Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in the Netflix Original Series “Grace and Frankie”. Photo by Netflix.

Netflix’s half-hour show Grace and Frankie stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as friends who come together after their husbands leave them for each other. Their husbands played by Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston are ready to change their own lives, happy to come out to the world, but Grace and Frankie, two women in their 70’s, both have a hard time letting go, after being married to the men for nearly 50 years. But the women get through it, and the first season of the show tells their story brilliantly. (If you haven’t streamed it, now’s the time!)

Season two debuts TODAY on Netflix.

We’ll soon be binging another 13 episodes of Marta Kaufmann and Howard J. Morris’ creation, blending drama, storytelling, great acting and the strength of something very important: Jane and Lily’s real life friendship which goes beyond the camera lens.

I was given the heavenly opportunity to chat with the two legends on the set of the show late last year during filming. The two women together are as much as a spitfire as you’d imagine, and after spending a quality forty-five minutes with the two women (although Jane left to film a scene once or twice), I can honest tell you that any fears I have about getting older and not achieving my potential dissipated. The two women have had amazing careers (9 to 5, Klute, Coming Home, The Electric Horseman, Nashville, The Incredible Shrinking Woman All of Me...the list goes on) behind them, but they also have incredible ones now and in the future, having just both released feature films Youth (Fonda) and Grandma (Tomlin). They are not stopping anytime soon. The love they have for this show is infectious, as is Tomlin’s laugh, which we heard often. They were candid and funny (the word “vagina” was tossed around several times, but I think I left these bites out, only because the conversation was so long and I tried to shorten it for your reading pleasure), real, down to earth and fantastic storytellers.

We chatted sitting in director’s chairs like the one above. We talked about social media (Jane is scared of Instagram, says it’s like haiku), multi-tasking (Lily called Jane “non-stop”), being a woman in Hollywood in 2016 and so much more. Let me tell you these two women are so simpatico that they practically finish each other’s sentences.

Here’s my first post from the experience:

Women and Hollywood: Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin Talk Hollywood Past the Age of 50 and Grace and Frankie Season 2

And my prized photo:

Disclosure: I’m a member of Netflix’s StreamTeam and was flown out to conduct this interview to help promote the show. All opinions are my own, as always, and the experience was an honor.

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Nicole was as down-to-earth and lovely as you’d expect, answering questions with honesty and full candor, in between questions about the film pointing out the times her own children had interrupted her during interviews, laughing about becoming a viral sensation through her appearance on Jimmy Fallon and expressing her genuine excitement on making a film about a characters as beloved as Paddington. She is definitely a fearless actress who takes chances in brave roles and is devoted to her craft, as well as a very devoted mother. She had a lot to say about making a film for kids (and one her own young children are equally excited about), being a working mom, the state of women in Hollywood in light of the recent Oscar snub of Ava Duvernay and more.

She was just about to leave for Sundance before the world premiere of her provocative Australian thriller Strangerland and was really looking forward to it. Here’s what she had to say about all this and a bit more.

On How She Ended Up Playing a Villain and What it Was Like Working with First Time Director Paul King

I know that he wrote it for me because they sent me the script and just said, “Listen, there’s this new director. His name’s Paul King and he’s directing this film, Paddington.” As soon as they said the word Paddington, I was like, “I want to do it!” And what part it was to play. I just wanted to be in a film about Paddington, ’cause I grew up with Paddington Bear.  My kids wanted me to play the bear’s mommy. So, that was tricky, but because it’s got humor and the film’s very sweet as well, it kind of made it digestible for them. 

On What it Was Like Making a Film for Children (As a Mum Herself)

It’s just beautiful to make a movie for children. I haven’t done that for so long. I did The Golden Compass but that wasn’t funny. And this film’s funny, and it’s sweet too. And that’s probably the greatest thing and it’s probably why I want people to see it, is because it’s got a beautiful message.

When I was a kid, I always wanted my own animal. I actually wanted a monkey, because I think that was already my maternal instincts coming out. But, I wanted an animal that I could sort of take care of, that would be either like a younger sibling or my child. And I think Paddington has those kind of qualities for a child. It’s like oh, my gosh, there’s somebody smaller than me but he talks and he wears clothes, and I can tell him what to do. And there’s something really darling about that. And that’s probably what was so appealing to me as a child. And I would think that’s the same thing that appeals to my girls. Every time they see the commercials now on TV, because they’ve seen the movie. And they scream, “There he is!” I mean, they’re only four and six, so to them he really exists. He’s alive.

On Shooting a Film with a Character Based on Someone’s Imagination

Initially, being an actor, that’s what we’re taught. We go to drama school and we do mime classes, and we’re taught to pretend that there’s a bear there or pretend that we’re drinking a cup of tea and you pretend there’s a saucer and a teacup and all of those things. And it’s mime work. When you’re doing it as an actor and you’re 19 years old, you’re like, “Oh, this is ridiculous. I’m never going to use this because they’ll have real props.” Little did I know 20 years later when I’d be in the industry really, really working, green screen and special effects would have become so much a part of the industry, that those classes were some of the most important classes that I took. You literally learn to make things believable that are not there, I mean. You’ll pretend that you’re feeling his fur and that he’s got a warm, wet, fuzzy nose and all of those things, which you have to make that totally believable to yourself. Sally Hawkins [as Mary Brown], who’s in the movie, and Hugh Bonneville [as Henry Brown], we were all talking about it. And we were like, strangely enough, this is what we’re trained for as actors, and this is what we now use.

The other thing that I really use was accent classes, which I did at drama school as well, which I was always rolling my eyes about, but now has been one of the other most useful tools. So, to any actors out there, I’m always like, “Pay attention in mime and pay attention in dialect.”

On the Evolution of Female Roles

I think it’s changed a lot in the sense of when you look back at the ’40s and the ’50s, it was obviously a completely different industry. And female driven movies were usually the biggest box office movies at that time. And then it went through a lull in the ’80s, say, and the ’70s really. And now I think there’s a resurgence for females in films. And I think that, as a woman who’s now in my 40s, working and raising children and having a marriage, that is an absolute priority to me. It’s always about pulling on my own experiences to try and find the things that I’m experiencing now that I want to put out in the world.

And luckily I’m in a position where I can produce movies. And I get to discover young directors and I get to support young directors. And I don’t know if years ago that was as available to women. So, that’s a great thing, to be able to have access and to different financing and be able to finance my own movies and support new directors.

I’m about to go to Sundance tomorrow and promote a movie (Strangerland) that’s a very difficult movie. It’s about a woman who loses her teenage daughter. And that’s a pretty heavy subject and it’s very subject matter in the way in which it plays out in this movie. But, it’s a first time female director, and it was interesting to me. And it was a very low budget, and I was lucky to have that opportunity. And I want to keep pushing into places I haven’t been before.

On Selma Director Ava Duvernay’s Exclusion From Oscar Director Nominations and if Women are Struggling to Find Opportunities in Hollywood

I think in terms of her not being nominated, I wish she had been nominated, because I thought she should have been nominated. So, I’m in the Academy and I get to vote. The only way we can move forward, I believe, is women supporting women. And I literally am going tomorrow to go and support a movie that was directed by a woman who’s never directed a film before. And people were saying to me, “My Gosh, why are you going to go and take such a risk and do a movie with someone that’s never directed before?” And I was like, “Because I believe in her and I want to give her a shot.”

And if ever there’s a chance to support people, I’m in the stage of my career where I can take risks. I can play. I can get behind people and support them who maybe other people won’t support. And that’s incredibly satisfying to be able to do it. But at the same time, you’ve got to have talent. I always say to girls who want to be actresses and want to be directors, “Work hard. You’re going to have to work hard. It’s a really tough world and it’s a tough industry, and nobody’s going to give you anything.”

