Mary Steenburgen on Why You Can’t Watch Her Oscar-Winning Movie

I have to ask you about Melvin and Howard obvious for obvious reasons but the other big thing about that one is it upsets me how inaccessible that movie is like it's very difficult to find a copy of him no I know I'll tell you why and I and I love Universal I write music for Universal but Universal at the time when that movie was made by the great director Jonathan Tommy and written by the great screenwriter beau Coleman it was it came out and it was like the only reason anyone ever saw that movie were was because of the critics you know when people like badmouth critics I always think I wouldn't have a career without them because that movie no one was going to see because Universal buried it they couldn't figure out how to sell a movie about a guy the story is about the milkman who was a part of the Mormon Church and he he claimed to be the heir to the Howard Hughes fortune and the reason he claimed that is that he claimed that he picked up this is his truth a true story he he picked up Howard Hughes in the middle of the desert after a little motorcycle crash that Howard Hughes did had and he took him to the back of his hotel avidians and he gave him all the change in his pocket not knowing it was Howard Hughes just knowing it was some poor old guy that needed help and that while they were in the car they sang a smelvin had written this song and he got Howard Hughes to sing his song and and that that was made him so happy and then when Howard Hughes died there was a will that said that listed all these people this is before the age of computers or personal computers where Melvin could have looked up these people or researched it or figured this out it was written in a type of ballpoint pen how he's like to write with but then Ben kind of he bought up and it had been discontinued and it's that one 17th of my fortunes Melvin Dummar of gaps Nevada along with a whole lot of other names and the other names were like I think for the most part either business friends or variable you know obscure relatives and things like that and I saw the will and it was hard to believe that wasn't true it's just hard to believe having met Melvin that that he would have had that anyone would have had the ability to have done that at that time and and pulled that off and so anyway we told his story and the people surrounding Howard Hughes weren't all choked up about it because they didn't want to believe in legitimacy of that well and then Universal got it and I don't know if they were pressured about it I've never known that but they certainly didn't know how to sell the movie about this what they deemed a kind of loser and so they just dumped it and they didn't release it in Europe it got no release in Europe for years I would have people say can you please tell us how we can see it and I was like I have no idea I feel bad about the way that I've seen it it's not an appropriate way but you can find not super clear versions on YouTube but you know that's that's the kind of movie where I would buy like an elaborate blu-ray with tons of behind the scenes story and I want all the details and we can't get them well somebody needs to do it you're absolutely right and I wish we would have done it while Jonathan was alive but just out of respect for him because yeah Jonathan Downey was one of the great American filmmakers and I cherished every single second working with him I worked with him twice also in the movie Philadelphia but yeah I it's really a strange thing is it's like it's like the the world conspired against this beautiful little movie and it is it's an absolutely beautiful little work of art are there any specific memories from making that movie that you find yourself we're calling often we were doing this scene where I'm getting remarried to Melbourne and we don't have enough money to pay for the little place in Vegas or Reno or wherever it was but I'm very pregnant and so we we volunteer to be witnesses to other peoples weddings and we kiss them and stuff in and be the witnesses until we've done enough that we make enough money that we can actually get married to each other and that was a strange day because I've never kissed so many people in one day there was guys and that was strange but the thing I remember most about that day is that when I was sitting in makeup it was toward the end of the shoot and and we were we're not really welcomed there because of this whole controversy about Howard Hughes and everything so we weren't staying in the nicest hotels and it had been a long hard shoot and and I was in makeup and and and Jonathan came in through the door in the makeup trailer and he had on this like pinstripe suit with a big carnation in the look hell and I said where are you going he said nowhere and I said what are you so dressed up for any guess you're getting married today and he that was his direction to me that day he didn't give me another direction that day he just dressed up for my wedding and that was the magic of Jonathan's and me that he it was like from the second I saw him and he told me that it was like I had all the energy in the world there were no problems it was like what a what a blessing to be able to do this scene today you know that's that's what he brought out in

Channel: Collider Interviews

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Keywords: collider, celebrity interview, collider interview, interview, movie stars, mary steenburgen, mary steenburgen interview, melvin and howard, melvin and howard mary steenburgen, mary steenburgen melvin and howard, mary steenburgen oscar, perri nemiroff interview, perri nemiroff, movies, film, entertainment, howard hughes, melvin dummar howard hughes, melvin dummar

Id: fIEUvbrQZh8

Length: 7min 15sec (435 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 08 2020