Tagline: Just because she’s passed on… Doesn’t mean she’s moving on.
In the romantic comedy Over Her Dead Body, Eva Longoria Parker plays Kate, a beautiful yet exceedingly demanding and controlling woman who obsesses over every little detail in life. She is about to be married to Henry (Paul Rudd), an easy-going veterinarian and the only person who can calm her down during the chaos of their wedding preparations.
Kate and Henry are perfect together; however, fate is beyond anyone’s control. On her wedding day, in her obsessive Bridezilla-like attempt to make everything perfect, Kate is accidentally killed by a falling ice sculpture of, ironically, an angel. Her fiancé Henry is understandably traumatized upon hearing the news.
A year later, with Henry unable to move on with life, his sister Chloe (Lindsay Sloane) convinces him that what he needs is permission from Kate’s spirit to start life anew. At Chloe’s urging, and but remaining greatly skeptical, he agrees to meet Ashley (Lake Bell), a psychic who also runs a catering company with her gay best friend, Dan (Jason Biggs).
The initial reading doesn’t work and leaves Henry even more skeptical than before, but he becomes intrigued by Ashley when she refuses his payment. Chloe does not give up trying to help her brother move on with love and life, so she steals Kate’s diary from Henry and gives it to Ashley, then convinces her brother to give the psychic a second chance. Ashley, of course, uses the diary’s information to pretend to communicate with Kate’s ghost as a favor to Chloe to try and help Henry.
About the Production
In Over Her Dead Body, Henry (Paul Rudd) is devastated when his beautiful fiancée Kate (Eva Longoria Parker) is accidentally killed on their wedding day. He reluctantly agrees to consult a psychic named Ashley (Lake Bell) at the urging of his sister Chloe (Lindsay Sloane). Despite his skepticism over her psychic abilities, Henry finds himself falling hard for Ashley, and vice versa, but…there is a big snag. Ashley’s being haunted by Kate’s ghost, who considers it her heavenly duty to break up Henry and Ashley’s fledgling romance if it is the last thing she does on this earthly plain.
The idea for the script came to writer/director Jeff Lowell when he was working with a friend on another project. Lowell, an absolute skeptic, and his friend, a firm believer in psychic phenomena, would have epic battles over their beliefs. Lowell began thinking about what it would take for a cynic to fall in love with someone who went against all his rational thinking. Then with added comedic complications, the pieces all started to come together for a fun, romantic film.
Eva Longoria Parker, the first actor to sign on for the film, was immediately drawn to the role of Kate. “The role of Kate was hilarious,” notes Longoria Parker. “You don’t often read a script where the character has so many colors and so many things to do. It’s always fun playing the antagonist who causes all the drama and conflict.”
Adds producer Paul Brooks, President of Gold Circle Films, “The character could have been written precisely for Eva and she was our first choice!”
From the outset, Lowell and Longoria Parker felt that Kate was not a villain. After all, she did die on her wedding day. The audience needed to sympathize with her despite her control issues and often-venomous tactics in dealing with situations. Although Kate first appears as a bitch on wheels, both director and actor agreed that it was very important as the story progressed to reveal softer sides of Kate.
“Kate died on her wedding day, after all, so she has a right to be angry,” says Longoria Parker, “but, ultimately, she is a good person who only wants the very best for her former fiancée. It was a fine line between her retaliating against those who are trying to take away her man and allowing herself to realize what is really best for him.”
The filmmakers landed their first choice of actors for every role thanks to a luck combination of good timing, positive reaction to the script and strong characters. For Longoria Parker, the challenge was to work around her “Desperate Housewives” shooting schedule. In order to do the film, she worked many long weekends, thus creating a seven-day work week for her between her television and movie shoots.
“Oh, it was easy,” Longoria Parker laughs. “I love to work, and when you’re doing two separate projects simultaneously, coupled with photo shoots and actually living your life, keeping it all sane becomes no problem when you love what you do. I know how fortunate I am.”
Rising young actress Lake Bell beat out many other actors who auditioned for the role of Ashley, a woman who, in complete contrast to Kate’s Type-A personality, struggles between being cool and just making ends meet. I had known Eva Longoria Parker socially, but we’d never worked together before,” says Bell. “After reading the script and hearing she was cast in the movie I jumped at the chance to audition.”
