Filmmaking duo Scott McGehee and David Siegel first got the idea to adapt Sigrid Nunez’s 2018 National Book Award winner The Friend when Siegel read a review of it in The New York Times. It sounded like something that would easily lend itself to the screen. But it wasn’t.
The book begins with a curious, alarming anecdote about genocide survivors going blind — an anecdote that has no place in the considerably less provocative film version, a story of a small woman leading a big dog through New York under tragic circumstances.
“I don’t know if you’ve read the book, but it’s very literary. It’s not an obvious film story. The review of the book suggested a stronger film story,” McGehee told MovieMaker at the New York Film Festival, where the film is screening and searching for a distributor to bring it to a wider audience.
Despite the challenges of adapting an acclaimed book that relies heavily on an unnamed narrator’s spellbinding delivery, McGehee and Siegel were undeterred. They pressed on with a story of a writer and professor, now named Iris and played by Naomi Watts, who inherits a gorgeous but massive Great Dane from her writer friend Walter, played by Bill Murray, after he commits suicide.
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The film reunites Watts and Murray a decade after they appeared together in the dramedy St. Vincent, and is the ninth collaboration for Siegel and McGehee. They usually work as co-writers, directors and producers, though sometimes serve in fewer of those capacities.
They talked with us about how they started before their 1994 debut Suture, about choosing names for Nunez’s usually nameless characters, and how they chose Bill Murray to play the problematic Walter.
Sonya Alexander: How did you guys start collaborating?
David Siegel: That takes us back to the 19th century! [Laughs.]
Scott McGehee: David and my sister went to art school together. David and I became friends through that connection.
David Siegel: Kelly is our production designer. She’s done all of our movies. She’s an integral part of our creative life. I was getting an MFA at RISD and Scott was going to be an academic. He was doing Japanese film studies in the Rhetoric Department at Berkeley.
We weren’t people who thought when we were 15 that we wanted to be filmmakers. When we started, we were a little ignorant. … There was no one to tell us we should do this or shouldn’t do that. … We kind of reinvented the wheel for ourselves. Not to stretch the metaphor too far, but the wheel has kept rolling.
Sonya Alexander: What do you think the benefits are of collaborating, particularly with writing?
David Siegel: We always have each other. I can’t tell you how many people have told me, “I wish I had a partner like that.” I think there’s a reason you see so many writing partnerships. Directing, to some degree, is the luck of the draw, and because we were so ignorant, we had to figure it out together.
Scott McGehee: Our personalities work together. We’re best friends and we like each other after all this time. The other aspect of it is discipline. We show up for each other.
David Siegel: We’re both diligent, disciplined people.
Sonya Alexander: Since Iris is nameless in the book, how did you form her character?
David Siegel: Her character is very fleshed out in the book, but we had to name everyone. That was a fun thing. We got to know Sigrid quite well, actually grew to love her. We were always a little anxious about how she’d respond to names we’d chosen, this character we created, or story ellipses we cut out or included. She liked the script a lot. She came with us to Telluride to see the movie. She seemed really happy with it.
The Friend Directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel on Casting Bill Murray as a Troubled But Appealing Friend
Sonya Alexander: Within the story, why do you think everyone is so drawn to Walter’s character?
Scott McGehee: That’s an interesting question. He’s a charismatic, talented, bright, interesting person, but he’s also a problematic one. I think we all know people like that in our lives. People we choose to spend time with, even though we complain about them. [Laughs.]
David Siegel: He’s an extrovert, he’s funny, he’s charming, he’s sophisticated. He’s a beautiful writer. He exudes that charm, but like Scott is saying, that comes along with some baggage that’s not easy to deal with. We feel like what Sigrid did was write a classic literary figure. Both sides of his personality are weighted. The weight on one side is tough, the weight on the other side is quite charming and seductive.
Scott McGehee: We had been thinking about Bill Murray for that role. Then we brought up that idea with Naomi in one of our first conversations with her, and she loved the idea. From that moment on, none of us could think of anyone else playing that character. We were lucky to get him to read the script, get him to agree to do it, and get him to come and make the movie with us.
Sonya Alexander: Was it difficult working with Bing, who plays Apollo, the Great Dane?
David Siegel: We really lucked out with Bing because he’s so good-natured. It took two to three weeks to figure out how to get him to move and do the things we were interested in doing. Once he got in the groove of it and we got in the groove of it with him, he was a pleasure to work with.
Scott McGehee: It requires patience, though. Everything takes twice as long when you’ve got an animal on set. You can’t just say, “Hey, can you move over two inches?” You have to stand him up, get him to turn around, and try to put him back in position and in the right place. Everything’s a process.
Sonya Alexander: The story has many layers, but what do you ultimately think it says about friendship?
David Siegel: I don’t think it speaks in specifics about friendship. What I hope that it does is conveys an emotional tenor that feels like friendship. We have the love of our families, but friendship is invaluable. It’s beautiful. Hopefully the movie is conveying that feeling and the audience leaves the theater with that to some degree. Is that sappy?
Sonya Alexander: No, not at all. Quite poetic. As directors, what’s the first thing you guys do when you get on set?
David Siegel: Say a prayer.
Scott McGehee: There’s a lot of preparation before you actually arrive on set on Day 1 to start shooting. When you find yourself on set, you’re with people who you already have these deep, working processes with and strong feelings for and about. It’s kind of a midpoint working with people you’re kind of close with already. There is a moment where you gather everyone and say, “OK, here we go.”
Sonya Alexander: How do you make the actors feel at ease?
Scott McGehee: We don’t. [Laughs.]
David Siegel: You learn to give actors space, especially with the way we work and the kinds of movies we make. We’re highly specific about the way a movie is framed. Creating the pieces of the puzzle to make a cut movie. At the same time, actors should feel they have room to play.
Sonya Alexander: If you guys needed a service animal, what would you get and what would you name it?
David Siegel: I would definitely get some kind of herding dog. I had a cattle-dog mix who lived a very long life. She was an incredible dog. Her name was Tiger. The herdingness of Tiger made it feel like she was protecting you. I think I’d call her Tiger.
Scott McGehee: I wouldn’t call her Tiger, but I agree with David about the kind of dog. I grew up with a border collie named who had a similar working-dog intelligence. I think one of the things we love about dogs is their eagerness to be on your team.
Sonya Alexander: New York City is really a character in the film. Was it that way in the book?
David Siegel: Maybe not quite to the degree that it is in the movie. It was important to us to feature New York that way. It seemed like that was an important way to understand what it was, in having Apollo. You have all of the fun of the city but also all of the difficulties as well.
Scott McGehee: Sigrid is quintessentially a New York writer. Reading her, you feel how deeply enmeshed she is in New York’s fabric. That’s where her imagination lives. David and I saw this as an opportunity to have a New York movie that had that kind of comfort and familiarity of New York movies we grew up loving.
David Siegel: While at the same time trying to do something fresh and different.
The Friend does not yet have a theatrical release date.