Read on for the Q&A Panel Idina Menzel gave at the NYC screening on Jan. 19, 2017 for more insights on the movie revival.
Q: Thank you so much for joining us tonight.
A: I am happy to be here, this is exciting! [sees backdrop] I donโt like seeing my face too big.
Q: Itโs always nice to be out in a crowd of New Yorkers. You obviously have a huge fan base here. Tell us about the very first time you ever watched Beaches.
A: I think Beaches came out in โ89, so I was in a movie theater a little bigger than this in Long Island with my two best girlfriends, Lori and Wendy, and we just cried our eyes out. I donโt think anyone expected it to be so sad. Oh! Spoiler alert, just in case youโve never seen it. Something sad happens. Well, thereโs a younger generation of people thatโs never seen the movie, apparently!
Q: Tell me, how many packets of Kleenex did you go through the first time you watched it?
A: Oh I mean, Iโm being really honest, I canโt watch myself. So I was just like, โOh my god, why did you make that face? Why did you do that?โ Itโs like listening to myself sing, I donโt get goosebumps when I listen to myself sing, Iโm immune to myself. But apparently you need a nice pack of tissues.
Q: So tell me how this came about, how did you sign on for the project?
A:ย Lifetime was thinking about doing it. And honestly I said โNoโ a few times, becauseย it was like a terrifying thought to do it. I mean, I donโt make it a habit of trying to revive things that my all-time idols have done. I like to originate roles. And thereโs a reason for this. Itโs not because Iโm so smart and cool, itโs because I donโt want to be compared to anybody. And I love the movie, the way it is, but you know, sometimes a girl needs a gig too, and itโs such an amazing role. And how often do you see films or anything that has two female characters right in the center and the heart of it, and itโs about friendship, itโs not really about their romances that much. Itโs just really about them, itโs so rare. Well actually, Iโm probably the only one thatโs been in the only three projects, Beaches, Frozen, and Wicked, theyโre all female-centric. But most of the time you canโt find anything else. So yeah it was daunting. I just thought doing the music would give me chance to put my own spin on things because I thought the audience may give more permission for change with it because the music, the productionโs from years and years ago. I also felt like thereโs a real conversation to be had amongst us women in this day and age, to see sort of how weโve grown and how we think about the choices that we make. ย In this version, Nikole [Beckwith], you know our amazing writer, Iโve been talking about her a lot in all the interviews Iโve been doing because I think her role has probably been the hardest because she had this beautiful, iconic film, and we wanted to keep those moments that we all would miss if they weren’t there. But she also had to update it and modernize it, and I think she did a great job with that. And so what she did was, Nia [Long]โs character Hillary, her career is more talked about in the film, and you just see the women sort of not letting each other settle, and being hard on each other the way true friends should.ย
Q: So do you have a friendship like the one CC and Hillary have?
A: Yeah, I do. I have my sister, first of all. But weโre talking non-blood, I have my college roommate, her nameโs Debra but I call her Debbie, and we lived together freshman year of college. The first thing she said to me in the cafeteria at NYU, Weinstein dormitory was โMan, Idina, you have a big rack.โ I was like โShut up, that girl is such a bitch.โ And we hit it off from there. No, but sheโs always been honest, and always direct, and weโve always just really felt like we can rely on each other in the hardest of times. I can tell her anything.
Q: Who will you be watching it with on Saturday?
A: Because I like to watch myself so much? My mom is actually in LA watching my son right now so I could be here to do this stuff and she’s gonna stay of course so we can march, first of all [cheers].ย But she specifically cancelled the get-together because sheโs like โI hate when everyone talks during your singing or your acting.โ She wants to just sit there and stare at the television. So Iโll probably peer in and out. No Iโm proud of it, Iโve just always been a perfectionist. Even when I record music, itโs hard for me to listen back to it, I always want to change something.
Q: Now Iโve already had the great pleasure of seeing the film, itโs terrific. The music is also like a third character, or another character. Tell us a little bit about proposing or producing the new songs.
A: Yes, thatโs why I really want to say thank you to Lifetime and the producers because they welcomed my music suggestions, they welcomed some of my own music to be in the movie. I wrote a song called โLast Time,โ itโs on my last album that just came out, and I had just written the song with my songwriting friends and it was about a friend who, someone passed in their life, and they had all these regrets about not saying and doing enough before they moved on, soย it was like a really good fit.ย Because we wanted to keep the iconic songs, you know โGlory of Loveโ and โWind Beneath my Wingsโ but also, you know, change it, and that was helpful for me too, to carve out my own little window here in the Beaches world.
Q: I was just going to ask, because the songs also, they had a lot of different beats, and they come in at a lot of important moments in the film. How important was that for you in finding your own way into CC?
A: Iโm very similar to the character in a lot of ways. Thereโs a performer side of me, the side that loves the stage, the spotlight, sitting in front of an audience and connecting. And also the side thatโs terrified and has her insecurities and wants to be loved …ย itโs not like a musical where we break into song in the middle of the scene. So โWind Beneath my Wingsโ I recorded ahead of time obviously, and it plays over the montage, โLast Timeโ was cool because I sat at the piano and kind of worked it out, some of itโs live. โIโll Stand By Youโ was a great choice because Allison Anders, our director, will admit to you that she didn’t see Beaches until recently when she got the gig to direct because she was like a punk girl back when it came out. So it was her idea to do โIโll Stand By Youโ by the Pretenders. I loved it because in the original they open with โUnder the Boardwalkโ so we didn’t have to do exactly that same cover, it was very much like find a new cover tune, so it was great.
