Nancy Meyers | |
|---|---|
 Meyers in 2013 | |
| Born | Nancy Jane Meyers (1949-12-08)December 8, 1949 (age 75) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Alma mater | American University |
| Occupation | Filmmaker |
| Years active | 1972–present |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2; includingHallie Meyers-Shyer |
Nancy Jane Meyers[1] (born December 8, 1949)[1] is an American filmmaker. She has written, produced, and directed many critically and commercially successful films. She was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Original Screenplay forPrivate Benjamin (1980).[2] Her filmBaby Boom (1987) was nominated for theGolden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy.[3] She co-wroteFather of the Bride (1991),Father of the Bride Part II (1995), and both wrote and directedThe Parent Trap (1998),What Women Want (2000),Something's Gotta Give (2003),The Holiday (2006),It's Complicated (2009), andThe Intern (2015).[4]
Meyers was married to filmmakerCharles Shyer, with whom she had two children, including filmmakerHallie Meyers-Shyer.
Meyers was born inPhiladelphia.[5] Her father, Irving Meyers, was an executive at a voting-machines manufacturer. Her mother, Patricia Meyers (née Lemisch),[6] was an interior designer who also worked as a volunteer with theHead Start Program and the Home for the Blind.[7] The younger of two daughters, Meyers was raised in aJewish household in theDrexel Hill area.[8]
After reading playwrightMoss Hart's autobiographyAct One at the age of twelve, Meyers became interested in theater and started to act in local stage productions. Her interest in screenwriting did not emerge until she sawMike Nichols' filmThe Graduate in 1967.[8] Meyers attendedLower Merion High School inLower Merion Township, Pennsylvania.[9] In 1970, Meyers graduated fromAmerican University with a degree in journalism.[10][11]
After graduating from college, Meyers spent a year working inpublic television in Philadelphia. When she was 22 years old, Meyers moved to Los Angeles, living with her sister, Sally, in theColdwater Canyon area.[8] She quickly got a job as a production assistant on theCBS game showThe Price Is Right.[4][7]
Inspired by the popular TV show,The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Meyers decided she wanted to write. She eventually got work as a story editor where she read scripts, wrote coverage, and worked with screenwriters on projects that the producers were developing. One of the companies she worked at was producerRay Stark's company,Rastar.[9] She worked her way up from there to writing her own scripts.[4] Two years after coming to Los Angeles, Meyers was able to quit her job to focus on a career in screenwriting and took film-making classes where she connected with directors such asMartin Scorsese.[8] To support herself, she started a smallcheesecake business after positive reactions to a cake she made for a dinner party.[7] Meyers was eventually hired as astory editor by film producer Ray Stark, who later fired her after Meyers objected to having two writers working on the same script without the other knowing.[7]
In the late 1970s, Meyers started work withCharles Shyer when she was a story editor in the film division atMotown. The pair became friends and, along with Harvey Miller, created the script for the comedyPrivate Benjamin (1980) together, a film about a spoiled young woman who joins the U.S. Army after her husband dies on their wedding night during sex.[7] The film starred actressGoldie Hawn, who along with Meyers and Shyer executive produced the project. It was Hawn's agent who madeWarner Brothers executiveRobert Shapiro buy the script after practically "everybody [had] turned it down. Everybody. More than once," according to Meyers.[7] Meyers described how hard it was to get the film made, noting, "Every single studio in Hollywood read it and passed on it... One studio called Goldie and said 'if you make this movie it's a career ender.'”[12] Contrary to the conventional wisdom at the time, that a female lead with no male star was box-office poison,Private Benjamin became one of the biggest box-office hits of the year 1980, grossing nearly $70 million in total. It was nominated for anAcademy Award for Best Writing,[13] as were Hawn and her co-star,Eileen Brennan, for their performances,[14] and won the team aWriters Guild of America Award forBest Original Screenplay.[7] In addition, the film spawned a same-titled short-lived butGolden Globe-winning television series that aired from 1981 until 1983.[15]
