The Emerald Isle and The Big Apple
In bringing Ahern’s novel to the screen, the filmmakers shifted the primary setting of the story from Ireland to Manhattan, but it was still important to them to pay homage to the roots of both the book and its author. “I wanted to put Ireland in there in a big way,” LaGravenese states, “so the character of Gerry is still Irish, and I created the story that he and Holly first met in Ireland.”
At Gerry’s behest, Holly also returns to Ireland to visit his family home and retrace the first steps of their relationship. Gerry somehow knew that revisiting the past was the best way to point Holly to a new future, and, LaGravenese smiles, “it gave me a reason to go back and shoot in Ireland, which is one of my favorite places on earth.”
Swank notes, “I think it is so important to see where they met and how their relationship began in this beautiful countryside-to see how young and hopeful they were and to get the carefree spirit that they had at the start. I think that’s what Gerry was hoping she would find there again when he sends her back.”
Principal photography began on location in Ireland, where there was a great deal of interest in the production due largely to the fact that the book was immensely popular and its author happens to be the daughter of the Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern. Photographers and spectators were out in full force, but, regardless, everyone welcomed Ahern’s presence on the set. Smith attests, “While we were in Ireland, we were so happy that she spent a lot of time with us. She is delightful-just the most charming, elegant, sweet girl you’d ever want to meet.”
The company spent two weeks in Ireland, filming mostly in Wicklow County, an area south of Dublin that is called “the garden of Ireland.” The Wicklow National Park is a protected area where no building is allowed, so it provided an unobstructed panorama of rolling hills. Locations in Wicklow County included a small farm in a town called Enniskerry and the little village of Ballylocken.
One of the most important locations in Ireland was Whelan’s, the Irish pub where, in a flashback, we see Gerry serenading Holly. “The scene at Whelan’s was a mixture of joy and pain,” Gerard Butler laughs. “I spent three weeks learning to play the guitar from scratch. I mean, I couldn’t even hold it properly or strum it at first, and then trying to find the chords…I remember falling asleep on my feet one night in front of the mirror practicing the guitar. And suddenly I’m up in front of 150 people having to play a song like I’d been doing it for the longest time. But it was all so great in the end.”
Flashing forward, Whelan’s is also the spot where Holly and her friends first meet William and then watch him perform on the very stage where Gerry had once sung to Holly. LaGravenese worked with his creative team to reflect the time change not only in the practical elements of sets and costumes, but in more subtle ways. Production designer Shepherd Frankel explains, “For the flashback scene, we made the space feel much warmer because it was a very romantic moment between Holly and Gerry. But when she comes back 10 years later, it needed to seem colder without him. Richard and the DP, Terry Stacey, and I talked about how to reinforce that through the design and the way it was lit.”
From Ireland, the production team traveled to New York, where much of the filming was accomplished at practical locations. A bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, became Patricia’s pub. They also filmed at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park near an airfield, where planes coming in over the trees often interrupted the filming of an important scene with Hilary Swank and Kathy Bates.
However, the noise of air traffic was minor compared to what the production faced while filming at the Irish Hunger Memorial, in lower Manhattan. The monument is located in the center of a busy business district and right next to Battery Park City, where construction is at an all-time high. “We had concrete mixers, tugboats, ferries, foghorns, planes, helicopters…I was waiting for paratroopers to come down!” jokes LaGravenese. “After a while, all you could do was laugh. It was just hilarious.”
The company was also privileged to shoot a pivotal scene between Swank and Harry Connick, Jr. at the iconic Yankee Stadium, which Connick says, “was amazing. Just to be in Yankee Stadium would have been great, but to be there with Hilary on top of the dugout, with the empty stadium behind us and all the lights on-that is a memory I will keep forever.”
Several of the film’s interiors were built on a soundstage in Brooklyn, including Holly and Gerry’s Lower East Side flat. Frankel reveals that he designed the apartment “to be almost like the third character in their relationship. They know it intimately, and the way it was laid out says a lot about who they are. There is not enough space in such a small apartment to store everything, so anything that’s important or special to them is very visible. Holly’s shoes, for instance, are prominently displayed.”
