he casting for the romantic comedy Just Like Heaven, which features psychic out-of-body experiences, was perfect. Reese Witherspoon has seen the spirit of her dead grandparents, and Mark Ruffalo has had a premonition of a brain tumor which turned out to be real and has since been removed.
Also, screenwriter Leslie Dixon suggested in her draft of the script that one character should be like "the kid from Napoleon Dynamite," and was surprised to see the part of a psychic bookstore clerk go to Jon Heder, just as she suggested. And her old apartment ended up being used in the film.
In a coincidence that seems a bit too hard to believe, the producers insist that they had no idea that the actress they cast as Witherspoon's older sister was in fact the wife of director Mark Waters (Freaky Friday). Dina Waters (The Haunted Mansion) auditioned anonymously for the husband-and-wife producing team of Laurie MacDonald and Walter F. Parkes, and they liked her.
Just Like Heaven centers on a young woman who finds herself in some netherworld where she can appear only to the depressed loner (Ruffalo) who is renting her apartment.
Witherspoon said the role captured her well—especially the fetish about using coasters under drinks to avoid table rings. "I have to admit it really bothers me when people don't use coasters, especially on my table. Every time I come home from a trip and Ryan [Phillippe, her husband] stays home, there's somehow a mysterious stain that's an odd shape on the table."
Donal Logue and Ben Shenkman are also in the film, which opens Sept. 16. Witherspoon, Ruffalo and Waters talked to Science Fiction Weekly, along with MacDonald and Parkes, at interviews in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
Reese Witherspoon, what was it like playing someone who seems like she's dead?
Witherspoon: Well, we had a lot of rules on the movie. You weren't allowed to touch anything, and you couldn't even bump into people. It was funny because when the other actors would come who weren't on the set every day, they would do all their lines looking right at me, and Mark Waters would come over and tap them on the shoulder and go, "You can't see her." [They'd say:] "I know, but she's so loud." So we all had these little different rules that I had to follow. ... It was very odd experience to be able to jump through someone's body, or jump into someone's body. That's different.
Why did you take a role like this?
Witherspoon: I obviously read a lot of different romantic comedy scripts, but for me this one was the one that had the message about how important it is to nurture yourself. I think that women are sort of natural caretakers. They take care of everyone. They take care of their husbands, their kids and their dogs and don't spend a whole lot of time sitting back and taking time out. It had that sort of [It's A] Wonderful Life quality where you got to see her life for what it was. You go back and get that opportunity.
Did you like the spiritual aspects of the film, too?
Witherspoon: Definitely. The second-chance thing is what really interested me about it, and the idea of what happens when you don't nurture your spirit. Could it leave you? Could it move on to something else? I think that was a really great idea, and it was great to put those in a comedy and hook people into watching a serious movie. I like to lead in with comedy and then hit them over the head with drama [laughs].
Have you ever had an out-of-body experience or situations with ghosts, something else being there that you can't see?
Witherspoon: Well, I've definitely had my share. I read a lot of books when I was about to start this movie about ghosts and people being haunted and that sort of thing. I was really close to my grandparents. There was a play in New York, there was an empty audience there, and I looked up in the middle of the play and there was my grandfather sitting in the audience. He had just passed. I was sad that he was gone, but I really felt like from then on he was with me. I sense him, and I sense my grandmother. So I think that it's a sort of comforting thing to think that people are with you and not really a haunting.
Have you ever had any close calls with your life?
Witherspoon: I almost drowned once when I was 4. I was at camp and we were near a swimming pool, and I couldn't swim, and there was a time when I almost drowned and I remember going under thinking that no one was going to come get me out of this. That's why my children don't go to camp. They got me at the last second, and I had swallowed a lot of water. It was really serious. I don't even know if they told my mother. They were like, "Oh, yeah, she had fun. She likes the caroling a lot." [Laughs.] I was at the bottom of the pool. ...
I do believe that there is a certain part of your spirit or yourself that carries on. I mean, we are energy, and where does it all go? It must go somewhere.
