- Title: FRANCE: 'NURSE BETTY' PREMIERES IN CANNES
- Date: 12th May 2000
- Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 12, 2000) (FESTIVAL TELEVISION) (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHRIS ROCK SAYING "In a year you get two good scripts, maybe three, and of those three they don't want you for two of them, and really they don't want you for the third, but your people don't have the heart to tell you that. I read it, I liked it, I liked it because it was a drama, and I get to play
- Embargoed: 27th May 2000 13:00
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- Location: CANNES, FRANCE AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVA6V66MLGQ91X7LOJYHCPIBD7VM
- Story Text: "Nurse Betty" tells the tale of a small-town waitress who falls in love with a character in a corny soap-opera. The film, starring Renee Zellweger, Chris Rock and Greg Kinnear premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it is in competition for the prestigious Palme D'Or.
In a film directed by Neil Labute, Renee Zellweger plays Betty Sizemore, is a good-hearted small-town waitress who dreams of her true love - David Ravell, the doctor in the corny soap opera "A Reason to Love" that she watches every day. After she witnesses her husband's murder in a drug deal which goes wrong, Betty begins to lose her grip on reality and live in a world of soap opera fantasy - she is no longer Betty the waitress, she becomes Nurse Betty, as director Neil Labute explains: "In the case of Betty who loses touch with what is on the television and what's in her own life and blurs that line, so I think that was in the interesting thing for me, and I think those other films do the same thing, when those two very distinct worlds become one."
Betty's fantasy life becomes so vivid in her mind that she is unable to separate what is real and what is make-believe, and it was the unusual nature of the role that Zellweger enjoyed: "Betty's a unique character, as are all the characters in this film which is why I love it so much, and it gave us a lot of leeway with where we wanted to take it, and Betty specifically has a very interesting condition that she's experiencing."
Betty sets off for Hollywood to find her dream doctor, but she is pursued by the drug dealers who killed her husband. The characters of the hit men, played by Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock, add not only a touch of foul-mouthed, high-octane verbal exchanges, but also an edge of violence.
Rock instantly liked the script, and enjoyed the chance to play in a role that was note purely comic: "In a year you get two good scripts, maybe three, and of those three they don't want you for two of them, and really they don't want you for the third, but your people don't have the heart to tell you that. I read it, I liked it, I liked it because it was a drama, and I get to play a hitman in a drama, they let comedians play hitmen in comedies, they don't let you play hitmen in dramas, so it just seemed like a really big stretch."
Although Zellweger and Rock may be newcomers to Cannes, Kinnear, who plays the dashing doctor, has attended the festival before, but in an altogether different capacity: "This is my second time here, eleven years ago I was here as a journalist for an American television channel trying to get interviews with pretentious actors, so any of your questions I would be happy to accommodate you."
After the screening the stars attended a party held to celebrate the films premiere, spirits were high and the actors felt that the film had been well received. It is unusual for a comedy to be chosen for the competition. The last comic film to take the coveted Golden Palm award was Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" in 1994 and the cast and director of Nurse Betty will have to wait to find out whether it is the turn of a comedy to scoop top honours again.
But for one of the guests at the party, oscar-winner Pedro Almodovar, the suspense of having a film in competition was nothing more than a memory. His film "Todo Sobre Mi Madre"
won the Palme D'Or in 1999, so this year, he can relax and enjoythe atmosphere! ---END---. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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