Plains State of Mind
B y L i z B lood
WINTER: OSAGE COUNTY
At press time, the 1916 house near
Pawhuska that served as August: Osage
County’s primary filming location was on
the market with a list price of $250,000.
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January/February 2014
jeremy charles
A behind-the-scenes
look at the making
of an Oklahoma
blockbuster.
OklahomaToday.com
45
“We had to have an
incentive, or we wouldn’t
have gotten the movie.”
claire folger/the weinstein company
I
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January/February 2014
n one of August: Osage County’s
pivotal scenes, Julia Roberts’
character, Barbara, the raging eldest
daughter of the Weston family,
says, “Thank God we can’t tell the future;
we’d never get out of bed.”
It’s been said that art imitates life, and
in the tragicomic August: Osage County,
based on the 2007 play of the same name,
so it goes for one Oklahoma family. As
in life, characters get cancer, cheat on
their spouses, commit suicide, are born
to rotten parents, and turn out to be rotten parents themselves. The film, which
premieres nationwide on Christmas Day,
confronts these subjects and more in a
dimly lit house outside Pawhuska, where
everything, sooner or later, comes out
into the open.
“The interesting thing about this story
is that it’s about this beautiful, bright
place with sun-washed, open hills,” says
Jill Simpson, director of the Oklahoma
Film & Music Office. “But it’s also about
a couple locked away in a dark house with
the walls coming in on them. It’s about
people coming unraveled.”
Simpson sits behind an oak desk
covered with neat piles of papers and
an overstuffed three-ring binder. Her
office is filled with soft lamplight, the
binder with production reports and
schedules, budgets, and records of
logistical issues and scouting locations.
It contains every missive, note, and bit
of information related to August: Osage
County between 2008, when Simpson’s
office began petitioning for the film to
be made in Oklahoma, and its wrap in
late 2012.
A cast of celebrities that included Julia
Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Meryl Streep,
and producer George Clooney gave
residents of northeastern Oklahoma
ample opportunities for brushes with
fame in their hometowns.
Based on a play written by Tulsa and
Durant native Tracy Letts and first
performed at Chicago’s Steppenwolf
Theatre in June 2007 before moving to
Broadway, August: Osage County distills
the human experience into thirteen
characters. Among them are Jean, Barbara’s melancholy, vegetarian fourteenyear-old daughter; Barbara’s sister Karen,
who moves from one man to the next;
and Charles, the Weston sisters’ cousin,
who is constantly under the demeaning and watchful eye of his smothering
mother, Mattie Fae.
Theater critics loved it. Richard Zoglin,
writing in Time, hailed the play as an
“original black comedy” deserving of “a
seat at the dinner table with the great
American plays,” while in the New York
Times, Charles Isherwood referred to it as
“probably the most exciting new American play Broadway has seen in years.”
In 2008, August: Osage County won
the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the
Tony award for Best Play plus four additional Tonys in other categories.
I
n 2008, the Weinstein Company
optioned the movie rights for August:
Osage County. That’s when Simpson
and her crew began soliciting Letts and
the Weinstein Company to make the film
in Oklahoma. To a studio of the Weinstein Company’s caliber, Oklahoma was
more or less, Simpson says, “an unknown
quantity. It took a lot of convincing to get
them here.”
The Oklahoma Film Enhancement
Rebate, which currently offers up to a
37 percent cash rebate on money spent
filming in the state, played a major role.
Many states offer incentives programs,
but Oklahoma’s is small, with a cap of $5
million per year.
“We had to work three times as hard
to show the value of coming here,” says
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Simpson. “We had to have an incentive,
or we wouldn’t have gotten the movie.”
Oklahoma charmed August: Osage
County director John Wells, who was
enamored of the state’s northeastern
plains and fought to convince Harvey
Weinstein, cofounder and co-chairman of
the Weinstein Company, that Oklahoma
should be the film’s location.
“You couldn’t do this anyplace but
Osage County,” says Wells.
From the moment the Weinstein
Company announced that John Wells
had been hired to direct the film, Simpson’s office began forging a relationship
with him. Included in the courtship
was hand-delivering to Wells’ Warner
Bros. office a collection of literature and
photos on Native American culture, the
history and people of Osage County, and
the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve as well as
Oklahoma items of cultural significance.
Those efforts paid off.
“Shooting in Oklahoma proved to be
a wonderful experience,” says Jean Doumanian, one of the movie’s producers and
among the play’s original producers. “We
could not have asked for a better place
to bring August: Osage County to life.
Oklahoma is not only the setting for our
film, but it is also deeply embedded in its
dialogue, characters, and heart.”
Wells credits the pleasure of the experience to the people he worked with
in Oklahoma.
“We had a wonderful time because we
were here with wonderful Oklahomans,”
he says. “Osage County is a very specific
place. The story comes together by being
in that place.”
Industry insiders tout the importance of film rebates. But in the
rarefied air of creative film work, it’s
only the foot in the door. Another important factor, of course, was Oklahomans’ legendary hospitality.
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January/February 2014
“The tax incentives were essential
to our being able to come, and I’m
thankful to everyone at the Oklahoma
film office, the governor, and the state
legislature for allowing us to have this
extraordinary experience,” says Wells.
“Barely a Saturday goes by without my
wishing I was sitting at Frank and Lola’s
[Neighborhood Restaurant & Bar] in
Bartlesville surrounded by the many
Oklahoman friends I left behind.”
