Taglines: What happens when you become the person you pretend to be?
Ellie Parker (Naomi Watts) races around town from one audition to another, changing make-up, clothes and personality as she speeds along, barely attending to her whirlwind life as she strives to get cast in a movie. And her best friend Sam (Rebecca Rigg), her boyfriend Justin(Mark Pellegrino) and her new fling Chris (Scott Coffey) just don’t seem to help. As Ellie considers giving up after losing faith in the craft, her manager Dennis (Chevy Chase) doesn’t exactly talk her out of it. One last insane audition for Ellie, and she’s back in the game… or is she?
Ellie Parker is a 2005 American drama-comedy film, written and directed by Scott Coffey. The title character, played by Naomi Watts, is a young woman struggling as an actress in Los Angeles. The movie centers on a quote from the prologue to William Shakespeare’s Henry V:
O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Ellie Parker began as a short that was screened at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Using a handheld digital camera, writer-director Scott Coffey expanded it into a feature-length film at various times over the next four years. It was finally released in 2005.
Director’s Notes
In Ellie Parker, I wanted to depict a type of contemporary life in Los Angeles through the portrait of a young woman’s struggle for personal and creative integrity. By making her an actress, I was able to play with all the contradictions and absurdities of modern life. In many ways, this seemed to serve as an apt metaphor for modern American life.
There are times, especially during pilot season, when an actor has to go to three or four auditions in a single day – read for a family sit-com, race across town to audition for a medical drama, and then, in minutes, get back to the valley for a new cop show. Sometimes, this means taking several outfits, literally using your car as a dressing room. For an actress, matters are further complicated by having to redo hair and make up. Imagine dealing with money, worries, and your personal life on top of this. Even though I wanted Ellie Parker to be personal and not polemic, I brought many of my own experiences of being an actor and living in Los Angles to the film.
The first short of Ellie Parker (the first 17 minutes) had its world premiere at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and has since played at The Aspen Shorts Fest, Phat Shorts in New York and The Method Fest, where Naomi won best actress for her performance. We were so happy with the first short film and have received such a great response that we made three more shorts of Ellie Parker, exploring her character more deeply.
Ellie Parker was the perfect story to shoot on digital video. I used a tiny Sony Mini DV camera that was perfect to get the kind of voyeuristic feeling I wanted. It was especially great in the car sequences where I could get right in Naomi’s face. She was really driving and putting on make up and changing at the same time she was giving a totally funny and emotionally riveting performance.
I met Naomi Watts five years ago while we were both acting on a movie called Tank Girl. Since then, we worked together again on David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive and became great friends. When I had the idea for Ellie Parker, she was the first person I thought of. We could have never made as naked and as intimate of a piece if we didn’t trust each other as much as we do. It was difficult not having a crew and having to do literally everything myself, but I think that is part of what makes this project unique and original and it’s rawness helps underline the voyeuristic cinema verite vibe of the project. – Scott Coffey
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Ellie Parker (2005)
Directed by: Scott Coffey
Starring: Naomi Watts, Chevy Chase, Scott Coffey, Mark Pellegrino, Fanshen Cox, Rebecca Rigg, Jennifer Syme, Marcel Sarmiento, Robbi Chong, David Baer, Blair Mastbaum
Screenplay by: Scott Coffey
Cinematography by: Scott Coffey, Blair Mastbaum
ilm Editing by: Matt Chesse, Catherine Hollander
Music by: Neil Jackson
MPAA Rating: PG for fantasy action and peril, and some language.
Distributed by: Strand Releasing
Release Date: November 11, 2005
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