Marielle Heller

Marielle Stiles Heller /ˈmɑːriɛl/ (born October 1, 1979) is an American writer, director, and actress.[2] She is best known for directing The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015), Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), and the Fred Rogers drama film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019).

Marielle Heller
Heller at Maryland Film Festival in 2016
Born
Marielle Stiles Heller[1]

October 1, 1979 (1979-10) (age 40)
Marin County, California, U.S.
Occupation
  • Filmmaker
  • actress
Years active2001–present
Spouse(s)
(
m. 2007)
Children1

Early life

Marielle Heller was born in Marin County, California,[1] to Steve Heller, a chiropractor, and his wife Annie Stiles-Heller, an artist and art teacher.[3][4] She grew up in nearby Alameda, along with her younger brother and sister, Nate and Emily.[3] Her father hails from a Jewish family in New York.[5][6] Heller started off as an actor, calling acting her "first love."[7] As a child, she was part of the Alameda Children's Musical Theater, where she participated in as many as four plays a year, including the roles of Rabbit in Winnie the Pooh, Templeton the rat in Charlotte’s Web, and Polly in The Magician's Nephew.[3]

With time, she graduated to community theater, as well as productions at Saint Joseph Notre Dame, where she attended high school.[3] She graduated in 1997.[8] She studied theatre at UCLA and then at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.[9] Additionally, she was honored with a Lynn Auerbach Screenwriting Fellowship and The Maryland Film Festival Fellowship.[10]

Career

After returning to the US, she worked as an actor at the Magic Theatre, the American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and the La Jolla Playhouse.[3] She was in the world premiere of David Edgar’s Continental Divide directed by Tony Taccone.[11] She also acted in shows Spin City and Single Dads."[12]

The Diary of a Teenage Girl was Heller's debut film, that she both wrote and directed. It is based on the 2002 graphic novel titled The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures by Phoebe Gloeckner,[13] which she received as a Christmas present from her sister in 2006.[3] The story's protagonist, Minnie, is a 15-year-old girl living in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1976 who begins an affair with her mother's 35-year-old boyfriend, Monroe. Heller was taken with Minnie's character, a young woman who is confident in her sexuality and, noting the lack of films that represent young women in such a way, she set to adapting the graphic novel to play. With Gloeckner's blessing, worked the script into a screenplay.[14] It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2015, and later received a limited release in August 2015.[15] The film stars Bel Powley as Minnie. Heller was selected as a 2012 Sundance Screenwriting Fellow and 2012 Sundance Directing Fellow,[16] where she had submitted the script for the Sundance writer and director workshop. She then proceeded to direct a teaser for the film using grant money from the writer's workshop. The film received critical acclaim at Sundance, and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. The film also won the Grand Prix of the Generation 14plus at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2015.[17] In 2016, the film was named best first feature at the Independent Spirit Awards.[3]

Heller's writing credits include screenplays, theatrical plays, and pilots for ABC and 20th Century Fox, such as the ABC pilot The Big Apple and a film for Disney, titled Renegade X.[9]

Heller next directed Can You Ever Forgive Me? about literary forger and writer Lee Israel, based on the author's memoir.[18] She teamed up again with Archer Gray, who she first worked with on Diary.[19] With a limited budget, filming a movie set in the 1990s was a challenge.[18] She cast Melissa McCarthy in the title role based on the actress's performance in the 2014 film St. Vincent.[20] They shot on location in bookstores where Israel had sold her forgeries, including the Argosy Bookstore and Westsider Rare & Used Books.[3] The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2018.[20] It was released on October 19, 2018 by Fox Searchlight.[18][7]

In January 2018, it was announced that Heller would direct A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a film that chronicles an interview Tom Junod conducted with child entertainer Fred Rogers for Esquire magazine, and how the encounter impacted the journalist's life.[18] The screenplay was written by Emmy-nominated producers Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster.[21] Tom Hanks, who portrays Mr. Rogers, agreed to join the project once Heller signed on as director, as they had met previously through Hanks' son, Colin.[22][3] It was filmed in Pittsburgh.[3]

Media image and directing style

Heller has said she is drawn to stories about people "trying to talk about something that people are uncomfortable talking about" and "human beings trying to navigate through the world."[7] Drawn to storytelling, she progressed from an actor, to a writer, finally beginning to direct when she dreaded turning her screenplay for Diary to someone else.[12] She has said that becoming a mother made her change the kind of stories she tells, because she wants "to do good in the world".[7]

In 2020, she was listed, among others, as one of the several female directors snubbed for Academy Awards and Golden Globes nominations for Best Directing, as only men were nominated. Fellow director Greta Gerwig, who also was not nominated, included Heller in her list of women who could have been competing for the Golden Globe. Actress Natalie Portman, as a sign of protest, wore a dress embroidered with the names of these women, including Heller, on the 2020 Oscars red carpet.

