Tagline: Love doesn’t come cheap.
The Wedding Date movie storyline. Debra Messing stars as Kat Ellis, a young woman who returns to her parents’ London home for her sister’s wedding and has to confront her ex-fiance, who dumped her two years before. In a desperate attempt to face the ordeal with dignity, Kat hires a top-drawer male escort (Mulroney) to pose as her new boyfriend, only to realize that pretend relationships could be more nerve racking that facing up to the truth. Kat Ellis (Debra Messing) is looking for the right man. NOW.
The position comes with a few requirements: willingness to travel, keen social skills, good looks, suave demeanor, sharp mind… and a tux. The qualified candidate should also have (though not required) the ability to make ex-boyfriends jealous, to turn heads whenever entering a room and to reduce any woman within eye- and earshot to a weak-kneed, besotted admirer.
Kat wouldn’t be so urgently in need were it not for her spoiled, gets-everything-she-wants half-sister’s wedding where the best man happens to be Kat’s handsome ex-boyfriend. What’s worse, the currently single Kat has to schlep all the way from New York — where she’s made her life — to London, where her wildly dysfunctional family lives. That’s one long, thankless trip to take solo. And since the wedding is happening, oh, next weekend, Kat does what any enterprising single woman would do — she tracks down and hires a professional.
So what if her solution crosses a few morally dubious lines plus costs her a tidy six thousand bucks which she’ll have to drain from her 401K? And so what if her escort happens to be… well, an escort? Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Lucky for her that her hiring skills are pitch-perfect and she zeroes in on smooth heart-stopper Nick Mercer (Dermot Mulroney), one of New York’s better known and in-demand professional male escorts who’s quite, uh, well-equipped for the task.
Once in England, the insightful and charismatic Nick – part actor / part shrink / part bon vivant – helps Kat navigate the choppy waters of her screwy family and caddish old flame Jeffrey (Jeremy Sheffield) and convinces everyone he meets that he and Kat are, indeed, an item.
As Nick charms Kat’s parents, Bunny and Victor Ellis (Holland Taylor and Peter Egan), her self-absorbed half-sister Amy (Amy Adams), Amy’s fiancee Edward (Jack Davenport), as well as every living, breathing woman within a 100-kilometer radius, Kat too finds herself feeling things she’s never felt before.
For Kat, what begins as merely a face-saving ruse with a dashing guy-for-hire — strictly a business arrangement — quickly starts to become more than she ever expected. But love doesn’t come cheap…
In the tradition of such comedies as Four Weddings and a Funeral, My Best Friend’s Wedding and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Wedding Date is a funny, touching and utterly romantic look at love, marriage, family and the sexy surprises life holds in store.
About The Production
For the cast and creators of The Wedding Date, the consensus is unanimous: a wedding is a surefire setting for movie comedy. “Even under the best of circumstances, weddings are stressful, funny, unpredictable events,” says Wedding Date star Debra Messing.
“Nothing ever goes the way you want or expect. Add the family dynamic into the mix and there are unlimited sources for laughs.”
Messing’s co-star Dermot Mulroney agrees: “Not everyone gets married, but it is kind of a universal event. Pretty much everyone has been to a wedding, so it’s easy to relate to all the craziness.”
Holland Taylor, who plays Messing’s mother in the film, comments: “Weddings are a time when everyone is so anxious for things to go well that any little hitch can cause mass hysteria. Depending upon your vantage point, that can be quite amusing.”
It was this “pressure cooker” environment that drew director Clare Kilner to the story to begin with. “I’m very interested in the public and private sides of people and how much they’re prepared to show or mask in a given situation. I thought a wedding would be a really fun place to explore that kind of dichotomy.”
The director was also attracted to the film’s “dysfunctional family element” and explains, “I enjoyed the opportunity to present all the comic and dramatic contradictions within such a diverse group of relatives. Besides, almost everyone is pretending to be something they’re not, which always carries great potential for humor.”
In the film, Messing’s shy and heartbroken Kat Ellis is “pretending” the most, and it’s what excited the actress about the role. “I loved the idea of an `everywoman’ hiring an escort to help her create an illusion of a more exotic romantic life than she really has,” relates Messing. “How everyone in Kat’s world responds when she shows up with Nick [the escort] on her arm-because he’s clearly a very handsome, dashing, sophisticated man-was really fascinating to me. Suddenly everyone looks at her with new, accepting eyes just because he’s standing next to her. That kind of judgment is very real, and also very interesting to observe.”
