Fannie Flagg "Fried Green Tomatoes" 1991 - Bobbie Wygant Archive

in houston that was a long time ago i mean not a while long ago and it was i was surprised to have it yeah yeah it's coming back though yeah you can't keep texans down right now and we have six minutes okay fine and where will you be as the time keeper oh i'm gonna be right here yeah okay phone did you did he look at this top is it okay okay okay i was afraid it was sparkling too oh no no it's great i was in a play in dallas uh with um that's when i met you yeah uh what was the play i can't remember there we go do you remember private lives all right well fanny we're just sitting here trying to remember uh we met years ago when you were playing in dallas yeah i was i did private lives in dallas at the windmill dinner theater and then i did the foreigner in dallas with uh um joe sears and jason williams who did greater tune-up yeah so that was the last time i was in dallas and i have many friends in dallas well it's good to see you and they're going to be so happy to see your book on screen i have to tell you i didn't really know your book i'm sorry to say i didn't now i will make a point to read it i did not know your book even though you were nominated for pulitzer weren't you and uh so i hid it cold but i think it is just wonderful i haven't heard one negative word about it oh how nice it makes me feel good is it in any sense at all biographical or autobiographical well only in the um sense that i am from alabama and it takes place in alabama and um i of course was fascinated with trains as a child and my grandmother grew up in a little railroad town outside of birmingham that i used to visit as a child and was just fascinated with it and would hear stories about uh what it was like living there in the heyday of the great railroad when all the great trains were coming through uh it always seemed to me when i would hear about the depression that although people said it was a terrible time but they also said it was a time when people loved each other and pulled together black and white and everybody was poor but they all were kind to each other and i s the reason i came to write the book is that i was feeling very sort of weary about the turn the world has taken where people are a little mean to each other nobody has a kind word to say about each other and the sense of community and family and and and togetherness is we've sort of been separated because we're so frightened of each other and i sort of wanted to go back to that time and so this is why i said it in in the south and used a lot of the stories i had heard from my grandmother you know and so because the the book starts in 1918 i certainly wasn't around then but i did a lot of research and um then the other part of the film there's there the film takes place in two different time uh spans is we're looking in back into the 30s and then we have a storyline that takes place in today so with that storyline and the character of evelyn couch the one that kathy bates plays basically that is [Music] her feelings are very much like mine i mean there is a scene that i think is one of the greatest where she crashes into a volkswagen six times and i think because this these people stole her parking place right and i think that uh although i never did it uh and it's not autobiographical but i have wanted to haven't we all yeah so i was lucky enough to write write it and then kathy was lucky enough to get to do it yeah in your family did they make fried greens yes absolutely in alabama growing up that was considered a very lovely light summer supper big picture of iced tea and then fried green tomatoes because it was light you know although it doesn't fry something fried doesn't sound like a light dinner it is because uh it's uh done with cornmeal and it's it's you know lightly lightly battered and it was uh considered a very wonderful meal you know and a delicacy when you were writing the book did you have in mind anybody who could play these roles um when i was writing the book of course i didn't envision it as a movie i never dreamed that it would be a movie i just thought i was writing a book however when i was writing the character of evelyn strangely enough kathy bates is a friend of mine and her face would come to my mind because she was the exact image that i had of evelyn couch and at that time it you know nobody ever dreamed that she was going to do win an academy award and be the huge star that she is and so it was uh almost like a miracle to realize that the person i had thought about actually wound up playing the part and then the frosting on the cake jessica tandy well i mean there was just no question she was the only person that could have done it you know so it was a it's a dream cast and all the other mary stuart masterson and mary louise parker are just fabulous i couldn't have dreamed a better cast and if i that people have asked me they said uh were you pleased and i i i can't imagine that there's anybody after i'm sure after you you saw the film i can't imagine anybody else doing any roles other than the people that did them you know they were just perfect well it is perfectly cast and i'm glad that as the author you are happy with totally thrilled i can't i can't imagine better casting and i have always been a person that feels and has felt that many films that may have been written beautifully are are because they are cast wrong they don't work and and john avnet the producer director here uh was so careful about casting the people so carefully and when you do that the lines uh sound like the the actors wrote them because they're correct for the role you know so i'm just thrilled well fanny congratulations and so much good after all these years to see you again i hope it won't be another 15 minutes no we see one another no no i promise i come back to dallas i love dallas as a matter of fact i do come back and i will thank you okay great a long time ago i mean not a long eggo and it was i was surprised to