A three-way confab between Judd Nelson, the acclaimed Maine film director Huey (the singular talent with the singular name), and screenwriter Brian Daly (like Nelson, a Portland native) highlights their hopes to turn Salt Hay into gold.
Interviews by Colin Sargent

Ever since Judd Nelson starred in Fandango, The Breakfast Club, and St. Elmo’s Fire, it’s been a sort of El Dorado for Maine screenwriters to try to write a screenplay enticing enough to lure Nelson home from Los Angeles long enough to shoot a film here on location.

Brian Daly’s poignant Salt Hay, winner for best full-length screenplay at the Maine International Film Festival, is just that project.

Listening to Nelson, UMO and USC Film School grad Daly [who wrote Showtime’s Big & Hairy, starring Richard Thomas], and the award-wining moviemaker Huey, you can’t help but sense the energy and purpose this trio has for making this dream happen, and happen here in Maine.

What excites you most about Salt Hay?

Judd Nelson: It’s what excited me first about the project: It’s a story that takes place in Maine, to be filmed in Maine, about people from Maine, and written by someone from Maine.

The salt hay in the title is the hardy sea grass around “Blueberry Beach,” a softly disguised Higgins Beach in Scarborough. But what’s the story about?

Brian Daly: It’s about a boy who makes it his mission for the summer to kiss a girl for the first time. He thinks if he can reach this milestone, the mysteries of the adult world will be revealed to him and he’ll find a way to keep his parents from fighting. While he’s on his quest, he keeps getting knocked down by life, but he keeps popping right back up like the salt hay in the marsh.

His father, played by Judd Nelson, needs to grow up, too, if he’s going to hold his family together–his eternal-teenager act is getting old.

What skills will you draw on to convey this darker, regretful side of Roger?

Nelson: I don’t know if it is a skill, per se, but what I bring to the role of “Roger” now, as opposed to years ago, is the experience that comes to all of us, through the natural process of getting older. Hopefully this will make for a wiser, more grounded “Roger.”

The “Blueberry Beach” here seems like a magic place where families return every summer to hunt for their lost innocence. That’s true with so many ‘destination attractions’ in Maine, where we all seem to be searching for something.

Daly: Higgins Beach is timeless. Every summer the rock is out front, the farmland across the river glows at the end of the day, and little kids pee in the puddles.

What year are you taking us back to?

Daly: It’s the summer of 1963. I remember how optimistic I felt that summer at the beach, with President Kennedy in the White House and the very real expectation that I would be flying to junior high in a few years by personal jet-pack. When I wrote the screenplay, I drew on my memories of how I felt then.

As a native Portlander, this has to appeal to you. If Higgins Beach is the magic spot in Salt Hay, where are the touchstones in Maine that you feel you need to visit whenever you return?

Nelson: When I’ve been out-of-state for any length of time, that first moment when I cross the border into Maine–wherever in the state that might occur–brings me a feeling of comfort, a sense of knowing I am now standing where I am from, and where I belong.

[For] touchstones, I almost always take a flight to Boston, then rent a car and drive the last 100-plus miles.
I get off Interstate 95 at Portsmouth, head down toward Strawbery Banke, then cross the water on the old bridge so that my first steps/tracks in Maine are on Badger Island.

I always stop at The Sea Hag for a couple of lobster rolls, which I eat where I stand (I get some lump crabmeat and lobster to go)–if there is a better lobster roll anywhere else on the planet, I’ve not tasted it.

Then I head north until I reach the outskirts of Portland, and I like to drive by the house of my infancy on Catherine Street, then drive by the house of my cavity-prone years on Falmouth Street, then head up to the Western Promenade so I can drive by the old Carroll Street house, and if there’s snow on the ground, I’ll boot-slide down the long curved “sled-track” that runs along the old cemetery.

I always drive through the Old Port, and down Exchange Street. The first “real” job I ever had (other than delivering the morning Press Herald) was working at the old Candle Factory on Exchange Street.

Across the street there used to be a leather shop, “Together Leather” if I remember correctly. The owner was a really cool long-haired guy who’d let me hang around and help out, and his girlfriend was one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life.

I also hung out at a psychedelic poster shop called Boom-Boom, where I got the Easy Rider, Raquel Welch, and Sophia Loren posters that were the mainstays of my bedroom wall-art.

