StudioLA's Jim Ferguson interviews Woody Allen

Star and Director of "Hollywood Ending".

StudioLA's Jim Ferguson interviews Woody Allen, on his latest film, "Hollywood Ending". Allen stars as Val Waxman, a onetime hot director who now gets fired from deodorant commercials in the frozen north. He is desperate for a comeback, but when he is at last offered a deal--for a $60 million blockbuster--it's from his ex-wife producer, Ellie (Tea Leoni), and her lover, Hal (Treat Williams), the studio head who had stolen Ellie away from Val ten years earlier. Hollywood Ending is a funny, poignant look at a filmmaker fighting public and professional scrutiny to craft his art, not unlike what Allen himself has gone through in his career, especially in the 1990s.

Jim: Well, Mister Allen, it's so good to see you again...

Woody: Thank you.

Jim: I just hope that making Hollywood Ending was as much fun for you as it is for the audience watching it. My congratulations to you.

Woody: Oh, thanks very much. It was fun to make mainly because the character that I play was easy for me to play because it was a film director, a New York film director and a neurotic New York film director, and my acting skills are very limited, so when a part comes along that's so close, at least in occupation, to what I do. I know how they sound and how to walk and ...

Jim: In other words, you're playing yourself a little bit here with Val.

Woody: I'm playing myself as a ...

Jim: As a director.

Woody: As a profession ... But I'm much more stable than Val. If I played myself, it wouldn't be very funny, because I'm, you know, reasonably stable.

Jim: But you've shown you do a lot of homework and...

Woody: By myself, I work. But Val is crazy. Val is a hypochondriac and gets fired from pictures because he can't finish them and, you know, I've never had that problem.

Jim: So many wonderful scenes in this film, but I have a lot of Canadian friends, and, the opening scene to the movie was hilarious. And I'm sure that the Canadians you've talked to today have enjoyed that and maybe mentioned it to you.

Woody: I hope so. I've only spoken to one Canadian, who referred to it as Canada-bashing...

Jim: (laughs)

Woody: ... but I think he liked it. I think it's funny because my conception of Canada, as I was telling him, is I've never been to Canada in my life-I'm going next week-and my conception of it is that it's so cold that of course they don't have crime ...

Jim: (laughs)

Woody: They don't ... You know, that the guys would be too cold...

Jim: It's too cold.

Woody: ...to work the streets.

Jim: (laughs) You've worked with so many wonderful casts, Woody, in your long, wonderful, career. This one, when you look at it, with Téa and Treat and, George and Mark. What a wonderful group of people that you selected to make Hollywood Ending. Beautiful casting.

Woody: Yeah, there's a lot of great people out there, and most of the scripts that they're offered, you know, are special effects scripts and car chase scripts, so it's not hard to get wonderful actors who really are serious about their work. I can always get a good cast of people like this who really want to work and really have a lot of talent and who contribute to the project. You know, they're ... they're out there.

Jim: Yes, they are. And I just have a minute, but so many wonderful scenes. Just a quick comment perhaps on the scene where you meet Téa for a business drink, only it's a double. (laughs)

Woody: Well, what gave me the idea for the movie originally was that my ex-wife was allowing me to make a movie because she had run off with a powerful studio head and I resented them both, but I had to take the job because I wanted to make a comeback. And that scene sort of epitomized that relationship.

Jim: Yeah, and it's a wonderful relationship. I'm totally out of time, but this is the time I always look forward to. And I want to tell our audience, take time to see Hollywood Ending. It's one of Mister Allen's best, best works. You're gonna have a great time, believe me.

Woody: Thank you.