And I think that’s really important that we keep that as part of the conversation, is the need to really apply yourself and be willing to put in the extra time and the extra effort and all of those things if you really want to have a great career.  

Paddington is playing in theaters nationwide. Visit the Official Website. Like Paddington on Facebook. Follow on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. See the film!

 Disclosure: I interviewed Nicole Kidman on behalf of The Weinstein Company.

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Image via Twentieth Century Fox

I was recently part of a group of culture and book bloggers who asked author John Green a few questions about the upcoming release of the film adaptation of the he extremely popular young adult novel The Fault in Our Stars. His excitement for the film was quite infectious, even over the phone, and there can’t be anyone more excited about the release of the film…except the public. Since the official trailer was released by Twentieth Century Fox a  few short months ago, it has received over 19 million views.

Here’s what I found out about his involvement with the making of the film, his fear in getting it made in the first place and how he feels about being compared to Judy Blume.

You were nervous to give over the rights to the film because the book was just so personal to you.  What was your biggest fear in doing so?

John Green: Well, I think it’s really hard to make a movie that’s serious or about serious topics without sentimentalizing it.  And so, I guess my fear was that it would become a sentimental story, which is what I most didn’t want.  I was trying really hard to write as unsentimental and straightforward a story as I could. I was also worried that the characters would be defined by their disability, instead of having disability be part of their lives but not the defining feature of their lives. But, the people who ended up getting the rights at Fox 2000 and the producers, Wyck Godfrey and Isaac Klausner, they just promised me that they wouldn’t do that.  That was the first thing they said to me when we met, and I believed them.  I took it seriously, and they kept every promise.  They really did.

Was there a point at which it just felt different and you really knew that it was going to all come together?  

JG: When they hired Josh (Boone) to direct it, people said to me, “They don’t hire a director unless they’re going to make the movie.” But I still–I didn’t believe that, because people in Hollywood say a lot of things.  To be honest with you, I flew out to Pittsburgh thinking that they might pull the plug at the last second. I remember asking the producer of the movie, “What is technically the commencement of principal photography,” because that’s when it gets very, very, very expensive not to make the movie. And he was like, “We’re going to make the movie.  It starts filming tomorrow.”  And I was like, “But, this is not technically the commencement of principal photography?”  And he was like, “No, that’s tomorrow.”  And I was like, “Well, we’ll see.” So, I mean, I did not let myself believe that it was going to happen until I was on set that morning, that first morning.  I saw Hazel and her parents walk out of their house together and the cameras were rolling, and then I knew.  And that was a great.  It was almost like they designed that whole first day to be metaphorically resonant for me, to have them walking out of this house that looked so much like the Hazel’s house of my imagination and these people who looked so much like I’d dreamt of.  It was like having a hallucination but that happens two or three years after you think the thing.

A lot of people have claimed you’ve done what Judy Blume never achieved.  

JG: Right, which is ridiculous. Blume has achieved a lot that I haven’t.

What do you think that you, with the notoriety that’s coming from The Fault in Our Stars and then the YA community as a whole, can do to combat these misguided perceptions as the popularity of The Fault in Our Stars and similar properties increases? 

JG:  I can only–every time I’m asked that question, like “Oh, this is such a departure from dystopias or vampires,” I’m like, “Not really,” because really the world of contemporary realistic young adult fiction is very old and very well established.  And I am but one writer and not the best, not even near the best, I don’t think, in that world. And also that I think part of what makes YA so strong is that there’s a longstanding conversation between and within genres.  You have sci-fi books and fantasy books interacting with and responding to realistic fiction and mysteries, and one of the things I really love about YA is all that stuff sharing a shelf. I try really hard to talk about that in interviews, to talk about the way that it looks very different to us from inside the world of YA, that it isn’t about one book or one story, and that there’s hundreds and hundreds of books every year that are read by at least 10,000 teenagers.  And that, to me, is the real story about YA, is its diversity and breadth, and finding way to preserve and grow that diversity rather than celebrating single titles.

We were wondering about some of the backlash that the trailer got from people who haven’t read the book saying things like Augustus is pretentious or that it’s romanticizing illness.  What do you think about that?

JG:  Well, I mean, Augustus is pretentious in the beginning of the book.  In fact, like, several characters–I mean, I think Hazel calls him pretentious at one point.  Isaac calls him a self-aggrandizing bastard.  The other characters are aware of Gus being sort of pretentious and performative. The journey that Gus has to make is a journey from strength to weakness.  I think the heroic journey that we’re accustomed to is from weakness to strength.  But, Gus has to go from being this sort of performed, over the top character to being authentically himself. And that means being vulnerable and that means being scared.  And that’s heroic, more heroic than his sort of swagger and pretentiousness toward the beginning of the story.  I think that you see that in the movie.  By definition, it’s difficult to see that in a trailer. The like to dislike ratio on the trailer on YouTube made me very, very happy, and I continue to think the people who made the trailer did a great job.  But, obviously you can’t chart the whole story in the trailer or there would be no reason to see the movie.

Did you see the book as a film when you were writing it?

JG: I did not see it as a film.  I couldn’t imagine a world in which this movie would get made.  I never—it’s not something I think about when I write, really, to be honest with you.  I mean, they never made a movie out of any of my other books, so I certainly didn’t think they’ve make a movie out of this one.

Where there any passages that you were adamant about staying in for the movie?

JG:  No.  I was so lucky.  Mike Weber and Scott Neustadter, who wrote the script, have such a deep love for the book.  They were really passionate about it. They wanted to preserve not just the tone and themes of the book but as much of the actual words of the book as possible, and I think they did an amazing job. They saw what people were responding to, making art about, and it was important to them to keep it in.

Image via Twentieth Century Fox

Was there anything in the book, like a character or a scene that the film adaptation made you see in a different light? 

JG: It helped me to think differently and I guess more broadly about Gus, the challenges that he’s been through before the story begins, how that’s given him confidence but how also that confidence is real and it’s earned because he has integrated this disability into his life.  But, it’s also a way of protecting himself.  It’s also a way of protecting himself against the things that are harder for him now, or the way that his life has been changed, physically and emotionally by his disability.

Did you envision anyone playing these roles when you were writing the book at all?

JG: Almost immediately, even when she was auditioning, Shailene became Hazel for me.  Hazel just looked like Shailene and talked like Shailene talks as Hazel.  In terms of casting, I had a voice.  You know, I’m not a casting director.  I didn’t direct the movie, so it wasn’t my decision, certainly.

And so, seeing the movie, I thought very differently about Augustus and about Hazel’s parents, and even about Van Houten.  Each of those actors brings to their performance a realness, a sense that they are the center of their own story, just as anyone is.

What was your role during the filming and did you visit the set?

JG : I was there for almost every day.  I would say at least 80% of the time.  I usually went home on Thursday night so that I could spend a few days with my family. I didn’t have a role.  But, I think it’s nice to have somebody on a movie set who’s not doing anything, because everyone else is so busy and they’re working so hard and they’re talking about, “Did we get this coverage or that coverage,” and, “Did we get it this way?  Did we get it that way?  Did the light change?”  And I could just be like, “Hey, everybody, hold on for a second.  This is awesome.  Let’s take a step back and realize how ridiculously awesome this is.” What I found is that, when people come in and they’re passionate and they really care about the story, it can add to it.  It can bring new things to it.  So, every day it just felt wonderful on the set.  It really did.  I mean, I just felt like I was being given such a tremendous gift just to be able to be there and watch them make this movie, make it so carefully and thoughtfully.

