Susan Seidelman 1980s Films Mini‑series: Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)

[00:00:00] From Los Angeles, California, the entertainment capital of the world, it's The 80s Movie Podcast. I'm your host Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. On this episode we're going to continue with our series on the 1980s movies of director

[00:00:22] Susan Seidelman talking about her biggest hit film, 1985's Desperately Seeking Susan. When we left Seidelman on our previous episode, Smytherines had been a minor success on the Art Hout Circuit in late 1982 and early 1983. And film companies were wanting to get into the Susan Seidelman business.

[00:00:42] But as always there's a story before the story. In the early 1980s, a New York City based screenwriter, Leona Barisch started working on a screenplay inspired by French filmmaker Jacques Rivet's 1974 masterpiece, Celine and Julie Gopes Boating, which followed two women in Paris who lives intersect in strange

[00:01:03] and wondrous ways. For the main character of Board Housewife Roberta Glass, who entertains herself by reading the personal ads in local newspapers, Barisch would base the character on herself and her friend would be film producer Sarah Pillsbury.

[00:01:18] Other characters were based on friends, family, and strangers she had observed during her travels around Soho. The script would make waves in the industry and Barisch's agent would feel a number of calls about its availability.

[00:01:32] But Barisch would choose her friend Pillsbury to sell the first option to, as Pillsbury had just opened her own production company with another friend, Mitch Sanford. In 1982, Sanford Pillsbury productions would sign with Warner Brothers to continue development of the film.

[00:01:50] Towards the end of 1982, Sanford, Pillsbury and Barisch would go to see a new film that had what seemed to be the right vibe for their film. That film, Smithereens, would lead them to get in touch with Susan Seidelman about maybe directing desperately seeking Susan.

[00:02:08] Seidelman loved the script and especially loved the fact that the character everyone was seeking shared her name she was in. The character of Roberta Glass was originally written for someone in her mid to late 30s

[00:02:21] and the producers would try to line up a famous actress to lead the production. Offers were made to actresses like Cher, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton, but they would all say no. At one point, one of the ladies came across Rosanna Arquette, an up and coming

[00:02:37] actress best known for being the titular object of affection in the 1982 hit Toto Song Rosanna, then for her roles in such films as Blake Edwards, SOB and John Sales' Baby It's You. Sara Pillsbury immediately saw Arquette's incredible range, raw sex appeal and

[00:02:53] impeccable comic timing and had Barisch rework the script to de-age Roberta about a decade, even though her hot tub salesman husband, Gary, would still remain in his mid 30s. For Susan, the sexy human tornado at the center of the story, the producers

[00:03:10] were looking for someone who could instantly be seen by audiences as a force of nature from her very first scene. And then they would find their Susan on MTV. 26-year-old singer Madonna Louise Chacon released her eponymous debut album in

[00:03:27] July 1983 and by the spring of 1984 when Sanford and Pillsbury were casting the film, four singles from her album had become hit songs thanks to the music videos for Burning Up, Holiday, Lucky Star and Borderline. Madonna had been signed to the Sire Records label itself a subsidiary of

[00:03:47] Warner Brothers Records which logically would keep Warner Brothers pictures interested in getting the film made, you think. But shortly after Madonna's casting, Warner Brothers Studios would put the project into turnaround, which means they would not be proceeding with further development of the film.

[00:04:05] But if another distributor was willing to reimburse them for the cost of developing the project to date, that new company would own the project outright. Enter Orion Pictures. Now I've already done a five part mini series about Orion Pictures so I won't

[00:04:22] go into detail about that company here. Suffice it to say that in the summer of 1984, they were an independent distributor quickly on their way to becoming a mini major thanks to smart decisions in producing and releasing quirky films that would

[00:04:35] become hits like Blake Edwards' 10, Catty Shack, Arthur, First Blood and several films through their partnership with Woody Allen and they still had the Terminator and their first best picture winner, Amadeus waiting in the wings for the fall.

