I was thinking about my father ... that whole generation of men
As director Sofia Coppola reunites with Bill Murray for On The Rocks, she and leading lady Rashida Jones chat to GEORGIA HUMPHREYS
RASHIDA JONES was going through a difficult, time while making her new film. The LA-born actress was a new mum, having given birth to her son with Vampire Weekend frontman, Ezra Koenig, in summer 2018.
Then, in May last year her mother – the actress Peggy Lipton – died from cancer, aged 72, and 44-year-old Rashida, known for comedies such as Parks and Recreation and The Office, acknowledges this impacted her work in On The Rocks, written and directed by Sofia Coppola.
“In any regular circumstance, you hope you can bring the best, most honest complex parts of yourself without fear of failure, to a role,” suggests Rashida, whose father is music legend Quincy Jones.
“And then, when things become even more difficult, and you’re dealing with your personal life, I guess the hope is that you can trust the people you’re with to bring all of that to set and that they will find a way to infuse that into the character.
“I felt very lucky to be in Sofia’s hands, and working with the people I was, because there was a level of safety and support where I felt I could just be myself, whatever that was that day – because sometimes it was messy – and that, hopefully, channelling it, there would actually add to the character ultimately.”
And it worked. Rashida is brilliant in On The Rocks, an emotive, heartfelt comedy in which she plays young mother Laura, who thinks she’s happily hitched – until her husband Dean (Marlon Wayans) starts logging late hours at the office with a new co-worker and she worries he is having an affair.
So, she enlists the help of her charming, largerthan-life playboy father,
Felix (Bill Murray), and together they investigate the situation, leading to a night-time adventure across New York, taking them from uptown parties to downtown hotspots.
Many of the laughs come from the generation clash between Laura and Felix, as Sofia, known for Lost In Translation and The Virgin Suicides, expertly explores the father-daughter relationship, and how unique and important it can be. Discussing how she came up with the idea, the filmmaker recalls: “I had a friend who told me about spying on her husband with her father.
“It made me think I would like to see a kind of comedy caper with the father-daughter buddy adventure, and the idea of having such different perspectives on the topic of relationships and men and women between these two generations.
“So I was trying to put those elements together in something that was hopefully fun and light, but still has the depth of these themes.”
Rashida and Sofia had met on and off over the years, having first worked together 18 years ago when Sofia was working on Lost In Translation; she was doing a workshop, Rashida was the actress performing the scene.
“It was such a formative experience for me, to be able to work with this great young filmmaker,” Rashida recalls.
“Then to have this full-circle moment where we can reconnect and work on this thing, in a deeper way, it’s really kind of a dream come true.”
“I was really glad to spend all this time with Rashida, and have a great partner in making this film,” says Sofia, who is married to French musician, Thomas Mars. The couple have two children together.
“It helps she’s a writer, so when I sent scripts, I could get feedback!”
Another friend who Sofia got on board for this project was Bill Murray, who starred in her 2003 hit Lost In Translation. A hugely successful collaboration; Bill earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his turn opposite Scarlett Johansson, while Sofia won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar.
The 70-year-old screen veteran is notoriously enigmatic. It’s said he doesn’t have an agent or a manager, and reportedly doesn’t even have a mobile number, instead only being reachable via a private 1-800 number.
Sofia laughs at the folkore surrounding the Ghostbusters star.
“I got him an agent, finally!” she reveals. “I mean I thought it was time, he’s done enough in his career, so I got him one. It was hard but I did.”
Bill is not present for our Zoom interview and Sofia attests “he’s so hard to pin down. He’s always mysterious and you never know when he might show up, which is part of the fun of when he is around, but he’s always great to work with because he always brings a magic and an unexpectedness to what he does.
Of Bill’s character in the movie, Felix, Sofia says he “was just a mix of different people,”.
“And it was fun to see that character come to life through Bill,” she continues. “It needed someone loveable because of course that kind of person also has a dark side and says things that you don’t agree with, and he could pull it off in a way that you can stomach it all.”
Sofia’s own father is 81-yearold Francis Ford Coppola, the American director, producer, and screenwriter behind some of the most acclaimed films of all time; the Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now.
She says she grew up in a world where there were a lot of men like Felix: “The ones who drink martinis and cigars and are connected with an old-world way of life you don’t see as much now”. Expanding on this, and the themes of the film, she says: “I was thinking a lot about my father and that whole generation of men, who were such characters but also part of what could be a very objectifying culture. I was also thinking about how your relationship with your father affects your relationships and marriage.
“How do we relate to these men in our lives who we deeply love, but who we don’t always see eye-to-eye with when it comes to how men and women relate?
“That’s integrated into a madcap caper that I hope whisks you away and into the city.” On The Rocks is on Apple TV+ now