Blythe Danner brings some 'Dreams' to Sarasota Film Festival

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See the trailer for "I'll See You in My Dreams" below

Hollywood has long had an aversion to films with older characters, particularly women, but actress Blythe Danner said that may be changing a bit.

Emmy and Tony-winning actress Blythe Danner plays a widow who two men interested in pursuing more than a friendship in "I'll See You in My Dreams," the closing night film at the Sarasota Film Festival. Photo provided by Sarasota Film Festival

Emmy and Tony-winning actress Blythe Danner plays a widow who two men interested in pursuing more than a friendship in "I'll See You in My Dreams," the closing night film at the Sarasota Film Festival. Photo provided by Sarasota Film Festival

“We see some of the success of films with Maggie Smith and Judi Dench and Helen Mirren and a few others. There seems to be a healthier climate than it used to be,” Danner said in a telephone interview. “When I started, almost no women were taking a starring role in a film. It was rare, so to my mind, it’s changing for the better.”

Danner is an example of the changing demographics as the star of the new film “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” the closing-night movie for the 2015 Sarasota Film Festival Saturday night. She is seen in almost every scene, and when it opened in January at the Sundance Film Festival, Variety described it as a “sweetly handled romantic dramedy that has the great virtue of featuring Blythe Danner in an all-too-rare leading role.”

The response at Sundance from a wide-ranging audience led the film to be picked up for distribution in New York and Los Angeles in mid-May and possibly wider release later this year.

“We were surprised with the reaction. It’s a small film and shot very quickly and you just never know how they will turn out,” she said. “I’ve done quite a few indies over the years film, and it was great to see the response, especially from the younger generation. They really responded to it.”

Blythe Danner, right, stars in "I'll See You in My Dreams," with Sam Elliott, the closing night film at the 2015 Sarasota Film Festival. Photo provided by Sarasota Film Festival

Blythe Danner, right, stars in "I'll See You in My Dreams," with Sam Elliott, the closing night film at the 2015 Sarasota Film Festival. Photo provided by Sarasota Film Festival

For younger viewers, Danner may be best known as Gwyneth Paltrow’s mother, or the star of a series of commercials for osteoporosis medication.

But her distinguished career includes dozens of films she has starred in, including “Meet the Parents,” and her Emmy Award-winning roles on “Huff” and as Will Truman’s mother on “Will & Grace.” She earned a Tony Award in 1970 for “Butterflies are Free,” one of her many stage roles on Broadway and in regional theaters.

In “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” Danner plays Carol Peterson, a widowed woman who meets two vastly different men who would like to become more than just friends. One is played by the much younger Martin Starr (of HBO’s “Silicon Valley”) and the other is played by Sam Elliott, in what Danner describes as a rare romantic role.

“He’s got that voice. It’s a seductive voice. He’s a charming, charming man, and so happy to get this role and to embrace this romantic, very sensually romantic guy. He just reveled in it,” she said.
And the women on the set “just couldn’t leave him alone.”

Those women included her co-stars Rhea Perlman, June Squibb and Mary Kaye Place, with whom she plays bridge, smokes pot and gets into various kinds of mischief.

“We laughed a lot,” Danner said. “The director had to be on us to behave ourselves. We kind of turned into the characters who are old friends. There’s a marijuana scene that is very funny and June is just hilarious. They all are.”

Blythe Danner returned to Broadway in the fall of 2014 in Donald Margulies' "The Country House." Photo by Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Blythe Danner returned to Broadway in the fall of 2014 in Donald Margulies' "The Country House." Photo by Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

While making the film, Danner said that her late husband, writer and director Bruce Paltrow, “was very much present in my mind.” Her life experiences help her find ways to connect to each character she plays, but she’s never considered Carol’s position of juggling potential suitors. “I’m just not that interested,” she said.

“There’s a line in the film, ‘When you have had the best, the heck with the rest’,” Danner said. “I once played Mrs. Lou Gehrig in a television film and when I met the real Mrs. Gehrig, she said that to me. I just had no interest in that, but you never know what might come along.”

Best known for the series “The White Shadow” and “St. Elsewhere,” Paltrow died from a recurrence of throat cancer in 2002, and just mentioning his name causes Danner to mention that April is Oral Cancer Awareness Month.

“That’s what we lost Bruce to, and we’re urging people to get screenings against oral cancer,” she said. “It’s not often found until the last stage, and we’re encouraging young people to be screened and for prepubescent boys and girls to get shots for the HPV vaccine. Because of oral sex, it’s being really transmitted to epidemic proportions now.”

The Bruce Paltrow Fund was set up to help people, particularly those in the inner cities, to get free screenings. More information is available at oralcancer.org (for screenings) and oralcancerfoundation.org.

Interested?
Blythe Danner will be the special guest at the Sarasota Film Festival’s Tea by the Sea at the Ritz-Carlton Beach Club at noon Saturday, and will attend the screening of the closing night film “I”ll See You in My Dreams” at 7 p.m., following a 5 p.m. red carpet and 6 p.m. awards show. For more information: 366-6200; sarasotafilmfestival.com

See a clip from "I'll See You in My Dreams"

Interested?
Blythe Danner will be the special guest at the Sarasota Film Festival’s Tea by the Sea at the Ritz-Carlton Beach Club at noon Saturday, and will attend the screening of the closing night film “I”ll See You in My Dreams” at 7 p.m., following a 5 p.m. red carpet and 6 p.m. awards show. For more information: 366-6200; sarasotafilmfestival.com
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Jay Handelman

Jay Handelman is the theater and television critic for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, where he has worked since 1984. He also is President of the Foundation of the American Theatre Critics Association and a two-time past chairman of the association's executive committee. He can be reached by email or call (941) 361-4931. Follow him at @jayhandelman on Twitter. Make sure to "Like" Arts Sarasota on Facebook for news and reviews of the arts.
Last modified: April 24, 2015
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