“Emma Thompson and Queen Latifah come from two completely different worlds,” says Forster, “Emma from the British stage and Queen Latifah from popular music. And I thought having them play opposite one another would make for an interesting alter-ego dynamic.”
Queen Latifah was drawn in not only by the story and the director, but also by the stellar cast. “The chance to work with Emma Thompson, Will Ferrell and Dustin Hoffman, all in one movie, really excited me,” she says. She also got a kick out of the role of Penny, a kind of publisher’s “fixer,” who will use any means necessary to make sure an author finishes a long-stalled book. “Penny’s the person who comes in when a writer’s life has gotten out-of-control and has become a total mess,” she explains. “Her approach has to be very determined and very firm because these authors can often be quite crazy.”
Penny at first assumes that Kay will be just one more neurotic writer she has to bring into line, but there’s something about Kay’s odd encounter with her main character that affects Penny and ultimately changes her. “When Penny starts out, she just wants to get the job done, to kill off this Harold Crick and get the novel finished,” says Latifah. “But I think Kay touches Penny in a way she’s not used to. Penny starts to care about Kay, and I think she realizes that what Kay really needs is to learn how to care about herself again, which in turn makes her care more about the lives of her characters.”
Latifah especially enjoyed working closely with Thompson. “We clicked from day one,” she remarks. “It was really fun for us to work together, to be these total opposites yet still be there for each other. She was also fantastic to watch – it was just great to see how she came up with these little idiosyncrasies that made Kay so interesting and so nuts.”
Thompson was equally admiring of her co-star: “Penny has to be practical, wise, kind and very, very strong – and Queen Latifah just nailed it,” she says.
“What if what I said was true? … What would you suggest I do?” -Harold “I would suggest you take prescribed medication.”
Dr. Mittag-Leffler
Rounding out the cast are two veteran film actors and a relative newcomer — Oscar® winner Linda Hunt (The Year of Living Dangerously), Tom Hulce and Tony Hale.
In a brief but vital role, Hunt brings a comic gravitas to Dr. Mittag-Leffler — an upscale psychiatrist who finds herself at a loss to diagnose Harold Crick’s unusual “symptoms” as anything other than outright schizophrenia.
The script came to Hunt’s attention through her longtime friend Doran, and she was instantly smitten. “A good screenplay is a hard thing to find and you know it when you see it,” says the veteran actress of screen and stage.
On set, Hunt had an intriguing experience with Will Ferrell. “I had been told that Will was the sweetest guy on earth and the funniest guy on earth in that order,” she recalls. “But what impressed me even more is that he seemed to be so moved by this character. He had such a lovely stillness about him and everything he did was wonderfully underplayed. I’m usually quite good at underplaying the other guy, but with Will it was hard to out-underplay him because what he was doing was so concentrated and beautiful.”
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