Meyers and Shyer's next project,Irreconcilable Differences (1984), marked Shyer's directorial debut.Shelley Long andRyan O'Neal star as a Hollywood couple whose obsession with success destroys their relationship with their daughter, played by eight-year-oldDrew Barrymore. Released to a mixed reception by critics, the collaboration became a moderate box office with a gross of $12.4 million,[16] but received multiple Golden Globe nominations, including Best Actress nods for Long and Barrymore.[17] Also in 1984, Meyers, Shyer and Miller pennedProtocol, another comedy starring Goldie Hawn, in which she portrayed a cocktail waitress who prevents the assassination of a visiting Arab Emir, and thus is offered a job with theUnited States Department of State as a protocol official.[18] Hawn reportedly disliked their screenplay and hiredBuck Henry for a major overhaul, prompting the trio to go into arbitration to settle their differences.[19] While neither Meyers nor Shyer became involved in producing or directing the film, it fared slightly better at the box office than Irreconcilable Differences, garnering $26.3 million in total.[20]
Meyers returned to producing withBaby Boom (1987), a film about a New York City female executive, who out of the blue becomes the guardian of her distant cousin's 14-month-old daughter. The film marked her debut collaboration withDiane Keaton. The catalyst for the project was a series of situations that Meyers and Shyer and their friends had experienced while managing a life with a successful career and a growing family.[19]Baby Boom was favorably received by critics and audiences alike. It was nominated for aGolden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy[21][22] and earned a respectable $1.6 million in its opening weekend in the US, and approximately $26.7 million in its entire run.[23] As withPrivate Benjamin the film was followed by a short-livedtelevision series, this one starringKate Jackson.[24]
In 1990, Meyers and Shyer, working from earlier material for the first time, re-teamed with Keaton to remake the 1950Vincente Minnelli filmFather of the Bride. StarringSteve Martin as a father losing his daughter and his bank account at the same time,their 1991 version was released to generally positive reception. It became a hit among audiences, resulting in the pair's biggest financial success yet at a worldwide gross of $90 million.[25] A sequel to the film was made which centered around the expansion of the family, entitledFather of the Bride Part II, was produced in 1995.[26] Loosely based on the original's 1951 sequelFather's Little Dividend, it largely reprised the success of its predecessor at the box office.[27] A third installment, also penned by Meyers and Shyer, failed to materialize.[28]
Also in 1991, Meyers contributed to the script for the ensemble comedyOnce Upon a Crime (1992), directed byEugene Levy, and became one out of severalscript doctors consulted to work on theWhoopi Goldberg comedySister Act (1992).[29] Her next project with Shyer wasI Love Trouble (1994), a comedy thriller about a cub reporter and a seasoned columnist who go after the same story, that was inspired byscrewball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s such asHis Girl Friday andWoman of the Year.[30] Written for and starringJulia Roberts andNick Nolte, the film was not well received by critics but grossed over $30 million in box-office receipts in the United States.[31][32] While the script forToast of the Town, another Meyers/Shyer collaboration, that Meyers described as "aDepression-era comedy about a small-town girl who comes to the big city, loses her values and then finds them again," found no buyers, another project calledLove Crazy failed to materialize after lead actorHugh Grant dropped out of the project after months of negotiations.[33][34]
Having turned downParamount CEOSherry Lansing's offer to direct the 1996 comedy blockbusterThe First Wives Club,[7] Meyers eventually agreed on making her directorial debut withThe Parent Trap (1998), following the signing of a development deal withWalt Disney Pictures in 1997.[35] A remake ofthe same-titled 1961 original based onErich Kästner's novelLottie and Lisa, it starredLindsay Lohan in her motion picture debut, in a dual role of estranged twin sisters who try to reunite their long-divorced parents, played byDennis Quaid andNatasha Richardson.[35] Lohan's casting as twins forced Meyers to shoot the film inmotion control, a requirement she considered rather complicated. "I really didn't know how to do it," she said. "We had a prep day to go over the process, and by the end of the day I had a little better understanding. But I approached the movie like it wasn't an effects film; I just tried to make it authentic."[35] Released to positive reviews from critics,The Parent Trap brought in $92 million worldwide.[36]
In 1998, following the success ofThe Parent Trap and her separation from Shyer, Disney'sTouchstone Pictures chairman Joe Roth asked Meyers to reconstruct an original script namedHead Games about a man who gains the power to hear everything women are thinking, an idea originally conceived byThe King of Queens producers Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith.[34] Subsequently, Meyers penned two drafts of the script before agreeing to direct, but as Roth left the studio in January 2000, Disney dismissed the film and the project eventually went to Paramount.[37] By the following year,Mel Gibson andHelen Hunt had signed on to star in leading roles and the project had been retitledWhat Women Want.[37] Released in 2000 to mixed reviews, it became the then-most successful film ever directed by a woman, taking in $183 million in the United States, and grossing upward of $370 million worldwide.[38][39]
