Following in the footsteps of Nicholas Sparks’ books-turned-into-movies The Notebook and Dear John comes The Choice, starring Benjamin Walker and Teresa Palmer in a love story that begs the question: How far should you go to keep the hope of love alive?
Travis (Walker) is a fun-loving bachelor who’s managed to avoid commitment until he meets and falls in love with his new neighbor Gabby (Palmer). But what looks like a forever-after love is threatened by forces outside their control, and Travis must make a choice that will alter their lives forever.
Just in time for the Blu-ray and DVD release of The Choice on May 3, Parade.com got the chance to talk with its creator about love and romance, his love for North Carolina, his favorite non-Nicholas Sparks romantic movies, and more.
I have seen most of the movies made from your books. I was thinking about why, and the reason I came up with is they’re human stories as opposed to special effects, robots or superheroes. Is there a common theme that you try to have in all of your movies to make them relatable?
One of the requirements I have for any story, and it’s a threefold requirement, whether we’re talking about the plot as a whole, or any individual element within the novel or film, or any of the characters, they all have to meet three criteria. They have to be interesting, they have to be unique, and they have to be universal.
It’s very easy to do two of those three in anything. For instance, you can be interesting and unique, and come up with a superhero, or a Hannibal Lecter, but they’re not very universal, and you don’t relate to them. The challenge is to take someone that could be your neighbor, your sister or yourself and make that person both interesting and really unique.
That is the challenge, and that’s why, for instance, Noah Calhoun in The Notebook is very different than John in Dear John. They’re both interesting, but they’re very distinct.
Another goal of mine is any character throughout any of my novels tends to be more glass half full, than glass half empty, and they tend to do the right thing most of the time. They try to do right by their friends and family, I say most of the time, because nobody’s perfect, and everyone makes mistakes. Then they’re able to communicate what they’re thinking or feeling, or what their hopes and dreams are for the future.
What made Benjamin Walker and Teresa Palmer the perfect choices for Travis and Gabby?
We’ll start with Benjamin Walker. He was raised in Georgia, so he understands the South as a Southerner does. He wasn’t someone coming in with misperception, or an idea of the South as formulated by books, movies and media. He was from there.
Of course, he’s immensely talented in a lot of different ways. He’s currently in American Psycho on Broadway. He can sing, he’s a stand-up comedian, he plays musical instruments, this is a young man who’s extraordinarily talented across the board.
When we’re talking about Travis, we’re talking about someone who really knows how to enjoy life, who’s got a sense of humor. He can tease and be teased. Those are wonderful qualities and Benjamin can do that in his own life. He was, of course, the right age, and he understood the character, and so we have all of those things.
Now, Teresa Palmer, when we saw her, she has this unbelievable ability to just act with her facial expressions, without even the tone of her voice. She doesn’t have to use any words at all, you could see exactly what she’s going to say or think, or how she’s feeling just based on her facial acting and her body language. I think it’s really extraordinary. The closest comparison would be Rachel McAdams. She would do the same thing in The Notebook. So when we saw Teresa Palmer, it just made sense that she would be able to play the role of someone who life suddenly throws her a curve ball. She had her life all imagined out in one way and all of a sudden it’s changed, and that uncertainty and the questioning of what should I do, it just plays out so beautifully.
You walked away from the studios to make this film on your own. Was part of that having to do with how close you stay to the novel?
No, I don’t do it that way. In producing, my goals is always the same. I say, “Look, we want to catch the spirit and the intent of the story, and make the best film possible,” because they’re very different mediums. A novel is a story told with words, a film is a story told with pictures. Some things work much better in words, like, introspection; and some things, no matter how good a writer you are, they just work better on film, like fires, car chases or arguments. They’re just more arresting on film, so you try to catch it with the strength of the different mediums.
This movie is also a love story to North Carolina. The locations are just gorgeous. Can you talk a little bit about how you chose where to film?
We wanted to capture North Carolina and figured they have good crews and everything, so it was a good choice on a number of levels, but I love to film in North Carolina, because it’s a way to introduce people to the area where I live, and it looks different than almost anywhere else.
The coastal plains where I live in North Carolina don’t look like the coastal plains of South Carolina, or anything like Florida. It’s just the geography. It’s flat, so you’ve got these wide, slow-moving rivers, and you’ve got islands off the coast, there’s no place like it. So for me, people want to know why I live here, and I get to show them on film.
Do you know what your next movie is going to be?
Right now, we’re working on a script for The Guardian, so there’s no tentative start date or anything like that. We’re in the early stages, but that would be the next one.
What’s your favorite romantic movie, excluding yours?
I’ve got five. I think there are five that top the charts. You’ve got to go with Casablanca, why? I think that’s a classic. I think Ghost with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore was beautiful. I thought Dirty Dancing was fabulous. I just watched Dirty Dancing the other night with my son, and it works after 30 years. It holds up and it’s just fabulous. I think Titanic was an epic love story, and, even though I don’t know that it classifies technically as a love story in the vein of these others, I still think Pretty Woman works very well.
These are all good, but I thought you’d pick more classic movies, like An Affair to Remember.
I love that one, but they’ve also got to really hold up for me. These are the ones that, I think, will hold up and they’ll be equally watched for a long time from now.
Are you working on another book?
I am working on a novel, Two by Two, and it will be out this fall.
You’ve talked about your great love story in the past, but since your divorce, have your feelings changed at all when it comes time to sit down and write about love?
No. No, not at all. I’m a big believer in love, and just because Cathy and I are no longer married, that’s not the end of our story. We have five children, we live a couple miles apart, and we’re still very good friends. No one ever knows what the future will bring in anything, but absolutely not.
The Choice is currently available on Digital HD, and arrives on Blu-ray (plus Digital HD) and DVD (plus Digital) on May 3 from Lionsgate.
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