Mary J. Blige is the first person to get an Academy Award acting nomination and a best song nod for the same film ("Mudbound”); married songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez have an Oscar nomination for “Remember Me” from “Coco”; Ryan Murphy, the producer behind the “American Horror Story” and “American Crime Story” franchises, is leaving Fox for Netflix.
The healing effect of 'Coco's' Oscar-nominated song, 'Remember Me'
If you saw the film "Coco," you probably shed a few tears.
The heartfelt story takes place on the Day of the Dead as 12-year-old Miguel, over his family’s objections, wants to become a great musician like his great-great-grandfather. Through his music, Miguel ends up bringing his family together.
Directed by Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina, the film has received critical acclaim for its stunning animation and its thoughtful depiction of Mexican culture. But the film's heart and soul are its songs, written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.
Together, they’ve worked on a number of Disney productions including "Finding Nemo — The Musical" and the 2013 blockbuster, "Frozen," which earned them an Academy Award and two Grammys.
For "Coco," they drew inspiration from popular Mexican songs of the 1930s and 40s. But the key elements in their Oscar-nominated song "Remember Me" came from their own lives.
Interview Highlights:
On writing the song "Remember Me":
KRISTEN ANDERSON-LOPEZ: Lee Unkrich at Pixar had asked us, "Do you think you could write a song that could mean two different things, depending on context and arrangement, but it's the same song?"
ROBERT LOPEZ: Our wheels started turning and we thought, oh my gosh, a song that's kind of about being a showboat when you first hear it. It's this virtuosic, mariachi showboating like, [sings] Remember me! And then later on when you hear it with the original intent — the same notes and same tune — it was about a daughter that he had to leave behind and he wanted her to remember him.
KAL: We had a personal connection to the idea of leaving a song and a lullaby as a gift to stay connected while you're gone. We have two young daughters who we have to leave back in Brooklyn when we come to work [in Los Angeles]. It's really one of the more agonizing parts of our career.
On writing songs for their two daughters:
KAL: The first people who ever hear our songs tend to be our two girls. They've gotten very good at giving feedback. They're really good at saying, "I really like the energy of it, but maybe you want to..." Now they're learning how to give writers' room feedback.
RL: We write songs as a family sometimes. We write songs for them. We've been making stuff up for them since they were born.
KAL: That's true. The first big project we ever did together was "Finding Nemo," which was about, how do you let your children go? Then it was "Winnie The Pooh." Then we aged up to "Frozen," which was about sibling rivalry. I'm sure we're about to write a teenage musical.
RL: They're our inspiration, really. You can feel it that we've gotten a lot from seeing our girls mature.
On the healing effect of "Remember Me":
KAL: We had a really rough year. We lost Bobby's mom in August. He sang "Remember Me" at her funeral. Now we have people reach out saying, "We sang 'Remember Me' at my [uncle's] funeral." It was very healing to know that people can feel connected to those they've lost through this song. That's very meaningful.
RL: Just knowing that this scene where the boy sings it to his grandma — to me that song is so emotionally affecting. It's where everybody cries in the movie.
Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
How Mary J. Blige channeled her personal struggles into 'Mudbound'
R&B legend Mary J. Blige recently made history as the first person nominated for an Academy Award in the original song and supporting actress categories in the same year. The nods are a response to her work in Dee Rees' powerful film, "Mudbound," in which she plays the matriarch of a sharecropping family. She also co-wrote the song "Mighty River" with Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson.
Known for her ability to move stadium crowds to tears, Blige is no stranger to emotional delivery. The role of Florence demanded a more nuanced approach. So Blige being drew on her Southern roots and the challenges of her personal life to imbue the character with subtlety and depth.
It wasn't until "Mudbound" was finished that Rees asked Blige to write a song for the film. She wanted something that embodied the movie's themes of equality and tolerance. John Horn caught up with Blige to talk about her acting and songwriting processes.
Interview Highlights
On channeling her lineage to portray Florence:
I actually saw my ancestors for real. My grandmother was this woman. My aunt was this woman. And I could say that I lived it because, when I was a child, my mom used to send us to Georgia. My mom is Southern, my dad is Southern. And they're real Southern — from Georgia where there's dirt roads and they almost look like they're living on plantations. My grandmother, she had a farm, she had chickens. I had to pick beans. So we knew how to go down into the fields and pick beans. We knew how to kill a chicken because we saw my grandmother kill a chicken. The women were really strong and they did a lot of work in the field. I knew this woman, Florence.
On her character's silence:
Well, that's how it was back then. If you said too much you could get hurt or you could get lynched. Anything could happen. A lot of other women were like that back then. They didn't have to say much. My grandmother was like that. She was very powerful but she didn't say much. But when she did say something, everybody listened, her husband listened. For a woman it was a double thing. She couldn't say anything in [public] because she'd get hurt for it. And then they were just more submissive back then.
On conveying emotion and story without relying on dialogue:
There was a lot going on in my personal life at the time that was no one's business. So I used all of the restraint of not telling anyone or showing anything that was going on in my life to give to Florence. That's why I just came across [as] being really who she really is.
On co-writing the song, "Mighty River":
Once I was done with the movie, that was something I really wanted Dee to ask me to do. But I never would ask her. She finally came to me and I was like, Yes! I love the movie so much I wanted to write a song for it.
On being recognized for two different awards for the same film:
It feels great because not only can I get more opportunities as an actress now, it's also like, Wow, she's a very relevant artist. Not that I wasn't before. But, you know how when people get older they want to try to push you away. This says, She's earned her way. She's very important. We have to express that. It makes it easier either way.