How much experience did you have with other amputees?  And were you concerned specifically about getting those details right, like the everyday life things that Gus went through?  

JG:  Yeah, I was concerned about it, and I did speak to one other person.  Josh’s amputation is much, much higher up because he lost much of his hip.  So he doesn’t walk with a prosthetic.  He can, but he doesn’t usually.  He almost always uses crutches now. The prosthetics are really good, as I’m sure you know. I wanted him to be at a place physically where it’s integrated into his life so that he can–you know. The thing that I was worried about is things like sitting all the way down on the grass in a big open field, and then figuring out how to get up. But, when we were filming the movie, we worked with this guy, Tanner, who had basically the exact same amputation as Gus, although from a hunting accident, not from osteosarcoma.  And he worked a lot with Ansel and also was our stunt double, I guess.

The Fault in Our Stars Giveaway

Guess what? I’m giving away a copy of The Fault in Our Stars (FIOS) book, a FIOS  tote bag and a FIOS headphone splitter with phone stand. Open to U.S. mailing addresses only.

To win, just comment below and let me know how you feel when books are turned into films and if you are anxious to see how FIOS turned out. Also, you must follow the Culture Tripper Facebook page (no need to tell me, I can check).

Winner will be selected randomly. Each winner will receive two tickets, which will be held at the box office day of show in your name. This giveaway will end on Friday, June 6th at 9am EST. Winner will be posted here, on the Culture Tripper Facebook page and via email and will have 24 hours to accept their prize.

Disclosure: I was not compensated to write this post.  Giveaway is courtesy of 20^th Century Fox.

Final note:  The author’s enthusiasm for the upcoming film was infectious, and I’m counting down the days until its release on June 6^th. 

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I’ve been writing about Orange is the New Black ever since I binged it on Netflix. I wrote about it when I called Netflix the new Feminist Hollywood Leader over on The Broad Side and I interviewed Alysia Reiner over at Indiewire’s Women & Hollywood.  It was then that she told me, how on OITNB they “have a crazy talented writers room with more women then men in the room, as well as awesome women directors, fabulous female producers and of course our mind blowing female ensemble cast.”

Well, as someone who is very invested in seeing more of a presence for women in film and television and as someone who has worked at female-dominated companies like Lifetime & Oxygen and now at She Speaks, I knew that when I was invited to visit the set of OITNB, I had to be there. It didn’t matter that when I woke up this morning, there was a serious snowstorm that would follow me all the way in my car to Queens to Kaufman Astoria Studios. I was determined to meet the people behind the scenes and the actors who have turned this small show about a group of women in prison into a smash hit for Netflix and snow wasn’t getting in my way.

If you haven’t watched it yet, let me bring you up to speed. Inspired by Piper Kerman’s memoir, OITNB tells the story of fictional Piper Chapman, a yuppie who ended up in a tough women’s prison in Litchfield, Connecticut. The show’s set-up is this – it’s been 10 years since Chapman’s “accidental’ involvement with international drug cartel her then-girlfriend was spearheading. After being implicated by her, Piper then spends 15 months in jail. The show is loosely based on the book, taking themes and characters and fully fleshing them out by creator Jenji Kohan, the show’s writer, who happens to be the creator of Weeds, another female-inspired series.

We started out the day with a short sit down with Matt McGorry and Dascha Polanco, who play Daya, an inmate recently impregnated by corrections officer John Bennett. They were not only authentic and down to earth, but also very humble about the show’s success.  When asked whether they knew OITNB would be the hit that it is, they both shook their heads. Matt said that whey they started filming the show, Netflix’s other smash hit, House of Cards, hadn’t aired yet. When it did, that was a BIG moment for the OITNB cast because they understood its potential. He smiled and declared that the cast had really lucked out. They both also talked about the strong writing several times during our conversation, reiterating its role in making the show what it is.

Dashca, who had been in nursing school before the first season started filming, embraced her luck from day one. She realizes that luck like this could be taken away at any moment and that it’s important to embrace the moment. “This experience really showed me that anything can go right when you put your mind into making it happen,” she told us. Matt also stated that the entire cast relishes the opportunity to do something ground-breaking and feel a sense of gratitude. “No one feels entitled,” he said.

As we walked around the production area and also during our set tour, we bumped into many characters from the cast. I instantly recognized some of my favorites including Emma Myles who plays Leanne, Lea DeLaria who plays Big Boo, Samira Wiley who plays Poussey, Yael Stone who plays Lorne Morello and Constance Shulman who plays Yoga Jones.  Costumer designer Jenn Rogien gave us a personal tour of the set’s wardrobe, which costumes 48 inmates while filming (and each needs a closet full). We were shown the prison uniforms (yes, they are real), policeman uniforms, EMTs, etc.  Since the show revolves largely around flashbacks, she talked about the process of doing research for different time periods, factoring in socio-political factors. Her process and the amount of clothes were fascinating to learn about.  I loved finding out that Jenn also costumes the gals at Girls on HBO, my other favorite show. When I asked what it feels like to be working on two of the best shows on television, she said she is thankful every single day. There was a lot of gratitude going around the set.

Our tour around the set took us to Red’s kitchen, the cafeteria, the bathroom (those famous showers!) and their sleeping quarters. We weren’t really allowed to take photos to avoid giving you spoilers but I can tell you…

That OITNB will be returning for a second year “sometime in 2014”! Sorry I can’t tell you more than that.  I also didn’t find out what happens to Piper or Tiffany after their showdown in the finale.  Nor did I find out if Piper reconciles with Larry.  Nor did I find out if Mendez will return to the prison in a work capacity. Nor did I find out how Daya is going to care for her baby in prison. We did see a scene getting shot, but I also can’t talk about that.

Sigh.

Nonetheless, I was on the set of Orange is the New Black today and it was amazing.

Care to binge the first season again and come back to discuss?

Disclosure: I am a member of the Netflix Steam Team. They have provided me with a subscription to their service in exchange for monthly blog posts related to their streaming content but all opinions and experiences are my own.

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After seeing Becoming Dr. Ruth last week, I was even more intrigued by the real Dr. Ruth than before.  Everyone knows Dr. Ruth Westheimer from her career as a pioneering radio and television sex therapist. Few, however, know the incredible journey that preceded it. From fleeing the Nazis in the Kindertransport and joining the Haganah in Jerusalem as a scout and sniper, to her struggles to succeed as a single mother coming to America. I recently asked her a few questions about the show, her life and more.

TCM: What is it like seeing yourself portrayed on stage in the city you love and have lived in for many years?

DR: Every time I see the show I pinch myself.

TCM: The show takes place in a NYC apartment.  How similar is it to your own?  

DR: Thanks to Nate Berkus my apartment is in much better shape but originally I used to have a lot of stuff around.

TCM: You’re a  Holocaust survivor.  How often do you think about the family you lost and that time in your life?  Did that experience formulate your desire to work in a profession where you can change lives?

DR: I think of my family every day. I wanted to be a doctor but the war took that away. Yes, I did want to be in a helping profession and luckily I’ve been able to help a lot of people.

TCM: In Israel, while serving in the Haganah, you were badly wounded when a cannon shell fired from Jordan fired into your student residence. How did that incident impact your future choices and how did living Israel during the War of Independence shape your life?

DR: I love Israel and go back every year. Between not being killed by the Nazis and almost being killed by that blast, I make sure to live life to the fullest.

TCM: When you came to America, you immediately started studying to prepare yourself for your future career. Were you as passionate then as you are now about what you do?

