Andrea Berloff turns to directing
When “Straight Outta Compton” co-writer Andrea Berloff was tapped to direct “The Kitchen,” a female-driven mob drama for Warner Bros.’ New Line Cinema division, the assignment came just as it seemed she’d hit a glass ceiling. It was a personal come-to-Jesus moment.
“I reached a point where I thought, ‘Well, I think this is it. I think this is as (much) as I’m going to get a chance to achieve,’ ” says Berloff, who received an Oscar nod for her work on “Compton.” “I definitely felt like I was losing out on opportunities and not being afforded the respect my work had merited. I was incredibly frustrated and didn’t quite know where to put that energy.”
It was during this period of disillusionment that she was offered the chance to adapt the DC/Vertigo comic book series “The Kitchen,” a 1970s Irish mafia story set in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen. It revolves around a group of mob wives whose husbands are busted in an FBI sweep. After the men are sent to jail, the women assume their positions at the top of the hierarchy. Melissa McCarthy, Elisabeth Moss and Tiffany Haddish star as the gangster wives in the film version of the story.
“‘The Kitchen’ hit at exactly the right time that I was feeling angry enough to think to myself, ‘What would happen if women
“I definitely felt like I was losing out on opportunities.”
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could take over? What would that look like?’” Berloff says. “(Because) the Irish mafia is not all that different from Hollywood.”
It was important for Berloff and producer Michael De Luca to cast against type for two of the leads.
“I was really trying very hard across the board to make sure I was casting actors who are very talented but not necessarily the stereotype of what you would see in these (roles),” says Berloff. “People who were interesting to watch and would deliver incredible performances.”
“We were trying to be surprising,” De Luca adds. “I’ve always believed comedians and comic actors can usually make the transition to drama.”
As for Moss, who shines as a woman struggling to realize her power, Berloff says, “She’s the Meryl Streep of our generation. She would do one take, and I would look around and think to myself, ‘Oh, my God, how am I supposed to make that better?’ ”
Berloff was approached to write the script, but after falling in love with the story, she decided to throw her hat in the ring to direct as well — despite having no directing experience.
“I knew they liked the script enough to move forward, and so just like any other director I went in and pitched my heart out,” she says. “And they were kind enough to hire me eventually.”
That makes Berloff one of only a handful of women directing major studio releases this season.