‘La Dolce Villa' Director Mark Waters Talks ‘Killing People's Rom-Com Careers' and ‘Freakier Friday'

Yahoo

13-02-2025

Rom-coms have been no small piece of director Mark Waters's career. He's the man behind films including 'Just Like Heaven' and 'Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,' he produced '500 Days of Summer,' and more.
But, even with a new rom-com out on Netflix this week, if you ask Waters himself, he wouldn't necessarily tout himself as a king in the genre.
'I think I'm the person who's responsible for killing people's rom-com career,' Waters joked with TheWrap. 'Because I know that Mark Ruffalo, after ['Just Like Heaven'], I don't think he did another rom-com. And after 'Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,' I think Matthew McConaughey never did another one.'
In fairness, that's because both actors went on to star in much heavier fare, intentionally so. And Waters knows that, saying that 'Ghosts of Girlfriends Past' was a 'bridging' role for McConaughey, as the character — a genre-bent version of Ebenezer Scrooge named Connor Mead, who learned the errors of his womanizing ways through ghosts — was a bit darker than your typical hero in the genre.
Now, Waters's 'La Dolce Villa' is streaming on Netflix. It centers on a dad who rushes to Italy after his daughter informs him that she'll be purchasing a villa in a small town for one euro, renovating it, and moving in.
While there, he discovers his old love for cooking, alongside a new love in the form of the town's mayor. Because obviously, you can't go to Italy in a movie and not find love.
Once again, Waters has a beloved leading man, this time in the form of 'Scandal' and 'Felicity' alum Scott Foley.
'Scott is just, you know, it was like passing the ball to Steph Curry to hit a 3-pointer,' Waters said. 'He just was gonna make baskets from all over, and do everything we wanted him to do, and do it with utter charm and elan.'
But for as much as 'La Dolce Villa' hinges on Foley's character finding love again as a widower, it also relies on the bond between father and daughter, in this film played by 'Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin' alum Maia Reficco. For Waters, Reficco was 'the bigger surprise' of making the movie.
'The extent to how good she would be is something I didn't really know until we started actually doing it,' he said. 'First of all, she came incredibly prepared. And then the thing we lucked out on was that she and Scott just clicked. They really had a fun dynamic between them from the beginning.'
'And it was this thing while we were making it, realizing, 'Oh, wait, the core of this movie is their relationship,'' Waters continued. 'And the emotional dynamic between them is the thing that ends up being most impactful, more than any of the love affairs, as far as the emotional depth of the movie is concerned. So she was a real revelation.'
Really, that relationship between parent and child is the bigger throughline in Waters's work. The same thing happened in 2024's 'Mother of the Bride' on Netflix, and the trend can be traced all the way back to Waters's breakout film 'Freaky Friday,' with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Waters couldn't quite quantify why he's drawn to that particular story element though, other than admitting he's 'a big softie' as well as a big family man, devoted to his parents, and has raised two girls of his own.
'It's not like I do this consciously when I'm making movies,' he said. 'But every choice you make is one that you make to enhance what's important to you. As a director, you're given a thousand decisions a day and you just go off of instinct. And my instincts usually lead to things having more emotional depth, having those deep ties between family.'
One might wonder if Waters would return to his roots now that 'Freaky Friday' is getting a sequel, with 'Freakier Friday' due out this summer. But no, the director of the original is not involved on this one — although not by choice.
'I did not get the call, was not invited to the party for the for the new one,' he said. 'Lots of the cast members reached out to me and said, 'Why aren't you here?' But I was very happy to say, 'Hey, you guys make a great movie, and I will be there to watch it.''
'Freakier Friday' sees 'Late Night' and 'The High Note' director Nisha Ganatra step into the director's chair, but it was never part of the original plan for 'Freaky Friday' to get a sequel, even back in 2003 when it came out. According to Waters, there were 'never' any conversations about it at the time, as the film 'felt like kind of a one-off' when they made it despite the fact that it grossed over $160 million worldwide against a budget of $26 million.
Waters isn't surprised that a sequel is happening now. He said that Lohan and Curtis reaching the age where they can sort of swap familial roles — Lohan becoming a mother, and Curtis a grandmother — is 'an interesting idea to revisit.' And, of course, refreshing IP is something Hollywood tends to do.
'I think it's because [of] the fact that there still is this issue in our business, which is that, you know, the financing entities behind our business are much more comfortable with already known IP,' he said. 'And the fact that something exists already in people's minds automatically gives you a more of a chance for recognition, more of a chance for people being interested in your story without having to kind of like explain to them why they should be.'
Waters has been on the receiving end of remakes and sequels — 'Mean Girls' and 'Vampire Academy' both got updated versions in the last few years — and on the giving end, as he directed 'He's All That,' 'Bad Santa 2,' and, of course, 'Freaky Friday.'
'You can say all stories have been told over and over, since the Bible. We're just retelling the same stories. It's really like, how can you put some interesting spin on it that makes it, you know? I always say, even 'Mean Girls,' my brother wrote the movie 'Heathers.' That's a spiritual progenitor to 'Mean Girls.''
'So there's a thing about, yeah, put your inflection on it. Give it a twist, give it something that makes it seem current and of interest. It doesn't matter if it's kind of calling from the past at all.'
For now though, Waters just wants to offer viewers a comfort film in 'La Dolce Villa.'
'It's certainly going to be a nice thing in the middle of winter, for people to be transported to a beautiful spring in Tuscany and be able to kind of bathe in it a little bit, hopefully.'
'La Dolce Villa' is now streaming on Netflix.
The post 'La Dolce Villa' Director Mark Waters Talks 'Killing People's Rom-Com Careers' and 'Freakier Friday' appeared first on TheWrap.