DR: When I came to America I had no idea that I would be a sex therapist.

TCM: Your 1980 radio show broke records.How come people were so hungry for someone to talk about sex then? And how have things changed? 

DR: In the 1980s, my show was 15 minutes late at night and who knows how many people listened. It was not until it went live the next year that I started to have an impact. People have learned a lot about sexual functioning and while I wasn’t the only one giving this message, I’m proud of the role I did play. But people still have questions and there remain too many un intended pregnancies so there’s more teaching to be done.

TCM: Do you think you would have been given the same opportunity today? How do you think the times have changed for women in the past 85 years?  Do you consider yourself a feminist?

DR: Since I was one of the first to talk openly about sex on the air, and today it’s much more common, it’s difficult to say what would happened if I just arrived on the scene. I certainly wouldn’t have made the splash I did. The word feminist has many connotations, some of which I don’t agree with and some I do but I am certainly thankful for the progress women have made.

TCM: In this age of hyper-sexualized media (like Miley Cyrus), and kids experimenting at a younger and younger. What is the message we need to send to our kids?

DR: To slow down. Kids these days are rushing into sex thinking that they’re ready just because their bodies are capable of having sex but in many cases they’re not ready. Many young women are engaging in sex but not getting sexual satisfaction. To me that says they are not ready.

TCM: How do you stay current? Have you read “Fifty Shades” or watched “Masters of Sex” on Showtime?

DR: I most definitely read “Fifty Shades” and I try to stay as current as possible, at least when it comes to sex. I’m not as familiar with pop culture but I’m delighted when stars like Paul McCartney or Elton John or Bono recognize me.

TCM: What are your hopes for the show and how many times have you seen it?

DR: I’ve seen it at least a dozen times, probably more, and I’ll be seeing it a lot more. My hopes for the show is that it continues for a long, long time. Even if it closes in NY it has a chance to go on the road so I hope many, many people see it because I think Mark St. Germain did a great job and I really

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Five years ago, someone in my book club selected The Book Thief by Australian author Markus Zusak.  As soon as I turned to the first page, I was mesmerized.

Let me preface this article by saying that I am Jewish and I’m someone who has always felt a profound sense of responsibility towards my people and heritage because of what happened during the Holocaust.  I read a lot of books about this time period. I watch movies about it.  I have even thought about going back to school to study the Holocaust. I am currently interviewing survivors for my synagogue and I’m also planning a Holocaust film series there that starts a week from this Sunday. I also used to interview survivors for Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation when I was in my 20’s and considered a move to Los Angeles to work for them at one point.

The Holocaust is an issue I take VERY seriously. So when I read this book, I couldn’t put it down.

The story follows Liesel, a book-hungry girl adopted by a German couple shortly before the start of World War II. When her family chooses to house Max, a young Jew, they immediately put their lives in danger and make sacrifices they never dreamed of making. Max and Liesel quickly cultivate a deep friendship and it is one that changes their lives forever.

I always wondered when it would be put on film, and I imagined that only Speilberg would find a way to turn its words to celluloid.  After all, he made Schindler’s List and started the Shoah Foundation.  His heart and soul would be all over a film like this.

But another film director has come along and taken the responsibility and he has done it perfectly. Brian Percival, a UK film maker, who happens to hail from Downtown Abbey, for which he has won many awards, has taken the reins and created one of the most faithful adaptations I have ever witnessed.  He has clearly worked very, very hard to maintain the book’s integrity with his cast choices, production elements and attention to detail of the period as dictated by Zusak’s words.

The film is about the power of words and the author’s words created one of the most beautiful stories about a time in history we must never forget.

At a recent press screening of the film, I carefully situated myself in the front row.  Armed with my notebook and pen to take dutiful notes, I embraced the next two hours.  As soon as I heard the voice of death at the start of the movie, I knew Percival had remained as faithful to the book and this important time in history.  World War II took the lives of six million innocent Jews and his film is a tribute to them and their lost souls.  It’s about the fragility of life and the role that humanity has in preserving memories of a time long gone.

I was fortunate to spend an entire hour with some of the cast and crew recently at an intimate round table discussion last week.  It was truly the most thoughtful, insightful and relevant discussion I have ever had at a press junket.  Everyone involved with this film understands its significance and its role in making people aware of what must never happen again. Emily Watson and Geoffrey Rush, two extremely talented actors, took on very difficult roles as the parents of Liesel and caretaker of Max with determination to make the details of the period accurate (according to Watson, they discussed how to hold a broom!). Sophie Nélisse, a very young French Canadian actress, with little knowledge of the time period, is very believable as a young girl living in 1938 Germany and took great care in her performance, including getting the German accent right. The three actors spoke to us about the importance of the film and the need for more films like to preserve a part of history we must never forget. Percival and Karen Rosenthal, the filmmakers, also answered our questions about the production with absolute candor and complete gratitude for our presence and genuine love for the story they are so proud for bringing to the screen.

The film starts out with the voice of death, much like the book, and the voice carries us through the destinies of the main characters in the story. At first I found it jarring but immediately remembered its cruciality to the novel. When asked about the use of death’s role in the story cinematically, Percival stated: “We’ve all had different moments in our life where we’ve sort of been touched by death in some way or another, at least through a relative or a friend or our own lives. And so that was so key because it’s a universal thing.  It’s gonna happen to all of us. What I didn’t want to do is to constantly use his voice throughout the film because I wanted the audience to get lost with the characters and their story: Liesel’s story and Max and Rudy and Hans and all those different characters. But we are reminded of it.  I don’t know, five or six times throughout the script, he comes back.”

“The device that I came up with to try and solve that problem was that, quite often, I think you’ll see that there are scenes which are shot from above or shot from quite high, and so that was a way that I figured I could remind an audience that we’re seeing this from another perspective, another entity that we feel somehow.  He comes from above because he starts in the clouds and goes down to earth to visit these lives, ordinary human lives, and then goes back up.”

Emily Watson, who plays Rosa, a seemingly harsh German woman with financial and personal woes that seem to get in her way of pleasantry. But when Max comes through the door of her house, she does not turn him away.  During the interview, Watson conveyed the significance of the film at this time in history: “In terms of the moment in history, that moment where the young boy falls through the door, and you’ve got a very ordinary person who’s quite cross about everything in her life. She’s very giving in that she runs the household, and she does everything, and she’s the one who does all the hard work, washing other people’s clothes, and she’s cross about that.  But when that young boy falls through the door, it’s that, which way are you gonna jump?  And she just instinctively in that moment does what a human being should do and what is right. ”

She went on to talk about filming in Germany (they shot at Babelsberg Studios) and how the experience impacted her: “That moment in history is incredibly current still in Berlin.  They’re still rebuilding and surviving it, because after the war, their city was split, and then it’s still massively in their consciousness that they are recovering from that. But it’s incredibly honest.  They’re not covering it up.  Everywhere you go, there’s an exhibit about how many people died on this spot, and it was relentless, really.  You can’t get away from it.  But also being surrounded by people whose families all were there. You can’t really say, oh, thanks for the coffee, were your grandparents Nazis? It was a really weird etiquette of not knowing how to talk to people and ask people.”

Watson made every effort while filming The Book Thief to explore how the Holocaust effected German citizens, much like the non-Jewish character she was playing: “I met an actress whose family had been there. After a long time, I managed to kind of get the courage to ask her, were your family in, what happened in the war, is it okay for me to ask?  And her eyes filled with tears, and she really wanted to talk about it, but she’d been brought up to believe that her grandparents and her parents, because she was then in East Germany, that they had not been involved, they had not been in any way compromised, and they’d been successful and strong people and good people. She’d sort of built her career and her life on that belief that I come from a stock of people with integrity, and then she found out it wasn’t true, that her grandparents had been in the Nazi party and that her parents had spied. It just all came out and she was devastated by it.  She was really destroyed by it.”

