FILM-GRANDMA/TOMLIN In "Grandma", 75-year old Lily Tomlin shows that age is no barrier to boldness

Record ID: 143340

  • Title: FILM-GRANDMA/TOMLIN In "Grandma", 75-year old Lily Tomlin shows that age is no barrier to boldness
  • Date: 18th August 2015
  • Summary: WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 14, 2015) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) WRITER AND DIRECTOR PAUL WEITZ SAYING: "I think the thing that's changing is economics are changing and that especially a younger audience. It used to be that the young male audience was like the golden ring that the studios were pursuing all the time. That's a very fickle audience now, because they have first-person shooter video games, they have all sorts of other things to do with their time, and so as that audience gets reduced, by the nature of it, studios will make more films that are appealing to older audiences and female audiences."
  • Embargoed: 2nd September 2015 13:00
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  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8YFQ7L8ONSTAX505B70NCNHXV
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: "I need some help, Grandma," the granddaughter of Lily Tomlin's character Elle tells her at the beginning of "Grandma", which hits theaters on Friday (August 21).
    Played by Julia Garner, 18-year old Sage is unhappily pregnant and needs her grandmother's help to pay for the abortion she has scheduled later in the day. The film follows the pair as they take a road trip around Los Angeles trying to borrow the money from various characters from Elle's past.
    But Elle is not your regular Grandma. Grouchy and free-spirited, she's never one to hide her exasperation when, for example, she finds the local free clinic has been turned into a coffee shop.
    "She probably gets ticked off easily, as we see exhibited in the movie," Tomlin said of Elle.
    "If somebody's lying or fudging an issue, she just can't take it and she's just going to rail against it, that's all there is to it. Like, even the coffee guy saying, you know, coming and asking her to leave because she's talking too loudly."
    A lesbian poet and former academic, Elle even goes so far as to try to sell her first edition feminist publications, and is aghast when Sage admits she's never heard of philosopher Simone de Beauvoir or pioneering feminist poet Betty Friedan.
    Tomlin, though, has hope for a future generation of feminists.
    "I love the feminist aspects of the movie, of course, because I identify as a feminist and always have, I mean have for many years. I would hope that young women today, I hope they create the next wave of feminism and create the writings and everything else," she said.
    In a Hollywood long filled with laments over the lack of good parts for older women, Tomlin is optimistic things could be changing and points to her role in the Netflix series "Grace and Frankie", about modern-day odd couple thrown together by their husbands' revelation that they are a gay couple and want to marry.
    The six-time Emmy winner stars alongside 77 year-old Jane Fonda as a feisty, sexually explicit woman in her 70s and revels in the rare opportunity to showcase women of a certain age.
    "Grace and Frankie, that's what that's all about too, trying to kind of express, you know, women of a certain age and how discounted they are and how isolated they can become and how they need to, like, keep on keeping on. So yes, I think that's going to permeate the culture. Maybe not to the extent that Vin Diesel does, but yeah, I definitely am optimistic about what's possible," she said.
    Tomlin's co-star, gravely voiced Sam Elliott, said audiences of all ages are just looking to be entertained and the ages of the actors is irrelevant to that.
    "I think maybe there's this realization that there's this vast audience out there that's not 18 year old males that want to see shit blown up. People want to see stories about people. Characters. I think that people love to be entertained and I think people love to go to the movies and laugh and cry. And, man, if you can do that all in the same film, like this thing does, like 'I'll See You in My Dreams' did. I mean, it's like, that's real life. To me, that's real life. And I think movies at their best are kind of a reflection of real life," he said.
    Elliott's character plays Elle's old flame Karl, in an emotionally nuanced performance that has had critics talking about a possible Oscar nomination.
    The film was written, produced and directed by Paul Weitz, best known for bigger-budget and more mainstream films like 1999's "American Pie" and 2002's "About a Boy". The 49-year old, who previously worked with Tomlin on his 2013 film Admission, said the movie industry is changing for older actors and audiences.
    "I think the thing that's changing is economics are changing and that especially a younger audience. It used to be that the young male audience was like the golden ring that the studios were pursuing all the time. That's a very fickle audience now, because they have first-person shooter video games, they have all sorts of other things to do with their time, and so as that audience gets reduced, by the nature of it, studios will make more films that are appealing to older audiences and female audiences," he said.
    Weitz said he wrote the film with Tomlin in mind and saw it as a great excuse to hang out with her.
    Tomlin rose to fame in the 1970s with her characters on the sketch comedy show "Laugh-In" and earned an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress in Robert Altman's 1975 musical drama "Nashville."
    "Grandma" is released on August 21 by Sony Pictures Classics.
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