Exclusive: Carly Simon On Nora Ephron: “She Would Get Inside the Head of the Character”
Carly Simon wrote the soundtrack to Nora Ephron’s 1989 movie, “This Is Your Life,” based on the novel by Meg Wolitzer and starring Julie Kavner. Carly had previously written the music for “Heartburn,” including the best selling, award winning “Coming Around Again.” Here’s what Carly sent me this morning after learning of Nora’s untimely death:
“Oh, it is a shock to the system. I hope I can find some of her e mails dating back to the early nineties about “This is My Life” a movie that is not given the credit it should have. She gave me lines for my song (“you’re the love of my life”) the way she had for ” coming around again”. She would get inside of the head of the character and do some channeling and I would add some rhythm and this and that. She had a gift for the specific, and could hone in on a character by giving me ( in this case the songwriter) a word like ‘souffle’ and I added the verb ‘burn’ as in ‘burn the souffle’ and it says a whole lot more than what I could have cooked up alone for Meryl’s character to be feeling through song.”
“Love of My Life”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3UNmsjoFxE
“Coming Around Again”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aopjOF0nuq4
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.
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