Sweet Home Alabama (2002)

“Whether you like it or not, there is one person who’s meant for you,” says Andy Tennant, director of Touchstone Pictures’ new romantic comedy, “Sweet Home Alabama,” starring Reese Witherspoon. “You can try to manufacture your own destiny, but love happens to you whether you want it to or not.

“I wanted to do a love story where the decision came down to a great guy or the right guy,” says Tennant.

“‘Sweet Home Alabama’ deals with the very true-to-life quest of finding someone to spend the rest of your life with on a romantic level and the chaos that sometimes erupts from that,” says Witherspoon. “The film is also about self-discovery and learning to be okay with yourself, which I think is something that everybody struggles with.”

“I think that everybody can identify with wanting to be accepted and fit in, but not being able to because you are denying your true self,” continues Witherspoon. “And then suddenly when you’re just being yourself, everything seems to make sense again. In ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’ we present that in a beautiful and romantic way, and it’s funny and enjoyable.”

“I lived in Alabama my whole life till I left for college,” says producer Stokely Chaffin. “I understand what it is to be driven crazy by small-town life. I understand what it is to come back home and think you’re better than everybody. And I understand -- thankfully -- what it is to make your peace with the place you left behind by falling in love with it all over again.”

Producer Neal Moritz was also eager to find a unique way of presenting this story. “The trap in making a romantic comedy today is that audiences feel like they’ve seen everything that can happen already – the boy and girl are going to get together in the end,” he says. “So, in order to avoid these clichés, we’ve tried to put in a number of twists and turns, to give the audience a movie they haven’t seen before. They won’t have the feeling that they know the end of the movie before it begins.”

Moritz has high praise for Tennant. “Andy is a true commander-in-chief,” he notes. “From the day he signed on to do this movie, it’s been his vision that has really carried the movie from beginning to end. As a producer, all you can hope for is to toss the ball to somebody and let them run with it, which is exactly what Andy has done. He’s done a great job of taking his point of view and expressing that in a truly remarkable way. He’s very clear with the actors, and has a great handle on just how to work with each and every one of them.”

Executive producer Wink Mordaunt cherishes her collaboration with Tennant. “I learn from working with him every day,” she says. We’ve been business partners for about four and a half years, and this is our third movie together. It’s such a pleasure to watch him work with this kind of film.”

Another consistent observation by cast and filmmakers alike is the source of the comedy in the script for “Sweet Home Alabama.” “The humor comes from Melanie’s reintroduction back into her life in the deep South after having seemingly shed all 10 of those trappings while evolving into a hot fashion designer in New York City,” adds Tennant. “Yet, with her new attitudes and improvements that she’s picked up in New York City – because she thinks she’s hotter than napalm – when she comes back home to Alabama to take care of some unfinished business, they all sort of cut her off at the knees and remind her of who she really is.”

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