The film starts out not long before Kristallnacht, the Night of the Broken Glass, when the Nazis burned every sign of Jewish life they could, including thousands of prayer books, scrolls and philosophy texts.  Leisel, a small girl who can not yet read, is struck with confusion at the sight of the fires. It is the first time the realization of the Nazi’s intense hatred for the Jewish people hits her.  About the quick change in Germany and that particular moment in history, Rush said, “You see incrementally the escalation from Hitler ascending to the chancellorship through a democratic process and within a year declaring himself to be Fuhrer, and we’re dealing with a country at the height of the worst depression, and they lost the First World War, so they were in a state of disrepair there. A huge amount of people would have been seeking a Messiah, and some people would have really gone along with that because it reinstated their faith in German heritage.  Let’s not forget, it has a huge literary, philosophical, musical, rich background, Jewish and German.  You know what I mean.  And it kind of went really out the window.”

About playing a German who was faithful to his people but in many ways ashamed, he said, “So, someone like Hans–I was interested.  The statistics of people who were a little bit more bold in their statement but they still had to play the game, it was maybe less than 10 percent of the population that said I don’t really like where the Fuhrer is going. I’d say a huge chunk of the rest of the people were self-protective.”

At the start of the film, we see Max leave his family behind in fear of being killed by the Nazis, and we get glimpses of Hans painting store windows.  Even Rush agreed that his character appeared as a very different being at the start of the film compared to the bravery he displays later on: “And even Hans, you might think he’s a drifter, but then, you think, well, hang on, he’s actually a political maverick because the connection is that he has sort of sent the word out to Max.  It’s very swift in the screen play when Max leaves his mother.”

“But, Hans, when he hears the knock on the door, he knows, ah, he’s here.  How long it took him to get there – three or four weeks, I don’t know.”

I asked Percival if he took the cast to the Jewish Museum in Berlin or the concentration camps in Germany whilst filing the movie. He responded: “Until you’ve actually gone to stand in that place and you walk through those corridors and those buildings, I don’t think you ever really realize just how horrific the whole thing was. The camp that’s featured in the book is Dachau. The Nazis tended to have their death camps outside.  Dachau now is just a memorial.  There’s nothing really. There are no structures left. But, I think once you visit one of the camps outside Germany, it’s just unbelievable.  I’d advise just anybody who gets the opportunity to go and do that just for the sake of knowing that nothing like that should ever happen again.

I have been to Auschwitz and I have been to Duchau and the experiences left a mark on my entire being that will never be erased.  If you can visit once in your lifetime, do it, and take your children.

Nélisse, who plays the central character in the film and whose image is on the film’s poster, didn’t know a lot about the time period before making the film: “I read a book called Hana’s Suitcase when I was in sixth grade, but that’s the only thing I knew.  To know what happened in that period, I had to watch a lot of movies like Schindler’s List, The Reader, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and also The Pianist.  When I was in Berlin, I went to see some bomb shelters or some historical things like the Berlin Wall.”

When the filmmakers were looking for the right Leisel, Marcus Zusak mentioned Monsieur Lazhar, a film she had starred in. “We got her to self tape, and she was Liesel,” said Percival. “It’s difficult to ask somebody of that age to rely on technique or to just purely become a character like Emily Watson becomes a character because they haven’t the life experience to do that. So the crucial thing is that we choose somebody who’s as close to Liesel as possible, and then I allow them the freedom to be who they are, guide them in a certain way and tell them if something’s too far in one way or too much or too modern or too fast or too slow.  But, essentially, the actor that we choose has to be Liesel. ”

Speaking of children, the film, like the book, is being marketed for young adults.  When the other writers at the table and I expressed concern for young children seeing the film, producer Karen Rosenthal said, “I think that every mother and every father hopefully knows what their child can handle.  I think that it’s about words, it’s about the power of words, it’s about the experience.  There will be questions.  But I think that this is the kind of movie that garners questions and the kind of discussion that needs to happen, so it never happens again and so that parents or guardians or teachers can impart to younger members of the audience the power of a word and meanings of words.  That’s what we hope that they take away.  We also hope in this time of video games, iPads, this, that and 3,000 other things, that the joy of reading is somehow imparted because there’s no better experience to open a book.”

What will strike you when you see the film is how faithful it is to the book (so get reading now).  Whether you know something about this period of history or not, it will get you thinking about the people that were left behind. And it may teach you about death.  At least that’s what Percival wanted:

“I think that the whole thing that struck me, and something that we tried to get across, when I first read the script and then read the book was that, I know it sounds weird, but death could be beautiful in a funny sort of way.  It doesn’t have to be this horrible dreadful demise that we all fear.  And indeed, many people that have read the book have actually, myself included, come away from it feeling that when the time comes, it might not be so bad if you’ve got somebody to look out for you.  So there was an inevitability about what was going to happen as soon as death finally arrived in the film.  We had this velvety soft confident voice in many ways. I think that was the intention.  That was the time that it really didn’t go too hard and too real.  I wanted this to go to as wide an audience as possible because the disparity of the book is the most wonderful thing about it.”

This film left an impact on me and it will leave an impact on you.

The Book Thief will be released in select theaters November 8^th.

Disclosure: I was not compensated to write this post, however I attended a press screening and junket for the film. All opinions are my own.

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About Time is the latest film by writer and filmmaker Richard Curtis. If you loved his other films, which include Notting Hill, Love Actually and Four Weddings and a Funeral, you will love this one. Curtis has a distinctive voice and style that weaves through his work, and this film is no exception. It’s a small film with a big life lesson, and it had me raptured.

I was lucky enough to spend time with Curtis recently at a small press conference. I sat in the first row and asked as many questions as I could.  He was what I expected: honest, direct and seemingly very in touch with his feelings, which you would expect after viewing his work for the last 20-30 years like I have.  I was lucky to have witnessed part of Four Weddings being shot whilst living in London in 1993 right on the street I was living on at the time. He was very happy to reminisce about the scene and made me feel like I was a part of something quite special. Every time I watch Four Weddings, I remember that moment.  That’s the kind of man he is: a maker of special moments.  Head over to IMDB.com now and check out his resume.  It’s unbelievably impressive.

Here are some of my favorite parts of our conversation:

Where did the idea for a movie about time travel derive?

Richard Curtis: “The idea for the film, in fact, I can specifically remember, and often you can’t – it came from a conversation with a friend about whether or not we were happy, and we both came to the conclusion we were not as happy as we should be.  And we kept talking about what would be the perfect day.  And we said, ten years ago, we would have said we’d like to fly to Las Vegas, win $1 million, get a text saying that you’ll be nominated for an Oscar.  And now, the happiest day was the one we were having, just having lunch with each other, taking your kids to school, having dinner with the family.”

“And I thought how can I write a film about something as simple and it seemed to be important to me as possible.  And I thought, well, the only way is make up a huge contraption of time travel, create a character who can go anywhere, make any of these choices, and if that person chooses to go back just to a normal day, then you might be able to make the point in a way with some jokes, as well.”

Since making this film, you have since declared there is no more directing for you in your future.  Why is that?

RC: “I hated every minute of it.  It’s very tense directing.”

Was there anything that surprised you about either the process or the finished product of the film?

