Director Charles Herman-Wurmfeld scored a breakout hit with his last movie, "Kissing Jessica Stein". The son of an architect and photographer, the 36-year-old enjoyed success as a performance artist and theatre director in San Francisco in the mid-90s, relocating to Los Angeles in 1997. Now he's directed Reese Witherspoon in "Legally Blonde 2".
What pressure were you under making the sequel to a hit like "Legally Blonde"?
It was like having an additional script on top of my script, I chose to see it as more material to mine. I tend to look at my script as an opportunity for mining creative choices and decisions, and hopefully inspiration. I just used the first movie that way, as an additional text for myself. And while I felt a responsibility to the fans, I tried to leave behind any sense of fear and anxiety about making a sequel to a film that was so beloved.
Is it at all inhibiting knowing that your leading lady is also an executive producer on the film?
To work in a world that is predominantly controlled by artists is fundamentally a better working environment. On that level I was thrilled to have Reese as my executive producer, because it meant that a lot of the control of the movie fell to an artist, a fellow storyteller, and not a business person sitting in a corporate office somewhere.
It's claimed that no animals were harmed during the making of "Legally Blonde 2". Were you ever tempted?
They say you're not supposed to work with animals, but I actually found that if you lower your expectations of what the animals are going to do, you're OK. They're not actors, they're dogs, they haven't read the script, and they don't care about the movie at all. They just want their next snack.
Elle's dog, Bruiser, is almost like an actor though, isn't he?
Bruiser's real name is Moonie, and he is highly trained. For a dog with such a little head he seems to take in a lot of information. I never lost a minute of shooting time because of that dog.
Some of the film was shot in Springfield, Illinois. How come?
In wartime Washington we weren't able to get access to the Lincoln Memorial, Congress, or anywhere near the House of Representatives. Washington was shut down. So I set off with my production designer and location manager on a search for locations around the country that would approximate some of these places. We found one of those locations in Springfield.
How did the folks there react to you?
It was great, the entire economic and political powerbase came out and were extras on the movie for four days. They were real senators and real representatives and real pillars of the business community there. They were literally doing business as we were working. The female representatives who get makeovers in the film were Illinois society women and they had a blast. It's lovely to work outside LA and New York, where people are so excited about movies.
