Framingham’s Andrea Berloff talks about making her ‘big shot’ directorial debut on ‘The Kitchen’
"I know it sounds cliché, but this has been a dream come true."
The way Andrea Berloff describes it, being picked to direct female-fronted mob movie “The Kitchen’’ was one of those must-be-fated Hollywood moments she was more familiar with writing than living — the kind where light streams down and choir music swells in the background.
“I know it sounds cliché, but this has been a dream come true,’’ said the Framingham-bred screenwriter, speaking by phone about the project (now in theaters), which stars Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss as three mob wives who keep their husbands’ rackets up after the guys are sent to prison.
Berloff wrote and directed, adapting the Vertigo graphic novel by Ollie Masters and Somerville’s own Ming Doyle. For its writer-director, “The Kitchen’’ arrived right when she needed it most. It was early 2016, and Berloff had just finished traveling the awards circuit for “Straight Outta Compton,’’ the NWA biopic she earned an Oscar nomination for co-writing. But despite the praise for her work on that movie, Berloff felt professionally stymied.
“I looked around at some of my male peers I began with,’’ she said. “They were making more money, getting bigger opportunities, and being taken more seriously than I was.’’ Even after the Oscar nod, Berloff was frustrated. “I felt like I might not get a chance to do or say more,’’ she recalled.
Enter New Line, which sent Berloff the Vertigo novel in hopes she’d adapt it. The story, which she read as an aspirational tale of women taking over a male-dominated industry, immediately hooked her.
“I love gangster movies, but I never knew where to see myself in them,’’ she said. “It was important to me, to create a world where women state what they want and go get it.’’
Berloff pitched New Line on her vision for “The Kitchen’’ as both a writer and director. With producer Michael De Luca on her side, she sold the studio on a mob epic that would go “against type’’ in every sense.
“The mission of it was to zig where other versions of the genre had zagged,’’ said De Luca, who’d chased Berloff for years before being approached to produce “The Kitchen.’’ Her feminist perspective, he said, helped modernize the gangster genre, whose ruthless antiheroes are historically male.
Casting the film, Berloff selected McCarthy, Haddish, and Moss — three actresses she believed capable of playing darker characters than they’re typically offered.
“We all want to be given a chance to do something different,’’ said Berloff.
What’s next for Berloff? The rumor mill began churning after an interview in which she said she’d like to tackle a “Batgirl’’ movie for DC. “I know, I opened my big mouth,’’ she said, laughing. “We’ll leave that one where it is.’’
For now, she’s happy to send “The Kitchen’’ into theaters as her “big swing’’ debut.
“You’re only going to get one shot to make your first film,’’ said Berloff. “It better be good, and you better take a big shot.’’