[00:04:53] Their 1985 schedule was shaping up as well with another new film from Woody Allen, a political drama with Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton, a newspaper drama with Kurt Russell and a new Chuck Norris action film. But what they didn't have for the year yet was a comedy that could

[00:05:09] appeal to the MTV generation. Orion had heard about desperately seeking Susan, becoming available and they called up their former benefactor and were to have the film back in development by the end of the week. Orion would up the budget from three million to four and a half

[00:05:26] million dollars and they wanted to get the film into production by the end of September so that they could beat the start of winter. Casting would ramp up quickly as the producers had decided to try and start shooting in the second week of September to get the film

[00:05:41] completed before New York City started putting up Macy's Thanksgiving parade banners around the city in early November. After considering Dennis Quaid and Kevin Costner, Aiden Quinn, the handsome young star of Reckless would get cast as Dez, a projectionist

[00:05:57] at the Bleecker Street Cinema and best friend of Susan's boyfriend Jim, who falls for Roberta after Roberta loses her memory and is mistaken for Susan. Robert Joy already featured in Louis Moll's Atlantic City and Milo Schformin's Ragtime would play Susan's boyfriend Jim,

[00:06:15] a musician who has to leave New York City for a gig in Buffalo, which accelerates the wackiness that ensues. Will Patton would graduate from single name characters to his biggest role to date as a thief looking for Susan and then Roberta as Susan

[00:06:30] after Susan steals a valuable treasure from one of her male friends. Future Oscar nominee Lori Metiaff would make her feature film debut as Roberta's sister-in-law Leslie and Mark Bloom would play Roberta's husband. Desperately seeking Susan would begin production in New York City on

[00:06:50] September 10th, 1984 and for the first several weeks the production went quite smoothly. They were able to shoot all throughout Manhattan with barely a raised eyebrow from the notoriously unimpressed citizens of lower Manhattan. That is, until Halloween day. On October 31st, 1984, Sire Records released the first single from

[00:07:11] Madonna's second album, Like a Virgin. The song would quickly become a hit and suddenly this little movie became The Madonna Movie. Even though Madonna had pretty much completed shooting on the film in order to pair with a promotion onslaught that would be hyping up her new album.

[00:07:30] Police officers assigned to protect the production would take bribes from Lucky Loose trying to see Madonna on set. One officer asked Rosanna Arquette for her autograph, thinking she was Madonna. The dynamic between the two actresses switched overnight and Rosanna Arquette

[00:07:47] would later spend years deumering about how she would have never made the movie had she known how quickly Madonna would become a superstar during shooting. Which would have been a shame as Sarah Pillsbury was right about along.

[00:07:59] She did have incredible range, impeccable comic timing for a 25 year old actress and there was no arguing how insanely beautiful she is in the movie. Once filming wrapped on November 11th, Ryan wanted to help give Sidelman whatever she needed to get the film edited and completed.

[00:08:16] To get it into theaters while the fires were still hot for their now superstar second lead. Sidelman would spend four months getting the film down to a tight one hour and 44 minute running time and Ryan would start the publicity machine in the expectation of a March 29th 1985 release.

[00:08:35] Five other movies would open that day including a watered-down sequel to police academy, a Care Bears movie, the Richard Gere biblical epic King David, The Slugger's Wife, a tepid baseball comedy directed by the otherwise great Hal Ashby and a re-release of Return of the Jedi.

[00:08:54] Of the six, Susan would open in the fewest number of screens 268 including 39 screens in the greater New York City metro area, 40 in Los Angeles and 15 in Chicago. Boyd by glowing reviews from many of the nation's critics, desperately seeking Susan went in that grossing $1.52 million in its first

[00:09:15] weekend with the second highest per screen average of the six new openers and the fourth highest per screen average of all films in release that week. In week two, Ryan would add another 58 theaters and the film would see its numbers increased to $1.64 million.

[00:09:34] In its third weekend, Ryan made a full port press on the film expanding it from 326 theaters to 760. The film would move from 13th place nationally to fifth, see its gross rise to $2.68 million and have the second best per screen average of any film in the nation.

