Bride Wars - BEHIND THE SCENES

"Bride Wars"
BEHIND THE SCENES
by Tim Nasson
December 5, 2008

Watch "Bride Wars" Trailer

Every wedding has a story but this one isn't about a bride and a groom; it's about a bride...and a bride. The ladies in question are lifelong best friends Liv and Emma, who couldn't be closer - or more dissimilar. Liv, a high-powered attorney, is a natural leader who knows what she wants and exactly how to get it done. Emma, a dedicated schoolteacher is empathetic and generous to a fault - the "type-Z" to Liv's type-A, the yin to her yang. But that's all about to change when a horrific mistake leads to dueling weddings, an escalating conflict rife with ingenious pranks to undermine the other's Big Day, and a friendship that is about to implode.

Kate Hudson sparked to the idea of warring brides, as presented to her several years ago in the original story and draft screenplay. Believing that the notion provided an opportunity to take a unique and irreverent look at women, Hudson decided not only to take on one of the leading roles in what came to be called BRIDE WARS, but to make it her producing debut. "I really wanted to do a movie that was about women pushing the comedic envelope," says Hudson. "And what better setting to see this happen, than a wedding. I love this kind of comedy and enjoyed seeing how far we could take the humor. It's a fun story that also has a lot of heart."

Hudson embraced the responsibilities of producing a major motion picture, likening them to the challenges faced by her on-screen character, Liv Lerner, who confronts problems head-on, and knows how to get things done. "[As a producer] I got to be Liv - bringing together everyone on the production, creating a family of filmmakers, and letting everyone do what they do best," comments the newly-minted hyphenate.

But for a while, says Julie Yorn, who joins Hudson as a producer on BRIDE WARS, the filmmakers were undecided about which role Hudson should take. "Eventually, we realized that there is so much in the part of Liv that is true to Kate's personality, we began to craft the role specifically for her."

Enter Anne Hathaway, who came aboard the project long before cameras began rolling, to portray Emma. The two characters couldn't be closer, as friends - but further apart in temperament. "I think Emma has gone through life a little too passively," says Hathaway, who recently starred as Agent 99 in the smash comedy "Get Smart," and in an acclaimed performance as the troubled sister-of-the-bride in "Rachel Getting Married."

"Emma is a really nice, loyal friend, and somebody very comfortable standing in the background," Hathaway continues. "But when her wedding day is threatened, she is willing to fight for it. For the first time in her life, she wants to be 'number-one.' Emma discovers her backbone and her darker side. In the end, she learns that she can honor both aspects of her personality."

"We knew we found the perfect Emma in Anne," says Yorn. "Anne has a quality of innocence that complements Kate's personality. We were lucky to find two actors who have such lovely, likable qualities but who convince us that their on-screen characters can do such awful things to each other. And we still love them. There is something about Kate's smile and Anne's soulful eyes that are impossible not to forgive."

As Hudson oversaw additional work on the script, the story evolved from focusing on the "wars," to spending more time on Liv and Emma's complex and deep friendship. It was decided to have the two women share, since childhood, the dream of a perfect wedding; this element created more opportunities for character-developed and story-based humor.

The filmmakers brought on screenwriters Casey Wilson & June Diane Raphael, themselves best friends, to further explore Liv and Emma's longtime bond through the prism of pre-wedding craziness. "The bride wars are a backdrop against which their friendship plays out," says Wilson, a writer-performer on "Saturday Night Live." "There's a comic darkness behind preparing for a wedding, and we drew on how insane the process can get." Adds Raphael: "BRIDE WARS is about friendship and the crazy ways in which your best friend - the person who knows you so well - can also bring out the very worst in you. And that can be very scary. Friendships are sometimes difficult to navigate, especially when we know exactly where the other person's flaws and insecurities live."

"Liv and Emma become better people and friends because of their battle," Anne Hathaway elaborates. "It was important that their 'bride wars' have an emotional payoff for them. Emma was a pushover who let people walk all over her. Tapping into her inner 'Bridezilla' made her stronger and more honest - and saved her from making a terrible mistake. She needed to be pushed outside of her comfort zone - and Liv was the only person who could do that."

Kate Hudson notes that Liv's journey is very different from her friend's. "Liv needs a mirror put up to her, to make Liv realize that her own aggressive behavior had spilled into her life way before the wedding, and that it was time to share a little bit. So both women are made stronger."

It was the complex friendship between the two characters that attracted the attention of director Gary Winick, who states that "friendship is the most important thing in my life. So that's why I wanted to make BRIDE WARS; it's about best friends - two incomplete people who together are complete. But they have to be apart to learn how to grow as individuals and as friends."

Winick is no stranger to the theme, noting that a previous directorial effort, the live-action/animation "Charlotte's Web," was at its heart the story of a friendship between a pig and a spider. And he downplays the fact that that most of his key creative team are women, including Hudson, Hathaway, Yorn, writers Wilson & Raphael, and the principal studio executives on the project. After all, he points, out, he helmed "13 Going on 30," the popular 2004 comedy starring Jennifer Garner, and whose writers and producers were female; as well as the pilot for "Lipstick Jungle," about three powerful women in New York City. "I don't pick the material [I work on] based on the gender of its creative team and characters," says Winick. "Those projects were stories I wanted to tell."

With Winick at the helm, BRIDE WARS moved quickly into production. Hudson and Hathaway, who didn't know each other prior to teaming up on the film, became fast friends - and fans of each other. "We're both opinionated women," says Hathaway. "So it was really fun picking each other's brains about the characters. Kate's persona is exactly the way I had envisioned it - fun, effervescent, warm-spirited and smart." Adds Hudson: "Anne and I took our time getting to know each other, and I think we've created a pretty true friendship [on-screen]. Anne is authentic, not to mention wildly talented. It's really been a joy to work with her."

