The Film Panel Notetaker

Tribeca Film Festival

Joan Rivers – A Piece of Work

April 26, 2010

By Brian Geldin

Joan Rivers – A Piece of Work is a vérité portrait of the tireless, ballsy and hilarious veteran of show business, Joan Rivers, who has been through many highs and lows, and will do almost anything for a laugh, no matter what the obstacle. A New York crowd got to see the comedy legend discuss the finer points during a Talk Back moderated by film critic Rex Reed during the Tribeca Film Festival. The directors of the documentary, Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, were also on hand. Below are highlights of the discussion.

Reed, who mentioned he’s known Rivers for a long time since his first trip ever to Fire Island, said of the film that it does what a good documentary is meant to do: to entertain and teach us something at the same time, but the one thing the audience wouldn’t know completely from watching the film is that Rivers is one of the truly nicest people that he’s ever known. The movie shows her as very complex, multifaceted and courageous woman who’s not afraid to try anything at least once to get a laugh. He feels people will take away one of two reactions: You’ll think of Rivers as a dynamo who never runs out of energy and an object lesson in what to do to achieve success –or– the desperation to find new ways to re-invent oneself. Reed asked Rivers if she thinks that’s true and if it bothers her. Rivers said yes it’s true and she has no choice, which means by the time she was in kindergarten and played a pussycat, she knew, “this is it.”

Reed asked Stern and Sundberg if they found it fun or difficult to work with Rivers, and were there ever any temper tantrums? Stern said it was the most fun she had making a documentary. They had a very intimate relationship with Joan following her around and it was a lot of fun. Rivers said when they took the microphone off her for the last time, she missed them terribly. Stern said occasionally Rivers would get a little snippy when she was really tired.

What is this never-ending relationship Rivers has with flight attendants? Are they usually rude, Reed asked? Rivers said she’s always on an airplane. “They’re usually wonderful. Just find a gay flight attendant and you’re home free,” she said. But what about the women who are straightening their hose who don’t like her very much, Reed asked? “Except they do now, because I’m old,” she said.

Reed said the other aspects of Rivers that the camera doesn’t capture except in small doses is that she’s a philanthropist, she cares about people in trouble, and was one of the first crusaders on national television who fought the battle against AIDS, endorsing the use of condoms, which must have taken courage. Didn’t she get problems from the network, Reed asked? Rivers said she did. Bill Cosby once told her, “Say what you think. If 1% of the entire world likes you, you’ll feel safe.”

Reed said he found it sad to find out that the first thing Rivers does in the morning when she wakes up is put on her make up. “You are handsome Rex, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You were a movie star,” Rivers said. “You don’t know what it’s like not to be an attractive person.” She said she was never the pretty one, and she works hard to make herself feel better. Reed said that she always has her face on. “I swim like that,” she said. Reed asked the directors if they ever caught Rivers off-guard when she wasn’t expecting them to zoom in on her. Stern said in the opening of the film when they were shooting Rivers putting her make-up on, Rivers didn’t know they were shooting that.

Reed moved on to talk about her life outside her comedy, particularly the share of blows she’s experienced throughout her life and career, some of which comes out in the film from private moments of fear and pain. She was dismissed for life from Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. She was fired from FOX. Her husband killed himself, she’s been in debt, and so on. How does she survive with a smile, Reed asked. You just do, you just move forward,” she said. Reed mentioned that Rivers and her daughter Melissa played themselves in a made-for-TV movie, calling it very brave. Rivers said she got such flack for the movie, but eventually she started getting bags of letters from people who’ve known people who committed suicide who thanked them for doing the movie and exposing what it does to a family.

How does she keep her comedy fresh, and what papers does she read, Reed asked? Rivers said she reads The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The New York Post every morning. “You don’t know where comedy comes from,” Rivers said. If she went around the room, everyone has been through some horror.

How do female comics stay aggressive and stay feminine at the same time, Reed asked? Rivers said it’s really hard. All the men she’s ever been seriously involved with have not really seen her perform, but by the time they did, they understood her better. She said she’s so tough on the stage…“you have to be.” Does she ever feel any regrets about hurting people’s feelings, Reed asked? She said very seldom, giving an example from back in the late 1980s when she said something about country singer Willy Nelson being dirty and how he would urinate out windows. She said she used to do a joke about him wearing a roach motel around his neck. She got a letter from his daughter.

What part of Rivers’ life experience has she been able to pass onto her daughter Melissa? Did she want her to be in show business, Reed asked? Rivers said, no, she didn’t want her in the business, but she’s a brilliant producer, a terrific interviewer, and wrote a book about being on the red carpet that got great reviews. “Everyone who doesn’t like me takes it out on her,” Rivers said. “It’s a tough business and you have to have skin like an alligator.”

In the film, Rivers talks about how she’s always wanted to be taken seriously as an actress, and not just as a comedian. Reed mentioned that Jim Carey once said if there was anything he would do over again he would not start out in stand-up comedy because it seriously affected his ability to be taken seriously as a good actor. Does Rivers feel that way, too, Reed asked? Rivers said of course she does, but given such recognition with comedy allows you to go out and do a play, giving you a chance to be an actor. Reed said he thought she was brilliant in the play, “Sally Mars,” and should have received attention for her acting in it. The critics shattered the play, which has to hurt when it doesn’t make it, Reed said. Rivers said she was nominated for a Tony for her performance. In the film, it shows Rivers going through the process of writing a new play and rehearsals and bringing the show to London, where the reviews were only so-so, but she does not bring it to New York. “I don’t want to come to New York and have happen to me what just happened to Valerie Harper,” she said. [Note: Valerie Harper was in the play, “Looped” about Tallulah Bankhead that closed].

But there are comic actors who have gone on to big movie and TV careers, why hasn’t it happened to Rivers, Reed asked? “That worries me, you deserve that,” he said. Rivers said she’s never been offered a sitcom or a big role in a movie. She said you can’t dwell on that, and “look at what I have had come through to me.” Reed said it would seem natural for her to be in a sitcom, which Rivers agreed and then started talking about Betty White. “That bitch!” Rivers said. In the past 20 years, are there any roles Rivers wished she could have played?” Reed asked. “I would have been a great Phantom,” she joked. “I would only have to make up half my face.”

Rivers recollected what she called a “terrible” story about when right after her husband Edgar killed himself, she couldn’t get work. The role Linda Lavin was playing at the time in “Broadway Bound” was looking for a replacement. Rivers called and asked if she could read for the role, and Neil Simon said, “Don’t even bring her in.” Rivers said she’d pay her own way in if they could let her read for the part of Kate. They gave her the part right on the spot. It turned her life around. She got on Broadway and from that she got her talk show. At the recent revival of Broadway Bound on opening night when she was being interviewed and she thanked Simon for giving her the role of Kate, and Simon said, “You were Kate?” “That’s the story of my life in theater,” Rivers said.

Reed mentions Lucille Ball as being a very tough broad and a businesswoman. Rivers said she was never a stand-up comic, she was a comedy actress and “brilliant.” Rivers said she begged Ball to put her on her show. During rehearsals, Ball would tell Rivers exactly how many seconds to hold a beat. “She was right,” Rivers said.

Reed said Rivers has been everywhere and has done everything making millions of dollars, are there any dreams unfulfilled? “Everything,” she said. “You’re not about to thrown in the towel?” Reed asked. Rivers referred to George Burns, Phyllis Diller, and Bob Hope as people who went onto work very late into their lives.