Following her divorce, Meyers wrote and directed the post-divorce comedySomething's Gotta Give (2003), starringDiane Keaton andJack Nicholson as a successful 60-something and 50-something, who find love for each other at a different time of life, despite being complete opposites. Nicholson and Keaton, aged 63 and 57 respectively, were seen as bold casting choices for leads in a romantic comedy, and20th Century Fox, the film's original distributor, reportedly declined to produce the film, fearing that the lead characters were too old to be bankable. As a result, the film ended up as a co-production betweenColumbia Pictures andWarner Bros. Pictures. While critical reaction to the film as a whole was more measured,[40]Something's Gotta Give received generally favorable notice and became a surprise box-office hit following its North American release, eventually grossing US$266.6 million worldwide, mostly from its international run.[41] In 2005, her Waverly Films production company signed a deal with Sony.[42]
Meyer's next film wasThe Holiday (2006), a romantic comedy starringCameron Diaz andKate Winslet as two lovelorn women from opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean who arrange ahome exchange to escape heartbreak during theChristmas and holiday season.Jude Law andJack Black co-starred as theirlove interests. Released to mixed reviews from critics, the film became a global box office success, grossing $205 million worldwide, mostly from its international run.[43] The film won the2007 Teen Choice Award in the Chick Flick category.[44]
In 2009, Meyers'sIt's Complicated was released. It starredMeryl Streep as a successful bakery owner and single mother of three who starts a secret affair with her ex-husband, played byAlec Baldwin, ten years after their divorce – only to find herself drawn to another man: her architect Adam (portrayed bySteve Martin).[45] The film was met with mixed reviews from critics, who declared it rather predictable despite fine work by an appealing cast, but became another commercial hit for Meyers upon its Christmas Day opening release in the United States. It played well through the holidays and into January 2010, ultimately closing on April 1 with $112.7 million. Worldwide,It's Complicated eventually grossed $219.1 million, and surpassedThe Holiday to become Meyer's third highest-grossing project to date.[46]It's Complicated earned Meyers twoGolden Globe nominations, includingBest Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy andBest Screenplay.
In 2012, it was announced that Meyers was planning to directThe Chelsea, an ensemble dramedy set in the Chelsea Apartments in New York. Based on a screenplay by daughterHallie Meyers-Shyer, it was set to starFelicity Jones;[47] the project failed to materialize however as Meyers was also finishing her own screenplay forThe Intern (2015), a comedy about the founder of a fashion based e-commerce company who agrees to a community outreach program where seniors will intern at the firm.[48][49] Originally set up atParamount Pictures, the latter was expected to featureTina Fey andMichael Caine in the lead roles. When a budget could not be settled, Meyers decided to pre-package before going out to other studios and was able to start negotiations for both actors.[50] Handed over toWarner Bros, Fey was replaced byReese Witherspoon as the attached star, though Witherspoon later left the film due to scheduling conflicts.[50] In 2014,Anne Hathaway andRobert De Niro replaced her and Caine.[51]
In September 2015, Meyers announced that her next self-directed project would see her reteaming with Steve Martin.[52] She also served as a producer onHome Again (2017), the directorial debut of her daughterHallie Meyers-Shyer, starringReese Witherspoon.[53]
In September 2020, Nancy Meyers announced a follow-up to the first twoFather of the Bride films was coming. The first teaser trailer was released on September 23, with an official preview released the following day. The "mini-sequel" was written and directed by Meyers, with the plot including a family reunion over Zoom at the request of Matty Banks, and depicted George Banks' reaction to 2020. Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Kieran Culkin, George Newbern, and Martin Short reprised their respective roles, withAlexandra Shipp andRobert De Niro joining. The film will benefit World Central Kitchen charity, supporting families and children who suffered during the coronavirus pandemic.Father of the Bride Part 3(ish) was released on September 25, 2020, exclusively throughNetflix, while also streaming on the service's YouTube and Facebook pages.
