Interview - No Reservations

By Clint Morris
Interview with Scott Hicks
Director of No Reservations.

Australian director Scott Hicks has a knack for latching onto actors just as they’re about to explode - he helped steer Geoffrey Rush’s tug to the states with 'Shine' (1996); discovered real talent in Anton Yelchin, who he cast in 'Hearts of Atlantis' (2001), and reminded everyone that Ethan Hawke was a lot more than Tiger Beat magazine by casting him in the enchanting 'Snow Falling on Cedars' (1999).

Though the Adelaide-based filmmaker can’t lay claim to young Abigail Breslin (the scene stealer from 2006's Little Miss Sunshine) starring in his latest film No Reservations, Hicks knows he truly lucked out by taking a chance on the young actress, who at the time of casting, was a relative unknown.

When Hicks decided to take a punt on then Breslin, she was still a relatively unknown commodity. She’d had the odd role in films, but her big one, Little Miss Sunshine, was still a month away from making its debut. Little did Hicks know he’d just snagged the next big thing.

“I know. How great is that?”, says Hicks, on the phone from Adelaide, where he prefers to base himself. “I cast her about a month before Little Miss Sunshine emerged at Sundance. All I had to go on was how she presented herself at the audition and I tell ya, there was no other choice. I saw many talented young girls for the part but she was just absolutely…. real.

“I am not surprised she’s taken off the way she has.”

Hicks says he’s actually trying to convince the film’s distributor Warner Bros to feature Breslin a lot more in the advertising for the film.

“My wife Kerry [Heysen], who’s a producer on the film, and I were telling them we need more Abigail. I mean, this movie is about a triangle and she’s the go-between for our leads, and she’s so well equipped to do that. She’s a breath of fresh air – she’s a keeper, she’ll be around for a long time to come”.

No Reservations is a romantic comedy about a career woman, a cook (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who finds herself caring for her newly-orphaned niece (Breslin). It’s a hard transition for the woman, but she gets by with a little help from a fellow chef, played by Aaron Eckhart.

The film is quite a departure for Hicks, as he’ll gladly admit it, but he still believes that it embodies a common thread with his other less-mainstream films.

“Its still revolves around human relationships. Although there is some romance in it, comedy too, it’s also quite a drama. So yes it was a departure but it was playing in territory that I thought I could move into.”

Hicks says he’s been offered “a lot” of mainstream studio films since Shine was released in 1996. None of them interested him in the way that No Reservations did.

“This was appealing to me for a number of reasons – one was the story, the other was Catherine [Zeta Jones]. She was attached from the very beginning and had some great ideas for it. We met to talk about it and we just clicked. I thought ‘here’s someone I could really work with and actually enjoy the process too’.”

Hicks says working with Zeta Jones was just wonderful, but so was working with the male lead, Eckhart (Erin Brockovich, Thank You for Smoking).

“He really wanted to play this part. I found that very appealing, the fact that he’s so good and so motivated and was so hungry to play the role. I knew he’d bring a tremendous energy to the production. The character he’s playing isn’t such a familiar kind of character but I think he really pulled it off”.

Both actors are true professionals, says Hicks, and they’d do whatever it takes to pull off the performances – that includes actually cooking the meals you see in the film.

“They were hands on”, he says. “By and large we had line cooks who would do the meals but they would put the finishing touches to it.”

In many ways, says Hicks, directing Breslin was much easier than directing Zeta Jones or Eckhart.

“Its much simpler”, he says, “Because you’re not clawing your way through layers and layers of different artifices or baggage from other productions. With a child, you just tell them ‘lets pretend’ which really, is acting in its purest form. When you’re dealing with people who have a tremendous technique that’s great, but you have to help them hide it. Abigail has tremendous instincts so you have to create an environment in which they can play or flourish. I found with her it was simply just a matter of making sure she understood each scene. Once she was clear on that she would go and reflect on that and imagine herself in that scene. It was quite wonderful to watch.”

Off-set, says Hicks, Breslin lives with her family in a “normal apartment” in New York where they live “as close as they can to a normal life. At the moment, they’re wrestling with her to deal with her growing fame.”

The Breslin’s aren’t the only ones that have had to restructure their lives. When Hicks was making No Reservations, for instance, his “life back home was put on hold”, for the eight months he was away in New York.

Next, he’s happy to say he’s making a film back in Australia.

The Boys are Back in Town, he says, is “based on a memoir by Simon Carr. Clive Owen is playing the lead. It’s going to be exciting. Its my first film here for ten years”.