States like Georgia and Louisiana,
whose incentives programs have no cap,
have attracted major projects like The
Hunger Games: Mockingjay and The
Fantastic Four, but they don’t guarantee
the same kind of personal assistance
the Oklahoma Film & Music Office is
known for.
“Our office manages a comparatively
small incentives program,” says Simpson, “but we work hard to maximize
every penny and to provide great customer service.”
Communities involved in the production played an important role as well.
The Bartlesville Convention & Visitors
Bureau, for example, created a booklet for
the filmmakers filled with information
tailored to their new audience.
“A lot of the people who came to visit
wanted to get the Oklahoma experience,
so we included things that are very Oklahoma—like where to go horseback riding
and information about the Tallgrass
Prairie Preserve and Woolaroc Museum
& Wildlife Preserve,” says Maria Swindell
Gus, executive director of the Bartlesville
Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We
were trying to make our community as accessible to them as possible.”
The $25 million August: Osage County
production brought in a powerhouse
cast—including Meryl Streep, Julia
Roberts, Chris Cooper, and Ewan
McGregor—to play the dysfunctional
Weston family. Among the actors,
six have earned Academy Awards or
nominations. The film also had a crew of
approximately 150, nearly half of whom
were Oklahomans; boosted the local
economies of Pawhuska and Bartlesville;
and proved something that needed
proving—Oklahoma can handle a major
twenty-first-century production.
Assistant locations manager Chris
Kucharski of Oklahoma City says the
logistical challenges of his job are his
biggest motivation.
“The thing that excites me about my
job is not being around famous people,”
he says. “It’s overcoming obstacles.”
Obstacles, as Oklahomans know, can
be a synonym for weather.
“We got a heavy, heavy rain one night
before we were going to shoot at the
house,” says Kucharski. “Base camp was a
muddy mess. It became impassable.”
By the next morning, Kucharski was
orchestrating more than fifteen dump
trucks of gravel and a skid steer—a small,
four-wheeled machine with a lift on the
front—so actors and crew could move in
and out of their trailers.
T
he film industry in Oklahoma now faces an obstacle
of a different kind, one that
threatens the livelihoods of crew members like Kucharski who have stayed in
the state to pursue their careers. In May
2013, the Oklahoma House of Representatives voted against the extension
of the Oklahoma Film Enhancement
Rebate Program.
Due to sunset on July 1, 2014, the
program will disappear if lawmakers do
not vote to extend it during the next legislative session, which begins in February.
“We have one more shot during
the 2014 session or the program goes
away, as does most of the film crew
claire folger/the weinstein company
“Osage County is a very specific
place. The story comes together
by being in that place.”
The August: Osage County crew arrived
in northeastern Oklahoma in late June
2012, with production beginning in late
September and ending by Thanksgiving.
Above, actor Dermot Mulroney and
director John Wells on set.
we have worked to grow over the last
decade,” says Simpson.
These film professionals have in turn
worked to build sustainable careers in
their home state—and hope to continue
to do so.
“Once the incentives are gone,
there’s not going to be any work,”
Kucharski says. “Commercial and
freelance work are my bread and butter. The boat I’m in now is whether I
choose to move or not. I’d absolutely
prefer to stay here.”
Not only does film work sustain the
livelihoods of many Oklahomans, it also
acts as a boon to local economies where
filming is taking place. Mike McCartney, economic development director at
the Pawhuska Chamber of Commerce,
says it has made a big difference in his
community. Beyond tourism opportunities that may spin off the film, the actual
making of the movie meant money was
spent in Pawhuska.
“This was not a low-budget film. This
is big stuff,” says McCartney. “I’m a
Pawhuska boy, and it’s not every day that
these folks come to town.”
O
sage County, with its Cross
Timbers forest, glittering lakes,
open prairie, and rolling hills, is
one of the most beautiful and geographically diverse areas of the state. Last October, Sandy and Dean Haberly of Dewey
were out to see the trees changing when
they pulled into Osage Hills State Park
between Bartlesville and Pawhuska.
On that clear, blue-sky day, the
Haberlys’ windows were down. As they
drove toward the swimming pool, they
saw a thin man playing bagpipes near
the creek bottom.
They sat listening for a while. On their
way out of the park, they offered him
thanks for the impromptu concert.
Hearing the player’s Scottish accent,
Sandy asked if he was on vacation, to
which he replied, “No, I’m working on
the movie.”
“Thinking he’s on the crew, I asked
if he’d go back to Scotland afterwards,”
says Sandy.
“Oh, no,” he replied. “I live in Los
Angeles.”
Sandy asked his name.
“My name is Ewan McGregor.”
Sandy laughs as she recounts the story.
“Well, my mouth fell open,” she
says. “I said, ‘Oh my! You’re one of the
main ones!’”
McGregor grinned. “Well, I guess so.”
“The trees were beautifully dressed,
and the wind was blowing just enough
to make them shimmer,” says Sandy. “I
wanted to take a picture before I even
knew who he was. Music was echoing
through the creek bottom. Quite honestly, it was very magical.”
Bagpipes on the breeze, a chance
encounter on a Sunday drive, light
glinting off the burnt orange and deep
red leaves. Even without a crew and
high-profile cast, the scene has a certain
cinematic ring to it.
August: Osage County opens nationwide
on December 25.
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