RC: “I think there’s a big thing, actually.  And it is credit to these two (Bill Nighy and Domhnall Gleeson) , but I think the accumulative effect of the father and son story is stronger than we thought it would be, I can’t quite explain that.  I think it may be the fact that in a way, Bill’s in a lot of scenes he didn’t seem to be in.  There are just all those early scenes where he’s making the mistake with the suntan cream.  When you looked at it, he didn’t seem to be in every scene in the family house, and then he was. He was there dancing, he was there sitting, he was there reading when they were doing the garden.  And I think, somehow, the accumulative effect of the father and son thing turns out to have been stronger when people see the film than I thought it would be, which is of course very rewarding and lucky.  So, that’s been something of a surprise, I think.”

I was wondering if part of the reason you thought of Rachel McAdams, besides being such a great actress, is because of Time Traveler’s Wife, and if she’s worried about being typecast in time travel movies.

RC: “Well, actually, kind of in a way, the answer’s the opposite, which is that we very nearly didn’t offer it to Rachel because it thought it might be a wasted month while we sent the script to her and she said, well, obviously, I’m not going to do that because I did The Time Traveler’s Wife. We so wanted her that we thought we’d risk it.  We never talked about that film particularly until she saw the first cut of the trailer.  And she said, oh, my gosh, there’s one shot when you’re asking her to marry you, and she said that is exactly the same as one shot in Time Traveler’s Wife when I think Hugh Jackman was asking her to marry, she asked, are you worried?  And I said, I’m not worried.  And I think it’s literally only you and Jackman who are going to know, so we didn’t worry about it.  But, no, I think it was a very different film and a very different mood and tone.”

How did you relate something or make something so relatable with time travel?  

RC:  “Well, it’s odd, because I think when you watch the film, you stop remembering it’s sort of time travel quite soon.  And I think one of the ways we achieved it was by how low tech it was. And when we edited the movie, I kept saying to everyone, don’t worry, we’re going to make that better.  And we went to see four special effects houses and the time travel bit.  They did a trick where they like rotoscoped out the characters and made it 3D, and we did a thing where we slowed it down and made them go backwards and put fuzzy stuff around the side.  And all of that was a disaster, and it looked awful.  I think by making it so banal, you can sort of fit in the sci-fi with all the human stuff.”

“And I worked so little on it because I thought to myself, how would you travel back in time, you’d probably all instinctively go like that.  And that was all I did.  That was just about it.  That was as far as my imagination went.”

Do you work very closely with the music supervisor?  What is the process with the music?

RC: “The music’s terribly important, and funnily enough, when I was doing the movie, I didn’t go back and look at any science fiction movies, but I got very obsessed by songs which I thought were on that subject.  So, Ben Folds’ song “The Luckiest,”, and in fact, a Ben Folds song called “Still Fighting It,” which is a father and son song he wrote, and the Ron Sexsmith song Gold In Them Hills–and when I first handed in the movie, it said on the front page, Tim and Time, which is what I wanted to call it, or “The Luckiest,” or “Gold In Them Hills,” which is the names of those songs.  So, the songs kind of provide me with an emotional pitch so that when I’m writing I know what I’m aiming for.  And it’s something I felt in songs.  In Love Actually, I listened to the Mariah Carey All I Want For Christmas is You, and Notting Hill was all based around a very of a Tom Waits song called Downtown Train and a version by Everything but the Girl.  And whenever I was trying to feel how I wanted the movie to feel, I would play that song.”

About Time is reaching a theater near you on Friday, November 8th! 

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(The original post can be found at Indiewire’s Women & Hollywood)

Novelist Meg Wolitzer talks with Holly Rosen Fink about the success of her latest novel, The Interestings (Riverhead Books, 2013), inspiration, sexism in the literary world, working with Nora Ephron, as well as her mother, novelist, Hilma Wolizter, and her experiences in film and television that spawned the film version of This Is Your Life.

Women and Hollywood: Congratulations on the success of The Interestings. I hear this book holds a special place in your heart. Tell us why.

Meg Wolitzer: Thank you. Like my main character, I too went to an arty summer camp for teenagers in the summer of 1974. And while I was there I met a group of people who fascinated me. I was from the suburbs, and I hadn’t known any city kids before. In these regards, the novel is quite personal for me. And though the rest of it is completely invented–and the book opens out into an exploration of certain far-flung issues, such as what happens to talent over time; and envy, and friendship–that summer was significant for me, and I loved writing about it.

WaH: How did the title come about?

MW: It just seemed funny and right that these teenagers would ironically call themselves this name. I liked the awkwardness of the title, and the specialness.

WaH: Let’s talk about the cover. You’ve said that you don’t want to be stereotyped as women’s fiction and that publishers tend to reinforce the stereotype through their covers. Did they allow you artistic freedom on this one?

MW: I had published an essay in the New York Times Book Review on gender inequality in literary fiction. One of the things I noted was that the covers of books by women sometimes had a softer, dreamier or more domestic look than the covers of books by men. When my novel was being designed, the art department paid attention to that, and created a kind of gender-neutral cover that, I believe, is appealing and inviting, but not coded as being “for women.”

WaH: Is it true that the story was inspired by Michael Apted’s film series 7-Up?

MW: Certainly the Apted films were an influence on what I tried to do here, which is show a group of people starting when they’re very young, and keep going. Apted does that so beautifully in his films.

WaH: How much sexism truly exists in the literacy world?

MW: The women’s literary organization VIDA does a count of the representation of women in literary publications–as writers of articles and book reviews, and also as reviewees–and the numbers are astonishing. Women are deeply underrepresented in most of the important places.

WaH: Nora Ephron would have loved making a film version of The Interestings! Has it been optioned and who could you see directing it?

MW: It’s too early to say anything, but a wonderful writer is trying to develop it as a series for television right now.

WaH: Your first venture into film was in 1992 with This is My Life, directed by Ephron. At that time, it was hard to get the film made because it was women-driven? Do you think things have changed?

MW: There are many women who can speak to this point much better than I can. While I’m not very well-versed in the Hollywood side of things these days, I do know that the entire industry has convulsed and changed so much, and all films—male or female–that might be perceived of as “character-based” or “small” have a hard time getting made.

WaH: What was it like working with her?

MW: Simply wonderful. She was smart, interesting, and fun–and always very generous with her time and all else.

WaH: You followed that up 14 years later with Surrender, Dorothy, based on your novel, in 2006. What was that experience like and did you prefer one medium to the other?

MW: I wasn’t involved with the making of that TV movie, which starred Diane Keaton. But I was very happy it got made, and I think Keaton was terrific. The TV version really stayed true to the idea of the book.

WaH: Have any of your other books been optioned? Have you faced hurdles bringing stories to the screen?

MW: Almost everything I’ve written has been optioned at some point or another. The Ten-Year Nap was optioned as a series, The Position was optioned by HBO for a series and later was developed as a feature film, and The Wife has been optioned as a feature film over the years. (The playwright, screenwriter and director Jane Anderson wrote a wonderful script, and I am still hoping it will be made.) But everything has to come together for a movie or TV show to go into production; I feel lucky that I’ve had two books actually reach the screen. I don’t really face those development hurdles myself, because once I agree to let someone take a stab at it, he or she is the one trying to put it all together. I’m usually already on to writing the next book, though I always like to be consulted about the direction a project is taking.

WaH: When you write, how visual are you and do you have secret aspirations that they will someday hit the screen as vehicles for getting your story to a more mainstream audience?

