Die, Mommie, Die! | Charles Busch, Dante Di Loreto, Kelly Evans, Jeffrey Schwarz

how long has it been since you all have seen this movie 15 years oh well actually I saw it at a very peculiar Film Festival um a few years ago in Texas and they showed it like 10: in the morning on a Sunday and you know this awful DVD you know and there about six hearty souls in the crowd so was not like this no so can I tell the story of larno film festival do you remember um so we we we were so excited to get EX selected as a competition film at Sundance and and we then were notified that the Laro Film Festival Festival wanted to be their opening night Premiere now we've never been to the L Caro Film Festival we don't know what that is but Charles and I we we fly over and this is an outdoor theater with 10,000 people but this is this is this is the slain thing it was in it was subtitled in French and German and I don't think the audience had really any idea what they were watching it there there was there was this strange and it was an outdoor Piaza so people are in restaurants watching this kind of like what is is that is that is that a man is that it's all an illusion um I want to talk about the movie but I I think people would really love to know where did it all where did it all go wrong where did it all begin for you well I've be sort of curious to hear from you I well first it was a a play that um a director friend of mine Ken Elliot was living in La who directed many plays of mine in in New York and he I guess really wanted to get into TV so he said why don't you come out here and we'll put on a play in New York York you know in La so and I was going to be in La making the movie of psycho beach party and I was only in not that many scenes so I thought in my spare time we could do a play and I I very quickly wrote uh die mommy die because I thought well you know I was having a hard time coming with an idea and then um I thought well maybe I could base it on like a famous classic and I I thought well Clyde am nestra is awfully good character so I thought well I'll do the story of Clyde nestra and you know murdering her husband and and the CH vengeful children and then somehow I don't know just I thought oh it should be done in the style of a Gran deol Grandam guol 60s movie and we did it uh at the coast Playhouse now this is the part I don't get and I'd love you to explain what happened so I I was a student at AFI and um my my partner um Mark came to and this film is a love affair between Mark and Charles really um we were sitting there watching watching a screening of mild Pierce I think and he he leaned over and he said you know I would really love to make a movie like this with Charles Bush and uh at the time Mark was a theater director and and and was quite a successful theater director and and I I couldn't qu quite wrap my mind around that but but um but then we started talking about it some more and we and uh he had talked I hadn't seen the play but I read the play and I guess he had seen the play see this where I thought that you know that that somehow that you and Anthony Edwards were had contacted me about that there was a book that you had book you had optioned and that you were interested in me like adapting as a screen play and then maybe maybe that started the conversation and then you came to see the play and I said oh come see my play or something like that but but but the but there the The Twist of this was and I hope it's okay to say this is so we we the this this conversation continues and we say we want to make a movie of die mommy die with you Charles in it and I think there was there was some there was some questioning whether we were actually going to cast Charles in or whether we were going to put an actress into the world we're like no no no with the whole point to do this is to do this with the the the magic of what Charles does and and what he creates and um and that's that's really it I mean it was it was Mark's real um burning passion to do this and his vision for it and then Anthony um because we had such limited resources um insisted um uh with Kelly and Mark to that they meticulously plan uh every shot of the of the film and I remember that it was very laborious because you had to go through and say well you're really going to have about 12 shots a day how are you going to make it work and I think that kind of planning really shows what they could create with such remarkably limited resources I was just so impressed too because um you we what we 21 days to do it something like that yeah and uh and Mark and Kelly were so so totally in in sync with each other and everything had been so planned that we actually shot more than was scheduled we moved so quickly and it was kind of rather unheard of in in a indie film like that where often there are things that you just never get around to because the schedule is so short but there were there were some scenes that were I think just designed for just one master shot and we kept moving so we did close-ups and coverage and shot more than than we had to so the original play was all set in one room wasn't it yeah all living living room yeah it was The Fall of the House of susman that was the subtitle so it was all set in one room so how did you when you were writing the screenplay how did you conceive it how did you reconceive it for for film it was rather simple rather easy in a way I I don't you know you know I can't answer that question really I just it wasn't difficult to open it up how what kind of conversations did you all start having when when you knew this was going to be a film