Foodies have been wiggling their whisks in anticipation of “Julie & Julia,” the movie about Julia Child opening next Friday.
But as much as the film is about Child, it’s also about Julie Powell, now 36, a struggling New York secretary who in 2002 started “The Julie/Julia Project,” a year devoted to cooking all 524 recipes in Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1” and documenting it on a blog. Later, she used the blog as a basis for her first book, “Julie & Julia.”
Q:How does it feel seeing your life up on the screen?A: Surreal is the word. But, with the blog and the book, I’ve been ramping up the surreal quality step by step over the last few years. I’m excited that a movie has been made about Julia Child and that I was involved in making that happen.
Q:How much were you involved with the movie? Did you help select Amy Adams to play you?
A: I really wasn’t involved with the movie at all. Early on, I had a couple of lunches with Nora (Ephron, the director-writer-producer). She had printed out my whole blog — on pink paper — and had made all these notes in the margins. She tried to call me out on my b.s. and make sure I was being honest.
She’s such a delightful — and terrifying — woman.
I loved having Amy Adams play me. Then, of course, I had to look in the mirror afterward. She’s so teeny tiny, and red-haired. She did a great job, especially capturing my hysteria and crying jags.
Q:How about Chris Messina as your husband, Eric? And Meryl Streep as Julia Child?
A: The first time I knew Meryl Streep would be playing Julia was from something I read online quoted from Nora. The reporter — I think he was Scottish — said Meryl would be playing Julie Powell. And I was like, “What?”
I find Chris’ performance as Eric one of the most winning in the entire movie. But Eric (a senior editor at Archaeology magazine) is a little freaked out by this entire process. It’s difficult to get him to talk about it.
Q:A critical scene is when you find out that Julia Child wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about your project. Why do you think she reacted so negatively?
A: When that happened, I was devastated. She inspired me to change my life, and I had. I was a secretary, and now I was a writer. But I have my inner Julia Child — her legacy, her spirit (Child died in 2004).
I had to reckon with the idea that my Julia Child understands that what I was doing was only about heartfelt gratitude and tribute. I didn’t want to follow in her footsteps, I just wanted to turn my life around. And she helped me do it.
Q:Did you ever hear from her?
A: I wrote her a letter several months after the blog was over and I was beginning to work on the book. I received a cordial, formal reply. I don’t know if she actually really wrote it or an assistant did.
Q:Do you still cook from “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” — or cook at all?A: I don’t cook a lot from the book. It’s not the way to cook every day.
I do go back to the classic French country dishes — boeuf bourguignon, coq au vin. Those dishes were the soul of Julia’s mission. I don’t know that I’d ever bone a duck and stuff it with pate again.
Q:Have you considered cooking as a career?A: After the blog and the book, people had a misguided vision that I should cook professionally. I did a TV pilot that never got off the ground. It could be because I nearly burned down the set. I was doing an omelet and melted butter in the pan and forgot about it. It got so hot that when I added the eggs, the whole thing burst into flames.