Similarly, costume designer Cindy Evans, who had just worked with both LaGravenese and Swank on “Freedom Writers,” spent a lot of time with the director and star deciding how best to dress Swank to reflect Holly’s personality. LaGravenese offers, “We wanted to create a character in Holly who was very creative but whose creativity had been somewhat repressed. She didn’t have an outlet for it, perhaps because she was fearful of where her future was heading.”
The director concludes, “This is a love story, but it’s also a journey of self-discovery. It’s a story about friendship and family and about how love can be so strong that it stretches across life and death.”
Letter Carriers
Moments after witnessing Holly and Gerry’s marriage, we are at Gerry’s wake, and Holly is reeling from the loss of the love of her life. Weeks later, on Holly’s 30th birthday, her friends and family show up at her apartment, which, it is quite apparent, she has not cleaned since Gerry’s death. Holly is not ready to face them-or the world- until she receives a delivery of a birthday cake and a taped message… from Gerry.
Finerman notes that, while that first tape and the subsequent letters are mostly meant to help Holly, they are inclusive of the other important people in her life. “We know that Holly has lost her husband, but it’s easy to forget that there are other people who have lost him as well. Her friends, who were also friends with him, are sad for her, but they are also sad for themselves.”
In fact, Gerry’s first instructions are not only to Holly but to her best friends, Denise and Sharon, to get out and celebrate Holly’s birthday together. “Denise and Sharon seem to represent two aspects of life,” relates Lisa Kudrow, who plays Denise. “Sharon is married and is on her way to building a family, while Denise is still single. She is looking for the right guy, but she doesn’t want to waste time, so she has her checklist. She’s definitely not shy,” she laughs, “but, most importantly, she’s a good friend.”
For the role of Sharon, LaGravenese turned to his close friend Gina Gershon, whom he had met through their mutual friendship with Ted Demme. “It was clear to me from the start that I wanted Gina to play Sharon because of what she would personally bring to it and also because I wanted Sharon to have an edge, even though she is the more maternal one of the group.”
“Sharon is the more mature, grounded one of the bunch,” Gershon acknowledges, “even though she is just as capable as Denise of getting together with her friends and having a wild time. Seeing what Holly is going through, Sharon is very compassionate and protective. But as time goes on, both Denise and Sharon are moving on with their lives, which leaves Holly somewhat isolated because she is not ready to move forward.”
Swank comments, “I thought Richard captured so well the way girlfriends act together-the way they talk and the shorthand that happens in just a look or an inside joke that no one else gets. The characters are all so fleshed out and multidimensional and Holly’s relationship with them is so clear. It was just lovely.”
Holly’s friend Sharon is married to John, who, as often happens with couples, was Gerry’s best friend. John is played by James Marsters, who offers, “John is in a bit of a strange position because he loved Gerry, too, and maybe he’s feeling a little left out. John thinks he will never have another friend like Gerry… that you don’t really ever find another true best friend once you’re an adult.”
For LaGravenese, it was especially important to convey how John is feeling, having gone through a similar experience. “The best friend of a guy who dies loses a relationship that is hard to describe to people and is often overlooked. It’s hard to put into words, but it’s something that we feel deeply. I thought this would be a good opportunity to try to put into words what male friendship means to some guys. James is a terrific actor, and I think he did a great job expressing that aspect of the story.”
P.S. I Love You (2007)
Directed by: Richard LaGravenese
Starring: Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, James Marsters, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lisa Kudrow, Gina Gershon, Kathy Bates, Nellie McKay, Anne Kent, Sherie Rene Scott, Susan Blackwell
Screenplay by: Richard LaGravenese, Steven Rogers
Production Design by: Shepherd Frankel
Cinematography by: Terry Stacey
Film Editing by: David Moritz
Costume Design by: Cindy Evans
Set Decoration by: Alyssa Winter
Art Direction by: Susie Cullen, Doug Huszti
Music by: John Powell
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual references and brief nudity.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: December 21, 2007
Visits: 91
