{"id":2447599,"date":"2019-08-15T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=311280"},"modified":"2019-08-15T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T22:00:00","slug":"maria-semples-bernadette-on-the-big-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/maria-semples-bernadette-on-the-big-screen\/","title":{"rendered":"Maria Semple\u2019s \u2018Bernadette\u2019 on the big screen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Author Maria Semple, right, with Cate Blanchett at the New York premiere of “Where’d You GO Bernadette” on Tuesday.<\/strong>
Kristina Bumphrey\/StarPix | STARPIX<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The film adaptation of Maria Semple\u2019s best-selling, critically acclaimed, locally adored novel \u201cWhere\u2019d You Go Bernadette\u201d<\/a> opens in theaters nationwide this weekend, and at Semple\u2019s hometown Isis Theatre in Aspen.<\/p>\n

The comic 2012 novel about the title character\u2019s disappearance just before a planned trip to Antarctica with her tech guru husband and precocious daughter gave readers a brilliant anti-hero in Bernadette Fox and her memorable rants about Seattle, competitive parenting and the new convention of sneezing into one\u2019s sleeve.<\/p>\n

It was also a creative and commercial breakthrough for Semple<\/a>, an Aspen native who had previously written for television shows like \u201cMad About You\u201d and \u201cArrested Development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oscar winner Cate Blanchett plays Bernadette in the film, with Billy Crudup as her husband and a supporting cast including Kristin Wiig, Laurence Fishburne and Zoe Chao. Behind the camera is one of the most acclaimed living directors in Richard Linklater \u2013 the auteur behind \u201cDazed and Confused\u201d and \u201cBoyhood\u201d \u2013 and the super-producer Megan Ellison, working from a script by Linklater, Holly Gent and Vincent Palmo Jr.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love the book,\u201d Linklater said in an interview included in the film\u2019s press kit. \u201cIt\u2019s such rich material. \u2026 Bernadette is such a fascinating person. A strong female, obviously, but I think she speaks for so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine a better creative team to bring Semple\u2019s book to the big screen. Yet the film has had a rocky road to theaters. Originally slated for release last fall during Oscar season, it\u2019s been moved back three times until landing on this inauspicious mid-August slot, a signal that it has fallen short of its sky-high expectations, while early reviews have been less than enthusiastic.<\/p>\n

But audiences will have their say this weekend. And fans of the book \u2013 and certainly all of the Semple faithful here Aspen \u2013 are eager to see for themselves how it translates. It opens nationwide on Friday at the Isis Theatre in Aspen.<\/p>\n

Ellison, the young producer of prestige films like \u201cPhantom Thread\u201d and \u201cZero Dark Thirty,\u201d gave a copy of Semple\u2019s book to Linklater years ago and suggested he might light to direct a film adaptation. She also noted that Blanchett would make for an ideal Benadette.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce that was in my head, I read it with Cate in mind and I could never get off that,\u201d Linklater said. \u201cI was thinking, \u2018She is the only person and the only performer in the English language currently, worldwide, who could pull this off potentially.\u2019 Once you get this in your head there\u2019s no other way to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Semple was thrilled by the idea of shaping a cinematic Bernadette with the actress who has memorably played Katherine Hepburn, Bob Dylan, the title character of \u201cBlue Jasmine\u201d and Galadriel in \u201cThe Lord of the Rings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so fantastic to hear that Cate Blanchett was bringing Bernadette to life,\u201d Semple said in a press kit interview. \u201cThe thing that got me most excited was all the intelligence that I knew she would bring to the role. And that you could tell there was just something wicked about her in the best possible way.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Blanchett signed on, Semple went to meet her to discuss the character. She brought along a pair of sunglasses \u2013 which she\u2019d worn for years, and on which Bernadette\u2019s ever-present oversized sunglasses were based \u2013 as a gift.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought: \u2018What do you give to Cate Blanchett, who you know has everything?\u2019\u201d Semple said in a press kit interview. \u201cSo, I took the prescription out of my dark glasses, put plain dark lenses in them and gave them to her. I said, \u2018Here\u2019s a little talisman, this is where it all started, these are literally my dark glasses that I\u2019ve had for ten years and I want you to have them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The actress held onto the eyewear and used them throughout filming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pictured her keeping them at best, throwing them away at worst,\u201d Semple said. \u201cBut she insisted that that\u2019s what she wear for the movie. \u2026 It will be something that really is almost the most special thing to me about the movie. These reviled dark glasses that I wore all over Seattle when I was writing the book are now on Cate Blanchett, the actual pair.\u201d<\/p>\n

The character was irresistible for Blanchett.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaria Semple, and I think Rick in his screenplay, have written something that is hilarious in its accuracy, but also quite painful and often embarrassing,\u201d Blanchett said.<\/p>\n

And this likely won\u2019t be the last Semple adaptation. Semple\u2019s 2016 novel \u201cToday Will Be Different,\u201d which is set partly in Aspen,<\/a> was also acquired by HBO, with Julia Roberts attached to star.<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author Maria Semple, right, with Cate Blanchett at the New York premiere of “Where’d You GO Bernadette” on Tuesday.Kristina Bumphrey\/StarPix | STARPIX The film adaptation of Maria Semple\u2019s best-selling, critically acclaimed, locally adored novel \u201cWhere\u2019d You Go Bernadette\u201d opens in theaters nationwide this weekend, and at Semple\u2019s hometown Isis Theatre in Aspen. The comic 2012 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2447599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 02:35:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}