Prime is a marvelous film. It stars Uma Thurman as a woman seeing a psychoanalyst [Meryl Streep] in New York City. Coincidentally she starts dating her psychoanalysts son [Bryan Greenberg] who is 15 years younger than her.
It is written and directed by Ben Younger who made a 180 from his big splash in the film world with Boiler Room.
Buy the DVD of Prime
Daniel Robert Epstein: Why did it take you so long to get another feature film going after Boiler Room was a success?
Ben Younger: Thats a good question. Im trying to cure that problem right now because Im writing very steadily. I think I just couldnt believe that I got the first one made. It wasnt like I tried and I failed.
DRE: Im a Jewish guy myself also. Is it a clich for a Jewish guy to make a movie with a shrink?
BY: I dont think its been done enough to be a clich. Has it?
DRE: Maybe just Woody Allen.
BY: Yeah, just Woody. No I dont think its a clich. Even in Woodys movies, the shrinks were more clich than this one. He had strict Freudians with couches in their office. Prime is a very realistic portrayal of a psychoanalyst. It wasnt the stark room with the leather furniture and Im proud of that.
DRE: Is Prime autobiographical?
BY: Well my Moms a shrink, so I definitely was able to draw from that but I dont know what kind of shrink she is. Ive never been in the office with her.
DRE: You never listened in on the sessions?
BY: No. Not really supposed to from what I understand.
DRE: How did you get Uma Thurman?
BY: Thats the advantage of being with an agency like CAA. They just can make things happen.
DRE: Is that the same with Meryl Streep?
BY: No Meryl was attached to the movie for a long time before that.
DRE: I interviewed Meryl once and she said that usually people are nervous around her until she gets on set and makes a joke. Was that the situation with her?
BY: Yeah it was. But I actually got past the nervousness a little bit earlier than that because we spent quite a bit of time rehearsing.
DRE: Did the rehearsal process change the movie at all?
BY: I dont think so. I think they were more for me. I was finally able to relax around Meryl because it was such a big deal for me. Ive worked with a few big names, but shes the one that made me nervous. I thought Id make ten movies and work 20 years before she would be in a movie of mine.
DRE: Did the part change once she was cast?
BY: No. She identified with the part. Obviously on set we would play with lines and stuff but she liked the character.
DRE: How did you end up casting Bryan Greenberg?
BY: Bryan earned it in his audition. There were a lot of guys the studio wanted us to look at with a lot more name recognition but Bryan battled it out. It was like American Idol, just round after round he just kept coming back.
DRE: I liked him on the HBO show Unscripted.
BY: Yeah, I was on that for a few episodes. They came to the set and shot us.
DRE: That must have been pretty interesting.
BY: Yeah, we did an episode where Bryan got drunk and showed up to set the next day kind of still drunk and Meryl gave him a talking to. It was pretty funny.
DRE: Prime is the second movie youve shot in New York, how was it again?
BY: Its great man, I love it. I fought really hard to shoot Boiler Room in New York. But its funny, once you do get to shoot a movie in New York, theres a little bit of a precedent thing going on. So it wasnt as hard to convince Universal. Plus Meryl and Uma really wanted to shoot in New York. That always helps.
DRE: How much of a change was it from shooting a smaller film like Boiler Room, to shooting something with a larger budget like Prime?
BY: We didnt have a lot of money for this movie. It was under $20 million. So much of the money goes above the line so you dont have it personally. Combine that with the cost of shooting in New York and then Meryl and Uma having sizable salaries. It came out to be pretty much the same. Its not like I got a trailer on this one, everything was the same for me. The difference was that I had five or six extra days.
DRE: From the trailers Prime looked like a regular romantic comedy but it wasnt like that.
BY: I was not going for a broad romantic comedy. I wanted to make a sophisticated love story.
DRE: I speak to a lot of actresses and they always say that its hard to find sophisticated adult stories because most movies are made for 15 year old idiots. Did you have a lot of resistance getting Prime together?
BY: It wasnt like getting Boiler Room made. That was a struggle. With Prime, Universal signed on pretty fast. They liked the more adult material and then once you get stars attached, everyone feels a little safer going forward.
DRE: Prime was not a big hit. Was it marketed the way you thought it should have?
