PERSPECTIVES
oogle Marielle Heller, and you’re likely to find her name on count-
less lists of 2019 awards season snubs. The actor and writer-
turned-filmmaker took on the indie movie Can You Ever Forgive
Me? after its original director bowed out; her critically acclaimed
interpretation earned Oscar nominations for both Melissa Mc-
Carthy and Richard E. Grant. Now she’s about to take a huge step
into mainstream Hollywood with her new film, the highly anticipated A Beautiful
Day in the Neighborhood, out November 22. Tom Hanks stars as Fred Rogers in the
drama based on journalist Tom Junod’s life-altering experience of writing an Esquire
profile on the beloved children’s television host. A month before the movie’s world
premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Heller, now 40, spoke with ELLEG
The director of the female-focused Can You Ever
Forgive Me? enters a new neighborhood
with a drama about one of her generation’s most
beloved men. By Allison TakedaMARIELLE HELLER
THE ELLE WOMANFarrow that he had molested her as a child. The Hol-
lywood Reporter cited an awkward 2015 press event at
which Price defended the deal, calling Allen “one of
the greatest filmmakers America has ever produced.”
In June 2018, the studio canceled the agreement,
according to a lawsuit by Allen’s company, refusing to
distribute the recently completed film A Rainy Day
in New York, which starred Timothée Chalamet, Elle
Fanning, and Jude Law. Salke says she can’t discuss
the Woody Allen situation due to the litigation sur-
rounding it. But asked last February if the film would
be released, Salke replied, in a Deadline.com interview,
with a firmness that left no ambiguity about the stu-
dio’s position: “We have no plans at all to release any
Woody Allen movies.”
Creatives in L.A. describe Salke as an executive
who is accommodating and hands-off when it comes
to creative ideas, but unflinching about budget reali-
ties. Filmmaker Barry Jenkins, who says he signed a
deal with Amazon after Peele encouraged him, calls
Salke “a no-bullshit straight shooter.” When Jenkins
was preparing to film The Underground Railroad, a
historical series based on Colson Whitehead’s book of
the same name about escaping from slavery, he says he
wanted to film at several locations referred to in the
book. Salke talked him down from that, forcing him to
recognize budget limitations.
“I had all these visions,” Jenkins says. “She said,
‘Well, Barry, here’s the reality: You don’t need to go
to all those places. Maybe choose a couple of them.’”
“She doesn’t flinch,” Jenkins says admiringly.
Salke also dispelled Jenkins’s concerns about work-
ing with a Seattle-based behemoth like Amazon. When
he explained that his film If Beale Street Could Talk,
based on the book by James Baldwin, was a passion
project that he wished to complete before starting on
The Underground Railroad, she was willing to be flexi-
ble, “despite being a tech giant with algorithms and that
sort of thing,” Jenkins says.
“Having a competent person at that helm is just
such a relief,” confirms Sherman-Palladino, who says
that when Salke came in, The Marvelous Mrs. Mai-
sel production was in a quandary. “We were having
some issues in lines of communication with Amazon,
because they were trying to decide how much tech
company and how much streaming company they are.
You need somebody who can speak that language and
be the bridge between the production company and
the Seattle headquarters,” she says.
“She came in and saw what we needed and said,
‘I’m here; how can I make things better?’” Sherman-
Palladino continues, conjuring a rare vision of Hol-
lywood loyalty. “For me, I’ll wash her car for a year
because of that.” ▪ JOSH TELLES