uh obviously there were some Inspirations uh um leading ladies that you adore over the years and I'm sure a lot of these conversations probably ended up in what you see on screen probably very much with you and Mark I think well as as uh Dante mentioned it's something that Mark had been thinking about for a long time and so when I read the script I got super excited about it and he spoke about it and all of the references that he had and the information that he had been kind of putting together for this made it pretty simple and we did spend a lot of time like storyboarding every single shot and planning every single detail before we even got close to the shooting days we had that location we had for a very short period of time obviously limited budget and yeah the whole thing happen so fast too movies usually Tak so long to get done but this is like you know Warner Brothers in 1932 I mean between you seeing the play and actually us shooting it was relatively quick maybe within a year yeah yeah there was a lot of Blood Sweat and Tears in there but uh before we go too far I just want to I want to say thank you to all of you because you know when we made this film you couldn't sit at home and watch every film and every television show on on demand streaming I mean there are so many things you could be doing tonight and the fact you're all here really really there's so many amazing things you could be seen so thank you for being here and we should also we should also say that I the editor of the film Philip Harrison is here Philip Harrison right so Philip Philip is a remarkable contributor to the film yeah you hear his voice he's the radio announcer announcing the death of of of Barbara um but the the other thing I want to real quickly is is is outfest and and the Legacy project you know when they reached out and said can we store your can we have your um your Masters and your prince I mean it it was just so remarkable because these things are just sitting as you described in a closet or a storage room just sort of decaying and you know outfest for me means so much because as as a Young Man uh coming out being able to go to a film festival and see something like parting glances and and seeing yourself on screen was so remarkable it was such a different time in the fact that that that we've gone through so much so quickly it's so easy to lose um the sense of where we've come from and who we are and the fact that Mark has passed and the director parting glance has passed and so so many of these great artists aren't with us anymore I'm I'm so grateful to everybody for for keeping all this that's beautifully said um well or I think there was some discussion about this film originally being in black and white was that is sort of an early conversation that you had be really quite honest with you you know you I'm in New York and everybody was in LA and I had really had rather little to do with h the the planning of it in fact I I remember when we were shooting the scene where we're uh the children and I are at the dinner table and uh when they're going to plant the LSD and I said to Kelly I said oh it really way you're lighting this really reminds me of that scene in Hush Hush Charlotte she said yeah because it's totally based on that and and you know but I wasn't privy to to that so I was just so delighted that uh everybody connected to the film really had done their homework and so each thing I saw oh that's just perfect but I had nothing to do with I just came in what everyone they all were everybody I you know um throughout the whole thing and or I love that the musical score is so fantastic and that was all done you know kind of after the fact but yeah I was just so delighted there was nothing that I could think oh why they do that what were they thinking you know destroyed my vision no because it was all you know exactly how I would have imagined it can you talk about the a little bit Kelly about how you can see that the references are in the script right the way the language is just lends to that period And so Mark had you know talked about um I'm horrible with names you guys I can't remember the all the references but um what Heaven Will Allow the director Doug thank you thank you so we I I watched every single Douglas C film and went to theaters and saw them when I could during this long long period I mean we spent like six months talking about it and then a good solid I'd say three months or two and a half months sitting in an office all day and like storyboarding and referencing and watching movies together and so and you know we picked scenes and looks from those films that this script really references yeah and I think I I had initial talk with Mark about obviously movies that were inspiring me with the script and The Big Cube and and um uh dead ringer you know so so we had obviously had that conversation but not in the detail that Kelly would have had what kind of conversations did you have with Mark about stage acting versus film acting well what was kind of fun was that um when we shot almost every scene of mine we shot three ways and it we would do one sh shot very very minimalist which we called the leave Olman shot and then we did he would tell me you know a little bit bigger and then we'd kind of go for the I think we called that the Martha Ray where I just really you know just be very campy and it was all you know really in his hands what kind of performance it would ultimately be because I as soon as I I think the day after we finished shooting I was back on a plane to New York and and had no idea what was it was going to be like