‘Home Again’ director revels in family ties
When Hallie Meyers-Shyer set out to make her first film, she knew it would instantly be compared to her mother’s movies. After all, the 30-yearold’s debut has nearly all of the trappings of a Nancy Meyers picture: It’s a romantic comedy about beautiful people who live in a lovely Brentwood mansion — the kind so immaculately decorated that it could be featured in the glossy pages of a home design magazine.
“A lot of people have asked me, ‘Why didn’t you want to do your own thing — like something in horror?’ ” said Meyers Shyer, recalling her experience with journalists after a long day of press junket interviews. “But that’s not me. I just wanted to be true to myself, and my mom’s films are the kind of movies that I love. I don’t have a big ego in that way, where I feel like I have to be different.”
While the offspring of many famous directors have tried mightily to cement their own artistic style — Jason Reitman, Sofia Coppola, Jake Kasdan — Meyers-Shyer fully embraced her relationship with her mother on “Home Again,” which opens Friday. Meyers served as a producer on the film, offering extensive notes to her daughter during the screenwriting stage and serving as a guiding force on-set during production.
“I think it would bother me if I hadn’t made this movie with her, but we made a movie together, so I expected it,” said Meyers-Shyer. “She’s learned so much and been in this business for so long, and to be able to pass that knowledge on to me I think was nice for her.”
As a result of her parents’ proximity to Hollywood, Meyers-Shyer herself has been immersed in the film industry virtually since she was a toddler. Her father, Charles Shyer, is a filmmaker who collaborated with Meyers on numerous films (“Father of the Bride,” “Private Benjamin,” “Baby Boom”) before they divorced in 1999. She and her older sister, Annie, spent much of their youth on their parents’ sets, riding around on golf carts, lazing around in trailers and even getting to film a few fun cameos.
She began writing “Home Again” two years ago.
“I didn’t just want to expect that right out of the gate I could direct a film,” she explained. “It’s a big responsibility, and I felt that I needed to earn my stripes.”
The story she set out to tell follows a 40-year-old with two children (Reese Witherspoon) who is newly separated from her record executive ex (Michael Sheen). She moves from New York to L.A. to start over, settling in the home of her late father. But just as she’s embarking on a new career — as an interior designer, natch — she crosses paths with three young Hollywood hopefuls who are trying to make it big. The group strike up an unlikely friendship and the trio of dudes move into her guesthouse, which, as you might guess, does not go smoothly.
Meyers-Shyer said she was particularly anxious about working with actors — namely Witherspoon, the Oscar-winner whom she’d been a fan of for years. “But when we hit the ground running, she made all of my fears go away,” the director said. “She acted like I had directed 10 movies before.”