Why Italy? Well, about the same reasons anyone would choose Italy: the food, the wine, the history, the art, the people.
And their dream came true: Book Club: The Next Chapter finds the women travelling to Rome, Venice and Tuscany. It’s part bachelorette party for Fonda’s character, who is getting married for the first time (to Don Johnson) and part bucket list fulfilment — years ago, life got in the way of a trip and post-pandemic they’re all feeling a little more adventurous.
“In the first film, we were only together when we got together for a book club meeting. It was about our individual storylines,” Fonda said. “This time we were together all the time.”
That meant full filming days, dinners out with everyone, weekend excursions to Florence and gelato in between takes.
One morning, a makeup artist spotted Fonda at 5.30am outside the Pantheon with a map in hand and hat on her head.
A few hours later, while filming, Fonda exclaimed she’d already hit 10,000 steps.
“We had a schedule,” Bergen said. “It wasn’t like anarchy. When the day wrapped we went to dinner.”
There was support for a sequel after the first filmmade over $100 million at the box office.
Director Bill Holderman and his co-writer Erin Simms were pretty sure the driver of the success was the women, their friendship and their bond.
They chose Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, inspired by something Steenburgen had said about getting written off after a certain age.
The four stars, though of similar generations with ages ranging from 70 (Steenburgen) to 85 (Fonda), hadn’t known each other very well and had never worked together before the first film. But they soon became real friends and have stayed in close touch — usually waiting for “Candy”, as they call Bergen, who lives on the East Coast, to tell them she’s coming to Los Angeles. Then they scramble to figure out whose house they’ll go to for dinner. All have hosted at least one.
“The biggest gift by far of these two movies for me is just the friendships with these beloveds in my life,” Steenburgen said.
Italy was a dream for everyone. Some had filmed there before. Fonda had once stayed in Rome for a year doing “Barbarella” with Roger Vadim, and Bergen had shot Lina Wertmüller’s “A Night Full of Rain” there. When it came time to make “The Next Chapter”, she suggested they call on her co-star from the 1978 film, Giancarlo Giannini, to play a part.
“He definitely has a little crush on you,” Steenburgen teased. “He couldn’t keep his eyes off you.”
Bergen politely disagreed. Besides, they were all focused on being together.
By the time the rest of their male counterparts arrived for the final scenes, including Johnson, Craig T. Nelson and Andy Garcia, Fonda laughed it was like, “Who are you? We felt very complete unto ourselves.”
None took the film for granted, either.
“They really understood how lucky they were to be together and to be doing this,” co-writer Simms said. “Not everybody sends older women to Italy to go make a movie. I think they really felt that and it bonded them more deeply.”
Book Club 2 is Fonda’s third release this year, after 80 for Brady and Moving On.
“Studios are noticing that older women are the fastest growing demographic,” Fonda said. “It’s just good business.”
Bergen added: “They’re not quite so dismissive of us anymore.”
Fonda and her co-stars have also noticed that it’s often younger people who talk to them about Book Club.
She thinks part of it is that it’s simply comforting to see more mature women having fun, which, she hopes takes some of the stigma and fear out of aging.
And, yes, they’re already scheming up a possible third movie with Bergen driving the brainstorm.
“Our next one will be in Hong Kong,” Bergen said.
Steenburgen reminded her she also suggested Burning Man.
Bergen: “Did I?”
Steenburgen: “You forget, but I make notes on all your ideas.”
Bergen: “That would be funny.”
Steenburgen: “And hot. And uncomfortable.”
Fonda: “I’ll phone that one in.”
