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We originally featured the Along For the Ride (aka Forever Lulu) Press Kit in our April 2001 magazine - it's a fabulous movie - check it out next time you are in your local video store!

Along For the Ride


All photos: Will McGarry         Millennium Films







Ben (Patrick Swayze) and Lulu (Melanie Griffith)
in their college days

(Click for larger image)



The magic of love may be more about timing than emotions. For Lulu McAfee and Ben Clifton, the timing of their college romance could not have been better - or worse. Still, the couple, separated for more than a decade, by hundreds of miles and through personal tragedies, established a rare lifelong bond. Melanie Griffith, Patrick Swayze and Penelope Ann Miller star in FOREVER LULU, a romantic black comedy written and directed by John Kaye. Producers included Avi Lerner and his Nu Image films as well as Griffith's and Antonio Banderas' Green Moon Productions. Other producers include John Thompson, Boax Davidson, Diane Sillan and Abra Edelman. In addition to Lerner, Danny Dimbort, Trevor Short and Willi Baer are serving as executive producers. Tani Cohen is the co-producer. Other cast members include Joseph Gordon Levitt, Lee Garlington and Steven Bauer.

The story follows Lulu (Griffith), a romantic schizophrenic who leaves her institution to track down her college soulmate, Ben Clifton (Swayze). Ben is a television writer and in the midst of a lacklustre marriage to a psychiatrist, Claire (Miller).



Lulu and Ben "on the road"
(Click for larger image)



Reunited, Lulu lures Ben on a bizarre, yet poignant cross-country trek to their past and to a secret. Meanwhile, a threatened Claire rushes after them in an effort to save her marriage. For veteran screenwriter and tyro director John Kaye, the story was intensely personal. "It was essentially a story about my wife who was a schizophrenic and killed herself. It's like a love poem to her in a lot of ways. "Generally, it takes me nine months to write something, but I wrote this very fast... three months. It was more like releasing something than writing." According to Producer Diane Sillan, "It's a big journey about Ben and what he has to go through to face his demons. Along the way is this spirit of Lulu who instigates, provokes and brings him back in touch. She is a kind of road map to his soul." Melanie Griffith notes, "I think of Lulu as kind of an angel. She comes and heals, and at the same time, she's a fragile woman who realizes her own power again." The passion of the youthful romance has not faded for either Ben or Lulu although life has taken each on a separate trail. "They are potentially like two meteors that would just burn each other out," says Patrick Swayze. "I have a feeling that this movie could communicate some wonderful things to the world."

Sillan adds, "All of the roles are wonderfully balanced, but Lulu comes off the page because she gets to say these incredible non sequitors. If you really look at the roles, they are all very diverse emotionally." The triangle of Ben, Lulu and Claire is riddled with broken people and broken relationships. Ben and Claire's marriage has never fully recovered from the loss of their young son to leukaemia. Lulu, although emotionally torn and potentially suicidal, has never lost her wild, youthful spirit. The story builds to a dramatic climax, revealing a sixteen year-old secret, which changes everyone's life.



(l. to r.): Claire (Penelope Ann Miller), Ben (Patrick Swayze)
and Lulu (Melanie Griffith)

(Click for larger image)



Griffith is quick to point out that "it's never just about the characters. It has to be about the story and this is a beautiful love story." While the Lulu character has a certain outrageousness to her, Penelope Ann Miller has the tough duty of tackling the restrained Claire. "Claire is challenging in that I have to keep it very contained... how much to show and now much not to show. As a psychiatrist trying to help other people, she is a classic example of someone not necessarily practicing what she preaches. "Maybe Claire is not crazier than Lulu or just as crazy, but she just handles it differently." For first-time director Kaye, he is quick to laud the acting ensemble. "There's a lot of give and take about what this is, and it's been very respectful. When you're dealing with serious issues like mental illness and children that die, people get dialled into that stuff on an emotional level as actors."