MW: I never think about whether they’ll be made into movies when I’m writing. It’s just not a part of how I work or think. When something does get made, I understand that it’s probably because of the characters as much as anything else. I don’t know that I’m visual, exactly, but I am detail-oriented, and some of those details are of course visual. I think, for me, it’s essential to know my characters deeply and feel what it’s like to spend time with them.

WaH: Lena Dunham called This is My Life her first favorite film, and it was one of mine. I remember the night my mom and I went to see it very vividly. Tom Hanks also told you it was what it prompted him to do Sleepless in Seattlewith her. Having taken so long to produce and bring to the screen, did the experience scar you for life?

MW: Well, I was not the person schlepping it around to studios and trying to get it set up. I had the luxury of hearing about how things were going form the sidelines. So, no scarring at all. Just a happy outcome and a beautiful film that incidentally led to friendships with Delia and Nora Ephron.

WaH: Your mother Hilma Wolizer is also a novelist. Do you talk about how having an artistic career has changed? Is your writing process similar to hers?

MW: I watched my mother become a writer in a very different era. She was a so-called “housewife turned novelist,” as though this was a miraculous occurrence. The women’s movement affected her deeply, and also, I think, affected fiction for a while in this country, creating interest in voices that hadn’t been heard from before. Much of that’s fallen away by now, and we are both fiction writers in what can often feel like a non-fiction world.

WaH: What are you working on now and are you still savoring the success of this book?

MW: I am starting a new novel–probably another long one–and I am still traveling a lot for The Interestings, and giving talks and readings. I am very pleased that people have responded to this novel in particular, because it is a book that allowed me to go back to a time in my own life that feels so long ago, and yet which still remains vivid to me.

The Interestings is available now.

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This is a repost of a story that I recently posted over at The Broad Side. I am in the process of interviewing several survivors and many children of survivors for a project and I will be posting some of their stories. We must never forget the atrocities that occurred a mere 70 years ago and we must make sure that no one else ever forgets.  It was an honor to meet Esther Geizhals and she assured me that her story must be shared, along with everyone else who lived through it.  These stories of a mass genocide of an innocent people must be told. The photo above is a picture of the only one of Esther Geizhal’s mother left. She was taken from her during the Holocaust.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly seventy years since the Holocaust. For survivors near the end of their lives, it is more important than ever to tell their stories. There are still people who deny that the Holocaust ever happened, and their ignorance leads to hatred and resentment, so recording them is one way of countering the lies of those who would deny history.

According to the Jerusalem Post last year, some 12,000 victims of Nazi atrocities died in 2011 and, according to data by the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel, at least one survivor in Israel dies every hour. The number is far greater if you look at it globally. Organizations like the American Defamation League and the Shoah Foundation at UCLA are making sure that stories get recorded and that their legacies never die.

For many who survived, they have lived in pain and their memories of their Holocaust experiences remain vivid. Esther Geizhals is one of those survivors. She is an example of a strong Jewish woman who has endured much and is now making sure that no one has to experience the pain that she suffered.

She was born in Lodz, Poland in 1929 and still remembers today a particularly dark period of her life like it was yesterday. Her memory for detail is undeniable.

Prior to the war, she had a childhood full of love, happiness and adoring parents who were hard-working owners of a fruit & vegetable store. There was anti-Semitism where they lived but they had a normal life. She, like everyone else, had no idea what lied ahead. It proves that you never truly know what’s around the corner.

Lodz Ghetto: 1940-1944

After the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, her family lost their store and was required to stay in the Lodz Ghetto with 230,000 other Jews a year later. Conditions went from bad to worse very fast and she went from not knowing what a war was to being thrust into one. She remembers standing in line for bread, and then being dragged out of the bread line by the Polish. Her family started to suffer right away. She saw people dying from starvation in Lodz. There was no water, no coal, no sanitary means. They no longer went to school.

Life changed just like that. “They took everything from us. Everyone had a ration card for food, and you only got it if you worked. There was a black market but no one had money. The conditions were awful,” says the now-84-year-old Geizhals. “There was no coal to burn. People broke furniture to burn a fire. They put three to four people into one room. They closed the schools soon after for Jewish school. Jews studied under cover, learning Yiddish and Hebrew.”

Geizhals went to work at age 11 in a factory where they made dresses. Her little brother was too young to work. Her family hid him when the police came, or they bribed them not to come to their home. They lived in constant fear and starvation during the five years they were inside the ghetto. There was a nightly curfew at 8 p.m. She was sure her mother took her portion of bread and gave it to her. There just wasn’t enough food. “We spent nights praying and hoping the war would end. People were dying all the time. ‘Selections’ were taking place all the time,” Geizhals remembers.

Transports began/Liquidation of ghetto

In 1942, there was a big “selection” and the German soldiers took her grandmother away, as well as her young aunt who was 18. Geizhals never saw them again. It was later reported that they were taken to Belzec Death Camp and were killed instantly. Her mother knew she wouldn’t see her family again. Geizhals remembers her mom saying, “You’re lucky you have me still, but I won’t see my own mother again.” She was heartbroken and it pained Geilzhals to watch.

At the end of the five years, the Germans liquidated the ghetto, not leaving any signs of what had taken place. The starvation, the torture…it was as though it never happened.

August 22nd , 1944- Auschwitz

Geizhals and her family were transferred to Auschwitz extermination camp. They were taken in cattle cars. Here’s what she remembers:

“There was nowhere to sit. The ride was two days and two nights, standing up. No food, no water. There was a pail to go to the bathroom. They came to Auschwitz and everything was rush, rush, rush. ‘Schnell, out, out.’ The soldiers with the German shepherds and the inmates helped us out. The men and women had to separate. I was left with my mother and brother. They lined up singularly.”

Josef Mengele, the SS officer known as the “Angel of Death” who ran the human experiments at Auschwitz, deemed Geizhals fit for work and sent her to the right.

“My mother saw a neighbor’s little girl standing alone on the platform and took her hand. The child was terrified. Mengele asked her if she was her child. She nodded and he motioned her to the left. My brother, Pinkas, was frail. By this time, he was suffering from TB, so he, too, was motioned to the left. The soldier looked at me, I was 14, and he motioned me to the right. I started to cry, I wanted to go with my mother. Out of nowhere, a Jewish inmate came over and told me not to run. She stood in front of me and wouldn’t let me move.” Geizhals knew that this woman had saved her life. She has never forgotten her.

Geizhals remembers being corralled into a shower and having her head shaved. She later found out that her mother and Pinkas were exterminated in one of Auschwitz’s seven gas chambers. They gave her a dress two sizes too big, pink like a party dress, and a pair of high heels. They disinfected her with powder, like a dog. When she came out, she saw her father and he didn’t recognize her. They spoke a few words. They took her away to a barrack for six weeks. She remembers the cold, the hunger, missing her family.

Geizhals remembers standing for hours in the cold. Her feet were frozen to the ground from the high heels, full of blisters. There was no work for her. The end was near. They used to go to a place and pick up stones from here to here, just to pass the time and to be torture. She remembers the beating, the starvation, and not having enough clothes.

A very lovely woman named Paula took her under her guard. Geizhals cried all the time, and the woman took care of her. She rubbed her back so she’d be warmer. Paula’s little sister was jealous that she paid attention to her, but then they got sent away in a selection and were separated. She still thinks of her.

She has one picture of her mother that was taken when she was pregnant. Geizhals took it from her aunt after the war and hangs on the wall of her home today.

Bergen Belsen

After six weeks, Geizhals, then 15, was transferred to Bergen Belsen concentration camp. She doesn’t remember going to Bergen Belsen. The conditions were too horrible; she’s erased them from her memory. The camp had no room for them so the Germans put her in a tent. She remembers sleeping on snow and ice and they gave her a blanket: “All I had was that blanket. I was a complete skeleton. One night, I slept very close to a Hungarian woman for her body heat. She read my palm and told me to keep strong and that I would survive. When I woke up the next morning, she was dead next to me.”

