Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Karen Moncrieff

Aired June 15, 2003 - 11:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: We're thinking about how important dads are today. Every day, for that matter. Reminded that some people don't have the benefit of a father present, however, in their family. The film "Blue Car" explores that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Going to Florida or wherever else I want to go. It's none of your business.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then maybe you better find some place else to live.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll go live with dad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, good. You do that. You do that. You think he's so wonderful. You go see how you like it over there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At least he doesn't try to control everything I do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your father doesn't give a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) about you. How many times did he come around here last year? Three?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He doesn't come here because of you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He can't even manage to pay the lousy $60 a week in child support he owes me!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Ouch. This is hard core stuff. "Blue Car" writer/director Karen Moncrieff is in Los Angeles on this Father's Day and joining us. Thanks, Karen, for joining us, and giving us a very raw, real image of how some families are really having a difficult time without a father present.

In this case, this young girl, you know, her father abandons her and the family. She has quite a few troubles, and then she turns to poetry. You pick it up from there.

KAREN MONCRIEFF, WRITER/DIRECTOR, "BLUE CAR": Well, I think Meg in the film, like a lot of girls who don't have a father figure present, is searching for somebody to see her and listen to her and encourage her, and she finds a mentor in her high school English teacher, Mr. Auster, played by David Strathairn. And their relationship goes from a simple mentoring to something that's a lot more complex.

WHITFIELD: And so, you really do sort of explore, it sounds like, how perhaps in this young girl's life, she tries to look for replacement, or somehow look for replacements, by her father not being present in some pretty pivotal moments of her life, right?

MONCRIEFF: Right. Well, I think, at least anecdotally it seems to me a lot of young women who don't have a father figure present end up looking for a surrogate in all the wrong places. So Meg certainly goes through that search, and I think by the end of the film learns that in some cases kids need to parent themselves and cobble together whatever family they can from, you know, the parental figures that are available to them.

WHITFIELD: This has been described as being very emotional graphic. It's got an "R" rating. This is not a movie for kids. Is there disappointment for you that, you know, you got, A, this "R" rating, and that young people won't get the chance to appreciate this as readily as adults might, with that kind of rating.

MONCRIEFF: Well, I actually think it's really kind of appalling that kids can go and see movies that are really physically graphic, or people are having their heads blown off, but they can't go and see something that, as you said beautifully, is really emotionally graphic.

I hope that kids will make their parents buy them tickets and go to see it, because I think it's a nice alternative view of coming of age, as opposed to the sort of fairy tale stuff some of the other Hollywood films offer. The kind of -- you know, it's not every kid, who in searching for a father figure, discovers that her father's actually a duke in England or something. You know?

So I -- and while I think the fairy tale is really important for kids, I think it's also important that they get to see reflection of life on the screen that resembles their own lives in some ways. And so, it would be really nice for kids to be able to see this movie and say, hey, you know, I guess other kids struggle and go through things that I'm going through. So yes, it was a disappointment for it to get an "R" rating.

WHITFIELD: So, does this story hit close to home for you? Are you essentially Meg?

MONCRIEFF: No. I'm not Meg. It's -- the story's emotionally autobiographical, in that my parents were divorced when I was young, and so I really felt like I understood the dynamic of growing up in a single parent household, where one parent's really overburdened and mostly absent father. And I spent a lot of years longing for a relationship with my dad. Happily, I have one now. Hi, dad. Happy Father's Day. A really good one, actually, and so, yes.

It's not autobiographical in many other ways, in terms of the narrative events of the film; those were fictional. But I really did want to explore the dynamic of family in the aftermath of divorce, and what does that do to the kids. And how very often they're left to their own devices to sort of sort out their own emotional problems, especially for young who are girls just starting to formulate an idea of themselves as sexual human beings. I think can be an especially confusing time.

WHITFIELD: The movie is "Blue Car," named that because of the blue car, the vehicle that the girl remembers the family having good times with.

MONCRIEFF: Right.

WHITFIELD: And Karen Moncrieff, thanks so much for joining us.

MONCRIEFF: Thank you so much.

WHITFIELD: The writer, director, producer, the everything woman on this one. Thanks a lot for joining us. And happy Father's Day to your dad, as well.

MONCRIEFF: Thanks a lot. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired June 15, 2003 - 11:23   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: We're thinking about how important dads are today. Every day, for that matter. Reminded that some people don't have the benefit of a father present, however, in their family. The film "Blue Car" explores that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Going to Florida or wherever else I want to go. It's none of your business.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then maybe you better find some place else to live.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll go live with dad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, good. You do that. You do that. You think he's so wonderful. You go see how you like it over there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At least he doesn't try to control everything I do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your father doesn't give a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) about you. How many times did he come around here last year? Three?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He doesn't come here because of you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He can't even manage to pay the lousy $60 a week in child support he owes me!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Ouch. This is hard core stuff. "Blue Car" writer/director Karen Moncrieff is in Los Angeles on this Father's Day and joining us. Thanks, Karen, for joining us, and giving us a very raw, real image of how some families are really having a difficult time without a father present.

In this case, this young girl, you know, her father abandons her and the family. She has quite a few troubles, and then she turns to poetry. You pick it up from there.

KAREN MONCRIEFF, WRITER/DIRECTOR, "BLUE CAR": Well, I think Meg in the film, like a lot of girls who don't have a father figure present, is searching for somebody to see her and listen to her and encourage her, and she finds a mentor in her high school English teacher, Mr. Auster, played by David Strathairn. And their relationship goes from a simple mentoring to something that's a lot more complex.

WHITFIELD: And so, you really do sort of explore, it sounds like, how perhaps in this young girl's life, she tries to look for replacement, or somehow look for replacements, by her father not being present in some pretty pivotal moments of her life, right?

MONCRIEFF: Right. Well, I think, at least anecdotally it seems to me a lot of young women who don't have a father figure present end up looking for a surrogate in all the wrong places. So Meg certainly goes through that search, and I think by the end of the film learns that in some cases kids need to parent themselves and cobble together whatever family they can from, you know, the parental figures that are available to them.

WHITFIELD: This has been described as being very emotional graphic. It's got an "R" rating. This is not a movie for kids. Is there disappointment for you that, you know, you got, A, this "R" rating, and that young people won't get the chance to appreciate this as readily as adults might, with that kind of rating.

MONCRIEFF: Well, I actually think it's really kind of appalling that kids can go and see movies that are really physically graphic, or people are having their heads blown off, but they can't go and see something that, as you said beautifully, is really emotionally graphic.

I hope that kids will make their parents buy them tickets and go to see it, because I think it's a nice alternative view of coming of age, as opposed to the sort of fairy tale stuff some of the other Hollywood films offer. The kind of -- you know, it's not every kid, who in searching for a father figure, discovers that her father's actually a duke in England or something. You know?

So I -- and while I think the fairy tale is really important for kids, I think it's also important that they get to see reflection of life on the screen that resembles their own lives in some ways. And so, it would be really nice for kids to be able to see this movie and say, hey, you know, I guess other kids struggle and go through things that I'm going through. So yes, it was a disappointment for it to get an "R" rating.

WHITFIELD: So, does this story hit close to home for you? Are you essentially Meg?

MONCRIEFF: No. I'm not Meg. It's -- the story's emotionally autobiographical, in that my parents were divorced when I was young, and so I really felt like I understood the dynamic of growing up in a single parent household, where one parent's really overburdened and mostly absent father. And I spent a lot of years longing for a relationship with my dad. Happily, I have one now. Hi, dad. Happy Father's Day. A really good one, actually, and so, yes.

It's not autobiographical in many other ways, in terms of the narrative events of the film; those were fictional. But I really did want to explore the dynamic of family in the aftermath of divorce, and what does that do to the kids. And how very often they're left to their own devices to sort of sort out their own emotional problems, especially for young who are girls just starting to formulate an idea of themselves as sexual human beings. I think can be an especially confusing time.

WHITFIELD: The movie is "Blue Car," named that because of the blue car, the vehicle that the girl remembers the family having good times with.

MONCRIEFF: Right.

WHITFIELD: And Karen Moncrieff, thanks so much for joining us.

MONCRIEFF: Thank you so much.

WHITFIELD: The writer, director, producer, the everything woman on this one. Thanks a lot for joining us. And happy Father's Day to your dad, as well.

MONCRIEFF: Thanks a lot. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com