The Garner Files: A Memoir

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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition November 2011

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ISBN
978-1-4516-4260-5 (Print)
ISBN
978-1-4516-4262-9 (eBook)

M
y friend Jim Garner is a man’s man, a ladies’ man, a good ol’ boy in the best sense of the word, a curmudgeon (he’ll be the first to tell you) . . . and a sweetheart. I don’t know a lady who isn’t a little bit in love with him.

We met over fifty years ago on the film
The Americanization of Emily
. It was only the second movie I’d ever made, and I was nervous, gauche, and hopelessly inadequate in the heady culture of Hollywood in the ’60s and the superb team of professionals with whom I was working. Mercifully, Jim made it easy for me. He was generous, gentle, and kind—and that was when I, too, fell a little bit in love with him. We both admired the brilliant screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky, and to this day, we agree that it was one of our favorite movies to make.

We’ve made two other films together since then—
Victor/Victoria
and the made-for-television movie
One Special Night
. You could say that the span of the three films is an index to the years of our friendship.

In
Emily,
we were young. It was intoxicating stuff—pure
fun.
Victor/Victoria
happened some fifteen years later. We were more secure in ourselves, and there was security in working together. (Jim will never
know how many times I copied his moves in order to learn how to act like a man . . . )

By the time we made
One Special Night
in the early ’90s, we were in a more “pastoral” mode. That’s a kind way of saying that we were a
lot
older. We shot the film in Montreal. It was the dead of winter, yet in spite of the
freezing
temperatures, the work felt so easy.

Every time we are on a set together, I marvel as I watch Jim weave his magic. Charisma simply oozes out of the guy. He owns his place on the screen, he
listens,
and he gives back. My husband, Blake, who directed Jim in two films—
Victor/Victoria
and
Sunset
—used to say that not only is he a good actor, he’s a great
re
actor. As far as I’m concerned, few can match him in that regard. Watch his panic and fear in
Emily
as he heads for Omaha Beach. Watch him in
Victor/Victoria
when he discovers that the lady he’s attracted to is actually a man. (Except that she’s not!) Catch the pain he feels in
One Special Night
when he realizes there is nothing he can do for his dying wife.

Yet beneath the talent, charm, and a healthy dose of bravado, one senses that he’s been hurt—more than once. So he’s stubborn, a bit reclusive . . . defiant, too. Don’t mess with Jim when he’s fighting for a cause he believes in.