IN MEMORIUM: MARCIA WALLACE, COMEDY ICON, ADVOCATE FOR WOMEN'S HEALTH AND SELF-ESTEEM, FRIEND

 

I wanted to believe Marcia Wallace would live forever. She was, as she always said, “full of life force!” She was a comedy legend, an icon, I know this, because her iconic status often earned us many interruptions during dinner out--even in a place like Los Angeles, where you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a famous person.

She was one of my biggest cheerleaders, and always told me I was “good at everything."  I’d love to believe such lavish praise was unique to me, but I have a sneaking suspicion that’s what she told everyone she loved.

(Our tenth, and as it turned out last, summer gathering in Marcia’s box at the Hollywood bowl, where adoring fans would always stop by. Marcia Wallace, Julie Cypher-Hale, Cathryn Michon and Norma Vela.)

Marcia encouraged me to direct Muffin Top: A Love Story (my first feature film). It is an adaptation, written by my husband W. Bruce Cameron and me, of my bestselling novel, which she also loved (you don't have to take my word for that one, you can read her Amazon review).

Marcia, who was both fearless and insecure, worried she wasn't good enough in the movie because of her many health issues. The last time we spoke, she was really happy to learn she was in the trailer for the movie, because she knew that I am ruthless in the editing room and that I wouldn't put her in the film’s trailer if she didn't nail the moment.

Of course she nailed it.

She was really excited by all of our plans to take this film on a Girls' Night Out Red Carpet Premiere Tour to promote PUT CHICKS BACK IN FLICKS.  She was intrigued by the possibilities of Kickstarter but nervous it wouldn’t work.  Mostly she was excited because I told her that her son Michael Hawley (who plays her son in the film) gives an amazing performance, and she couldn't wait for people to see that. I think he’s going to be a big star.

Just like his mom.

(Marcia and Mikey, on Halloween, he’s playing a scary pirate.)

Marcia would never call herself a star. In fact, she often jokingly referred to herself as a “semi-name,” her way of turning a cruel remark someone made about her into something funny, but she was wrong about that. 

She was a star, in life and in show business.

(Marcia Wallace and her son Michael Hawley, from the body image rom com Muffin Top: A Love Story. It was their first time starring in a feature film together.)

Since her passing, I’ve been lost in grief, I even briefly questioned whether we should cancel this Kickstarter campaign, the whole idea of the red carpet tour where we would personally take the film, her last, to the sort of small towns she and I both came from (Creston, Iowa in her case; Roseville, Minnesota in mine). I worried it would seem distasteful to raise money to support this project even as we all mourn her death.

On the other hand, if I canceled the campaign, I would be a quitter.  Which is something Marcia wasn’t—and wouldn’t stand for.

The title of her hilarious and heartbreaking memoir sums up her life philosophy very neatly, Don’t Look Back, We’re Not Going That Way.

(The book’s subtitle is: “How I overcame a rocky childhood, a nervous breakdown, breast cancer, widowhood, fat, fire and menopausal motherhood and still managed to count my lucky chickens.”)

Our Kickstarter campaign is not about launching a movie, it’s about launching a movement. We will use our rom com about female body image, which has more women in front of and behind the camera than any film of the last three years, to draw media attention to the fact that there are fewer women working onscreen in film than ever before. This was an important issue to Marcia, and was the reason she served for so many years on the Women’s Committee of the Screen Actors Guild. She was eager to join with the rest of our cast to speak about the importance of seeing women on screen, telling women’s stories.

Marcia loved our campaign's slogan, PUT CHICKS BACK IN FLICKS.  The logline of our film, “Love the skin you’re in.” had deep resonance for her, as she (like most women I know) had struggles with her self-image about her weight. In her book she talked about arriving in New York as an aspiring actress and feeling overweight, “I weighed 230 pounds and I had $150 in the bank. When people ask me, 'How do you break into show business?' I say, 'Well, first of all, your ready cash should at least equal your weight.'"

(Tony Winner Marissa Jaret Winokur (Hairspray) Three Time Emmy Nominee Dot Marie Jones (Glee) Emmy Winner Marcia Wallace (The Simpsons) and Cathryn Michon in a scene from Muffin Top: A Love Story)

(Michael Hawley and Cathryn Michon in Muffin Top: A Love Story)

So, because Marcia, the ultimate survivor, always urged people to go forward, I’m going forward with this Kickstarter campaign that she was both excited, and nervous about.  As I said in my blurb on the back cover of her book, “She is my hero and my role model and she knows more about a life well lived than almost anyone.”

I’m not looking back, because we’re not going that way.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MICHAEL HAWLEY, MELISSA PETERMAN, CRIS ROSE, DIEDRICH BADER, DOT MARIE JONES, MARIA BAMFORD AND CATHRYN MICHON IN THE KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN VIDEO FOR MUFFIN TOP: A LOVE STORY