and I it was just so wonderful making this movie you know so often in our lives it's after the fact when you realize oh oh I'm so happy I oh I wish I had was aware of how happy I was but those 21 days I really think we're the I don't think I've ever in my life before since have been so completely physically emotionally artistically engaged as I was and I was absolutely aware every day every hour of each day just how grateful I was to be living out this dream of mine to star in my own movie you know and and every day presented some other fantastic thing today I'm today I'm doing a love scene today I'm doing a murder scene I mean I got to do everything I ever wanted to do in this movie and I was absolutely aware of it every second just I can't believe I can't believe this is happening it it clearly it's like a dream it seems like it would be a dream a state of kind of rapture for 21 days I I have to say there was one there was one moment though that was less rapturous because these amazing costumes that that your your designers had built for you they're really really remarkable however they were very authentic including the swimming costume and and and and it was very heavy and he was and and Charles was so gallant and he kept doing it over and over again and there was a moment where you think oh he actually might be close to Drowning because you just Sheer Vanity was it's so silly now that I look back I was foolish just I I was wearing right well I was wearing underneath this bathing suit I was wearing this heavy heavy um um coret corset you know um laced up corset that you know is really heavy thing what's what's that made made of CA canvas you know and I and nobody was ever going to see me I was sort of embarrassed had some notion of getting out of the pool and having the crew see me looking like like in this weird bathing suit you know I I don't know it was some nutty thing in my head so I wore this corset under thing and I can barely swim at best anyway and so I was just sinking and I I thought you I they you know you know because really at best I don't can barely swim a lap in the pool and so and I thought I can get I can get through this I can get through this and and this over here just made me do it about about 13 takes 13 laps so finally I was like oh was just horrible horri that that wasn't so so cool but but still but all of the moments that you mentioned before that your pleasure and your happiness and your you know being so present lent everything to us having the time to do all those extra shots because this guy showed up totally prepared on the mark did there we never never had to wait for you it was incredible yeah no I just loved it so and when it was over in fact when it was over you know the you know we my last day shooting and then I'm on the plane the next day I was still so just in the world of that movie that for almost a week I would just lie just lie there and just kind of assemble the movie in my head and just go scene by scene and and and put you know because we shot it out of sequence but I would just sort of Imagine it in sequence the whole movie and I would just keep playing it over and over because I I couldn't let it go I was so just you know in this fantasy of what had happened to me speaking of the the costumes that there were how many costumes were there seems like there were a lot of costumes well you know because in the play and I think I had maybe I how many six changes let's say and and I remember uh that's a lot yeah but but Dante at one point said to me you know he they'd actually done a real breakdown because of the budget he said you realize that do you have 40 costumes I no that's impossible he said no you've got 40 costumes well the only way we really could do this was that Michael barari and Ron case who I'd worked with in the theater and had done the play they have they've done so many shows and they have a big um storage space with all their costumes from all their shows so actually you know they built we had some costumes I wore that were from the stage plate and then they built a couple new ones for the movie but then a lot of these you know there were so many the Montage sequences so I'm wearing at one point Donna mne's dresses from State Fair and then in that little scene where um where I'm Clyde nestra um I think the dress is from Camelot and the collars from Joseph and the technical Dream Coat and and then I a couple of Barb Aunt Barbara's dresses and flashback for for our the character of Grace and Annie was her dress they kind of pieced it all together and and you really couldn't have done it except the fact that they did have this stock to pull from Dante U how did you get this cast this amazing cast aside from Charles uh you know we we're just incredibly uh fortunate and um and look I think the material was what really Drew people um the the funny thing was I think Philip was one of the last people to be cast and we were we were so excited to get him because everybody was working on a an equity uh not a a sag experimental contract so no one was really making any money to speak of but we we realized and and Philip when he showed up um was um he would sleep a lot and we realized that he had an 18-month-old baby at home and he was just so excited to get away and be somewhere where he could sleep yeah how did Jason Priestley uh get involved with this I'm trying to you know it it may have been the you know the relationship may have been through Auto racy because um Anthony was very involved with uh with auto racing and that that may have been why he came to it but everybody that came to