[00:09:57] Week four would see another 348 screens added to its widest point of release at 1108 theaters and its biggest weekend at the box office with $2.69 million in tick-lead sales. After that, the film would slowly fall down the charts.

[00:10:14] And after 12 weeks as more summer releases like the Emerald Forest and Back to the Future entered the crowded release schedule, desperately seeking Susan would move to the Dollar Houses where it would play for another 27 weeks, finishing its 10 month theatrical run with $27.4 million in ticket sales.

[00:10:33] Part of the excitement for the film came from the quote-unquote music video for In To The Groove, Madonna's song from the movie which started playing on MTV the day after the film was released. In reality it was just moments from the movie mostly from the Dance Terrier night

[00:10:49] obscene where Susan meets Roberta's husband and dances to the song. And despite the popularity of the song on MTV, Sire Records never released Into The Groove as a single in the United States as they were worried Madonna might be overexposed at this point pun only slightly intended.

[00:11:09] The second single from like Virgin album, Raterio Girl was still on the charts as well as Crazy For You a mid-tempo ballad from the Vision Quest soundtrack which would become the number one song in America a few weeks after the release of Desperately Seeking Susan.

[00:11:25] Eventually Sire would release Into The Groove as the B side to another like a virgin single Angel the third single from the like a virgin album a few weeks after the film's release but because it was released as a B side Into The Groove would never officially

[00:11:42] appear on any of Billboard's numerous song charts. To add insult to injury the film's lead star Rosanna Arquette would win a British Film Academy Award for best actress in a supporting role while the Golden Globes weren't kind enough to nominate her in the

[00:11:59] proper leading actress category for copies and musicals. In 2023 the film would be selected as part of the National Film Preservation Board's list of movies worthy of being preserved due to its cultural, historical and or aesthetical significance and the film continues to play in revival

[00:12:17] theaters to this day including recent stints at the film forum in New York City and the American Cinematheque here in Los Angeles. I did something I rarely do for these episodes and that's rewatched a film that I was talking about. It had been 39 years since I last saw

[00:12:34] desperately seeking Susan opening night at the Aptos Twin at the 7.30pm show and the film still held up really well for me. What was fun about the movie now is seeing all the people who are

[00:12:46] stars today but were absolutely nobodies showing up for a scene or two. John Tuturo is the MC at a magic show theater, Giancarlo Esposito as a street vendor, and Magnuson as a

[00:13:00] cigarette girl, Stephen Wright as a dentist, and for your old school 70s and 80s New York pop culture historians there's appearances by famed East Village musicians and artists like Anne Carlisle, Richard Edson, John Lurie, Rockets Red Glare who may or may not have murdered

[00:13:19] Sid Vicious's girlfriend Nancy Spungen while working as Sid's bodyguard, and of course punk icon Richard Hell as well as appearances from long lost venues like Dance Terria, Love Saves the Day, and the much beloved and missed Baleeker Street cinemas. And according to Sidelman's recently

[00:13:36] released memoir, Desperately Seeking Something, Bruce Willis was strongly considered for the role of Susan's boyfriend Jim. Willis was still mostly working as a bartender in New York City's Hell's Kitchen area and would end up working the rap party as a bartender.

[00:13:52] And according to Sidelman she would run into Willis two years later in Los Angeles where he thanked her for not casting her in the movie. Because he didn't get the part he would end up

[00:14:03] moving to Los Angeles the week after the rap party and he'd be cast as David Addison in Moonlighting a few weeks after that. Thank you for joining us we'll talk again very soon

[00:14:14] when we take our first big detour into the 1970s to cover a film that literally made me the person I am. H.B. Helicki's car chase masterpiece gone in 60 seconds, which will be celebrating the 50th

[00:14:27] anniversary its release on July 12. Remember to visit this episode's page on our website The80sMoviePodcast.com for extra materials about Desperately Seeking Susan. The 80s Movie Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Adam Havens for idiosyncratic entertainment. Thank you again. Good night.