Grounding the film in reality was key to Kilner’s direction of her actors. She notes, “I talked to the actors from the beginning about keeping their performances very truthful and not to overplay the comedic moments. I said, `Be honest and the comedy will follow.'”
Kilner’s unique style of direction was greatly welcomed by her cast. “She is really an actors’ director,” enthuses Messing. “Clare felt the characters’ relationships would make the whole thing funny so, throughout, she had us improvise and play tricks on each other. She’d give us these `little jewels’ to work with to make you think differently about a situation. Her spontaneous and experimental approach was really rewarding.”
“Clare had us making up things and filling in our characters’ back stories along the way,” recalls Dermot Mulroney. “For me, it turned out to be a great way to get to know Debra, both as a person and as a co-star. I think our chemistry really shows up in the work.”
Says Amy Adams, who plays Messing’s self-centered sister Amy, “Clare worked hard to make sure we understood all the relationships, how we relate to each other, what we have in common and what we don’t have in common. She liked us to discover new things every day and gave us the freedom to try scenes different ways, but always made sure we stayed true to our character’s basic nature-good or bad!”
And for Jack Davenport, who portrays Edward Fletcher-Wooten (a.k.a. “the groom”), he was surprised and pleased with Kilner’s direction. “There is always the temptation with this kind of story that you would work out what function your character serves in the whole and then just plow ahead as faithfully as you can. But Clare was always keen that we deviate from that as often as possible. She gave us an enormous amount of room to grow.”
Likewise, Kilner had high marks for her varied and talented cast. Though she’d previously never met Debra Messing, Kilner was already a big fan of her work on the hit TV series Will & Grace. “I thought Debra was brilliant on the show, so having her onboard the film was a huge pull for me,” states the director. “She’s an incredibly skilled and versatile performer. Debra has the ability to bring great sensitivity to drama as well as having crack comic timing.”
As for Messing’s leading man Dermot Mulroney, Kilner was equally impressed. “Dermot’s a great actor, in both drama and comedy. He gave the role of Nick such humor, class and substance that it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the part. He was a pleasure to direct.” Kilner happily concludes, “All in all, I was blessed with an extraordinary cast.”
Given that The Wedding Date’s cast and locale is primarily British, the American actors had a bit of a learning curve during the filming. As Dermot Mulroney explains, “There were a lot of British terms being used like `stroppy’ [`unreasonably grumpy’], `boot’ [`trunk’] and `lift’ [`elevator’], which became pretty second-nature to us `Yanks’ after awhile. We’d all joke about the culture clash nature of the production and actually tried to bring some of those `American actor versus English actor’ moments to our scenes, whether it was playing up on the different ways we speak, react or carry ourselves. Clare encouraged us to have fun with that and it ended up serving the comedy really well.”
“The British people are amazing and fun,” confirms Colorado-born Amy Adams, “but, I have to admit, I didn’t always know what they were talking about. It’s the same language as ours but at times it really isn’t! In fact, it took me a couple of weeks to start making the translation from British to American English.” The actress notes, “Then again, the Brits looked at me the same way, like I was the one talking weird!”
She adds, “And baked beans for breakfast? I still don’t get that. But I was told it was `sacred ground’ so I let it go. The last thing I wanted to do was start having to defend American food.”
Language and food issues aside, there were many plusses for the Americans. Observes Holland Taylor, “English actors and crews are lovely to you, incredibly respectful and pleasant, no matter what. I think they go out of their way to be polite. It helps the day, makes things go smoother and is just plain civilized. I can’t say it’s so much like that on American film sets.
Then there was the beauty of the British countryside, where much of the film was shot. Not only was the bucolic town of Guildford and its Surrey County environs a lovely and serene place to work, but inspiring as well. This was especially true for Clare Kilner, who made a conscious effort to “celebrate” her homeland on film. The director explains, “In the same way that Bertolucci honored the countryside of his native Italy in Stealing Beauty, I wanted to really showcase England’s natural splendor. This film had so many exteriors.'”
One of the main locations used in the film was the stately Chilworth Manor in the Surrey countryside. The stunning home served as the Fletcher-Wooten estate, where everyone gathers for the wedding weekend. According to location manager Giles Edleston, “It was the massive garden that really sold me on the house. It was gorgeous, the quintessential setting for a traditional English wedding.”
Another important location was the estate’s boat house, where several key scenes take place. And, though it looks as if it’s on the grounds of the country home, it was actually part of an arboretum in another area of Surrey. “The boat house was the most difficult place to find, as there are very few of them left,” recounts Edleston. “Plus to find something tucked away in the middle of the National Trust woodland took quite a bit of research. But in the end, we found the perfect spot and it looked fantastic.”
