Jamie Lee Curtis, Emma Mackey And James L. Brooks Discuss ‘Ella McCay’

Emma Mackey and Jamie Lee Curtis in “Ella McCay”

20th Century Studios

James L. Brooks is the creative mastermind behind such iconic television shows as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi and The Simpsons, as well as the cinematic visionary behind As Good As It Gets, Broadcast News and Terms of Endearment. Academy Award winner Jamie Lee Curtis remains a leading star in Hollywood and actress Emma Mackey continues to turn heads with her wide variety of outstanding performances within her blossoming career. Together, these three creative forces are bringing Ella McCay to a big screen near you this weekend.

Set in 2008, this 20th Century Studios film centers around Ella (played by Mackey), a hardworking 30-something politician who is determined to make a real change for the people within her state. Fortunately having the unwavering support of her Aunt Helen (played by Curtis), Ella navigates around the challenges of being a young woman within a newfound position of power, while also having to deal with the many highs-and-lows surrounding family.

Written, directed and produced by Brooks, Ella McCay is a charming tale that offers the same comforting nostalgia and humanity that initially made us all fall madly in love with a James L. Brooks film over the years. Sitting down with these creative artists, I wondered what initially intrigued Mackey and Curtis to sign on for this Ella McCay cinematic storytelling.

Mackey said with her female political leader character in mind, “I think it’s something that is still possible – not in a corny way, but it’s something that should still be of today and should still be doable. It was just a dream from the get-go and something so evident and clear and strong. The script is marvelous and dense, and you don’t really get that that type of dialogue anymore and to that level. It’s so precise and so kind of thought-out. We did so many rehearsals and we talked about it at length and played around with it. It was amazing to be able to work like that. It’s a really rare thing.”

Curtis added: “When you work with someone like James L. Brooks, he has written this, so it’s been in his head for 15 years. When you give it to actors, it’s very hard for him to give it away. So, it demands a tussling. As actors, we all have the thing we fall back on – like our thing that we can rely on that kind of maybe has gotten us through 80% of our work – maybe 90% of our work and given us success. James L. Brooks sees that and goes like, ‘Okay, you can stop doing that right now. I want the thing you haven’t done.’ It was thrilling!”

As for why Brooks chose to tell this Ella McCay story in 2008 and not set the film within our present day political climate, he says that was intentional on his part, to remind people of a time when Americans were not so drastically divided. Even though this film is in fact an optimistic story about seeking out the best in people and holding one’s ground when you know what is morally right, Brooks says the film’s optimism ultimately came into fruition by chance during the production process.

“That wasn’t my goal,” Brooks said. “It ended up with hope being in the air. Not my intention – it ended that way. These things take over at some point. It changed during filmmaking, it changed during editing. Something’s in there that you dig out, which is what editing is.”

So, what can our modern day world leaders and just the public at large take away from this empowering and compassionate Ella McCay narrative?

“They can take a couple leaves out of that book, I reckon,” Mackey said of real world politicians today. “It is about hope in the end and it’s a very simple act of helping without counting and expecting anything back, and that’s really been lost. A lot of people try to do it and so many people work so hard to do that on a local scale – and a national scale, sometimes – but it’s the very simple act of just helping the person opposite you and really looking at them and really taking in what they’re saying and what their needs are.”

Curtis continued with, “And taking it out of politics and making it public service, because it is public service. You are an elected official for we the people, so whatever edge you want to lean against, it’s still public service. What we forget in the echo chamber of politics, this isn’t a political film – this is a human film. This is about a young woman who believes you can help people. She is obviously supported through her family, but she meets a lot of obstacles.”

Being someone who has been making films and television shows for several decades, I was curious what Brooks is liking about the ways of the entertainment industry today and if there are aspects of the business from yesterday that he wishes were still in place.

Brooks said, “Well, certainly there was a spirit of comedies that we made that was in my mind. It was looser, freer – people talked a little faster. I sort of like that. It used to be impossible for somebody to read a script and know whether it had a good chance to do well. Now, there’s so much data that they can be right. If the picture does certain things, it will have a better than this chance to do it. When this picture is as made up as it is, there’s no data on it, so you’re very appreciative when somebody allows you to make it. You got a chance to make the movie that you had in your mind and you wrote. These days, appreciation is part of every day’s work, I think.”

As for Curtis, who has also remained a prominent figure within Hollywood over many decades now, she said of her industry joys lately, “For me, I got to be in a James L. Brooks movie. A screenplay written by James L. Brooks came to me and he said, ‘Will you please play Helen?’ That doesn’t happen to me. Something complex and layered and supportive and funny and tragic. All of those pieces – to have a screenplay? That’s an old-fashioned idea that I certainly don’t see very much. So for me, that opportunity was life-changing.”

While concluding our conversations, as people now have the opportunity to see Ella McCay in movie theaters, rather than the growing trend of more video streaming premieres in today’s society, Brooks said, “Two people laughing at home under a blanket is very nice and god knows I try to make that happen, but the collective laughter in a theater that’s shared is – Boy, that’s what you want.”