Providing something very different than joy in the lives and upcoming nuptials of Liv and Emma, is Marion St. Claire, the officious wedding planner who becomes the catalyst in the war between the brides, when her assistant mixes up their wedding dates.

Marion's world is three-tiered wedding cakes, piles of bridal magazines, 87-day countdown wedding checklists, fabric swatches, designer gowns - and, of course, New York's ultimate wedding destination, The Plaza hotel. Candice Bergen portrays Marion, whom the Emmy®- and Golden Globe®-winning actress describes as "extremely precise, almost cranky." But, like her cast mates and director, Bergen sees the movie as being as much about the relationships as it is about battling brides. "It's about the fragility and resilience of friendship," she sums up.

The growing chasm between Liv and Emma puts their mutual friends in an awkward position. Since the two were youngsters, each had planned to be the other's maid of honor. But thanks to the dueling weddings and the ensuing conflicts and high jinks, Emma and Liv are forced to hunt for someone else - anyone - to fill the position. After the dust settles, Emma reluctantly asks fellow schoolteacher Deb Delgado to be her maid of honor. Deb is a triple-threat: she's unorganized, lazy and completely self-centered. "She is an outrageous character," says Kristen Johnston ("3rd Rock from the Sun"), who portrays the maid of honor from hell. "She's a complete egomaniac, with no limits, and I've never had more fun with a character."

Caught in the middle of the battling brides are the film's three principal male characters - the two grooms and the brother of one of the brides. Bryan Greenberg takes on the role of Liv's brother Nate, a voice of reason amidst the brides' increasing acrimony and craziness. Nate is torn between the sister he loves, and her friend Emma, whom he's also known his entire life. "Nate is stuck in the middle," says Greenberg, "which is not where he, or anyone in these circumstances, would want to be. Nate's job is to try and keep Liv and Emma in check. In fact, all the guys in this story are anchors, holding down reality while the women go off the deep end."

Like Nate, Liv's fiance Daniel is a stabilizing force in the very unstable and escalating conflict. "Being the groom is really about pleasing other people, especially your bride," notes Steve Howey, who portrays Daniel. "It's the bride's day and the best thing a guy can do is to step back and let it happen. You must let the bride be the bride. And as far as getting in the middle of the war between Liv and Emma, Daniel's attitude is to support Liv - and just stand back and let the pieces fall where they may."

The trio of men-at-(bridal)-war is rounded out by Emma's fiance, Fletcher, played by Chris Pratt. While Daniel is stable, understanding and supportive of Liv, Fletcher is somewhat taken aback by the chaos - and by Emma's newfound inner strength. "Fletcher and Emma were in that really comfortable zone where couples often find themselves after being together for a long time," says Pratt. "When Emma begins to get the wedding 'crazies,' everything changes and he isn't quite sure who she is anymore."

The vortex of the bride wars is New York City, where the production captured some critical moments on location at the newly-refurbished The Plaza and its Palm Court, as well as at Central Park, Bloomingdale's and on Fifth Avenue. Most of the action was captured in Boston, with that city's Fairmount Copley Plaza Hotel standing in for its landmark sister hostelry in Manhattan.

Production designer Dan Leigh not only recreated key New York locales in Boston, but also designed the film's weddings, striving to keep each event unique. Leigh explains: "The first wedding in the story is told in flashback, when Liv and Emma were children. This was the fantasy that firmly placed the dream in their minds and established the tone for what was to follow. We created a shimmering traditional event with white and silver and crystal. The second event had a seaport theme, and the last two weddings were Liv and Emma's, both of which are high-end creations of the [story's fictional] visionary wedding planner, Marion St. Claire.

"Movie weddings are tricky," Leigh continues. "Everyone has a concept of a wedding, or an opinion of what works and what doesn't. So it is important to try to be inventive. The flowers, the music, people asking, 'Why that shade of lavender' and 'Can't we have a brighter gold?' Weddings seem to push everyone's buttons."

Costume designer Karen Patch, who designed Hudson's clothes in "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," notes that prospective brides Liv and Emma are very different people when we first meet them, but become more alike by the end of the film. "Liv softens and Emma finds a stronger side to herself," says Patch. "The costumes and spaces that these two characters inhabit clearly reflect their personalities."

There are no better examples of this than Liv's and Emma's wedding gowns, on which Patch collaborated with famed designer Vera Wang. Emma, a schoolteacher, is not as financially secure as attorney Liv, so she chooses to wear her mother's gown. Although it was not a vintage garment, Patch says it could have belonged to another era. "It's an exquisite taffeta dress with lots of layers, an off the shoulder period gown," she explains. "Liv, on the other hand, was like the bride on top of the cake. Her gown was styled in a classic, sweetheart neckline with layers and layers of tulle skirt, a long train and lace bodice."

Great lengths were taken to keep these creations from being photographed until the film's marketing campaign kicked in. "We made huge white capes to cover the gowns anytime Kate and Anne were outside of their trailer or moving from dressing rooms to the set," Patch recalls. "We didn't want them revealed before their time."

Whatever Liv and Emma are wearing - and whether they're at "war" or at peace - their friendship will always be their top priority. And BRIDE WARS, despite its title, is at its heart a celebration of friendship. "The film says that your friends are going to be there for you forever, and I really loved that idea," says Anne Hathaway. Echoes Kate Hudson: "That kind of friendship is so important, not just at milestones like weddings, but in any situation. Everyone needs that."