have it yeah yeah it's coming back though yeah you can't keep texans down yeah we're gonna start right now and we have six minutes okay fine and and where will you be as the time keeper oh i'm gonna be right here buddy yeah okay phone did you did he look at this top is it okay okay okay i was afraid it was sparkling too oh no no it's it's great i was in a play in dallas uh with them that's when i met you yeah uh what was the play i can't remember here we go do you remember private lives all right well fanny we're just sitting here trying to remember uh we met years ago when you were playing in dallas yeah i was i did private lives in dallas at the windmill dinner theater and then i did the foreigner in dallas with uh um joe sears and jason williams who did greater tune-ups yeah so that was the last time i was in dallas and i have many friends in dallas well it's good to see you and they're going to be so happy to see your book on screen i have to tell you i didn't really know your book i'm sorry to say i didn't now i will make a point to read it i did not know your book even though you were nominated for pulitzer weren't you and so i hit it cold but i think it is just wonderful i haven't heard one negative word about it oh how nice it makes me feel good is it in any sense at all biographical or autobiographical well only in the um sense that i am from alabama and it takes place in alabama and i of course was fascinated with trains as a child and my grandmother grew up in a little railroad town outside of birmingham that i used to visit as a child and was just fascinated with it and would hear stories about uh what it was like living there in the heyday of the great railroad when all the great trains were coming through and it always seemed to me when i would hear about the depression that although people said it was a terrible time but they also said it was a time when people loved each other and pulled together black and white and everybody was poor but they all were kind to each other and i s the reason i came to write the book is that i was feeling very sort of weary about the turn the world has taken where people are a little mean to each other nobody has a kind word to say about each other the sense of community and family and and and togetherness is we've sort of been separated because we're so frightened of each other and i sort of wanted to go back to that time and so this is why i said it in um in the south and uh used a lot of the stories i had heard from my grandmother you know and uh so um because the the book starts in 1918 um i certainly wasn't around then but i did a lot of research and then the other part of the film there's there the film takes place in two different time spans is we're looking in back into the 30s and then we have a a story line that takes place in today so with that storyline and the character of evelyn couch the one that kathy bates plays um basically that is uh her feelings are very much like mine i mean there is a scene that i think is one of the greatest where she crashes into a volkswagen six times and i think because this these people stole her parking place right and i think that uh although i never did it uh and it's not autobiographical but i have wanted to haven't we all yeah so i was lucky enough to write write it and then kathy was lucky enough to get to do it yeah in your family did they make fried green tea yes absolutely in alabama growing up that was considered a very lovely light summer supper big picture of iced tea and then fried green tomatoes because it was light you know although it doesn't fry something fried doesn't sound like a light dinner it is because uh it's uh done with cornmeal and it's it's you know lightly lightly battered and it was considered a very wonderful meal you know and a delicacy when you were writing the book did you have in mind anybody who could play these roles um when i was writing the book of course i didn't envision it as a movie i never dreamed that it would be a movie i just thought i was writing a book however when i was writing the character of evelyn strangely enough kathy bates is a friend of mine and her face would come to my mind because she was the exact image that i had of evelyn couch and at that time um it you know nobody ever dreamed that she was going to um do win an academy award and be the huge star that she is and uh so it was uh almost like a miracle to realize that the person i had thought about actually wound up playing the part and then the frosting on the cake jessica dandy well i mean there was just no question she was the only person that could have done it you know so it was uh it's a dream cast and all the other mary stuart masterson and mary louise parker are just fabulous i couldn't have dreamed a better cast and if i that people have asked me they said were you pleased and i i i can't imagine that there's anybody after i'm sure after you you saw the film i can't imagine anybody else doing any roles other than the people that did them you know they were just perfect well it is perfectly cast and i'm glad that as the author you are happy with totally thrilled i can't i can't imagine better casting and i have always been a person that feels and has felt that many films that may have been written beautifully are are because they are cast wrong they don't work and john avnet the producer director here uh was so careful about casting the people so carefully and when you do that the lines uh i sound like the the actors wrote them because they're correct for the role you know so i'm just thrilled well fanny congratulations and so much good after all these years to see you again i hope it won't be another 15 minutes no we see one another no no i promise i come back to dallas i love dallas as a matter of fact i do come back and i will thank you great

Channel: The Bobbie Wygant Archive

Views: 1,301

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Length: 13min 36sec (816 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 15 2020