I previously spoke to Griffin Dunne about directing the first Practical Magic, and he told me the set may have been cursed by a real-life witch. Have you ever had any witchy experiences of your own?
I think it happens all the time. In that particular instance, I was only on the set for a day. This may have more to do with Griffin than it does with Practical Magic. I mean, I think he did a great job, but don’t ask me. [Laughs] I grew up reading magic, so I was ready to believe in it. I love this author called Edward Eager. He wrote about magic, but it took place in Connecticut, and in the everyday world. It just opened me up as a child to believe anything could happen anytime. Or maybe I just wished anything could happen.
Why do you think Practical Magic still resonates decades after the original story and film?
It’s so interesting because, as a book, it did okay. As a movie, it did terribly when it came out. There weren’t movies with women in it about sisterhood and friendship. And as time has gone on, things have changed, and people have shared this movie, men and women alike, and it’s just become kind of a cult thing because it’s about something that you can’t find that easily, but that you feel is part of your life. It feels like more than just a book or a movie—it’s kind of a culture. I went into a shed one summer by myself, wrote the book, and now it affects so many people.
You wrote the screenplay for a 1983 film called Independence Day, but haven’t adapted any of your own work for the screen. Was there a reason you didn’t write more scripts after that experience?
I did. I wrote so many scripts, I can’t even tell you. I worked for a lot of actors who didn’t continue with the script once it was written. I kind of supported my life that way. But I realized not everything gets made. I mean, I did two things for Cher, which I wish to this day she had done. I think she would’ve won an Oscar for both of them. But what can you do? You’re more of a hired person.
How do you avoid entering a situation similar to that of Tomi Adeyemi, the author of Children of Blood and Bone, who has publicly come out against the upcoming adaptation of one of her books? How do you make peace with changes to your story for the screen?
If you feel like it has to be exactly your vision, then you should not sell it to somebody, because it’s going to be the director’s vision, the actor’s vision, the producer’s vision. I got used to that as a screenwriter. Maybe I agreed, maybe I didn’t. I don’t know that particular story, but it’s your book and you have to decide what you want to do with it. But I always think the book belongs to whoever’s reading it. So once you put it out there, it belongs to somebody else anyway.