Henry, played by Paul Rudd, is the most sympathetic character in the film. He starts out damaged as a result of his fiancée Kate’s untimely demise and then slowly must be made whole again, which he begins to achieve by opening himself up to being in another relationship. But he is once more damaged when he learns his new relationship with Ashley was founded on blatant lies, so he must be made whole once again so he can allow happiness into his life.
“Here’s a guy who is basically victimized,” notes Rudd. “The woman he is about to marry dies, the next woman he then falls for deceives him, even his own sister lies to him. Yet through a series of strange events he somehow comes out okay in the end. I found it’s `women are out to get us’ message resonant…just kidding. I just thought it was funny. And the J Crew shirts were a plus!”
Jason Biggs is an actor who loves physical comedy more than anything, so the role of Dan, Ashley’s catering business partner and seemingly gay best friend, was perfect for him. He did his own stunt work when he was called upon to have his arm go up in flames while cooking in the kitchen. After being completely briefed by stunt coordinators, his arm carefully rolled up in flame retardant materials and with a fire/rescue team standing by, he took his mark on the set. When “action” was called his arm was ignited and he rolled and writhed on the floor like a seasoned pro. Soon the scene ended with him completely unscathed by the flames.
“This was definitely one of the tougher roles I’ve had to play,” notes Biggs. “I needed to bring a certain ambiguity to it while keeping it credible to an audience. Is my character gay? Is he not? Am I a wuss for allowing someone else just to move in on a person I have liked for years?”
Practically a mirror image of Dan is Chloe, Henry’s sister. Both are not afraid to lie in order to protect someone they love. Chloe only wants to see her brother happy, so with best intentions she uses deceit. As played by Lindsay Sloane, Chloe is an edgy, quirky and independent thinker who simply wants to help her brother once again find love and happiness in his life.
“I am a hopeless romantic,” says Sloane “so this story had great appeal to me. It was a chance to have so much fun and act a little crazy. Chloe schemes to help her big brother, but it’s always out of love and concern for him. She pushes him to get him to come out of the shell he retreated into after his fiancée died. When she helps him meet a fantastic new woman who could change his life for the better, she does what’s in her power to get them together.”
The cast is rounded out by Stephen Root (Office Space, No Country for Old Men) as the ice sculptor/angel sent from Heaven who must guide Kate to her ultimate redemption.
Writer/Director Jeff Lowell, who possesses a dry sensibility, is a student and devotee of romantic comedies; writer/director Preston Sturges, known for his smart, crisp, fast dialogue and large amount of physical comedy, is one of Lowell’s heroes. Lowell himself comes from a television background where he both wrote and produced sitcoms. His television past influenced his film writing by knowing how to fit people together in situations, finding smooth transitions from scene to scene and sensing what will make audiences laugh.
The director never set boundaries and always encouraged ideas and communication among his actors. Being the screenwriter as well, he was not afraid to change dialogue nor intimidated by suggestions and ideas from the actors. With gifted comedians such as Jason Biggs and Paul Rudd, who are both known for their comic timing, the written dialogue would sometimes give way to witty ad-libs.
“The best thing for me as an actor is that I have a similar comedic sensibility as the director,” says Biggs. “Jeff knew how to rein me in, give suggestions, let me go. Sometimes you just come up with weird jokes in the moment. He knows when to give you freedom and do your thing. This made it much more collaborative and fun.”
For a scene in with Kate levitates in front of Ashley, Eva Longoria Parker had to do wire work for the first time in her career. A harness was built that raised her above the floor of the soundstage so that it would appear she was floating, ghost-like, over the head of Lake Bell. “I am proud to say I am the first person to make Eva Longoria Parker fly!” exclaims Lowell.
An old showbiz adage says not to work with children or animals, yet the film had a bit of a menagerie of creatures. Boone’s Animals for Hollywood collaborated with the filmmakers to make all the animal scenes work effortlessly. The main creature is a parrot that lives with Henry. The bird serves as a catalyst for a story point when Kate learns she can affect animals — including a climatic scene of a mad dash to the airport with Henry and a talking parrot channeled by Kate. Two parrots were trained to squawk on cue for mouth movements, to throw bird seed and give a number of reactions.