it came to it with such spirit and Stark um you know one of the the the fun anecdotes of this is Stark was 19 I guess when he did this and he's obviously having a great career now and his um his he was family friends with Lou fno Who who trained him so he could put on some some muscle mass so he was off we had no idea but he was off training with L fno twice a day do you recall love scene if you could call it a love scene yeah yeah I was all kind of rabbity about it because I never done anything like that and I you know I was just a little nervous about it and Jason Priestley is just a great guy you know I really can't be dishy about about somebody he just lend himself so he was just a very cool dude you know and and so he said to me okay this is you know what we're going to do and you know I sort of took my head head in his hands and and we do a love scene you're going to be head your tilted this way I'm going to tilt this way and then he had all you know just explained it all and and it was a great sport even later when we were publicizing the movie and we had a big photo shoot I think for Out magazine and you know and all the attention was on me by my costume and this and and you know you know he was the you know the bigger star and uh just you know kind of stood there watching just sort of amused by the whole thing and it's delightful just Delight delightful and I adored Natasha who just you know kind of outrageous and little May West uh feel interesting because she really she I think she looks a lot like the very like when you see photos of of the very young May West like in Vaudeville she really looks like Natasha I thought I said to Natasha that she could play the young May West in a in a movie no she she was you know just delightful it sounds kind of sappy here but it's uh it really true I mean the um I do remember we had one one difficult where we were shooting the scene um the at the F funeral memorial service and um I think everything was going wrong and the generators broke or something and there was long long delay and and so uh I had sing those songs so I just kind of did a whole cabar act for the a had my trapped audience there and you know but you even that was just kind of kind of marvelous yeah do you have a favorite a favorite scene or favorite moment in the movie I just love the ending so much it was just what a dream I just remember being behind those doors wait you know in that fabulous coat just and waiting for them to open and have all those extras and all that and and and then the oh is Jeff Quinn here by any chance he is that's the owner of the house that we that we shot in and and he was so and I think he didn't realize just how obnoxious the whole thing was going to be God and there was so game we went door too passing our production designer went door to door in Hancock Park passing out flyers hoping somebody would let us shoot in our house and you guys were so amazing it was such a sa and eventually he was just pushed more and more into this little sort of attic bedroom with his dogs and uh and we promised him though that he was going to have a cameo in the movie and then that you know things keep going on there's no Cameo and finally we're going to do the it's the almost like the last thing we shot was the end of the movie and so he's one of the the reporters at the end and you know but and he's really giving a performance you know and he's do thing and you know and and and but the camera was moving so quickly and and poor Jeff here he's you know giving this Oscar winning performance taking notes and uh and then I guess Jason Priestly said uh dude the camera's already already down the block you know but we can still see you I I saw you tonight Kelly do Kelly Do you have a the favorite scene in the movie something you're proud of um no not really it was it's I I have to say that um after not seeing it for 15 years on a big screen I think I saw it somewhere else on a TV screen some friends but um no I'm just I'm proud of the way it looked and I'm I'm honored and proud that I got to work with this these guys and how about you don't um you know uh the the I remember two two moments really really clearly when it felt like something very special was happening and that was the shot when there at the attorney's office and I think that was one of the first things we shot wasn't it and and it was the first time and you know you're this is such a leap of faith you don't really know what you're doing until you start to see it in front of the camera and when we first saw that cast assembled in those in that Row in those chairs and those costumes and I thought oh that now I get it like you could really see that you could understand the humor of it the wit of it the period of it the other one of the other brilliant moments I thought and it was a moment was at the dining room table um when when there's the turnaround and Charles is caught with the with the band of light across his eyes and and you know the the style um that Kelly brought to this just just elevated and just took it to to to a whole another realm and and moments like those you thought oh there there's something really special happening here it looks like a very expensive movie I mean it really looks like looks like those Ross hunter movies Russell medy Photography he was the guy that shot all those movies beautiful photography to the beginning when I'm in the garden with Tony and the light on my hair and just really you know looks like a studio old Studio film I think tell us about the experience of taking this to to Sundance that was your world premiere I believe