Nora Ephron fought to be more than a rom-com queen

“Remember this moment because it’s a hit, and that doesn’t happen often,” reports Nora Ephron. said Her Night, 1998 film You’ve got mail the premiere took place. Her words are based on experience. Although the famous reporter-turned-filmmaker is remembered for creating some of the best romantic comedies of all timeincluding When Harry Met Sally And Sleepless in Seattle, Efron was also no stranger to failure.

It’s the inevitable truth hidden inside Nora Ephron in moviesa new book dedicated to the writer-director’s career, written by Ilana Kaplan (past Vanity Fair author): Most of Efron’s films didn’t work.

Efron’s filmography was a success. She was nominated for an Oscar for her first screenplay. Silkwooddirected by Mike Nichols, starring Meryl Streep. Streep also received an Oscar nomination for Efron’s latest film. Julie and Julia. But you’d be forgiven for forgetting some of its other titles, such as the 1989 father-daughter gangster comedy. cookie, or 1996 John Travolta vehicle Michael– a film that grossed more than that year Jerry Maguire on its opening weekend, but otherwise faded from public consciousness. Efron also led not one, but two Steve Martin bombs (1990s My blue paradise and 1994s Mixed nuts), showing that the sardonic voice of her essay was not always reflected in film. Her seminal debut novel Heartburnwhich tells the story of the end of her marriage to Washington Post Watergate reporter Carl Bernsteinhad an equally difficult transition to the screen: an adaptation with Streep and Jack Nicholsonwas met with much colder welcome what the book was.

“They say failure is a growth experience; you learn from failure. I wish it were true,” Efron wrote in her 2010 book. I don’t remember anything. “I think the main thing you learn from failure is that it’s quite possible that you’ll fail again.” But while she was well aware of her misfires, they didn’t stop Efron, who “didn’t want to be seen as just a rom-com queen,” Caplan says. Vanity Fair. “It’s part of her personality, but I don’t think it’s her full personality.”

Kaplan, who was introduced to You’ve got mail At the age of eight, and later mentioning the director in her wedding vows, she admits she fell in love with the popular image of Efron. “To be honest, I’ve been romanticizing my whole life,” she says. “I thought I was living in a romantic comedy and that every year at Christmas—I’m Jewish, by the way—I would be meeting my husband. I was completely delirious.”

Nora Ephron in 1978.Barbara Alper/Getty Images

Yet it’s the contradictions of Efron herself – an iconic director with more misses than hits, an often fiery personality now forever associated with coziness – that keeps people captivated more than a decade after her death in 2012. “Her life is reduced to the equivalent of one of her rom-coms. But Nora’s work was not always liked—critics often caused controversy, scolded it, and copied it,” writes Kaplan. “Of course, there has been some re-evaluation over the years, but the blending of Nora’s adoration and her creativity remains.”

Vanity Fair: You come to the conclusion that Nora “everything is a copy” The credo was not so much about divulging everything as it was about shaping your own narrative. What was vital to you in telling Nora’s story?

Ilana Kaplan: I wanted to show how she revitalized the rom-com genre, how progressive she was in certain ways, but there were blind spots in her work because of the times, because of her social status. I wanted it to be very much a celebration of her work, but it was important to really address the things that might have been problematic about her. There are almost no people of color in her films. The ones you’ve heard of can be counted on one hand, or are they just minor characters like Dave Chappelle V You’ve got mail. If you’re watching a movie like Mixed nutsIn some ways you might think, “Oh, it’s progressive because it has a trans character, but it’s pretty transphobic.” You can celebrate how she pushed the genre forward while also criticizing what she could have done better.