'American Beauty' Live: Adam Sandler and Rosemarie DeWitt Recreate the 1999 Oscar-Winning Drama
Jason Reitman at the Live Read event Thursday night
Director Jason Reitman practically bounced into his folding chair on the Bing Theater stage in Los Angeles Thursday night at the beginning of his latest live screenplay reading event. He declared, “This is so much better than directing movies.”
An exaggeration? Probably. But it is clear that hosting the Film Independent at LACMA series is a labor of love for the Juno and Up in the Air director whose latest movie, the family drama Men, Women & Children, is in theaters starting Friday. Live Read, which Reitman has been directing since 2011, assembles a collection of actors to perform classic movie scripts unrehearsed in front of 600 eager movie fans, (In the past they’ve tackled such films as Pulp Fiction, Raising Arizona, and Tootsie.) The Live Reads are not recorded, streamed, or live-tweeted, and only official photography is allowed.
Dean Norris, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Adam Sandler
The latest screenplay was the drama American Beauty, a five-time Oscar winner celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. Reitman was already well acquainted with the cast who trooped out on stage to do the 1999 drama justice: Olivia Crocicchia, Travis Tope, Kaitlyn Dever, Phil LaMarr, Dean Norris, Rosemarie DeWitt, and finally Adam Sandler, otherwise know as the cast of Men, Women & Children.
While this particular Live Read might have started as a clever way to promote Reitman’s new movie, the parallels between American Beauty and Men, Women & Children were soon apparent. As Reitman had told Entertainment Weekly earlier in the week, “It occurred to me while I was trying to figure out who to put into the American Beauty read that the casts kind of lined up nicely.” In Men, DeWitt and Sandler play an unhappy married couple battling intimacy problems. It made perfect sense then to have the actors read the parts of the deeply dysfunctional Carolyn and Lester Burnham, originally made famous by Annette Bening and Kevin Spacey. Meanwhile in Men, Norris plays a tough guy having a hard time finding common ground with his son, which made the actor a natural fit for the hard-nosed Colonel Fitts role. Filling out the rest of the cast, Tope tackled the Wes Bentley role of Ricky, Dever played the Thora Birch role of Jane, and Cocicchia played the Mena Suvari role of Angela.
Working together before certainly seemed to help the group since there were minimal mishaps and line flubs. Sandler got big laughs for singing a snippet of the Who at one point, while DeWitt’s unbridled enthusiasm during the sex scene with real estate king Buddy Kane proved hilarious. Only a handful of people fit on the stage, so the smaller parts are usually divvied up among the leads. It was quite a bonus to have voice work pro LaMarr — whose extensive credits include Star Wars: Clone Wars, Futurama, Family Guy, and Samurai Jack — on board as he infused extra life into (among others) Kane, the motivational tape speaker, and one of the gay Jims.
Phil LaMarr, Rosemarie DeWitt, Olivia Crocicchia, Travis Trope, Dean Norris, Adam Sandler, Kaitlyn Dever, and director Jason Reitman
The audience was also reminded about some future scripts, including Diner in November, The Empire Strikes Back in December, and Goodfellas, Sideways, and Dazed and Confused later on. Reitman seemed particularly focused on the Star Wars sequel. “I’m terrified of that one,” he said. “It’s all action. It’s just gonna be me talking.”
Watch the original trailer for American Beauty
Photo credit: DreamWorks, Amanda Edwards/WireImage
