Director David O. Russell says his unusual move to work with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper on three straight movies together — “Silver Linings Playbook,” “American Hustle” and now “Joy” — is a throwback to old Hollywood.
“When I look back at some of my favorite collaborations,” he said during a La Grenouille lunch for the new film on Tuesday, “I look back at William Wyler with Bette Davis, or [George] Cukor with [Katharine Hepburn]. This is something that is magical and special.”
“Joy” is also Russell’s third movie with Robert De Niro.
The “Fighter” director added of choosing the movie based on the unusual story of Joy Mangano, creator of the Miracle Mop: “I had never done a story with a woman at the center of it. I’d never done a story that was unglamorous in the fact that what she was doing wasn’t earth-shattering . . . but so difficult to accomplish.”
Mangano holds more than 100 patents on inventions from Huggable Hangers to Forever Fragrant air fresheners. But Russell added that late catalog entrepreneur Lillian Vernon — who passed away this week at 88 — also inspired the title character.
At the swanky lunch were Cooper and De Niro as well as Virginia Madsen, Diane Ladd, Dascha Polanco, Isabella Rossellini and Elisabeth Röhm. “Joy” is nominated for two Golden Globes.