By JOHN BEIFUSS
Friday, November 10, 2006
Actress-turned-filmmaker Joey Lauren Adams sounds both weary and rejuvenated when she discusses the journey that took her from Arkansas to California and _ recently _ back to the South.
"I'd been in L.A. for 19 years and I'd had it, I'd had enough," said Adams, 38, a Little Rock native who now lives in Oxford, Miss., following a fruitful but ultimately frustrating period in Hollywood.
During that time, Adams' beaming Cheshire-cat grin and distinctive Kewpie-doll-with-a-hangover voice became familiar to the fans of both independent and mainstream cinema.
On the indie side, she appeared in Richard Linklater's "Dazed and Confused" and _ most famously _ Kevin Smith's "Chasing Amy." For the studios, she was Adam Sandler's love interest in "Big Daddy," Jennifer Aniston's confidante in "The Break-Up" and the voice of a squirrel in "Dr. Dolittle 2."
But between roles, "There was a lot of downtime," she said. "I found myself getting sort of destructive, hanging out in bars on a Tuesday night because I didn't have a reason to get up the next day.
"I definitely think _ and I think a lot of actors are this way _ there was a huge hole in my soul, and I was trying all these different ways to fill it, and I tried it with men, and I tried all these ways, and nothing was working."
She did find a sort of "catharsis" some six years ago, however, when she began writing the script for "Come Early Morning," which became her debut as a writer-director.
The $3.5 million movie _ shot over 25 days last year, mostly in Little Rock and North Little Rock _ gets its premiere this weekend at the ninth annual Indie Memphis Film Festival.
Adams left Arkansas for California at 19, although she first landed in San Diego ("I wanted to go to Los Angeles, but my parents were terrified, so I agreed to go to San Diego"). When she began to write her script, she said, "I knew Rule No. 1 was 'Write what you know,' so I started writing about Arkansas."
Originally, she intended to star in "Come Early Morning" herself. But despite her relative fame, getting financing for the project was difficult, in part because the script was unconventional and deceptively simple.
"Come Early Morning," however, doesn't lead to a neat conclusion; it's a film that will frustrate the expectations of those who expect its hard-drinking, hard-working small-town heroine, Lucy, to be on a 97-minute path to romantic fulfillment.
"I know a lot of people who are like Lucy," Adams said. "I don't consider her an alcoholic. I think more that she has this hole she's trying to fill."
Familiar words ...
"I don't think the script is autobiographical, but there are emotional things in it that are autobiographical. I just created a character that I wanted to play as an actress, and I avoided the cliched scenes that I hate doing as an actress. ... That's why it took five years to get the funding."
Eventually, Adams decided to direct the film herself, and was able to get Ashley Judd _ a marketable if not huge name _ for the lead role. Other talented name actors also signed on: The supporting cast incudes Diane Ladd, Tim Blake Nelson and Stacy Keach.
Working with Judd, "There was an immediate trust between us, and it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life," Adams said. "There was a certain point not long into shooting when Lucy became her character _ she became someone different from what was on the page. She blew me away."
Adams said her template for the film was director Bruce Beresford's "Tender Mercies," a 1983 film from a Horton Foote script starring Robert Duvall as a down-and-out country singer. Like the earlier film, "Come Early Morning" is staged simply; Adams trusts her actors and her characters to hold the viewer's interest.
"The cinematographer (Tim Orr) and I talked a lot about it," she said. "Because the story is so slight, we didn't want to do a lot with the camera to overshadow it. I wanted it to have a realistic feel."
She also avoided Southern stereotypes. "I decided I would rather err on the side of boring than cliche. It's a really fine line to ride if you want to avoid the cliches, because it is tempting and they can be funny in the moment, and also there really are those characters in the South. I just find that they don't transfer that well on film."
Adams said she wants to direct again, based on her "Come Early Morning" experience. "It definitely was the first time in my life I felt that flow that you hear athletes talk about, where you just feel _ it's not work, it's like you're in space, and you just feel like the Earth is moving. I think more so than acting I enjoyed being the first one on the set and being involved in every aspect of it."
