What would it take to transform a one-time comedian (Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show) into someone who is seen as both a respected Hollywood veteran and a renaissance man?
An intelligent love story with many subtle underlying layers would be a good start. A tale that is universal yet not brainless, that relates the commonality of the dating game, would be even better yet.
The multi-talented (writing, art, music, and acting) Steve Martin has achieved just that. Shopgirl, his novella turned film, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last week. Stars Claire Danes, Jason Schwartzman, and Martin (who takes the lead role), along with director Anand Tucker, were in town for the premiere and to meet with the press.
Shopgirl tells the story of Mirabelle (Danes), a young clerk at a high-end department store in Los Angeles. Having recently moved from an insulated life in her native Vermont, she finds herself lonely yet looking for happiness through a relationship.
In quick succession, two men come into her life and she must decide between the older, rich, and well-grounded Ray (Martin) and the young and innocent Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman). The two men are as different as their dating styles and Mirabelle does not get everything she wants from either man, but is nevertheless willing from to settle for what she needs. Love is elusive, yet it is clear that it will not be entirely missing for her.
At a roundtable interview last week, Tucker explained that their goal in creating the film was “giving the audience an emotional connection to the characters and allowing them to feel not only their loneliness but also their connectedness at the same time. We’re following the interior journey of people who are looking for real connections.”
Or, as Martin elaborated: “The book/film is about small moments which are obviously the biggest and at times the most important in life.”
As it progresses, the film becomes a delicate dance between the three main characters. Each has personality traits that people can relate to at different times in their lives.
Jeremy, as Schwartzman described, is a character who “relates a very sincere desire to just get out and meet people. He’s open to change and new adventures, and his life in many ways has just begun.”
Jeremy is an eccentric artist and salesman who gets his break when he becomes a roadie for a rock band. During this time, he undergoes a transformation with the help of the musicians. While playing the role, Schwartzman had several bands in mind for inspiration, including Guided by Voices, Kiss, and the Flaming Lips.
Schwartzman credits Martin’s sensitive script for Jeremy’s careful and realistic evolution.
“Steve Martin is an exquisitely precise writer, and he built such a precise blueprint for Jeremy-he built the house, and I might have been a construction worker on the house. A lot of the dots were already connected; Jeremy seemed so real,” he said.
Danes concurred, saying that playing the unsure Mirabelle was a unique challenge, but one made easier by the material.
“Sometimes I feel that it is hard to inhabit a character, but this one was so vivid that I had to remain focused… My job is always to find the kernel of truth or the small number of similarities and then exaggerate it until it’s done on an appropriate scale. It was made possible because the story is written so well,” she said.
Shopgirl explores the emotional highs and lows of what many face in the dating game, with its themes of loneliness and lack of connection woven well into the story.
“There is a little of each of (the characters) in all of us,” Danes pointed out.
Martin explained that when he wrote the novella, he intended it to be universal in many ways.
“This is everyone’s story. Whether you have one lover in your life or 20, this story is about one of those episodes and the way that those involved handle it and move through it.”
Shopgirl opens in select theatres October 21.