Concurs cinematographer Oliver Curtis, “Our jaws literally dropped open when we saw the boat house. You couldn’t have drawn one better. It was exactly as we’d all imagined it, complete with the geese and the swans and the trees. It was beautiful, really beautiful.”
Giles Edleston also located the perfect church for the film’s wedding ceremony, a 12th century structure tucked away in one of Surrey’s many picturesque towns. Co-star Holland Taylor, enchanted by the building’s history, comments, “Between takes, I’m looking at this Norman arch and then at this slightly later arch. Then I’m studying the bracers in the walls and wondering what a particular niche was there for, and I’m thinking how very privileged we are to be shooting in England.”
Many of the film’s “pre-wedding” events were shot in and around London, including the “in-town” hotel where the opening cocktail party takes place. “We had a bit of trouble finding a working hotel that would have us for three consecutive days,” recalls Oliver Curtis. “We were quite lucky to finally land this hotel on Wimbledon Commons, especially because its reception area, lobby and dining room interconnect, allowing us to do a number of Steadicam shots that go from one space through to another, and back again. From a technical point of view, the place worked out perfectly.”
A few districts away, London’s leafy, residential Primrose Hill was the setting for the game of rounders (the English ancestor of American baseball) between “Team Ellis” and “Team Fletcher-Wooten.” Other city neighborhoods used included The West End, Little Venice, Chiswick, Richmond, Hammersmith, St. John’s Wood and North London’s Islington area. In addition, London’s Gatwick Airport doubled for the interior of New York’s JFK Airport.
While England was brimming with scenic, memorable locations and polite, convivial people, there was, however, one obstacle to shooting there-the traditional English weather replete with ample rain. The wet and stormy weather that Britain is known for made almost daily appearances during production of The Wedding Date. But Clare Kilner, like so much of the English crew, took it in stride: “Filming is all about just going with what you have and making the best of it. You can’t fight the elements, so maybe there’s something else the day offers you.”
The American actors were impressed with the ease with which the English crew handled the inclement weather. “They’re just so used to having to deal with it,” says Debra Messing. “They whip out their parkas, open their `brollies’ [umbrellas] and they’re good to go. As an American, I’m used to a little more consistency in weather, so when it starts to rain it’s like, `Wow, what do we do now?’ Here there are a lot of people around to guide us like little ducklings and say, `Okay, come over here now.’ It’s all part of the adventure.”
Dermot Mulroney agrees, “When you’re shooting in England and it starts to rain, everyone just goes and stands under something until it blows over. If you’re filming in California and it begins to rain, everybody starts panicking and havoc and mayhem ensue. Here it’s all just part of a day’s work.”
Jokes English actor Jack Davenport, “Keeping your hair dry can be a nightmare if you haven’t got a shower cap!”
But for head make-up artist Kirstin Chalmers, the rain is serious stuff. “Make-up can slide off your face and get all streaky, so we really have to be extra vigilant,” she explains. “As far as hair goes, the dampness actually helps some actors’ hair. But for others, it can go badly wrong, frizzy and such. That’s where the real work kicks in.”
Erratic weather is a challenge for the cinematographer as well. Affirms Oliver Curtis, “Lighting continuity is a big issue. For example, one of the days we shot at the boat house, it started off bright, with dappled sunlight, then turned cloudy and miserable. But you have to think around these problems and light accordingly and try to make it cut. Whether people watching the film will notice is another question, but we do our best.”
In the end, Clare Kilner was thrilled with what she was able to achieve with her “top-flight” cast and crew, despite an accelerated shooting schedule, unpredictable weather and the “high-wire” demands of the romantic-comedy genre. “I think we truly accomplished what we set out to do here-and much more,” the director says proudly. “Filmmaking is such a collaborative art and when you’re working with a group as talented, dedicated and generous as I was fortunate enough to have, you can achieve a great deal indeed.”
The Wedding Date (2005)
Directed by: Clare Kilner
Starring: Debra Messing, Dermot Mulroney, Amy Adams, Holland Taylor, Jack Davenport, Sarah Parish, Jeremy Sheffield, Peter Egan, Jolyon James, Helen Lindsay, Ivana Horvat, Linda Dobell
Screenplay by: Dana Fox
Production Design by: Tom Burton
Cinematography by: Oliver Curtis
Film Editing by: Mary Finlay
Costume Design by: Louise Page
Set Decoration by: Barbara Herman-Skelding
Art Direction by: Astrid Sieben
Music by: Blake Neely
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content including dialogue.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: February 4, 2005
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