once Octavia was known and so was Tate, uh, only doing Broad Comedy, big Comedy, and Octavia I’d seen on Television but I’d never seen her do a dramatic role that required this kind of com — complexity, emotional complexity.

MB : And as you said, we had the choice of an — an Academy nominated winning Actresses out there. You know, everybody wanted to play Minny. People were like, who’s gonna be Minny? Octavia Spencer, and they were like, who’s that? Really? How come you didn’t get Blah Blah Blah. I mean, you know, Magazines printed who we want in “The Help.” And it would be, you know, and then but — but I told Octavia, life is gonna change in a big way, in a minute.

[00:16:12]
Q : Can you mention learning something about the South through this experience? How important was it to shoot there because I’m fond of saying that you can shoot at a warehouse in Santa Clarita and make us believe that it’s Jackson because of movies or illusion. But how important was it to be on ground that was comparable to Jackson in ’62 and also how did that potentially complicate things because they’re gonna be people who are around to say, Oh, do we have to tell this story again?

Q : Can I just add something to what you just said? Well one of the things Jessica says while you were shooting there, that it was very evident to the Cast, that there’s still 2 sides of the tracks there. So in answering all of that together.

[00:16:53]
CC : Well I think — I think in terms of shooting there, Tate again had a very specific idea of where he was gonna shoot. These guys did a location scout before they even knew they were really gonna make the movie, went down toe Greenwood, picked out every location. So the final location scout for when we were actually gonna make the movie took a day and a half. Tate had every house picked out. He knew exactly where he was gonna shoot. So that was — that was easy. He, Tate knew he wanted to shoot there. It certainly had the visual, uh, cinematic visual quality that we wanted in the film, so that all worked. In terms of learning about the South and seeing what is going, what was going on with the South, there is certainly a sense of, uh, continued segregation.

[00:17:33]
There’s certainly a sense that that there — there is a section or tracks that separates one section of town from Baptist town. Uh, but as Film makers and as a Producer who had some time, as opposed to being a Director, uh, I could escape from the set every now and then. So we would go to Baptist town, Michael and I, and sometimes with Julius, Octavia’s husband, and I mean, uh, Viola’s husband and Octavia, we would actually go to Baptist Town, and we realized that we wanted to give something back. And I know people in Hollywood say that all the time but we really meant it because we lived there, we got to know the people, we shot in Baptist town. So we’re doing it — we’re doing a Charity screening in Jackson, to build a Community Center in Baptist town. And that was our goal and as a result, we were a little concerned cause we thought, who, are people gonna be excited about seeing “The Help?” The screenings are selling out. It’s — it’s become a sense of us honestly, without all the Hollywood nonsense, being able to give something back to this community that really needs it.

[00:18:30]
Q : How do you promote this movie as something other than a Woman’s movie? It’s not a Woman’s movie. I mean, it’s popular with women and there are universal issues. How do you get the Public to accept this movie as something else.?

CC : You put it out at the end. You put this movie out, near the middle of August, after every woman is tired of explosions and robots and Superheroes, and they say to their husbands and boyfriends, you know what? I’ve been going to your Movies all–

BG : I’ve been going to your Movies. It’s time you come to one of my movies. And I think it’s real, you know, “Bridesmaids” certainly proved it at the beginning of the Summer. If we could only be so lucky but I think now, it’s, she said, you know. I gave — I gave you “Bridesmaids” and guys came along to “Bridesmaids” and loved it. I think what we’ve seen in the screenings of this picture, men love the movie. Men adore the movie. So that’s good. You just have to get them there.

[00:19:16]
MB : The other thing that just, the big thing that is a big component of this selling of this movie is word of mouth screenings. And we have screened this movie more than in our career certainly, any movie that we have been involved with. They told — they told me that 300 times.

Q : Yeah, it’ll get up to 300.

MB : And so that, and we’re making sure that men are coming to the screenings because it’s, they’ve had such a strong reaction particularly, African American men are very, really respond to the movie in a big way and um, so they just, you know, we’re counting on the word of mouth that people really will believe in the movie and talk about it.

[00:19:50]
CC : And that’s why we’re opening up two days earlier. So we’re opening on August 10th.
Q : Is it tracking well?

CC : I don’t know about tracking, it’s too early.

MB : Tracking hasn’t quite started yet but..

Q : Good word of mouth.

CC : Everyone who sees the, yes, 99% of the word of mouth is phenomenal, knock on wood, you know. What’s that?

Q : Is it going overseas too?

MB : Yes, and the amazing thing overseas is that we screened it in, uh, Germany and France, and in England, and the research scores were nearly as high as they were here, which everyone was surprised by, that no one was expecting that.

Q : We did it in South Africa. I’m on every week in South Africa. They are very anxious for this film.

[00:20:27]
CC : Oh great.

Q : Because they, because this was their life years ago.

CC : Oh yeah.

MB : No, I mean, it, you know, we originally brought the book just and then we’ll go, to — to. We had a deal with Reliance Entertainment, uh, and we had originally given the book to Reliance, which is an Indian company, and they said in about 24 hours, read the book, and said we want to do this. And we were surprised, we said, Really, in India. But if you think about the Indian society, it’s filled with things that are still like this. Um, and then of course, Reliance bought DreamWorks, or invested in DreamWorks, so it became a very, you know, complete, um, worked for everybody.

Q : So that being said, do you think that this film could possibly change the whole idea that “African American” characters do not translate into dollars across the ocean?

[00:21:21]
MB : I certainly hope so.

BG : Yeah, I mean, that would be great. That’s, um, it’s a high hope but I think it would be great. It would be fantastic. Uh, and I can’t say that because I don’t want to jinx the movie. I want the movie to be successful in those countries but I think if the movie is very successful, that’s a possibility.