“It was weird working with a parrot, but all the animals were great,” says Rudd. “The trainer was just off camera for a scene in the living room when the parrot suddenly starts talking to me. The bird got a particular cue to flap its wings, hide its beak under a wing or throw bird seed, and on every take the bird had it down. Judging from its repetitive squawk, my guess would be it had studied Meisner technique!”
Cats and dogs were also used in the veterinarian office scenes, including Lake Bell’s very own Margaret Bell, a blue nose Staffordshire Bull Terrier that she rescued and adopted. She makes her feature film debut as the dog with the “itchy ass” visiting the vet’s office. “I was a very proud mama that day,” notes Bell.
When it comes to psychic phenomena and psychics, one likely believes or doesn’t. Eva Longoria Parker had never experienced a séance or talked to the dead. Lake Bell was more of a non-believer until she visited a well-known psychic who honed in on things from Bell’s private life. After that reading, she began to believe that there often is a higher power behind a medium.
The overall look and feel of the film was a very important factor in the pre-production stages. Production designer Cory Lorenzen developed fun, unique designs before he met with director Jeff Lowell and then the two fine-tuned the ideas. Romantically textured environments were the primary themes. With six weeks planning prior to principal photography, an overall floor plan and geography was created that would be conducive to telling the story. The concept became a blended mix of Spanish craftsman and romantic revivals combined with the romanticism of Los Angeles.
The interiors of Ashley and Henry’s apartments were built on a soundstage. The interior of Ashley’s apartment on the stage was matched with the exterior of a location apartment building so there would be complete accord between real and built sets.
The story dictated some of the geography and interaction between living rooms and bedrooms, so hallways and arches were made wide enough to accommodate actors and crew in confined areas. The sets needed to look real, but also needed to interact well with the film environment. This was especially important for John Bailey, ASC, the film’s highly renowned director of photography, so he could have as much freedom and flow as possible during the shooting.
Characters’ personalities were fine-tuned to reflect their apartments and work spaces. Ashley’s apartment, for example, was a bit eclectic, comfy and messy to amplify her eccentricities. For Henry’s veterinarian office, the living and dining areas of a real Craftsman-style house were utilized. The home’s real furniture and accessories were stored away and in its place medicinal tools and furniture were layered in the interior. This provided a perfect design layout for the dog visit scenes to the doctor’s office.
There were three distinct weddings that were filmed. This included Kate’s big, extravagant wedding that opens the film and which was shot at legendary producer and music icon Dick Clark’s Malibu compound located on the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean. There was also a small, whimsical wedding affair shot in a backyard, and the final scene in a beautiful Anglican church filled with angel motifs. Each wedding, while somewhat similar in feel, taste and style, helped further define characters so they seemed different and made the story come full circle.
For wardrobe styling, costume designer Tracy Tynan worked closely with Jeff Lowell and Eva Longoria Parker to create Kate’s many looks. It was agreed that Kate should wear white through the movie since it was more of a ghostly image. Kate’s clothing changed according to the environment she was in.
“I think the wardrobe reflects that I haven’t quite given up this life that I am no longer a part of,” notes Longoria Parker, whose clothing was made expressly for her.
Tynan knew the main casting choices well in advance, which is rare, so she had time to consider what would look good on each actor rather than imposing a style on a blank canvas. Given that Ashley has not really yet found her place in life, her wardrobe is more eclectic with a certain style. Chloe is more a fashion victim, so she always tries new things to wear. Henry is a more straight-forward and regular guy, so he wears nothing flamboyant or too stylish. Dan, who may or may not be gay, is more fun without being too out there and wears an earring and necklace. Perhaps the most daunting challenge for the wardrobe department was creating costumes for 240 extras acting as airport and airline personnel.
Over Her Dead Body (2008)
Directed by: Jeff Lowell
Starring: Eva Longoria, Paul Rudd, Lake Bell, Jason Biggs, Lindsay Sloane, Stephen Root, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ali Hillis, Deborah Theaker, Natalia Jaroszyk, Patricia Belcher, Heather Mazur
Screenplay by: Jeff Lowell
Production Design by: Cory Lorenzen
Cinematography by: John Bailey
Film Editing by: Matt Friedman
Costume Design by: Tracy Tynan
Set Decoration by: Tara Stephenson
Art Direction by: Nathan Ogilvie
Music by: David Kitay
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and language.
Studio: Universal Pictures
Release Date: February 1, 2008
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