In April 2022, Netflix announced Meyers would write, direct and produce a new feature film for the streaming service, an untitled ensemble comedy.[54][55] In March 2023, it was reported that the film, under the working titleParis Paramount, would not move forward at Netflix after the studio had declined to approve a requested production budget of $150 million;[56][57] a few days later,Warner Bros. Pictures entered talks to acquire the project, with the possibility that the film could have begun production that summer if picked up.[58][59]
Meyers attributes her major influences to the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.[7] Her films frequently center the experiences of middle-aged women facing conflict between the personal and the professional. Meyers's films are known to redirect themale gaze and instead take a critical view of male leads through thefemale gaze.[7]
Meyers generally spends a year writing, followed by six months of filming and another six months of editing. She hasfinal cut privilege on her films, which is uncommon for directors working with major American studios.[7] Meyers is known as a detail-oriented director, who shoots many takes of scenes and is meticulously involved in designing her films' aesthetic details.[60] Meyers considers her film set to function as a character in her films.[4]
Meyers's protagonists are often affluent and live in luxurious homes, which she says is meant to emphasize that they are successful women who can afford to create beautiful, comfortable spaces for themselves.[61] The extravagant design and decoration of the kitchens in her films have received particular media attention.[61] The decor style seen in Meyers's films have been dubbed the "Nancy Meyers aesthetic", defined by neutral paint colors, natural wood furniture, patterned textiles, and vintage accessories.[62][63]
The academic and writer Deborah Jermyn has dubbed Nancy Meyers "Hollywood's reigning 'romcom queen.'"[64] Scholarship and criticism of Meyers's oeuvre has discussed thepostfeminist aesthetics and ideologies that her films embody, in which wealthy, successful, and independent women often play the protagonists. In a 2020 article forBustle, Dana Schwartz writes in praise of this, saying, "Where Hollywood desexualizes and disposes of women over 40, Nancy Meyers celebrates them, showing them as women who have crushed their careers and become financially stable enough to buy objectively stunning pieces of property".[61] Film scholar Michele Schreiber argues that the fantasy of romance itself becomes a "fulfilling and desirable commodity", but says there is a question of whether the power of her films derives from the emotional terrain and romances of her characters, or from her seductive, pleasurablemise-en-scène and the upwardly mobile desires it generates.[65]
In a 2009New York Times profile of Meyers, writer Daphne Merkin points out that her films sometimes have the quality of "tidy unreality," which is the aspect of her filmmaking that often draws harsh criticism.[66] Some criticism[citation needed] has taken note of how the "independent woman" figure in Nancy Meyers film always appears as heterosexual, upper-class, and white, leveling charges ofwhite feminism on her work.