How do you feel about the film? Is it a chick flick? What audience will it attract?
Witherspoon: I don't know, we've got some great parts of it that I think are going to open up the audience a lot. Jon Heder I think is incredibly funny, and a great comic talent that has a role in this that I think is going to widen out his audience a little bit. And it was exciting to work with him, too, because he's really the real deal. I think it's a very diverse audience film. I think it opens it up out of the chick-flick genre, but you know, if a girlfriend drags you, you might like this film.
Did you have a favorite scene in the film when you were shooting?
Witherspoon: I loved the beginning, where they get to fight like cats and dogs. That was great. We had so much fun doing that. I don't know if he enjoyed it as much as I did, but I love having that sort of antagonistic relationship in the beginning. You're equally at odds with each other and bullheaded. That kind of reminded me of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, that type movie. It was a lot of fun.
It's hard to create a comedy that creates that tension where they really want to be together, but they can't. I really just thought that this was a fresh idea and a really modern take on a romance. I think that it really helped that I had someone like Mark Ruffalo to play off of. He's just such a versatile actor. He really brings the reality of the character out, and in that way it's that much more believable.
Were there any performances that you thought about going into this film?
Witherspoon: Well, we really thought about Matthau and Lemmon more than anything, fighting over the apartment. I was Lemmon, of course, and he was the very grumpy Matthau.
How did this film resonate with you?
Witherspoon: Well, I see so many people working so hard to get more and achieve more and accomplish things, but it seems a very timely character. A lot of men and women I know sort of put life on a shelf like, "Oh, I'll do that later." It was sort of an interesting idea, to contemplate essence of life and how it can change in a blink of an eye.
What was the best time for you during this movie?
Witherspoon: Well, there was one day where I was sitting there waiting to do this scene, and they said "Rolling" and we started, and Mark said, "I can't stand you, and I want you to get out." And he jumped out the window. We were on a second-story platform up in the air, and he had all the stuntmen put out mattresses and not tell us, and so literally we all screamed, "Oh my God!" Then he pops up and then jumps back in the window. It was so funny. He was always cracking up and doing something silly.
Mark Ruffalo, are you really a practical joker on the set?
Ruffalo: If it strikes my fancy, I goof around a lot on set. It just keeps things loose and fun, especially when people start to get too serious and intense. I just think that that kills spontaneity.
What drew you to this movie?
Ruffalo: Well, it's actually funny and romantic, unlike a lot of American comedies these days. This is a tough genre, I think. They were doing it really well in the '40s and '50s and '60s. I just really grinded into the role, like intense love stuff, and death, and those kinds of big themes, and then just the way-out-there physical comedy stuff.
Can you talk about the romantic connection that these two characters have?
Ruffalo: Well, it's sort of an oddball, odd-couple romantic thing where there's a lot of heat between two people and it's a heat that sort of comes from disagreement, arguments, and then they finally realize, "Oh my God, I actually think that person is kind of cute." So I think that it's a great comedy, a great romantic comedy device. You did see that years ago with some of the Cary Grant stuff and that kind of banter where you don't know how these people are, and the destiny. I mean, I'd like to think that there's something like destiny.
Laurie MacDonald and Walter Parkes, as producers, it seems that Mark Ruffalo is an unlikely choice as a romantic lead, but he works so well. Why?
MacDonald: There's something very real about him, very handsome. There's this emotional presence and vulnerability in his eyes.
Parkes:We knew he was funny and a good actor and can do anything, and he amazed us with this movie and how gifted he is. And yeah, he's sexy. [Laughs.]
Mark Waters, as the director of a couple of movies that have to do with out-of-body experiences, like Freaky Friday and this one, how much research have you done about such things?
Waters: I did a lot of reading on the subject of ghosts for this. I was looking for material for the movie, but the more research you do the more you believe it really happens. There are all kinds of phenomena, and you realize you can't use any of it for a romantic comedy. It's not funny. It's really scary, it's really chilling stuff.
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Also in this issue:
The cast of Surface