right in 2003 I mean to this day I think it's one of the it's one of the most thrilling moments of my life was that experience I I'd been going there for 10 years as a fan and you know you you sort of you sort of hope that you might like get a midnight screening or something and when we heard we were in dramatic competition we're like what I like it was really the most thrilling moment and and then you know it was so wild so I was out there I went to I saw the screening and uh and then I I was in a play in New York so I I think screening happened I was able to take you I don't have an underst study so I think we I don't know what happened we canceled the performance or something so I was in Sundance for a couple nights and I had to go back be in the play and I came home one night after the performance and there and suddenly the phone rings and it's Dante and I hear all this noise in the background he said you won the best performance award and the only time I've ever won an acting award ever and I wasn't there and I I couldn't couldn't believe it special jury prize performance I couldn't believe it yeah well deserved couldn't believe it and it was couldn't believe it there there though there was a there is experience with this film because there are people who get it and then there are people who don't get it and I so distinctly remember the heads of lion's gate which coming to us going we're very excited to see your film and we want to be sure we see your film right after we want to see you right afterwards and then after the film they're like boom out the door you're like hey it was also kind of I think I was telling you earlier s I had never really I'd never I hadn't seen the the movie you know or anything I you know I was in New York during the whole post- production uh process so I didn't see the movie until I saw it on this big screen at sundan was in their main theater and and so I'm sitting there and and and the strangest thing happened was that um now here I'd written the play I acted in the play wrote the screenplay acted in the movie and it wasn't until I'm watching this and toward the end of the film I got so caught up and I didn't realize just how autobiographic it is because see I was I was um adopted and raised by my aunt because my mother died when I was seven years old and uh and suddenly when I'm watching was watching the scene at the end where uh Angela the children finally come to her you know and and love her and suddenly it just well I suddenly saw my aunt up there you know I I like I was her and and then I it hit me that if you took all the trappings of melodrama out of the story The Essential story is about a woman who's who is Raising her her dead sister's children and wants them to love her wants her them to love her and will never believe that they would love her and and it just hit hit me in this wave and I and and it clinched in my head too that as writers every single thing we write whether we whether it's for hire or anything is personal and we may not ever know it but you know it's it's like a dream it's something that just comes out of your head and so it's has to be based on some rather profound thing whether you whether you know it or not yeah you uh performed the play again after the film in New York right oh God just endless I'll be doing it you know when I'm 80 yeah no we well we did um we did first we did an actor fund benefit and uh Chris Maloney played uh um Tony and we did this one night and it went very well and then um Daryl Roth wonderful producer in New York who's been sort of a great champion of mine and she decided that we would do a full Off Broadway production we did rather lavish Off Broadway production and uh we played that a couple months and uh so that was fun and and now I'm going to do it again actually here in La I don't know how many of you are aware of there's wonderful group called La Theater Works that do radio Productions and actually they tape them I think on this campus yes and so um I think it's like in like spring of next year we're going to do it as a as a radio play for a couple nights and uh so I hope you come see cuz now cuz I I wanted to do it so I could say that I I played Angela Arden on stage uh film and radio so I you'll get a star on the B I just have to find some way of doing it on TV whether it's Public Access or something I got it so I can do it every medium um we have some time for a couple of questions if anybody has any questions for Charles or anybody else yes sir microphone coming this Richard Tanner went to summer camp with me right yeah um he did my sister's hair for the women what you did my sister's hair for theen at summer camp what kind of summer camp was this uh Theater Camp Showbiz Camp I'm still amazed by what you did with her hair um you know you said that you weren't really involved in the pre- and post-production I understand but nonetheless this is your Chara this is your creation and and so I I'm wondering a couple of things um how how involved were you in sort of the minutia of some of what we saw in terms of you know choosing her jewelry choosing oh I was very involved with costumes well yes because I they were done in New York oh so these are all done yeah so that you know and I'm always always very involved with uh my the costumes in in my shows and you a certain sense I I'm sort of co-designer I help I do the research I I do the sketches even you know I'm very very involved it just just what what's wonderful when you work with talented people then who know more than you do then they take my ideas and make them better than you know I could