BY: Thats a complicated one. Would I have liked to have seen the marketing done differently? Yes. I wish the marketing had more reflected the true value of the movie. I understand why they did it and I even got behind it at the time. Maybe in hindsight we shouldnt have done that. I guess our strategy was that the more sophisticated adult audience is going to find this movie on their own. They dont need the advertising so why not try and make it seem a little broader and bring in a younger audience. But I dont think we reached the younger audience anyway and I think we could have reached more of an adult sophisticated audience if we had marketed the movie accurately. But no movie get marketed accurately. Theres no trailer youll see and go Yeah that was a pretty fair representation of that film. Its just not like that. Also Prime has surpassed 50 million dollars already worldwide.
DRE: Thats amazing! Congratulations.
BY: Thanks.
DRE: Are they used to sophisticated movies of this nature?
BY: I think theyre not actually. American cinema is pervasive around the world. Look at France for example, they used to make these tons of incredible movies and now its slowed down. Films like Cache and Swimming Pool are great but they are smaller movies. The blockbusters are all from the US. Uma is tremendously popular overseas, a lot more than she is here. Overseas Uma and Meryl in an intelligent movie generates excitement. Whereas here, like you said, it is 15 year old kids who go to the movies opening weekend.
DRE: Did that influence the next film you will make?
BY: You hear an artist say that you make art for yourself and then you find your audience afterwards. I certainly believe you shouldnt be writing for an audience. I definitely write the things I want to write. But I dont want to make films in a vacuum. If someone gave me a $100 million and said go make whatever you want, Im sure what I would make would still be something that people would want to see. Im not interested in alienating anyone and my tastes arent so off the path that Id make some weird video installation, because thats not my interest. Even when you market a movie to a broad audience theres still no guarantee. Prime wasnt seen by as many people as I thought would have seen it. So now Im starting to feel that I should push in the other direction. You might as well just make the movie you want to make, fight for that cause and then truly let the film find its audience.
DRE: Did you have expectations for Boiler Room once it was finished?
BY: I imagine that when you finish your movie, you find a reason to tell yourself why the movie is going to do great; whatever movie it is. After Boiler Room all I could think was, Oh this movie is right on the pulse. This is exactly whats going on in the world. The markets blowing up. There are tons of these places around. Everyone gets calls at home from these telemarketers. This movies going to make a $100 million. Then it makes $16 million. For Prime, Demis dating Ashton and I could give you probably four other examples of older women with younger men. So again the movie is very topical, got my finger on the pulse and then, still it wasnt bad, it made $28 million. When it comes to good movies, its not necessarily about the material. If you released Prime a month later or earlier I think that could have changed the numbers by ten million dollars.
DRE: Is it difficult for a guy like yourself who just wants to make his movies to have to deal with all the other stuff that goes around it?
BY: Thats really what Im saying, just get away from that, make the movie and then people will end up seeing it. See thats the great thing about DVD. Not many people saw Boiler Room in the theatre but the entire world seems to have seen it on DVD. Everyone knows what that movie is. You get a second life with these DVD releases, which is pretty great.
DRE: Are you getting offered anything to direct?
BY: Im getting a lot of offers, but its all exactly what I just did. All romantic comedies.
DRE: Boiler Room has become a cult hit. Do you have people that have gone into that kind of business because of the movie?
BY: No, the movie put that kind of business out of business. The movie was like a catalyst. I got a letter from the president of the NASD saying something like that the movie reached more people than he ever could. AARP put out a whole thing on it because a lot of the victims were senior citizens.
DRE: What are you working on now?
BY: I got a movie fully financed called 17 Bullets, its a Mexican Western that takes place in the late 1800s. There are only seventeen shots fired in the whole movie, thats why it is called 17 Bullets. Its very high concept and a cool movie.
DRE: Did you write that as well?
BY: No I developed it with these two writers but we did a lot of work on the script together.
DRE: Where are you planning on shooting it?
BY: Were going to do it all in Mexico. But I dont know where. We havent done a tech scout yet.
DRE: So you know Spanish?
BY: No.
DRE: How will that work?
BY: Im going to learn it.
DRE: What studio is producing?
BY: We dont need a studio. We got our ten million in cash. So were just going to go.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
It is written and directed by Ben Younger who made a 180 from his big splash in the film world with Boiler Room.