Q: Also tell us a little bit about working with Nia Long. The two of you knew each other a little bit but you sort of got to know each other much better through the course of filming.
A: Yeah I was a huge fan of Niaโs, I saw her in a movie called Love Jones, and I thought she was just beautiful, and sweet, and really talented. Until she started working with my ex-husband [Taye Diggs] on every movie and like doing love scenes with him, and then I hated that bitch. Iโm just kidding, she knows I love her. โHi honey, how was work today?โ โOh Niaโs tits were in my face, it was good.โย This is a very like, conservative crowd. And then I guess she knew about me and the stuff that I did, she said she saw Wicked and she loved it. But itโs a tribute, a testament to the piece and the writing of the piece that the minute we got there we were in it. I think one of the first scenes we shot together was when sheโs having a baby. We just hit it off, and they allowed us to ad-lib a lot. So we just found our rhythm really quick and we rehearsed a little bit beforehand and talked about everything, she and I just felt really comfortable together. And yeah thereโs a lot of like moments where you just have to be really vulnerable with one another.
Q: What was the most challenging scene to shoot?
A: Thereโs a scene that youโll see where I get someโI keep worrying that thereโs somebody in the audience who hasnโt seen the movie and I donโt want to spoil it for youโwhere weโre in the hospital and I get news about my friend being sick, and so I am trying to keep a stiff upper lip for her and just sort of keep it together. So we do this scene, and we talk to the doctor and I grill the doctor and everything, and then I have to turn around and walk out, and then completely lose it. And then her daughter walks in and I have to get my shit back together in front of her daughter. So thereโs a lot of switches, so that was hard. But it was a fun challenge.
Q: What were one or two of the funniest or most fun moments on set?
A: Thereโs a lot of fun moments. Iโm a theater girl, I love hanging with the crew, and the family, and I just love when stuff goes wrong. I try to make them laugh because theyโre in so many takes, you know the guys are getting bored. I try to ad-lib and change it up. The birth scene was really funny actually, as you will see, the wonderful brilliance of comedy.ย I do bar mitzvahs in the movie, I’m a bar mitzvah singer, whichย the apple doesn’t really fall far from the tree there. So that was fun, and Iโm singing โHava Nagila,โ which I had to go back and learn, because when I used to do it I used to sing it phonetically I didn’t really know what the hell I was singing. I do this really kind of weird, avant-garde, off-Broadway type of show, and that was one of the things in the original that we thought we could play around with, it was great, so weโre kind of silly with that.
Q: So do some of the scenes in your early career in the movie, did it take you back at all to your life when you were first starting out?
A: Yeah, the struggle, but the love for what I was doing, and her belief in herself.ย I feel like I was like that when I was younger, Iโm less like that now. Maybe itโs because with success you feel more pressure to be good, and people are actually paying attention. But I love that about her, that zest for living and performing. And even though thereโs rejection and sheโs doing dog voiceovers, sheโs living it, and you know thatโs how I felt.ย
Q: The power of the movie, obviously as you said, is really about the bond and the friendship between women. What do you think it is friendships between women so special?
A: Thatโs a really good question, because Iโve been thinking about that a lot these last couple days. I donโt know, I think um, itโs hard. Does anybody have a good answer? What makes it so special, is it our fierce loyalty or strength? Iโve really been trying to come up with a good answer for that questionโ
[From the audience] EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE?
A: Emotional intelligenceโฆ thatโs so true. I love that, I wish I used that on the interview before this. Yeah, I agree. We are not afraid to be emotional, we donโt think itโs weak, if anything itโs strength. Weโre real, I think weโre really honest with each other. Donโt you notice that guys keep a lot of their friendsโI find that guys have a lot longer friendships from when theyโre kids for some reason. But I think itโs because they donโt, like, if one guy does something that pisses the other guy off, they forgive them and are just like โWhatever, dude,โ and they just stay friends, but women are much harder on each other. So when those certain relationships endure the tough times, theyโre just the most beautiful thing.
Q: Absolutely, the back and forth. Like in some of the scenes, you know all of us have had deep conversations with our friends, and sometimes itโs ugly, but in the end, itโs always supportive.
A: Yeah, and you have to trust that you can fall and that person will have your back. You want them to push you. You want to be challenged. I want my friends to challenge me, and push me, and not get away with anything. And what I think I said already is I just love that these two friends, they don’t let each other settle. Itโs not good enough to compromise what your dreams were when you were a little girl. You gotta go for it.
Q: Tell us a little bit more as far as your involvement, once you signed on, did you immediately start working on the music, or how did all this come together?
A: We started working on the music, I actually went into the studio with my producer and I said, โLetโs just stand at the piano, well you sit at the piano and play,โ โcause heโs a beautiful keyboard player, โand letโs just sing this song. I donโt know how to approach it or if I can do it justice, or find my own style with it or interpretation, letโs just take all this stuff away, what it is at the piano.โ ย And then I just worked really hard, I read the script a million times, I have a coach I work with. I ask lots of stupid questions, trying to figure out what Iโm doing in every scene, and then I just had a lot of fun, because sheโs fun, you know. It felt good, because Iโm one of the leads, I know I canโt get fired. [laughs] I actually felt like I could try things. Because when youโre a guest on a TV show or a supporting role you always feel like the clockโs ticking and everybodyโs like โShe better get this right.โ So to lead, you feel like, โOK, I want to try this again. I think I can do it better.โ So I had a lot of fun.
Photo Credit:ย Lifetime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYYcZfAFwEA
