Script | The Holiday Season #2 Transcript and Credits
SAM: Welcome to The Holiday Season, my name is Sam Clements and this is your one stop shop for all things related to writer and director Nancy Meyers’s 2006 festive rom-com, The Holiday, the festive house swap comedy starring Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law and Jack Black. Described as a “leisurely feel good rom-com” by Time Out London, and “A lark” by the Boston Globe. In episode 2, I wanted to focus on the story of the film, how it came to be, take a closer look at the screenplay itself to understand it’s construction and look at how Nancy Meyers writes.
It goes without saying, but there will be spoilers for The Holiday in this podcast. Please do pause the show if you’ve not seen the movie before - go and watch The Holiday, you will have a really wonderful 135 minutes - and we’ll be waiting for you when you come back. Nancy Meyers is a very experienced writer and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing - Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, alongside co-writers Charles Shyer and Harvey Miller for her first film, Private Benjamin, at the 1981 Academy Awards. Since then, Nancy Meyers has either co-written and produced films with Charles Shyer, such as Baby Boom, I Love Trouble and Father Of The Bride, or has written solo on films that she’s also directed, from The Parent Trap and What Women Want, to It’s Complicated and most recently The Intern in 2015. In the middle of all of that, was of course - The Holiday! Of the many hats Meyers wears, she is first and foremost a screenwriter.
At the BAFTA screenwriters lecture in 2015, with host Briony Hanson:
BH: Are you still, at heart, a writer?
NM: Yes.
BH: That is your primary…?
NM: Totally, that’s what my passport says.
BH: That is what your passport says?
NM: Yes [laughs]
BH: I love that, that’s great. Is that the thing that gives you the most pleasure?
NM: I do like the writing the best I think. I like editing movies also. You know, it’s the actual making of them that’s hard. But you know the writing is really where it all happens. And then the directing I find is just executing the writing. That’s really why I became a director, honestly it really started out of just protecting the screenplay.
SAM: The idea of protecting the script is interesting, Meyers often uses emotive language when describing her relationship to her work. Interviewed by Peter Clines for Creative Screenwriting in 2009, she said: “I can’t imagine a scenario, going forward, where I’d be writing an original script for someone else to direct” adding after a moment “that would be too painful”.In The Holiday, Nancy Meyers actually gets to write a screenwriter character in Arthur Abbot, played by Eli Wallach. To an avid Meyers fan, this feels a little like wish fulfilment, and a chance for the director to voice some of her own concerns around the industry. On the DVD commentary for the film - as we get to a key Arthur Abbot scene - Meyers says: “Screenwriters are under appreciated in Hollywood, so I wanted to say something about the contributions screenwriters have made to our culture and our genre”
Whilst looking into the origins of The Holiday, I spoke to Jennifer Eatz, associate producer on the film and the person who ran Nancy Meyers’s company, Waverly Films, at Sony when the film was made. Jennifer remembers how Nancy Meyers would write back then.
JENNIFER EATZ: She tends to write in an office from her home. So it wasn't like she came into the office every day and wrote. she would come in from time to time while she was writing. And she came in and said, I have this idea and sort of pitched it very loosely, about two women trading homes. That's sort of my recollection, it's been a few years. But my recollection of the idea began with, 'Isn't it crazy that people trade homes sometimes?' And what an interesting jumping off point for a film.
SAM: On the DVD commentary, Nancy Meyers - talking about the genesis of the idea - says: “It was actually something that happened to me. I went online. I was looking for a house in France to rent. By accident I went onto HomeExchange.com and I didn’t realise where I was because I was Googling lots of different places and was looking at all of these places, then I realised I had to swap my house to get one of them. And I was really intrigued by the idea, I’ve never heard of a Home Exchange. So I worked that into the script I was already working on.”
JENNIFER EATZ: Nancy outlines her movies in quite extraordinary detail before she writes and so I knew she was outlining the film and that's sort of where, you know, that's when I first heard about it when she started to outline it
SAM: So you were at the centre of what was soon to become a major movie?
JENNIFER EATZ: Yeah, to watch someone with that level of talent and that level of detail. She is to this day even I would say of all the filmmakers I've worked with her, her attention to detail is extraordinary. And so watching someone with that sort of level of commitment to their work, to watch them create something from, hey, I have an idea through obviously, the release of the film, is really, it's pretty special.
SAM: What did you notice, being in close professional proximity to Meyers during the early writing phase?
JENNIFER EATZ: She does a lot of research, they’re not just sort of rom-coms. She really gets into her characters and under their skin in a way that, and because she's a writer director because she writes for her movies as well. I think there's even more of a map, if that makes sense, or a detailed blueprint.
SAM: How did you feel when you got that job working with Nancy Meyers?
JENNIFER EATZ: Are you kidding me? I was thrilled. I was thrilled. I hate to say I grew up on her movies, because it's not like I was a baby when I began, you know, watching them I'm not that much younger than her but I really am a die hard fan of her work and was at a time and the opportunity to work for someone who is so extraordinarily talented. It was, it was exciting, so I was I was thrilled.
SAM: Off the back of the blue print, Nancy Meyers wrote her screenplay for The Holiday. With regards to Meyers’s approach to screenwriting, again at the BAFTA screenwriters lecture in 2015 with Briony Hanson, Meyers said:
NM: I wouldn’t hand anything in ‘til it works.
BH: And typically how long does that take?
NM: A long time!
BH: Is there a difference in that some films just come to you and the scripts are out…
NM: No, they all take a long time.
BH: What’s a long time?
NM: A year.
BH: With how many drafts?
NM: 10 to 15. More like 15 than 10.
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SAM: Here’s script editor Becky Brynolf - who did not work on the film - but is a great admirer of it. I asked Becky to appraise the script, like she would for one of her clients. Here’s Becky summarising the plot of us.
BECKY BRYNOLF: London, Christmas party season. Iris, a gentle doormat, who writes about other people's weddings for The Telegraph is in unrequited love with her colleague an absolute cad Jasper Bloom, who's not only cheated on Iris, but has just got engaged to another woman. Meanwhile, in LA whip smart and highly strung movie trailer editor Amanda is throwing out her cheating gaslighting boyfriend Ethan, who's planted a seed that she is the problem in her relationships.
The two women they find each other through like a home exchange website and they decide to swap lives for Christmas. They're getting away from their problems so Iris away from Jasper and Amanda away from herself. Iris loves it. Amanda not so much, who's like, Oh, I'm gonna go home. And then she meets Iris's absolutely gorgeous, quite drunk brother decides to keep him for the night and they ended up having a lovely time. She stays, Iris end up having sort of a bit of a packed subplot. Well, a few subplots really because she ends up meeting this lovely kindly neighbor who's a bit of a Hollywood legend. He's very lonely, she meets this score composer who, a bit problematic, but we'll get down the line to that. And then also there's the whole Jasper needing to tidy that up. But by the end, everyone sort of, you know, ends up back in Surrey, having a lovely New Year's Eve together, for reasons that that doesn't. The story doesn't really sort of end, no-one's stories really wrapped up. Which I can get to later. But it is very nice seeing them all dancing around Aretha Franklin at the very end.
SAM: So, the story is quite epic…
BECKY BRYNOLF: It's 2 hours and 15 minutes. It's quite lengthy. If I were to make notes on pace, I definitely know what, who could be cut. But um, but yeah, I don't say that I don't pay attention to every little bit because it is it's very compelling this very charming film. I think a big part of that is down to Iris as well. I mean, what I think this is the only rom-com Kate Winslet has done, I think maybe?
SAM: It's the only one that springs to mind. She's quite, she's known for doing quite dark and challenging roles. And this was her first contemporary role. Before that she had a whole career of doing period dramas, like Titanic, Sense and Sensibility, so like all of this stuff, and this was the first time she was saying she didn't have to wear a big frock, or a corset, she quite enjoyed that.
BECKY BRYNOLF: And you can see she has a whale of a time in this film as well. The whole sequence where she's just running around the mansion is just lovely, which isn't actually, it's very different in the script the way it’s written down. The assistant, who's named Bristol, Kathryn Hahn, the assistant actually like kind of shows her around the house which makes more sense, because one of the cynical things I brought to the first view in the film was like, what how this really ridiculously complicated, massive house you just like let her roam around it on her own with no help whatsoever. But actually that is addressed in the script. But I guess you know, for the sake of cutting down from three hours to 215 you need to cut some chaff somewhere.
SAM: Having two main characters, is that problematic?
BECKY BRYNOLF: No, I really liked the mirroring plot conceits. However, I think the conflict is a bit weighted more on Iris. She's got more threads to wrap up before the end of the film than Amanda does so, Iris has to get Arthur to the awards. She's got to navigate this sort of friendship, maybe romance with Miles and she's got to get over Jasper. While Amanda's story is a lot more straightforward. Like she's one woman, there's one guy involved and she's just on this journey to discover that she's actually a great person, she's not the problem in her relationship sort of thing. If we wanted to cut the film down and make it a bit more balanced in terms of plots, I would suggest maybe cutting the whole Miles subplot. And just focusing on, I mean not to not to disparage Nancy's script because she's brilliant, I love her work, but if you're gonna get rid of anything, I would suggest Miles and because he's a little bit of a problematic character in that he behaves much in the same way that Jasper does. And he's got a girlfriend and he's highly inappropriate with with Iris and behaves terribly. Like boob graze, that's awful, just terrible, and just really laughed off. They have no chemistry whatsoever. And I think what's really sad is that we don't spend much time kind of focusing on like platonic love. I think the relationship between Iris and Arthur is so lovely and pure. And I would have loved to have seen that have a lot more time spent on it and substituted for, you know, the Miles relationship. Because through up through her friendship with Arthur she realizes that she is a girl with gumption and she's amazing all by herself and she is the leading lady in her own life. And she doesn't really need Miles to validate that and it and you see more and more in films nowadays, that platonic love is celebrated a lot more with films like Blockers. It's great. But maybe, maybe if this had been made now, we would have forgotten Miles completely and just focused on the lovely relationship between Iris and Arthur. I think if we were gonna weight the two characters more evenly, I would have done that.
SAM: It’s safe to say Becky wasn’t won over by Jack Black’s character Miles.
BECKY BRYNOLF: I think if you're going to get rid of anything, yeah, it would be him. It was just so why is he there, he's actually behaving just like Jasper does. He doesn't really add anything to this relationship for Iris he's just sort of there to... it's like she's learned a lot from Arthur. And then I guess Miles is like her prize? But he's not a great prize
!SAM: I don’t think Jack Black would mind. When asked about his favourite Christmas movie on the red carpet for Jumanji: The Next Level, he forgot that he was even in The Holiday. Maybe he’s not a fan of Miles either.
JACK BLACK: Do I have a Christmas movie? Oh The Holiday! Obviously The Holiday. Nancy Meyers, genius. Let’s do this.
BECKY BRYNOLF: Amanda's ending is perfect. Like she realizes that she has never been the problem in her relationship. She's just never met a Graham who just loved her for exactly the way she was. And you know she's great as she is. And Iris kind of similar really. But what she really needed to do was tell Jasper off and she does do that. And she you know, she's given all of that gumption because of this wonderful, kindly old neighbor in her life. Miles adds, nothing.
SAM: I’m a little surprised by the Miles backlash. When I’m watching the film I really enjoy Kate Winslet’s scenes with Jack Black. He’s got a lot of charisma and screen presence.
SAM: Maybe I was coasting by on Jack Black's charm. You have to actually see the words written on the page to see how similar they are.
BECKY BRYNOLF: That's the kind of the joy of reading a film alongside watching it at the same time which I recommend everyone does. All your favourite films have scripts easily available online and see the differences, see what you know, why something is suddenly really really great to watch when actually when you’re reading you're like eh? Which you know with someone like Nancy she's been doing this long enough where even, I think you know even if a consultant said like, oh maybe you can get rid of this she'd be like ‘don't worry, it's gonna be fine on the screen’. And it is, like everyone loves it!
SAM: Is there anything in the film you appreciate more now for for doing this work, watching it alongside the screenplay?
BECKY BRYNOLF: There's something about reading a script alongside watching a film where you're just like, oh god, they absolutely nailed that character. She wrote these people absolutely perfectly on the script and that gave the actor everything they needed. There's actually a bit of cut dialogue that I think really brings to light Meyers’s sort of relationship politics. This is a really personal film to her and there's an element of her personal experiences in all of her films. And there's one bit that's been cut from what Amanda says quite early on when she's telling off Ethan, and she says, and I'm kind of sad this is cut but I can see maybe why. So she says, "it's a coward's way of breaking up and at its core, what it is is unkind because it makes everyone involved including me feel cheap and crazy. It's a bad way to end things because this is how I'll always think of you, not as that guy I spent three years with and went to Hawaii and took cooking lessons with, you will always and forever be the asshole that lied and cheated and nothing you ever say or do from this moment on will ever change my mind about you. In the world of love, not that I'm such a genius at it, but in the world of love cheating is simply not acceptable". And I don't know, like, who cheated on Nancy or who cheated on someone she cares about very much. Or maybe she cheated on someone and really reflected hard on it. But I love that. And I think another piece of dialogue that again, it's fantastic when you watch it on the screen, but there's something about just reading the words off the page is Kate Winslet delivering, I think the best words about breakups ever committed to paper, which is about you know, it doesn't matter how many haircuts you get, or glasses of chardonnay you drink or, you know, after a while, all those fuzzy feelings will go away and, and you eventually sort of put yourself back together again and it's it's absolutely wonderful.
SAM: Was there anything else that stood out in terms of the script writing?
BECKY BRYNOLF: Oh, yeah, so character descriptions. This is what when I read a script, especially by new writers as well, something I always really encourage them as like, right, okay, you've nailed the first draft in your second and third really add texture to what we're looking at on screen and to your characters, like, give your actors something to work with. And I want to give you descriptions. Amanda is, you can you can also tell who Nancy's favourites are as well. So Amanda: “the thrower of the sneaker is Amanda Woods wearing white pajamas, a bed head of fabulous hair, a necklace with some sort of diamond pendant and a red Kabbalah string bracelet. Amanda wouldn't know how to play the victim if she was one, men don't just fall for this woman, they fall under her spell, fiercely intelligent blazing eyes, a big city girl with a small town in her past. At the moment she's about to explode”. What a great description.
SAM: That's Nancy! Nancy has the small town past. She definitely has silk pajamas. She lives in the area Cameron Diaz lives in in the film. That's her neighborhood. I don't know about the Kabbalah. I don't think the Kabbalah made into the film either. I don’t think she's wearing that bracelet.
SAM: On the directors commentary Nancy Meyers says that Amanda was also hugely inspired by a Carole Lombard role in Nothing Sacred.
SAM: I'd love to know all of the four but really keen to hear how she described Iris.
BECKY BRYNOLF: Iris gets a very brief description, but then also we learn a lot about her from the dialogue. She's the first voice that we hear, but she's described very briefly. “We are looking at Iris, smartest girl in the room although she doesn't know it, sweet to her core, the unrealized hero of her own life”. Very sweet.
SAM: That feels like a line Iris would write.
BECKY BRYNOLF: I quite like the description of Graham actually. “We find the rakishly handsome Graham, all twinkly eyes and ruffled hair. He's some exotic and pleasing concoction of helplessness and cockiness just at the sight of him, Amanda is for the first time in her life speechless, which means this man has already changed her”. So much story in that!
SAM: HELLO Graham!
BECKY BRYNOLF: Another highlight, visual grammar. What I mean and this just a little tip for screenwriters, visual grammar is two things. So one everything that isn't dialogue that lets you know what you're looking at on the screen that helps you translate from script to screen in your mind's eye. And two it's the visual language of the film to let you know what kind of story you're in. So for example, there’s a big difference between the men get into the car versus the lads pile into the motor, so you know exactly what kind of film you're watching. What you want to do is scare or woo or intrigue your readers as well as your viewers. So things like this: “A picture postcard stone cottage sits nestled in a winter garden. This is one of the smallest houses you've ever seen. Iris walks the narrow footbridge up to her front gate. She opens the gate and a bell rings, a dog can be heard barking inside the house”. I want to be there! It's so enticing and charming and seductive. And it's absolutely lovely.
SAM: These descriptions are like I'm reading a novel. This is a very romantic feeling, very warm.
BECKY BRYNOLF: Yeah exactly, and I think that's what's that's why I particularly love reading rom coms and horrors because they really lend themselves to more prose in a script as well. So it's a lot of fun. So yeah, I had a real thrill reading through the script because Meyers is just great at it.
SAM: So we should complete the set, how is Jack Black’s character Miles introduced?
BECKY BRYNOLF: “Early 30s, boyish, shaggy in his t-shirt and khakis, the depth and tenderness of his composition belies his appearance”. That's it.
SAM: I don’t know if that’s really... that is how he sort of looks in the film. But that doesn't say anything about the character like the other descriptions do.
BECKY BRYNOLF: It doesn't tell us too much about him at all really. It all just kind of comes through interaction with other people later on and then I guess just the strength of Jack Black’s big personality.
SAM: Do you think it follows a classic rom com arc, albeit with two characters?
BECKY BRYNOLF: I would say yeah, you've got the person at the beginning who is, you know, brokenhearted, for some reason or other they go through a bit of a messy adventure in the middle, it's a bit of a will they won't they. They meet someone who could potentially be the one to fix them and make them feel better and realise that what they've needed is is there inside them all along, and then they get the happy ending with that person. I think that that narrative is changing a little bit now, in modern times, as I mentioned before, platonic love is getting much more of a seat at the table and how just generally I think demographics are changing across people in our age group, people older or younger than us, people are just turning to different kinds of... it doesn't have to be a 2.4 family anymore. You don't need another person to be happy kind of thing and I think more people are realising that and that's being reflected in kind of modern movies a lot more. But this I would say, even balancing the two storylines is definitely kind of following that arc. A bit messier in Iris’s, obviously Kate absolute pro carries it off beautifully. And it's just nice and cozy and lovely to see. Problematic in places but who cares it's Christmas.
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SAM: There’s another key character that we briefly mentioned earlier, ageing Hollywood screenwriter Arthur Abbot, played by the legendary Eli Wallach, who bonds with Iris throughout the movie. Is it weird that he talks to her using screenwriting language - you need to be leading lady in your own life, gumption, and such?
BECKY BRYNOLF: No I think that kind of works really because you've done enough work up until then showing how Iris is very much not the leading lady in her own life. Even though she narrates it at the very beginning, she's talking about lots of other people and when she does talk about herself, and it's a very, like self deprecating way. And I think by the time you get to Arthur and you establish who he is, and his expertise in this area as well, and just what's clearly going to be a very nice relationship between the two of them. I mean, I think that that's warranted.
SAM: There’s another thing too….
BECKY BRYNOLF: Iris's attempted suicide, which is treated very lightly.
SAM: It's incredibly dark!
BECKY BRYNOLF: Not in the script.
SAM: Wow.
BECKY BRYNOLF: So I'm fine to take an extract here. “It's eight hours later in England and Iris is making a cup of tea before bed. She looks wiped out. It's been a hard night. Light snow falls outside the windows. She hears her computer Ping. She sits at the kitchen table and looks at a laptop. It's a home exchange instant message it reads I'm interested in renting a house is it still available?” No, suicide whatsoever. I don't know what discussion took place and Nancy was like, you know what this scene needs?
SAM: Kate could you just try and kill yourself mate? Yeah, cheers.
BECKY BRYNOLF: Yeah, do you want me to be really charming when I do it, yes, absolutely.
SAM: Well that scene...it's quite a way to open a film, it’s still in the first half an hour of the movie and we're still getting to know the characters. And I'm always surprised by that scene, like the fact it's there in this film, which everybody talks about is being fluffy and feel good, starts with attempted suicide.
BECKY BRYNOLF: Interestingly, so that leads me to a really bonkers fan theory online. There's one that suggests that Amanda and Iris are dead and are living in a limbo state throughout the film, because there's a moment when Amanda has a panic attack and Iris attempts suicide, which again treated lightly, and fans theorize that they both die in this moment. But for me this theory doesn't hold water for two reasons. So one, she doesn't attempt it in the script. So I don't think that’s ever Meyers intention which, why would this ever been her intention? And two, women in Meyers films don't have real problems or high stakes so you know death is one of them. It’s just a marvelous bizarre thing, I love the Internet.
SAM: Nancy Meyers - on the DVD commentary - says that this scene came into the film because the day before shooting she was at an arthouse movie theater with with her daughter Hallie Meyers-Shyer and they watched Billy Wilder’s Sabrina, which features a similar scene where Audrey Hepburn turns on the engines of 8 cars in a closed garage and considers killing herself over WIlliam Holden’s character. Nancy says Kate Winslet’s Iris was in a similar position, and the flm needed a scene to motivate the character to make the decision to switch houses with a total stranger overnight.
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SAM: There’s a big story moment around half way through, where we learn that the women’s names appearing on Jude Law’s phone when he’s with Cameron Diaz are actually his young daughters, not potential love rivals. Does that work?
BECKY BRYNOLF: I really liked that reveal. I think it works quite well. So yeah, he gets a phone call from a Sophie and then from Olivia and I think Amanda sort of resigned herself to think, and it's also been helpful for her as well thinking okay cool this really uncomplicates things for her a little bit because she's not looking for anything complicated. She's like cool this is going to be like a two week fling I'm going to go home no problem and then, oh no turns out he is actually the perfect guy and he's like a really good dad. He didn't get divorced she just died, which actually makes him even more hot for some reason. And what's weird, what doesn't quite fit Graham talks to I think Olivia in the second phone call like she's a middle aged man on the phone. He’s like cool, alright, see you later. Doesn’t say ‘bye love you darling’. It does really sound like he's being a bit shady but it’s to his daughter. But it is completely believable I think that he would want to... I mean, we see at the very beginning of the film in the montage like he's, he's a little little bit you know, there’s a nice lucky girl in the pub he makes eyes with and you know, he definitely enjoys being single. But yeah, and that's totally understandable that you wouldn't want to bring his young daughters into, into all that mess and stuff. But obviously Amanda is a very special case. And what makes me laugh though is when she does meet them and she's in the tent with them. And they're like, Oh, we don't get a lot of adult girls come and come and visit us and I was like, what about Aunt Iris?! How rude! Poor Aunt Iris.
SAM: In terms of particular lines, I was really intrigued to hear what Becky made of some of the films more famous pieces of dialogue. “I’m looking for corny in my life”.
BECKY BRYNOLF: I love it. It really syncs up the whole kind of old Hollywood kind of romance that Nancy Meyers is generally having with this film, and I think sometimes we all kind of want that a little bit sometimes. Iris doesn't really have real problems in the script. I mean, she does attempt suicide in the film, so that suggests there's something more going on there. Having a little bit of corny in your life is kind of a nice thing to aspire to. Especially when she's been treated like crap by Jasper as well. I think people like Arthur in your life do inspire that and yeah, it's hard not to when I guess you've been given a diet of old Hollywood movies full of gals with gumption and things like that. And yeah, I love that line.
SAM: I think it's also it's a really great way to express that character progressing because before then Arthur's talking to her in old Hollywood terms, you know, you need to have more gumption you need to be leading need in your own life. Here's some homework, you know, watch Casablanca, watch these films that I've worked on. And then she can actually use that to convince him to do things. He doesn't want to go out and do the award show. He doesn't want to, you know, be seen on stage he can barely walk. He's got lots of problems. He's very self conscious. And she manages to convince him by using some of his own sort of old Hollywood screenwriting talk back at him. And it does, it works. Then you see this cute training montage.
BECKY BRYNOLF: They're very good for each other which totally fits and would work but Miles and Iris are not good for each other. Well she's good for him, he's not good for her. But Arthur is good for her.
SAM: That’s the true romance there.
SAM: But Miles does have one of the best lines in the film… “Iris, if you are a melody, I used only the good notes”.
BECKY BRYNOLF: Yeah, that's a good line. I would swoon at that line. They spend a good few months pining after a Miles for that before coming to my senses.
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SAM: Nancy Meyers isn’t a big sequel writer, she has written one sequel: Father Of The Bride Part 2, directed by Charles Shyer, but never a follow up to something that she’s also directed. It may not come as a surprise, but I would love to go back on holiday with these characters. Whilst promoting The Intern, Marie Claire did ask Meyers if she’d be up for a sequel to The Holiday, to which she replied that she’s waiting for the studio to contact her, but she knows that Jude Law is keen.
Becky, in the interest of speeding up the production on this dream project, has come up with her own idea…
BECKY BRYNOLF: It might not satisfy people. But this is this is what I think the logical conclusion by today's standards is where everyone would be now, you know, in 2019 and these are the events between 2006 and today. So, Amanda's very sensible predictions come true. And the next year proves a struggle for the whirlwind romance with Graham. As soon as she returns to LA rushes come in for the summer blockbuster season, and so time with Graham keeps getting pushed further and further back. They eventually see each other again at Christmas when Graham comes to LA and has sex with Amanda in yet another bed his sister has slept in. They agree to have a romance that takes place only at Christmas, provided they are both single at the time. And this tradition continues for two more Christmases before Graham meets someone back home in Surrey, and doesn't pick up again when that relationship ends. Amanda goes on to invent an app called uncomplicatr that's like Uber but for male escorts for which she and many other type-a workaholic women are the target audience. She and Iris remain in Christmas card contact. Speaking of Iris after a week of what was only ever going to be a highly toxic and very codependent affair with Miles consisting of tepid, apologetic sex, followed by weepy discussions of Maggie and treating Iris like a therapist, she drives Miles to Heathrow herself to make sure he definitely leaves. Taking time for herself, Iris quits her job at the Telegraph and spends the next year gadding about the globe. On her return, she pitches a Gilly Cooper-esque blockbuster series set in London's publishing world centered around a gal with gumption called Violet St James and sexy villain Conrad Quilty. She sends signed copies to Arthur, including very personal, slightly risque notes. He keeps the books on the mantelpiece next his Emmys until he sadly inevitably leaves this world. Iris goes on to become something of a Victoria Coren figure. A regular on panel shows with her own relationship column in a Sunday broadsheet. She marries extremely well. Miles returns to LA and immediately gets back together with Maggie. He sends Iris emails every few weeks in the hopes of steering the conversations towards the times they had sex but Iris keeps things light and friendly before eventually, just not replying anymore. He tends to employ hyperbole about their extremely brief and tame affair when talking about her to acquaintances. Miles's habit of kissing cheeks one too many times lingering on them and accidental boob grazes with women he's only known for a few days leads to some Aziz Ansari level metoo controversy in 2017. His career does not suffer. Jasper's novel fails to hit critical or commercial success, following attempts to schmooze his way into the Simpkins family via Iris to woo their publishing legend Mum. His marriage to Sarah results in two children Figgy and Ludlow who take after their mother and that they grow to hate him. The marriage ends as quietly as Tatler will allow when rumors of his philandering turn out to be unsurprisingly true. Sarah goes on to be Britain's answer Gwyneth Paltrow while Jasper's star fades into a dull hum. His current literature output can be found in the comments of 18 year old socialites Instagram accounts. As Sophie and Olivia grow older, Graham joins the world of social media to keep tabs on them and much to his surprise quickly becomes a dad-fluencer. His enduring popularity is down to his good looks, respectability, emotional intelligence, excellent dad tips and of course occasional posts from Mr. Napkinhead. Graham writes a series of YA novels based on the imaginary Adventures of Sofia & Olivia have in the dreamy tent, which is optioned for an animated series. During a stint on Strictly Come Dancing where he actually does very well, Graham and his professional dance partner fall in love and remain happily married. He thinks of Amanda often as the one that got away knowing that were circumstances different, they would still be together. Each year when Christmas season begins, he pops to Irises more frequently. And when she isn't looking he glances through the cards that she has hung, seeing if Amanda has asked how he's doing
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SAM: As I was working on this episode, I was trying to find a quote from one of Nancy Meyers’s collaborators about what it’s like to read a Meyers penned screenplay. Thankfully Empire Magazine spoke to Cameron Diaz about The Holiday, in their January 2007 issue. Diaz’s quote couldn’t be more perfect: “The great thing about her films is you get an old school movie where you’re witnessing this wonderful romance and everything’s bigger than life, and shiny, and perfect. She has a great formula. Every word is perfectly placed and that kind of gets you into this world. Then you get on that Nancy train and ride it all the way to the station”.
So, thank you for riding this Nancy train all the way to the station with me today. In the next episode we’ll expand on Becky’s comment about “reality” in fictional films like The Holiday. And then we’ll move onto the production of The Holiday! With a big focus on casting, location work and costume design.
If you enjoyed the show, please rate and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your podcatcher of choice, and please tell your friends, word of mouth is such a great way to spread The Holiday love.
The Holiday Season is written and produced by me Sam Clements, and Louise Owen.
The show is edited by Louise Owen, with sound mixing support from Andy Snook at the Silk Factory, and the brilliant team at No.8 London.
You heard contributions from Jennifer Eatz, associate producer on The Holiday and Becky Brynolf, freelance script editor.
You can watch the full 2015 Bafta screentalk with Nancy Meyers and Briony Hanson on the BAFTA GURU Youtube channel. [You can also read the transcription]
Our music is by Martin Austwick and our artwork is by Olly Gibbs.
You can find links to their work and more at 90minfilmfest.com/theholidayseason
You can follow me on Twitter at @Sam_Clements.
Thank you for listening, see you next time.