One of the biggest sleeper hits of 2019 is Hustlers, based on the true story of a group of exotic dancers who endeavor to rob a bunch of Wall Street hotshots. Produced on a $20 million budget, Hustlers took audiences by surprise when it released earlier this year and became a huge critical and commercial hit, grossing over $150 million at the global box office. Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu were singled out for their fantastic performances, and the film earned positive comparisons to genre titans like Goodfellas.
While promoting the home video release of Hustlers, writer/director Lorene Scafaria spoke to Screen Rant about developing the film. She talks about her long road to the director’s chair and the numerous rewrites she made to her initial script. She dishes on how she managed to cast the great Jennifer Lopez, and discusses the meta narrative of the film being underestimated by audiences and critics, much like how the characters in the movie are underestimated by the people they’re about to rob!
Hustlers is out on DVD, Blu ray, and Digital now.
First of all, congratulations! The movie has gotten such a positive reception and made $150 million.
It’s wild. It’s incredible.
From day one, this has been your movie. When was your first draft written?
Oh gosh… I received the article and put myself up for the writing job in the summer of 2016. So, maybe four months later, there was a first draft. Maybe two months after that, there was a second. I’d say we had a pretty solid version of the movie in the beginning of 2017. Then it was just a really long process of getting the directing job myself, and getting the movie greenlit was even a longer process than that.
Any research I gather that isn’t a direct quote from the creator, I call it the “legend.” So, the legend goes that they wanted Scorsese to direct and that it switched studios early on, and that you purposefully refused any other jobs because you wanted to direct this movie. What was that process like?
It was wild. Certainly, when they said Scorsese, I was excited. I’m an Italian kid! (Laughs) I’m very much a fan. So, when he was the initial first choice, which felt like a pretty obvious one, I think that made some sense. I’m sure he never read it or even received it or anything like that. I’m sure it’s not something he passed on. I can’t imagine it was up his alley. So once he was out of the picture, I kind of had my hand raised, from that point. I certainly had my hand raised when it was just a writing assignment.
You wanted to direct from the jump.
I certainly wanted to be considered and get in the room, just get the meeting to present. But that took about ten months, to get that meeting. And, during that time, I was editing a lot of footage of strippers to Chopin, and various sequences in the movie, as kind of a proof of concept. Eventually, my editor, Kayla Emter and I, we put together a reel that was part of my visual presentation. Once I got in the room, which I guess was November of that year, I pushed play on the thing and, fortunately, got the job. Then it was another year of trying to cast the film, getting Jennifer on board, which was incredibly exciting. Trying to figure out who our Destiny was. That’s when we had the studio switch. We lost a home, we brought the project around town, and it was the week of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, so it was the worst week to bring a project around.
That was an interesting week.
Husbands and wives weren’t speaking to each other. This story is obviously not a black and white story and not wrapped up in a bow, so… During that entire time, I was not going to direct anything else. I wasn’t going to take myself out of the running. I felt I had to be the one to push this rock up the hill. So we finally found a home at STX. Then I did two more page-one rewrites of the script. I just wanted to smash it to the ground and see what happened. So I rewrote it and called it “Destiny and Ramona,” and went from there. I really honed in on that central relationship between those characters. Luckily, in mid-January, they gave us the green light! It’s been go-go-go since then. (Laughs)
Obviously, everything worked out for the best, since the movie is fantastic.
Oh, thank you.
And it’s been a bigger hit than anyone who wears a tie to work could have predicted, if you catch my drift.
(Laughs) I’m not sure they related to the main characters.
It’s really interesting, reading a lot of articles about the movie, the rampant sexism and ageism that people don’t even understand they’re putting out there. Like, when a rapper is in a movie, nobody bats an eye; it’s to be expected. But when those musicians are Cardi B and Lizzo, everyone acts so shocked, like, “Who knew? This is nuts! What’s happening!” And Jennifer Lopez, people go nuts because she’s 50 and still one of the most beautiful women in the world. But no men get told to disappear when they hit a certain age.
I think people underestimate characters like this, undervalue them the way they would in real life. I have to say, it wasn’t just people wearing ties. It was hard for women to understand these characters and their motivations. I think female characters are often put under a different kind of scrutiny. “Are they good enough moms?” is always the question. I think the female characters are often expected to, you know, be more virtuous. But yeah, that was one of the hurdles to get over, obviously. It’s hard to get any movie made, but that certainly felt like a hurdle for this one.
Is it odd to see that story, of these women being so underestimated, play out in the movie, as well as the narrative surrounding the movie? Yourself included, a lady writer/director?
