Photo Credit: David Cole
Cathy Randall
Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueberger
2008 Berlin International Film Festival
www.montereymedia.com/theatrical/films/blueburger.html
www.montereymedia.com/independent/hey_hey_trailer.html
Bio: Cathy Randall started her career as a writer for the Australian soap opera Home and Away. She interned at Scott Free Productions in Los Angeles before being awarded a scholarship to the Los Angeles Film School’s Feature Development Program in 2002. It was through this program that Randall developed the Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueberger screenplay. Randall is currently co-writing the screenplay for Nim’s Island 2.
Description: Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueberger is about a thirteen-year-old Australian girl who has trouble fitting in with all the girls at school as she prepares for her Bat Mitzvah. Esther is played by newcomer Danielle Catanzariti, and, to me, she is the perfect tween heroine—a girl awkwardly trying to negotiate adolescence while refusing to buy into typical girl culture. Stuck in a private school where no one talks to her, Esther then meets Sunni (Keisha Castle-Hughes), and she devises a story that gets her into public school (without her parents knowing). In public school (acting like a Swedish exchange student), Esther finds a tribe where she can fit in and be popular in her own way.
This is a film for any kid (and adult) who has struggled to fit in.
Interview Date: April 29, 2010
Women and Hollywood: This was your first film and you got a top tier cast. How did that happen?
Cathy Randall: It was actually very straightforward. After seeing Whale Rider, I felt Keisha Castle-Hughes would make a wonderful Sunni, so we sent her the script while the film was still in development. She read it very quickly and got back to me within days with an extremely positive response. She really identified with the script and the character and immediately wanted to do the film. It took another three years before we went into production, and we were really worried Keisha would get too old to play a thirteen-year-old. She was sixteen when we shot the film; but because Sunni (the character she plays) has grown up too quickly and is so full of wisdom it ended up working for her. Toni Collette was a natural choice for Mary. Besides being an exceptional actress, she exudes such warmth and vitality onscreen that I knew she would capture Mary perfectly. As with Keisha, it was very straightforward. We sent the script to her agent and she liked it and agreed to do the film. Both Keisha and Toni really reacted to the script above all else.
W&H: You wrote the script for the film in 2002 and it took until 2007 for the film to go into production. Why do you think it took so long?
CR: I wrote the first draft of the script in 2002 but it really was a first draft. It took me another couple of years to perfect it. When I met Miriam Stein, the film’s producer, I did another rewrite and we started pitching it to potential financiers. It took a couple of years to raise the financing and then we had to wait several more months to fit in with Toni’s schedule before we could go into production.
W&H: Where did you get the idea for the story?
CR: It was very loosely based on personal experience. For me, thirteen was such an intense time of growth, change, and self-discovery and I really wanted to explore this—the grey zone between childhood and adulthood—in a fresh way and from a female point of view.
W&H: There are so few coming-of-age stories for girls. This film is so rare in that it is real but also plays up Esther’s true nature. Why do you think there are so few stories about girls, especially ones where they aren’t hypersexualized?
CR: I really wish I knew. It was a constant source of frustration for me growing up (and still is). And that is why I was so determined to make this film. There are so few films with female protagonists—full stop. I think in the past this has largely been due to the perception that films with female protagonists don’t sell. But I’m optimistic. This is changing, especially with the recent success of Sex and the City and Mamma Mia!
W&H: What is different about making films in Australia vs. the United States?
CR: It’s hard for me to say, having never made a film in the United States, but I think making films in Australia would be much like making indie films in the United States. Budgets are lower but you have more creative control over the end product.
W&H: Do you feel you are a writer or a director first? And now that you have directed your own material, do you see yourself continuing in that manner?
CR: I really enjoy doing both. When I made Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger I felt that the directing was an extension of the writing. I wrote the script in order to direct it, so it really felt like it was part and parcel of the same storytelling process. I would love to continue directing my own material but I don’t feel the need to do this exclusively. I would also love to direct someone else’s script if I felt a connection to it.
W&H: What’s next for you?
CR: I’m currently writing the sequel to Nim’s Island for Walden Media in the States. I’m also working with a wonderful writer called Melina Marchetta, adapting one of her novels—Jellicoe Road—for the screen (Melina is writing, and I’ll be directing). And I’m writing a couple of other scripts, which I hope to direct.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female writers and directors?
CR: Only to keep working, to keep telling stories. I think the more female filmmakers we have, the more our screens will open up to female protagonists and three-dimensional female characters. We still have such a long way to go with this and it would be great to see it change.