Rochlitze Concentration Camp

In December, Geizhas was sent to Rochlitze concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. This was better because they were now placed in a building. They slept on the floor and they were taken out to work in factories. She was there for six to eight weeks.

March 1945: Dead March in Czech

Towards the end of the war, Geizhals and thousands of other survivors—malnourished, sleep-deprived, and barely alive—were forced to walk for miles and miles to railway stations to be transported to other camps so that the SS could destroy evidence of their camps. Geizhals remembers: “We were walking skeletons, drinking snow in place of water. We had no clothes. I had torn away a piece of blanket to cover my feet and they beat me for destroying German property. People were dying all around me. We walked from village to village. If we were lucky, families let us sleep in the bunks. After a few weeks without food, the clovers came out in the grass and we would eat them. I never saw a glass of milk in all those years — important years in the growth development of a young girl. We were a group of five girls who didn’t resemble humanity, and we slept in the high loft with the pigs and cows in a barn.”

“One night, the group stopped to spend the night at a barn and we hid under the hay in the loft. When the guards called everyone the next morning, we didn’t go down. We knew the Nazis would shoot us if they found us, but they didn’t look and moved on.”

“We came to a village and told them they were Polish girls and had run away from a concentration camp. The Czech families took each one of us home. We were dirty. We had lice and had to be cleaned. They fed us and we all had diarrhea from not eating for weeks. They gave us bread and fresh clothing. They kept us there until the war ended. “

End of War

After the war, Geizhals managed to return to Lodz, where she was reunited with her father. He remained behind in Poland, and, with an uncle, she smuggled her way to a displaced persons’ camp in the American zone in Germany, where she met her husband, Benek Geizhals, another survivor. He was eight years older. He got papers to come to America and asked her to come with him. They went to the American Embassy in Frankfurt and told them they wanted to go together. The American Consul said to her, “Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in America. It’s a wonderful holiday where we give thanks for everything we have, and we would love to have you.” He put her on a list for a youth group and told her not to write that she had family that survived on the application. Within a few weeks, she was on a ship to America.

Coming to America

“On Valentine’s Day in 1947, when I was seventeen, I came to America,” says Geizhals. “That’s when my life began. I love this country with all my heart.”

She’s never felt anti-Semitism in America. “It’s paradise here. I’m so grateful. It takes a survivor to appreciate what we have here.” She married at age 18 and then found a job right away at Henri Bendel’s. She was a finisher of beautiful dresses, working for Claire McCardel. She was in the union. Her late husband was an activist. He had a printer in Krakow and came here without the knowledge of the language, yet he opened a printer. They had three children.

Moving Forward

The Geizhals family created a life for themselves in New Hyde Park, where they raised three children. Their eldest son, Benjamin, is an attorney on Long Island; Michael, the middle child, is an accountant and lives with his family in Israel; and Jacqueline is a supervising nurse who lives in New Rochelle. Benek died 12 years ago, and Geizhals moved to Larchmont, New York, where she remains very close to her children and nine grandchildren.

Her husband was an activist, working for the Democratic Party and supported Israel. He was determined to teach the next generation after the Holocaust, so she is taking up where he left off after he died 15 years ago by making a point of telling her story, as often as she can. She tours schools, synagogues, Jewish Community Centers.

“I’m one of the youngest survivors, and I’m eighty-two. We’re dying out. My only wish is that people remember us.”

She then adds, forever haunted, yet grateful for what she has, “The pain of what happened will always be with me.”

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When actress Alysia Reiner auditioned for a small stage production I produced last year, I knew instantly I was standing before someone with an interesting career in behind and in front of her.  She read with such ease and vigor and clearly possessed the ability to become someone else at the drop of a hat.  It was a show about motherhood, a subject she knew very well, as a new mother with a toddler at home.

Alysia’s resume is so impressive.  She’s had recurring and guest starring roles on hit shows like “30 Rock,” all the “Law & Order” shows, “The Sopranos,” “White Collar,” “The Exes,” “The Starter Wife,”and many more. In film, she is still recognized as Christine, Thomas Hayden Church’s fiancee and then bride in the Oscar-winning cult film favorite “Sideways,” for which she won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast. Alysia has been in blockbusters like “For Love of the Game,” but also shoe-string budget Sundance faves like “The Vicious Kind,” which was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards. And that’s just a fraction of the work she’s done.

Little did I know back then that she was about to start filming the role as Fig in what would become my favorite TV show, Orange is the New Black, which debuted on Netflix two weeks ago.  I finished all 13 episodes in just a few days, a feat for me, as my kids often control the remote control.  It has become my new obsession and I still can’t believe how good the show is. And how good she is.  I basically binge watched the whole show and devoured every scene.  It’s a show about story-telling, about the women in the stories and the show gets inside them in a very different way than anything I’ve ever seen before.

It’s fairly obvious by watching the show that filming OITNB must be an INTENSE experience, so I asked Alysia a few questions:

How did you get involved with the show?

It was an offer – but i had auditioned for another role –  readers  – tweet me to guess which one!

What is it like working in a women-led, all women cast show?

incredible. we have such a spectacular group of talent – starting of course with our incredible Jenji (Kohan), the writers and producers, and the cast is AMAZEBALLS.

How do you like playing Fig?  Are you like her at all? 

LOVE IT and NO she is so the opposite of me!( as you know)! I am the girl who wants to change the world and have GEDs and meditation classes. I actually started volunteering in a prison with an amazing organization called Council for Unity.

What was it like shooting in a real prison? Did you do any research to get into the mindset of these women?

We actually shot at an abandoned kids psych ward = CREEPY!

What was it like working with Jenji Kohan?

She is so warm and delightful, so incredibly humble, so incredibly loyal, you can’t believe the genius that comes out of her.

How involved was the real-life Piper? Did she come to the set regularly?

Yes which is great – and ironically her husband Larry is a dear friend of someone I was best friend’s with in HIGH SCHOOL!

You have an interesting relationship with the warden and guards. They all seem to listen to you.  How were you directed to play this part?

Honestly they gave us a lot of freedom. I made some big choices about Fig from the beginning and I think the team liked them (I sure hope so!) because I was never directed to pull back or change. Its also so in the amazing writing. Our writers so give us so many clues in the writing about how to play things.

How does the show make you feel about how women are treated in prison?  What have you learned about the system that you can share?

Its scary to me. The more I read the more upsetting it is, hence the volunteering. Piper is super active too and I plan to get more involved with some of her organizations. I so hope our show is a catalyst for change in the system. If it takes FIG’s evil ways to help that happen, I will be as evil as I can be.

What’s next for you? Can you tell us anything about next season?

As for next season, I wish I knew!  We start in a couple weeks. As for me, I just shot 2 films – THE GIRL IN THE BOOK, and REVENGE OF THE GREEN DRAGONS and I am about to voice a dear friend’s book SOME NERVE – so excited.

In addition to being a great actress,  Alysia is also a producer, writer, humanitarian, outspoken environmentalist, mother and model. She’s a champion of all things eco-friendly, green, light green, or even that lime green that most people hate. Head over to her site to check out all the causes she is passionate about.

Follow Alysia on Twitter, Facebook and check out the show on Netflix AS SOON AS YOU CAN.

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The post My New Obsession: OITNB and an Interview with Alysia Reiner appeared first on The Culture Mom.