Buy the DVD of Prime
Daniel Robert Epstein: Why did it take you so long to get another feature film going after Boiler Room was a success?
Ben Younger: Thats a good question. Im trying to cure that problem right now because Im writing very steadily. I think I just couldnt believe that I got the first one made. It wasnt like I tried and I failed.
DRE: Im a Jewish guy myself also. Is it a clich for a Jewish guy to make a movie with a shrink?
BY: I dont think its been done enough to be a clich. Has it?
DRE: Maybe just Woody Allen.
BY: Yeah, just Woody. No I dont think its a clich. Even in Woodys movies, the shrinks were more clich than this one. He had strict Freudians with couches in their office. Prime is a very realistic portrayal of a psychoanalyst. It wasnt the stark room with the leather furniture and Im proud of that.
DRE: Is Prime autobiographical?
BY: Well my Moms a shrink, so I definitely was able to draw from that but I dont know what kind of shrink she is. Ive never been in the office with her.
DRE: You never listened in on the sessions?
BY: No. Not really supposed to from what I understand.
DRE: How did you get Uma Thurman?
BY: Thats the advantage of being with an agency like CAA. They just can make things happen.
DRE: Is that the same with Meryl Streep?
BY: No Meryl was attached to the movie for a long time before that.
DRE: I interviewed Meryl once and she said that usually people are nervous around her until she gets on set and makes a joke. Was that the situation with her?
BY: Yeah it was. But I actually got past the nervousness a little bit earlier than that because we spent quite a bit of time rehearsing.
DRE: Did the rehearsal process change the movie at all?
BY: I dont think so. I think they were more for me. I was finally able to relax around Meryl because it was such a big deal for me. Ive worked with a few big names, but shes the one that made me nervous. I thought Id make ten movies and work 20 years before she would be in a movie of mine.
DRE: Did the part change once she was cast?
BY: No. She identified with the part. Obviously on set we would play with lines and stuff but she liked the character.
DRE: How did you end up casting Bryan Greenberg?
BY: Bryan earned it in his audition. There were a lot of guys the studio wanted us to look at with a lot more name recognition but Bryan battled it out. It was like American Idol, just round after round he just kept coming back.
DRE: I liked him on the HBO show Unscripted.
BY: Yeah, I was on that for a few episodes. They came to the set and shot us.
DRE: That must have been pretty interesting.
BY: Yeah, we did an episode where Bryan got drunk and showed up to set the next day kind of still drunk and Meryl gave him a talking to. It was pretty funny.
DRE: Prime is the second movie youve shot in New York, how was it again?
BY: Its great man, I love it. I fought really hard to shoot Boiler Room in New York. But its funny, once you do get to shoot a movie in New York, theres a little bit of a precedent thing going on. So it wasnt as hard to convince Universal. Plus Meryl and Uma really wanted to shoot in New York. That always helps.
DRE: How much of a change was it from shooting a smaller film like Boiler Room, to shooting something with a larger budget like Prime?
BY: We didnt have a lot of money for this movie. It was under $20 million. So much of the money goes above the line so you dont have it personally. Combine that with the cost of shooting in New York and then Meryl and Uma having sizable salaries. It came out to be pretty much the same. Its not like I got a trailer on this one, everything was the same for me. The difference was that I had five or six extra days.
DRE: From the trailers Prime looked like a regular romantic comedy but it wasnt like that.
BY: I was not going for a broad romantic comedy. I wanted to make a sophisticated love story.
DRE: I speak to a lot of actresses and they always say that its hard to find sophisticated adult stories because most movies are made for 15 year old idiots. Did you have a lot of resistance getting Prime together?
BY: It wasnt like getting Boiler Room made. That was a struggle. With Prime, Universal signed on pretty fast. They liked the more adult material and then once you get stars attached, everyone feels a little safer going forward.
DRE: Prime was not a big hit. Was it marketed the way you thought it should have?
BY: Thats a complicated one. Would I have liked to have seen the marketing done differently? Yes. I wish the marketing had more reflected the true value of the movie. I understand why they did it and I even got behind it at the time. Maybe in hindsight we shouldnt have done that. I guess our strategy was that the more sophisticated adult audience is going to find this movie on their own. They dont need the advertising so why not try and make it seem a little broader and bring in a younger audience. But I dont think we reached the younger audience anyway and I think we could have reached more of an adult sophisticated audience if we had marketed the movie accurately. But no movie get marketed accurately. Theres no trailer youll see and go Yeah that was a pretty fair representation of that film. Its just not like that. Also Prime has surpassed 50 million dollars already worldwide.