(l. to r.) Ben, Lulu and Claire
(Click for larger image)





Ben and Lulu
(Click for larger image)



He adds, "It's just been a great learning experience for me in terms of personal growth, and I enjoy the collaboration."

Swayze, a veteran actor of such hits as Ghost and Dirty Dancing, says, "The fact that John was a first-time director gave us a perfect emotional barometer. You can see the moments because when we hit it, it ripped him apart." Previously, Kaye has written the screenplays to Where the Buffalo Roam and American Hot Wax, among others. FOREVER LULU is quite a thematic departure for him. "The story is about a guy that gets a second chance, and I've got this amazing second chance in my life," explains Kaye.



Lulu and Ben
(Click for larger image)



FOREVER LULU filmed in and around the Los Angeles area, utilizing a number of diverse environments to capture the feel of the trip from Los Angeles to Madison, Wisconsin. Production Designer Stephen Lineweaver says that it was both a visual and logistics challenge to showcase the diverse terrain on the trip. "You just have to keep looking around Los Angeles, and it will eventually work for you," he adds. The single most difficult visual task for Lineweaver was recreating Lulu's perspective during her "breakdowns". For example, a scene in a motel room with Ben and Lulu was shot normally, but as Lulu's mind begins to malfunction, the creative team wanted to alter the scene from her viewpoint. "We created a backdrop of the motel room which was established earlier," says Lineweaver. "The backdrop was then distorted and overly-saturated with color. Also, bizarre shadows were used to offer this unique view from Lulu."

The new background, albeit different, is connected to the hotel room enough so that the audience understands where the action is taking place, and that something unusual is taking place. A secondary benefit of the film is its handling of people with psychological disorders, notes Griffith. "There's a lot that we don't understand. People are locked up and put away and really nothing is done except they're given medication. On the other hand, they have come up with great medications now that allow these people to function normally." To research her part, Griffith spent time with four schizophrenic women. All four were in different stages of the disease with different circumstances. "I hope that we come up with better answers to help them to survive and to live." Kaye says that FOREVER LULU is a fairly complex story, but in its simplest terms, it's a road picture. "I think it's about people taking risks with their lives... people that get an opportunity to get a second chance and go for it. Whether they're emotional risks or creative risks, nobody ever said on their deathbed, 'I'm sorry that I took too many risks.'"

The Cast:
Beginning her career at age sixteen in Arthur Penn's Night Moves, Melanie Griffith (Crazy in Alabama, Working Girl) is one of today's most sought-after and versatile actresses, who has collaborated with some of the film industry's most important directors. Patrick Swayze (Ghost, Point Break), made his film debut in 1979's Skatetown U.S.A. In 1987 he gained worldwide recognition when he starred as Johnny Castle in the box office hit Dirty Dancing. Showcasing unusual versatility, Penelope Ann Miller (Kindergarten Cop, Rhapsody in Bloom) has amassed an acclaimed, yet diverse, resume of performances in both film and television. The cast also features Emmy-winning actor Richard Schiff ("The West Wing", Dr Doolittle), Joseph Gordon-Levitt ("3rd. Rock From The Sun", A River Runs Through It), Lee Garlington (Dante's Peak, Sneakers), Annie Corley (Cider House Rules) and Steven Bauer (Traffic). Diane Sillan (Crazy In Alabama), Abra Edelman (Underworld), Boaz Davidson (Guinevere) and John Thompson (Guinevere) produced the film, with Willi Baer (Virgin Suicides), Avi Lerner (Operation Delta Force), Danny Dimbort (Operation Delta Force) and Trevor Short (Operation Delta Force) acting as executive producers. FOREVER LULU was filmed entirely on location in-and-around Los Angeles and San Francisco.



More of photographer Will McGarry's great shots taken from the movie - Ben, Claire and Lulu talk things out
(Click for larger image)





Lulu and Ben
(Click for larger image)