Woody Allen's latest film, "Deconstructing Harry," revolves around the problems of a New York writer's creative and erotic life. Written and directed by Woody Allen, the film stars Caroline Aaron, Kirstie Alley, Bob Balaban, Richard Benjamin, Eric Bogosian, Billy Crystal, Judy Davis, Hazelle Goodman, Mariel Hemingway, Amy Irving, Julie Kavner, Eric Lloyd, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobey Maguire, Demi Moore, Elisabeth Shue, Stanley Tucci, Robin Williams and Woody Allen.
Woody Allen uses a wide canvas in "Deconstructing Harry." The screenplay contains close to 85 speaking parts, and working with casting director Juliet Taylor, Allen cast the film and worked with his actors in the same unique way he has during his years of directing comedies and dramas. Casting the right actors in the right role is a hallmark of Woody Allen films. Allen says of Deconstructing Harry's large ensemble, "I was very lucky to get everyone I wanted. Everyone who is in the film is my first choice."
The starring cast, a superb and versatile ensemble of talented actors, boasts several who are known for their comedic talents while others are more renowned for their dramatic abilities.Billy Crystal who plays the role of Harry's romantic rival says, "Woody's my favorite filmmaker, and when he sent me the pages of my role and wrote a letter saying that he'd love me to appear in the film, it felt like a summons to be presented with a very great honor. I was so excited. I read the pages, I laughed very hard, and said yes right away."
"When I was starting out in the early 1970s," Crystal says, "like so many comedians of my generation I had two goals: to get on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and to appear in one of Woody's films. I have to laugh because it only took me 25 years to accomplish the latter."
Unlike Crystal, young Tobey Maguire, who is at the start of a promising career, had to audition twice for his role."I was terrified. Number one, I don't like auditions. And number two, it was Woody Allen! When it was over, I thought I had a terrible reading, that I was flat. When I went back to read for a second time I forced myself to get past being nervous and show what I could do. And then I sort of felt that I was going to get the part. I ran all the way back to my apartment and when I got there, the call came and said the role was mine."
Each actor in the film, regardless of his role, was given only the pages of the script that pertained to his or her character, and there was no rehearsal period before principal photography began. On the set, Allen rarely offered his actors specific directions, preferring instead to encourage them to explore fully the range of their characters' emotions.
"I could tell from my pages something about the tone and the atmosphere and the kind of film it was," says Bob Balaban who plays Richard, Harry's friend. "There's a special kind of favorite Woody Allen film for me about modern relationships that's a mix of comedy and drama, and this is it.""And I love the way Woody works. You say the lines, but he gives you a lot of freedom. I noticed in one take that I had inadvertently changed some of the dialogue. I apologized, but he said he didn't care. Perhaps he thought it sounded more natural the way I said the lines the second time."
"But beyond playing my role," Balaban says, "it was a great joy just being there and watching Woody work. He has utter concentration and doesn't have to yell or carry on to exert control. He gives the appearance of being someone who belongs exactly where he is, directing a film."
Amy Irving, who plays Jane, says of her experience, "Woody called my agent and asked if I were interested in doing a role in the film. He said it was about a week's work. I agreed without even asking what it was about. All I knew was that I was the character's third wife. I was moving back to New York and thought, 'What a great welcome mat. What a great way to come back, to be working for Woody Allen'."
At the start of filming, Irving was given her lines, but was in the dark about the rest of the plot. "Judy Davis who plays my sister knew a little more than me so the night before we filmed our scene we went out for a drink and talked. I picked up a little more. We also went to the set where our scene was going to be shot and thought about how it would be blocked. Of course, when we did it Woody had his own ideas. They were completely different from ours. And that's what we filmed.
"Woody's method of working is very supportive. He's loose on the set, and funny. I'm 'Miss Prepared,' so I knew my lines and Judy's and his. When we worked, I stuck to the lines. I thought, 'They're so well written, why use my own?' Everything moved very quickly. Woody knows exactly what he's got. Just when you feel you're getting it, he's ready to move on to the next thing."Billy Crystal says, "At first I was very nervous working with Woody. But he was very thoughtful and supportive. He let me participate in expressing what I felt about the character and the scene. And once we started working, everything went perfectly. I thought, 'This is like having a catch with Joe Dimaggio'."
Allen says, "It was a treat working with Billy Crystal and Robin Williams. You don't always have a chance to work with comic talent on such a high level and here coincidentally and ideally I had parts for both of them. They did not disappoint. I should be so lucky all the time. Imagine, I had Kirstie, Demi, Julie Kavner, Dick Benjamin, Eric Lloyd, Amy Irving, and this young kid, Tobey Maguire. And I found Hazelle Goodman, who is amazing, and of course, the great Judy Davis, not to mention, Mariel and Stanley Tucci - look at this list - Julia, Caroline, Balaban, and Bogosian and I got to work with Elisabeth Shue, I mean it was incredible." Working with Woody Allen on "Deconstructing Harry" are many members of the creative team he has collaborated with over the years, including casting director Juliet Taylor, cinematographer Carlo di Palma, production designer Santo Loquasto, and editor Susan E. Morse. Suzy Benzinger is the costume designer. Co-producer is Richard Brick. Jack Rollins, Charles H. Joffe and Letty Aronson are co-executive producers. Executive producer is J. E. Beaucaire and the producer is Jean Doumanian.
Production began on "Deconstructing Harry" in New York City on September 16, 1996, where, as in most of Allen's productions, a majority of filming took place in Manhattan. Some of the locations there included the Central Park's Bethesda Fountain, the Grove Cafe at Bleecker and Grove Streets in Greenwich Village, the Hotel New Yorker on 8th Avenue and 34th Street, and in a room at the Hotel Intercontinental in the East 50s near Lexington Avenue.Several different interiors were shot in a variety of apartments on Riverside Drive, West End Avenue, Jane Street, and 16th Street. Important interiors were also filmed in the Jersey City Armory, and other filming sites in New Jersey included the Red Apple restaurant in Southfield, and locations in Union City, and in Tenafly for the scenes that occur in Harry's sister Doris's house.
Other sequences in New Jersey were shot in Madison and Palisades, and in New York State in Bedford Hills and Rockland County. Filming left off on December 10, 1996, after 58 days. Six days of re-shoots began on February 3, 1997. Production was completed on February 8, 1997.
