From Academy Award®– and Emmy Award®-winning writer, director, producer, and Disney Legend James L. Brooks comes 20th Century Studios’ Ella McCay, a heartwarming family film made in tribute to the screwball comedies of the 1950s. Releasing exclusively in theaters on Friday, December 12, Ella McCay features an all-star ensemble that includes Emma Mackey (in her first American starring role), Oscar® winner and Disney Legend Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Lowden, Kumail Nanjiani, Ayo Edebiri, Spike Fearn, Julie Kavner, Rebecca Hall, Becky Ann Baker, and Joey Brooks, with Albert Brooks and Woody Harrelson.
An uplifting story brimming with hope, Ella McCay marks Brooks’ first original feature film in 15 years. “The truth is I’ve never stopped working,” the prolific multihyphenate said. “I’ve produced two films, and The Simpsons is always there for me to work on. But this story, well… I was going crazy not writing! I started writing, but it took me a long time because while the characters happened very easily, the story to put them in was more of a search.”
Ella is a capable, idealistic woman from a dysfunctional family — one whose childhood dream of becoming governor comes true, just as her personal life comes crashing down. While the movie touches upon Ella’s teenage trauma and its long-lasting effects, it’s ultimately a hopeful story about family and all of the beautiful mess that comes with it.
“I come from a fractured family due to an errant dad; that has something to do with the guy in this movie,” Brooks said of Harrelson’s character, whose multiple indiscretions sour his relationship with his daughter, Ella, and his son, Casey (Fearn). “When you have an errant dad, and when you have that kind of background in your life, it’s as the narrator says in her opening remarks: ‘When you see people living happy, normal, smiling lives, it’s a knife through the heart.’ The ambition to join a ‘normal’ family is very much a part of this film.”
Thankfully, Ella has always been able to rely on her fiercely loyal Aunt Helen (Curtis).
“There are these moments in her life — these key checkpoints, if you will — and Aunt Helen is at every single one of them, right by her side, guiding her, coaxing her, believing in her, seeing her,” Mackey said. “Aunt Helen is the foundation of this family in a very big way.”
Curtis, however, was quick to credit Brooks and Mackey for doing the heavy lifting on set.
“The movie’s called Ella McCay, and it could only happen if the person playing Ella McCay was Emma Mackey,” Curtis said. “She is Ella McKay, and without her performance taking you there, it doesn’t matter about the rest of us. I’m telling you right now, it’s her. It’s her!”
As for Brooks, Curtis said, “You wait for whole life for James L. Brooks to write you a note that says, ‘Will you come play Aunt Helen in this script that I wrote?’ The movie is so light [and hopeful], but the process was [interesting], because it’s from his head, and he’s a constant editor. He is fascinating. It was a wrestling match for me, because my instinct didn’t take me where he wanted me to go. I had to let go of that, which is very scary as an artist, because you feel very naked. At the end of the day, I’ve seen the movie, and it feels light. That was all him.”
As such, the character-driven comedy is “very truthful,” Mackey said. “I think people will be able to see themselves, the good and the bad, in all of these characters, to some extent.”
Brooks added, “I don’t know who said it, but the best thing — and I believe this — that popular culture can do for you, that a movie can do for you, is to tell you you’re not alone.”
