7
Thursday, May 13, 2021
GO! magazine — A&E in Northeast Oregon
at the movies: Billy Crystal shares
real-life inspirations for ‘Here Today’
Peter Sblendorio
Your
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New York Daily News
What started as a disastrous
lunch outing turned into a heartfelt
Billy Crystal movie.
An early scene in the new com-
edy “Here Today” — which Crystal
directed, cowrote and stars in — is
based on a real-life experience by
cowriter Alan Zweibel, who shared
a meal with a woman who spent
only $22 at an auction to meet him.
During their lunch, the woman
suffered an allergic reaction to her
seafood salad, and because she
didn’t have insurance, Zweibel cov-
ered her nearly $1,100 medical bill.
“It was just such a hilarious
story,” said Crystal, who heard
Zweibel, a veteran comedy writer
who was on the original “Saturday
Night Live” staff, share the anec-
dote with late-night host David
Letterman.
“I wrote him, I think, while they
went to the fi rst commercial break.
I said, ‘Al, this is something that we
could jump off from,’” Crystal told
the Daily News.
Indeed, “Here Today” begins with
Crystal’s character, a longtime com-
edy writer named Charlie, getting
lunch in New York with an auction
winner, Emma (Tiffany Haddish),
who is unknowingly allergic to
seafood.
While the plot is fi ctional, the
movie repeatedly draws from ele-
ments of Crystal’s and Zweibel’s
lives.
In “Here Today,” released in
theaters Friday, May 7, Crystal’s
character is quietly dealing with
the early stages of dementia, and
forms an unlikely friendship with
Haddish’s Emma.
“I was dealing with a relative
who was a novelist and an editor
for the Book of the Month club,
and a brilliant woman, and ... she
said to me profoundly, ‘I’m losing
Sony Pictures/Stage 6/TNS
Billy Crystal (left) and Tiffany Haddish star in “Here Today,” which was released in theaters May 7.
my words.’ She started to have the
onset of dementia, and then Alan
revealed that his dad was suffering
from this, too,” Crystal said. “So we
started writing.”
The Manhattan-born Crystal,
73, and Brooklyn-born Zweibel, 70,
made it their mission to tell a story
fi lled with empathy.
“We treated the dementia with
total respect,” Zweibel told the
News. “We were very, very aware
that this is something that affects
people, affects the people that love
people who are affl icted with this.
“We didn’t make any of those
jokes. We went for the raw emotion-
ality of it.”
Some aspects of the Charlie char-
acter were modeled after longtime
“SNL” writer Herb Sargent, whom
Crystal and Zweibel both admired
during their separate stints on the
show. The movie depicts Charlie as
an experienced writer on a sketch
comedy series.
The story also sees Emma
encourage Charlie as he writes a
book fi lled with memories about
his family.
“You never know who’s going to
walk into your life and change it,”
Crystal said.
“These are two strangers who
become friends in the truest sense
of the word, who really defi ne
the words ‘empathy’ and ‘love’ and
‘humor.’ I think it’s grounded in
that.”
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