Katarzyna Paszkiewicz asserts that Meyers's ability to simultaneously carve out a particular, feminized niche in her work, while still providing mainstream (and even male) audiences with "what they want," has made her the most successful commercial female filmmaker.[67] Paszkiewicz contends that Meyers's reliance on the rom-com genre may be more complex and self-reflexive than it appears. InThe Intern (2015), for example, many traditional rom-com tropes are recast and reimagined by making the focal relationship, between Jules and Ben, a non-romantic, intergenerational one. The film also highlights disenchantment with the "independent woman" ideal, and foregrounds the problems that plague professional women in heteronormative relationships. Thus, against contemporary charges that the rom-com genre is tired and overdone, Meyers has the ability to use the genre’s tropes in a regenerative, original manner. In Paszkiewicz's words, "If postfeminist values marked the decades of the 1990s and 2000s, Meyers seems to ask: what is next?"[67]
Meyers has had a significant impact on the filmmaking industry as a female filmmaker, gaining her the reputation as one of the most influential women filmmakers in the romantic-comedy genre and in the Hollywood industry.[68][69] This is due to her recognizable directorial style with notable sets and the limited number of female directors in the space.[7] She is one of only 36 female filmmakers to be onDisney+ out of their catalogue of over 500 films going back to the 1930s.[70]
Meyers's overall popularity in the romantic-comedy genre has allowed her work to become cited many times as a filmmaker important to audience nostalgia.[71][72]
In her later works, her depictions of older women on screen created more popularity within the genre.[73] In addition to her popularity with audiences, Meyers has been said to have left an impact on the actors she has worked with.Reese Witherspoon even identifies Meyers as a resource in Witherspoon’s own creative endeavors.[72]
In 1980, Meyers andCharles Shyer married inRome. They had been in a relationship since 1976.[9] The pair separated in 1999 and eventually divorced. They have two daughters, Annie Meyers-Shyer[74] andHallie Meyers-Shyer, both of whom have had minor roles in their films.[75][76] On February 28, 2020, Meyers published her post-divorce story as part of theNew York Times column called "Modern Love".[77]
Meyers resides in theBrentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.[8]
| Year | Title | Credited as | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director | Writer | Producer | |||
| 1980 | Private Benjamin | No | Yes | Yes | |
| 1984 | Irreconcilable Differences | No | Yes | Executive | |
| Protocol | No | Yes | No | ||
| 1986 | Jumpin' Jack Flash | No | Yes | No | Credited as Patricia Irving |
| 1987 | Baby Boom | No | Yes | Yes | |
| 1991 | Father of the Bride | No | Yes | Yes | |
| 1992 | Once Upon a Crime | No | Yes | No | |
| 1994 | I Love Trouble | No | Yes | Yes | |
| 1995 | Father of the Bride Part II | No | Yes | Yes | |
| 1998 | The Parent Trap | Yes | Yes | No | Feature directorial debut |
| 2000 | What Women Want | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 2003 | Something's Gotta Give | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2006 | The Holiday | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2009 | It's Complicated | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2015 | The Intern | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2017 | Home Again | No | No | Yes | |
| 2020 | Father of the Bride, Part 3(ish) | Yes | Yes | No | Short film |
| Year | Title | Credited as | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Executive Producer | Writer | |||
| 1981 | Private Benjamin | No | No | Based on characters by Meyers |
| 1988 | Baby Boom | Yes | Yes | Creator; 13 episodes |
| Title | Rotten Tomatoes[78] | Metacritic[79] |
|---|---|---|
| Private Benjamin (1980) | 82% | 59% |
| Irreconcilable Differences (1984) | 57% | 52% |
| Protocol (1984) | 25% | 55% |
| Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986) | 29% | 52% |
| Baby Boom (1987) | 75% | 53% |
| Father of the Bride (1991) | 70% | 51% |
| Once Upon a Crime (1992) | 0% | 35% |
| I Love Trouble (1994) | 22% | N/A |
| Father of the Bride Part II (1995) | 48% | 49% |
| The Parent Trap (1998) | 86% | 63% |
| What Women Want (2000) | 54% | 47% |
| Something's Gotta Give (2003) | 72% | 66% |
| The Holiday (2006) | 49% | 52% |
| It's Complicated (2009) | 58% | 57% |
| The Intern (2015) | 60% | 51% |
| Home Again (2017) | 32% | 41% |
| Year | Association | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Writers Guild of America Award | Best Original Screenplay | Private Benjamin | Won | [80] |
| Academy Award | Best Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen) | Nominated | [81] | ||
| 1987 | Golden Globe Award | Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Baby Boom | Nominated | [82] |
| 1999 | Youth in Film Award | Best Family Feature – Comedy | The Parent Trap | Nominated | [83] |
| 2001 | Saturn Award | Best Fantasy Film | What Women Want | Nominated | [84] |
| 2010 | Critics' Choice Award | Best Comedy | It's Complicated | Nominated | [85] |
| Golden Globe Award | Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Nominated | [86] | ||
| Best Screenplay | Nominated | ||||
| Satellite Award | Best Film – Musical or Comedy | Nominated | [87] | ||
| 2016 | Teen Choice Award | Choice Movie – Comedy | The Intern | Nominated | [88] |
A friend that worked at Sony Entertainment introduced me to director Nancy Meyers, SOC/BA '70, and I worked as her assistant for six months.
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