Yeah. It was… Yes, it was certainly part of the joy of casting underdogs, really. Casting people who I think are undervalued in that way. Jennifer Lopez being 50, maybe people wouldn’t imagine that this character should be 50. In the script, it was just that they (Desiny and Ramona) were ten years apart, no matter what the age difference was. But there was something incredible about seeing her celebrated in that way. She’s someone who, I think, has been undervalued in their career, been reduced to body parts, often, even though she’s certainly taken back the night on that, time and time again. I think that was part of the beauty of it. We got to celebrate different types of women at different stages of their life, and seeing them come together and co-exist in the same movie. That was part of the joy, too. Obviously, they’re performers, so we had real strippers and burlesque dancing, opera singers, we just had so many different women, even in that locker room scene, and they all come from different walks of life, different kinds of performers, and they were all able to co-exist in the same film. That was such a treat for me.
You mentioned it took you a year to cast the movie and the dynamic between Destiny and Ramona is key to the film’s success. Who did you cast first, Constance or Jennifer?
I cast Jennifer first. I didn’t write the script with anyone in mind. But when we opened it, it felt so obvious: Ramona had to be Jennifer Lopez, or Jennifer and to be Ramona (laughs). There was no second choice that I could even imagine at that point. So we went straight for Jennifer, and fortunately, her producing partner loved the script and sent it to Jen, and she loved the script, so we met. We really hit it off, and just had all the same ideas in mind for why we were excited about the story and the character. The joy of seeing her in something dangerous. Something that feels familiar, maybe, because people have seen her music career, and yet she really hasn’t played a role like this, so I thought it was going to be exciting to turn it on its head. To see her play a dangerous role. The movie really is the story of Ramona, through Destiny’s eyes. So we had to figure out who would be the eyes. And who is it that is looking at Ramona with such awe.
And that led you to Constance.
It was tougher to find exactly who that person was, but as soon as I met Constance, I could feel that relationship between them. I felt like a matchmaker because I didn’t get to see them in the same room until the camera set, when they were in full hair and makeup and wardrobe and Jen was in that fur coat that’s like her armor… It just felt like it was the magic I was hoping for. Sitting there with Constance in costume and talking about how she was interested in a story that dealt with loneliness and isolation, and what sisterhood and camaraderie can do. I just knew she would be able to tackle such a complicated character who is trying to control the narrative as best she can but is losing her grip on that control. That theme, that runs through the whole movie, I felt like that was something Constance could really sink her teeth into. It took a while to find her, but once I did, there was no looking back. I just couldn’t wait to have the two of them in the same room.
I feel like a big part of the appeal of this movie comes from people seeing it, not knowing what they’re getting into. Like, that theme of underestimation, it’s in the movie, and it’s the narrative surrounding the movie. I wonder, are there any stories of any fights you had to tackle on set to get the movie made the way you wanted it to be? Did you ever have to put your foot down and go, “Hey, it’s a $20 million movie. It’s not The Avengers. Just let me do what I do.”
Once we got to the point where they gave us the money (Laughs), I think there was enough trust at that point. I think they were relieved once they saw that first week of dailies and realized the kind of film we were making. Visually, what it looked like, and what Todd (Banhazl), my DP, and I were working on. I think any extra nerves might have gone out the window at that point. But, oh my gosh, certainly, the preconceived notions, the judgment towards the characters… Not for where they ended up, but for where they started from, that was a lot to get over. It felt like people really could not understand strippers before they could even begin to understand female criminals. Yeah, I think the stigma that’s wrapped up in what these women do for a living was hard for men and women to get over. Certainly, a lot of suggestions about how to vilify the men even more and make it so they “deserved it,” which I certainly was never trying to say, even though the characters make compelling arguments.
I’d say most of them deserved it! Maybe not Doug.
(Laughs) Again, choose your own adventure. I think we all know the difference between right and wrong, and I think it’s all about challenging us, seeing how long we’re on board with these women. At any point, do we turn on them? I think much of the audience never did turn on them. There was a round of applause after Ramona makes her speech about why they should do this and why these guys deserve it, but I didn’t expect that. I wasn’t sure what people would think. I thought, you know, we all know right and wrong, and it’s not up to me to change our minds there, but I think it’s up to me to paint a fuller picture and approach all writing with empathy and see where these women came from, and how they got pushed to a place of desperation. So I didn’t think it was up to me to change the crimes, to water them down, or change the punishments or vilify these men any more than how they would be seen in their lives. There were certainly a lot of notes that came along to try and turn it into more of a black and white story and seeing it all wrapped up in a bow, a perfect slice of revenge. But for me, it was always much more of a slice of life.
Hustlers is out on DVD, Blu ray, and Digital now.
