The spike in views keep coming so I’m going to stay on this Garry Marshall gravy train a little while longer. The funny thing about Marshall’s book Wake Me When It’s Funny is it’s not really that funny of a book. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It has its humorous moments, but it’s more part of his story and experiences of working for decades in TV and movies, and part of it is just rock solid practical advice. In fact, today directing insight from Marshall is not only something I never heard taught in film school—but I’ve never heard anyone else ever mention it in regards to filmmaking.
“I saw Michelle Pfeiffer at the catering truck ordering a bagel on Frankie and Johnny. When she discovered they were all out of bagels, she started to cry. I was ready to run to the nearest deli to buy her a dozen bagels, but she said it wasn’t that important. It turned out she was having her period and everything made her cry. I didn’t try to cheer her up but made it a positive thing because she had several crying scenes in the movie. After lunch, we sat down with the production schedule and, with Michelle’s approval, plotted the crying scenes around her menstrual cycle. This made these scenes easier for everyone, especially Michelle. Yes, I’m a filmmaker and I chart menstrual cycles. Later I saw Michelle walking around the set with a sign she had pinned on the back of her bathrobe that read BEWARE PMS.
I originally learned the importance of women’s cycles from Debbie Reynolds on How Sweet It Is. We were sitting in our big production meeting with Debbie and ten others talking about a swimming sequence. Suddenly, Debbie secretly passed me a note that said, ‘Garry, ask me when my period is.’ Now, I was a first-time producer who knew nothing and I wanted to impress the others, but didn’t know what to make of this note. Was she coming on to me in the height of the meeting? I looked at Debbie and she gave me an encouraging nod. ‘Errrr…Debbie,’ I said, ‘when is your period?’ She smiled and said, ‘Oh, what a bright producer Garry is. That’s such a smart question to ask. You all should know my menstrual cycle so you can schedule the swimming sequences around my period.’”
Garry Marshall
Wake Me When It’s Funny (written with Lori Marshall)
Pages 201-202
Now some other film director may have given that advice, but I don’t recall reading Ford, Capra, Hitchcock, Kazan, Coppola, Spielberg, Soderbergh—or even the female directors like Nora Ephron or Kathryn Bigelow—mentioning anything about menstrual cycles in terms of directing. Doesn’t mean no one else has, but regardless, it’s good practical advice. The book was published back in 1995 back in a slightly less politically correct time, and I can’t imagine Marshall getting some negative flack if he wrote that today. (And I imagine I’ll get some. )
But the fact that book was co-written by Garry’s sister, and the two main sources are Michelle Pfeiffer and Debbie Reynolds, I hope show this isn’t some sexist and misogynistic thought.
P.S. Debbie Reynolds, most famous for her role in Singing in the Rain, is now 80 and still singing and has a website—debbiereynolds.com
Loving the Garry Marshall content. His films have a certain gentleness and humanity to them and it’s interesting to see where those qualities originate.
He’s got a lot of great stuff in that book. I look forward to reading his newest one “My Happy Days in Hollywood,” which came out earlier this year.