have done you able to translate all that into the film so yes so so yeah so I was very involved with with my look uh yeah but but the other things I really wasn't I um I really lucked out that everybody did did their homework which is basically the the thing you know so that they knew they you know they knew what the movies were that we were evoking and they knew how they had the skill to recreate it and just what along with this were there moments when in writing and performing it where you you um specifically knew this is Susan Hayward and such and such this is Barbara Stanwick and such and such well yes not too much in this but specifically you know there's moment that sort of evokes a moment in now Voyage or you know I'm not afraid I'm not afraid so I'm and Betty Dave as I and there's kind of a uh when I start breaking the record and and get out that's very s kind of kind of doing Betty Davis and uh uh dead ringer you know that those movies that sort of her that big vocal attack yeah so uh but um you know I'd been playing versions of that character character for so long that I I have kind of Forgotten even really where they you know like I do that sort of vocal thing and and and and I try to remember people ask me where does that come from and I I have a feeling that I'm sort of a it started off with kind of it's sort of a deconstructed thing that Jun Crawford sometimes does like in the women when she says I guess it's back to the perfume counter for me you know and and um Ginger Rogers does that a lot too so I guess it's sort of you know after a certain point you forget you know you forget where you got it from you or sometimes a movie I you know do some quotation from a movie and totally forgot that it's a quotation I'll be what later years later watching a movie on TV and think oh that's L my movie oh no I stole it from that you know I just for forget it was wonderful it was really wonderful than yes please about that you remember that that scene where you're where you have that gown and the the lining of the Cod is the dress it's the same was that from a movie or was that just the luck of having that order oh no no he made that no no that was made order doing no uh well it seemed I don't know I can't think of a specific movie but it seems like something like Doris Day would do with the Ensemble and and nice we did that in the theater as well okay yeah it was in in the play we did it so never saw it yes no but yeah yes please thanks um I I I was reminded in the the short film that Joan Crawford's first name given by the studio was Elizabeth Arden so I have to ask where did you get Joan Arden Joan Arden so where did you get the name Angela AR was it inspired by that or no the funny some other Harden well the funny thing was that in the play originally she was uh Angel Angela Andrews Angela Andrews and it didn't boy I'm really kind of dumb because I guess when the play you just didn't see things spelled out you know and then when we were going to do the movie and suddenly there were going to be posters for her the sister's act would be the Andrew sisters it didn't occur it didn't occur to me in the play that oh that they're the Andrew sisters because you never saw poster we just never thought it out so I had to change it for the movie so she became Angela art and I you know wanted to you know name with to you know Angela and a last name be a I yeah I kind of look like her a little bit Yeah Yeah but no it was Angela Andrews it was kind of nuts yeah yeah and questions I think that's it yesen I don't think it's specific except that I remember that was an idea of mine actually because what i' said that you know um I think when we were discussing it I believe I think that was suggestion of mine that that should look like a um late 50s TV show where this set is so M minimalist and and they would just have some odd object Flo floating and then I guess production designer came up with the picture frames but you know that was sort of a area that I told him but I you know I'm the worst lip Sinker in the world and I've had people say to me oh it's so I love the detail that you're slightly off oh yes yes and and a very very wonderful actress uh musical theater actress uh Ruth Williamson is my my dubbed voice and uh she also uh oh she in a play of my Divine sister she dubbed me in as well and and so then when I started doing my Cabaret act where I'm doing my own singing I'm always afraid that somebody's gonna say boo that's not the voice where where he used to you know what's next what's next for you Charles what's next um well I have a new play that we uh triy tried out did a little brief run in New York called the the confession of Lily dare and we're bringing it back for an extended run in New York uh in December of 2019 you know oh my seems like forever but that's what I'm up to and I got I got a lot got a lot of things up in the sleeve yeah we'd love to see you in another movie I'm desperate to make another movie and I I got there I got a couple things that it just unlike die mommy die which happens so fast you know movies just take so long to get together and so this I have two movie things are just going on forever but hopefully they'll be done soon well I want to I want to thank you all for being here and sharing your memories of this this movie it holds up so well and uh we want it uh we want more people to see it so uh well we'll talk to the producer after the show we got to get this we got to get this out it's got to be in every living room in America we'll work on that thank you all for coming thank you Jeffrey thank you Jeffrey [Applause]