Filming days for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood adhered to a shooting schedule of 10-hour days that did not break for lunch so that Heller and other cast and crew members could potentially still have nights with their children. She believes sustainable working hours on film sets will allow more female directors to continue working after they have families.[23]

Personal life

Heller is married to comedian Jorma Taccone,[14] having met at UCLA while studying acting.[3] Together they have a son, Wylie Red Heller Taccone, born in December 2014.[24] They live in Brooklyn, New York.[3]

Heller's brother, Nate, is a musician who composed the scores for all three of her feature films.[3] Her sister, Emily, is a stand-up comic, as well as a producer and writer for the HBO comedy Barry.[3] Her brother-in-law, Asa Taccone, is the lead singer of the band Electric Guest, and her father-in-law, Tony Taccone, is a theater director. When asked about her greatest source of inspiration, she answered, "Every member of my family, each of whom is completely their own person, and works on being thoughtful and creative every day. And I find inspiration in all of my friends, and my husband, all of whom are working toward living life as an artist every day."[11]

Filmography

Directing

Film
Year Title Credited as Notes
Director Writer
2015 The Diary of a Teenage Girl Yes Yes
2018 Can You Ever Forgive Me? Yes No
[25]
2019 A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Yes No

Television
Year Title Credited as Notes
Director Writer
2015 Transparent Yes No Episode: "New World Coming"
2016 Casual Yes No 2 episodes

Acting

Film
Year Title Role Notes
2004 The Liberation of Everyday Life Flora Short film
2010 MacGruber Clocky
2014 A Walk Among the Tombstones Marie Gotteskind
2016 Paper Anchor Caroline
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping Documentary Crew Member

Television
Year Title Role Notes
2001 White Power Party People Short
2002 Spin City Carrie Episode: "Eyes Wide Open"
2005 Awesometown Waitress Short
2008 All-For-Nots Heather 2 episodes
2009 Single Dads Jill Episode: "Metting Girls in the Park"

Theater

This list is adapted from her biography on The Nervous Breakdown:[11]

gollark: How likely is it that they're both that similar?
gollark: Yemmelemmey.
gollark: Oh, oops, an e.
gollark: Just cut out one "m".
gollark: Yemmel is almost lemmmy backwards.

References
  1. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VLG9-KGN. Retrieved December 17, 2018. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. SAITO, STEPHEN (August 5, 2015). "Interview: Marielle Heller on Seeing Herself in "The Diary of a Teenage Girl"". The Moveable Fest. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  3. Guthmann, Edward (October 15, 2018). "Alameda's Marielle Heller Is One Hot Hollywood Director". Oakland Magazine. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  4. "Marielle Heller Annie Stiles-Heller Photostream".
  5. "Cast and crew of 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood' felt deep connection to city with Tree of Life tragedy".
  6. "Marielle Heller's Land of Make-Believe".
  7. Dawn, Randee. "Seeing truth in the fraud". Los Angeles Times. New York. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  8. "Marielle Heller '97". Saint Joseph Notre Dame High School. March 19, 2014. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  9. "Marielle Heller". Playscripts, Inc. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  10. "MD Film Fest | About The Festival | Producers Club". www.md-filmfest.com. Archived from the original on December 21, 2015. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  11. "21 Questions with Marielle Heller". June 6, 2010. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  12. Majumdar, Antora (September 6, 2018). "TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Marielle Heller — "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"". Women and Hollywood. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  13. SMITH, C. MOLLY (January 29, 2016). "'Diary of a Teenage Girl' challenged perceptions of young women and sex". EW. Meredith Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  14. Handler, Rachel (August 6, 2015). ""The Diary of a Teenage Girl" Director Marielle Heller Is Here to Remind You: Women Have Sexual Thoughts Too". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  15. Davis, E., "Watch: Kristen Wiig, Alexander Skarsgård, & Bel Powley Star In The New U.K. Trailer For Diary Of A Teenage Girl", IndieWire, July 1, 2015.
  16. Heller, Marielle (June 7, 2012). "MARIELLE HELLER AT THE SUNDANCE DIRECTORS LAB, PART ONE". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  17. "Prizes & Honours 2015". www.berlinale.de. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
  18. Milder, Ben (May 1986). "Groucho, can you ever forgive me?". Survey of Ophthalmology. 30 (6): 404. doi:10.1016/0039-6257(86)90097-4.
  19. MORFOOT, ADDIE (September 8, 2018). "Archer Gray Projects Take on Female Colors". Variety: 1–23.
  20. Ford, Rebecca (September 5, 2018). "WE GET SCARED WHEN WOMEN CHARACTERS ARE IDIOSYNCRATIC': Director Marielle Heller on Melissa McCarthy going to 'really dark places' as a washed-up writer in Can You Ever Forgive Me?". Hollywood Reporter. 424 (29): 66. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  21. Nolfi, Joey (March 19, 2018). "Marielle Heller insists Tom Hanks' 'beautiful' Mr. Rogers movie 'not a biopic,' reveals plot details". MSN. Archived from the original on December 18, 2018. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  22. Desta, Yohana (March 20, 2018). "Soulful, Inspiring Mister Rogers Movie Trailer Just Might Make You Cry". Vanity Fair. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
  23. "'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood's' Marielle Heller Pushes for 'Sustainable' Hours on Movie Sets". November 22, 2019.
  24. Goldstein, Gregg (January 3, 2015). "10 Directors to Watch: Secrets of Marielle Heller's Sundance 'Diary'". Variety. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  25. McNary, Dave (May 31, 2016). "Melissa McCarthy to Play Novelist and Literary Forger Lee Israel (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
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