It’s the job, though, that’s truly consuming. In the past two years, Fellner says, “I was out of the country for 270 days, without my family. So the job’s quite…tough.” Or, in Bevan’s earthier formulation: “That’s what it f---ing takes.”
Through it all, however, Bevan and Fellner manage to maintain their collective levelheadedness, charm and discipline. Ethan Coen remembers that The Hudsucker Proxy was his first project with the duo, and it was “by far our worst movie in terms of how it performed. And they just kind of shrugged and said, ‘Okay, we’ll try another one.’ You know, that’s what we appreciate about them.”
It’s an appreciation shared by Curtis, who recalls his own moments of despondency while watching a very early rough cut of Notting Hill that got alarmingly few laughs. But Fellner remained cheerful about the film’s financial prospects, counseling, “Don’t worry: $300 million.”
“It was, really, perfect producer’s behavior,” Curtis says. “Eric and Tim are always intelligent and peaceful. I’ve never been even slightly tempted to work with anyone else.”
As Fellner sums it up, impishly, “We do well; we do well.”
