ELLIE PARKER
US, 2005, 85 minutes, Colour.
Naomi Watts, Scott Coffey, Rebecca Rigg.
Directed by Scott Coffey.
Ellie Parker began life as a short film in 2001, a collaboration between writer-director, Scott Coffey, and actress Naomi Watts. While Naomi Watts had been appearing in Australian film and television for ten years (and some overseas films), she was hailed in her breakthrough performance in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. She has never looked back and toplined Peter Jackson’s King Kong.
Coffey and Watts and some of their actors and collaborators on the short, including Australian actress Rebecca Rigg, decided to make a feature-length version of Ellie Parker. It looks its small-budget and quite some improvisation. But, as an exercise in looking at Hollywood and the trials of aspiring actresses, it is quite an interesting and entertaining tour-de-force.
Naomi Watts, in case anyone still needed convincing, proves herself to be a very talented performer. Apart from creating the character of the nervously-ambitious would-be from Down Under, she is able to perform some audition sequences, from Southern Belle to foul-mouthed street worker to drama class improvisations. Coffey himself appears as a wannabe photographer who begins an affair with Ellie only to find that he is now convinced he is gay. Rebecca Rigg is Ellie’s loyal friend. Chevy Chase appears as a smooth-talking agent.
All the problems of auditions, callbacks, being stabbed in the back, encountering shady producers and directors with the come-on are all here in this brief, entertaining, cinematic exercise.
1.The transition from short film (sixteen minutes) to feature film? The work of the director, developing the screenplay, the characters, his own performance? The appreciation of Naomi Watts – and the changes in her career from 2000 to 2005?
2.Naomi Watts as screen presence? Her initiating the project? Participating in its development? Her acting skills? A showcase for her talent? Her subsequent career?
3.The supporting cast, Rebecca Rigg as Ellie’s companion? The presence of Chevy Chase?
4.The Australian origins, accent, people’s comments? Australians in Hollywood? Trying to succeed?
5.Ellie Parker in herself, her age, experience, hopes? Being in Los Angeles, switching accents? Her old car, driving around the city, talking on her phone? Her friendship with Rebecca Rigg, their going to the lessons together, the encouragement to create a scene from their lives, Rebecca and her inventing the incident and Ellie’s reaction? The initial audition, the director, the encouragement, the dialogue, her impersonation of a southern belle, her overwhelming performance, weeping, everybody standing and watching? The subsequent encounter between the assistant and Ellie’s boyfriend? Her anger? The later encounters with the secretary, the arguments? Her returning and wearing the period dress, the lack of interest in the producers, on drugs? Her rehearsing in the car, the blunt language, foulmouthed? The trials and tribulations of an aspiring actress? Going with Rebecca to overlook Los Angeles, their discussions, their hopes, moods?
6.Ellie’s boyfriend, relating to him, as a person, his self-preoccupation, his music, singing, asking her opinion? His encounter with the secretary? Ellie walking out on him, taking her things? His wanting a reconciliation?
7.Rebecca, her background, more assured, her support of Ellie?
8.The crash, Chris and his behaviour, his promoting himself as a cameraman, the talk, Ellie going to the shop, his pretending to be his twin brother, admitting the truth, inviting her to the concert (and the encounter with Keanu Reeves and his band, the adulation for Keanu Reeves)? Going home with him, the sexuality, his acknowledgment of his homosexuality? Her angry response?
9.Chevy Chase as the agent, his appearance, his talk, his assistant, his advice? Ellie and her arguing herself out of being an actress? His later phone call to encourage her to the reading?
10.A sketch of Hollywood, Los Angeles, the phoney Tinseltown, aspiring actresses and all they have to go through?
11.Naomi Watts and providing a sketch of an interesting character – in the form of an aspiring actress, hopes and despair?