DRE: Thats amazing! Congratulations.
BY: Thanks.
DRE: Are they used to sophisticated movies of this nature?
BY: I think theyre not actually. American cinema is pervasive around the world. Look at France for example, they used to make these tons of incredible movies and now its slowed down. Films like Cache and Swimming Pool are great but they are smaller movies. The blockbusters are all from the US. Uma is tremendously popular overseas, a lot more than she is here. Overseas Uma and Meryl in an intelligent movie generates excitement. Whereas here, like you said, it is 15 year old kids who go to the movies opening weekend.
DRE: Did that influence the next film you will make?
BY: You hear an artist say that you make art for yourself and then you find your audience afterwards. I certainly believe you shouldnt be writing for an audience. I definitely write the things I want to write. But I dont want to make films in a vacuum. If someone gave me a $100 million and said go make whatever you want, Im sure what I would make would still be something that people would want to see. Im not interested in alienating anyone and my tastes arent so off the path that Id make some weird video installation, because thats not my interest. Even when you market a movie to a broad audience theres still no guarantee. Prime wasnt seen by as many people as I thought would have seen it. So now Im starting to feel that I should push in the other direction. You might as well just make the movie you want to make, fight for that cause and then truly let the film find its audience.
DRE: Did you have expectations for Boiler Room once it was finished?
BY: I imagine that when you finish your movie, you find a reason to tell yourself why the movie is going to do great; whatever movie it is. After Boiler Room all I could think was, Oh this movie is right on the pulse. This is exactly whats going on in the world. The markets blowing up. There are tons of these places around. Everyone gets calls at home from these telemarketers. This movies going to make a $100 million. Then it makes $16 million. For Prime, Demis dating Ashton and I could give you probably four other examples of older women with younger men. So again the movie is very topical, got my finger on the pulse and then, still it wasnt bad, it made $28 million. When it comes to good movies, its not necessarily about the material. If you released Prime a month later or earlier I think that could have changed the numbers by ten million dollars.
DRE: Is it difficult for a guy like yourself who just wants to make his movies to have to deal with all the other stuff that goes around it?
BY: Thats really what Im saying, just get away from that, make the movie and then people will end up seeing it. See thats the great thing about DVD. Not many people saw Boiler Room in the theatre but the entire world seems to have seen it on DVD. Everyone knows what that movie is. You get a second life with these DVD releases, which is pretty great.
DRE: Are you getting offered anything to direct?
BY: Im getting a lot of offers, but its all exactly what I just did. All romantic comedies.
DRE: Boiler Room has become a cult hit. Do you have people that have gone into that kind of business because of the movie?
BY: No, the movie put that kind of business out of business. The movie was like a catalyst. I got a letter from the president of the NASD saying something like that the movie reached more people than he ever could. AARP put out a whole thing on it because a lot of the victims were senior citizens.
DRE: What are you working on now?
BY: I got a movie fully financed called 17 Bullets, its a Mexican Western that takes place in the late 1800s. There are only seventeen shots fired in the whole movie, thats why it is called 17 Bullets. Its very high concept and a cool movie.
DRE: Did you write that as well?
BY: No I developed it with these two writers but we did a lot of work on the script together.
DRE: Where are you planning on shooting it?
BY: Were going to do it all in Mexico. But I dont know where. We havent done a tech scout yet.
DRE: So you know Spanish?
BY: No.
DRE: How will that work?
BY: Im going to learn it.
DRE: What studio is producing?
BY: We dont need a studio. We got our ten million in cash. So were just going to go.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
hal9000:
My girlfriend dragged me to this film. The way she described it it sounded like "Beaches 2." It was nothing like Beaches, and I ended up enjoying it a lot. If there was an Academy Award for best chemistry between two actresses it should have gone to Meryl Streep and Uma Thurman. Somtimes I had to laugh out loud just because of their facial expressions they made during their uncomfortable situations. 
punchdrunkblake:
ben younger is in my cool book now.. i haven't even heard of boiler room, will have to track it down..