By Tim Nasson
New York City—OK. The Stepford Wives circa 1975 is already a cult classic. So why remake it? Well, Frank Oz, the man behind the camera for this, the 2004 version, take umbrage when I ask him the question recently during a morning I spent intermittently speaking to virtually the whole cast. “This version of The Stepford Wives,” says Oz, referring to the Paramount Picture that hits theaters June 11, “is not a remake. It is a retelling. It’s a subversive and comic look at rampant consumerism and the quest for perfection. The first movie was great so there was no need to remake it. This, unlike the original, is not a thriller.” And it tells the story of a gated, present-day Connecticut suburb (yes, the whole town of Stepford is gated, not just the community), that has a secret—the unknowing wives become robots, transformed by their husbands—thanks to the brains behind the idea, Christopher Walken’s Mike Wellington.
And what a cast this ‘retelling’ boasts. Academy Award winners Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler and Christopher Walken. And Tony Award winners Glenn Close, Matthew Broderick and Roger Bart. The film is produced by Scott Rudin and is penned by Hollywood’s wittiest openly gay screenwriter, Paul Rudnick (who also collaborated with Rudin and director Frank Oz on the gay, award-winning comedy In & Out).
Nicole Kidman, as Joanna Eberhart, has stepped into the shoes that Katharine Ross filled in the 1975 The Stepford Wives. In this current version Joanna, the youngest president in the history of any television network, suffers a nervous breakdown, goes nutty (as she did in The Hours), and is convinced by her doting husband (Broderick) to start anew—in Stepford.
“At the heart of the film the story is about relationships and I think that will really resonate with audiences,” says Kidman, seated next to Bette Midler, in a suite at The Essex House overlooking Central Park South. “It’s not just about the wives who are all like Claire, the town matron (Glenn Close), who are all beautiful, happy and unusually creative with crafts and who can all bake cakes, paint the house, mow the lawn, play with the kids and still greet their husbands at the end of the day in lacy lingerie.”
Midler, looking more ‘Stepford Wife’ than sloppy, as her character Bobbie appears at first in the film, chimes in, “Bobbie is a sardonic character from NYC’s Upper West Side who has been dragged to Stepford. She has a sharp tongue—thanks to Paul Rudnick—and an even sharper wit. She knows there’s something strange behind all the beautiful women in Stepford and she makes it her business to find out what the hell is going on.” Of course Bobbie and Joanna soon become the best of friends and together begin their surreptitious investigation.
When asked if and how their lives compare to their Stepford roles, the women are not shy. “I love to cook, although I need to get better at it,” says Kidman, laughing, “but I don’t traipse around the kitchen in stilettos, nor do I wear my best dresses. I don’t think there is anything wrong with getting all dolled up, don’t get me wrong. But nor do I think that women should try to attain perfection or become caricatures of mannequins. I love getting dressed up when I go to the Oscars. It reminds me of my prom. But there is a time and a place for everything.”
“The only thing I am good for in the kitchen,” says Glenn Close, “is picking up dog toys. I have so many dogs. And making baking powder biscuits and the occasional cake.”
Midler’s response was even more biting. “The only thing I am good for in the kitchen is opening a bottle of beer or wine. And it certainly would never be in an evening gown, on heels.”
Reflecting on her career, Midler says, “I have been in show business forever. I do what I want, when I want. I don’t strive for ‘perfection.’ I think balance is key in anything one does in life.”
Matthew Broderick, now 42, who bounced around from film to film as a teen and twenty-something—WarGames, Ladyhawke, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Torch Song Trilogy—to theater and Tony Award status in the late 1980s and beyond—”Brighton Beach Memoirs”, “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”, and “The Producers”—is happy to wryly announce that his wife, (“Sex & the City’s” Sara Jessica Parker), “Is nothing like a ‘Stepford’ wife, even if that is how the media portrays her”.
On the decision to include a gay couple in the revised Stepford Wives, Frank Oz says, “It was all Paul Rudnick’s idea. But honestly, every gay couple has the right to the same insane quest for perfection as heterosexuals. In fact, Roger and Jerry, like a lot of gay men, are every bit as confused by the enormous and rapid change of our culture. So when they end up in Stepford, they get in just as much trouble as every straight couple there.”
Time will tell if the sequel that was spawned, The Revenge of The Stepford Wives, is retold. Of course, a lot of that will have to do with how many of you go to see The Stepford Wives. It would be fun to see what Paul Rudnick can do with that story.
The Stepford Wives – Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler and Glenn Close – talk to Tim Nasson.