Where is your magic place, Huey, and why?

Huey: The Maine woods hold a deep attraction for me. My film Wilderness & Spirit, A Mountain Called Katahdin demonstrates that. But I’ve always had a great attraction to the Maine coast. Growing up in Nashua, the Maine beaches were our major destination in high school. I have thought about making a movie on the coast, and Salt Hay is my chance to do that.

Daly (to Nelson): Where did you go to the beach when you were a kid?

Nelson: We went more to Sebago Lake. [But] man, I have so many memories of Old Orchard, not the least of which was seeing large dudes from Quebec wearing Speedos. What up with that horror show?!

Not that you can ever go home again, or can you?

Nelson: Some of the places of my youth may have disappeared, but when I drive up Congress Street from City Hall toward Longfellow Square, I can still see the Monument Square barber shop where I got my first haircut, and Recordland, where I bought all my 45s, and the State Theatre, where I would sneak in to see all the R-rated horror films.

I must’ve snuck in to see Mark of the Devil (the first film ever where they gave the audience members “barf-bags”) half-a-dozen times. I make sure to stop at Terroni’s, across the street from King Middle School, and get a “double-real” Italian sandwich…and then slip in quickly to Gritty McDuff’s for a local beverage. {Sometimes I like to] stop by J’s Oyster Bar, not only for their outstanding steamahhs, but also to see the people who run the place who have been my friends since, well…since before the wheel.

So you really sense the ‘here’ here, in the larger sense of Higgins Beach? Are there any images of Portland during the Kennedy era that are somehow stuck in your mind?

Nelson: Oh, yeah, I remember the bear-chairs in Benoit’s, Angelone’s Pizza, Dave Astor, WMTW weather from the top of Mt. Washington.

Daly: I guess you’re ready, then, to transport yourself back in time. What men’s fashions from the period are you looking forward to wearing? Dreading any?

Nelson: [I] am not looking forward to wearing pointy shoes, but I suspect Roger doesn’t wear them.

What scene in Salt Hay do you most look forward to shooting with Judd playing Roger?

Huey: Well, it’s hard to say just one scene. In [Roger’s wife] Marilyn’s French Discotheque party scene, Roger has a chance to let it all out. But I like the smaller moments when Roger has to let us know he loves his son but just can’t figure out how to express it. It comes out all wrong whenever he tries to do this.

[It’s impossible not to be moved by] Roger and Gower’s last scene together–where they confront each other in that confused attempt at communication between adult and kid we’ve all faced at some point in our lives. It ends on a quietly touching note.

Where do you dream of staying during the shooting of Salt Hay?

Nelson: You’re kidding, right? At my parents’ house, of course [in Falmouth Foreside]! With every passing day, I feel more and more fortunate that I come from such an incredible family. My parents [Leonard Nelson, partner in the law firm Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer, and Nelson, and former state rep. Merle Nelson] have both set incredibly good examples for me and my sisters: They are kind and caring, they do unto others as they would have others do unto them, they were high-school sweethearts (at Deering) and have been married over 50 years.

I also feel very lucky that I was able to know and spend some great quality time with all four of my grandparents (may they rest in peace). All of my positive qualities–any decency of character I might possess–are a direct result of my upbringing, specifically the guidance and example of my mother and father. (All of my ‘questionable’ behavior, ‘tom-foolery’ and the like, I learned on my own.)

People in Maine imagine you floating in the ether between characters and films. Tell us where you live, what make and model car(s) you drive, what your favorite board game is, favorite spaghetti sauce, secret nerdy hobby, whether you have pets–some grounding information. Who you love.

Nelson: A nosy little bugger, aren’t you? I live in Los Angeles, I drive a 1995 Chevy Impala SS–basically, it’s a cop car. I also ride a 1987 Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail, a rat-bike I spray-painted flat black, with as few shiny bits as possible, and I have a ne’er-do-well 1970 Toyota FJ40 with neither doors nor roof–it’s a truly spiteful and heinous lemon of a vehicle which almost never runs and is currently comatose with a steering disability. I think I keep it to remind myself that just “wishing” for something to happen is NOT enough.

I have a dog, a rescue pit named Nya the Nice, and she is.

(Pause) Like most people, I’d prefer to keep my private life private. I’m not one to talk out of school, or tell tales. I won’t name names…or sell anybody out…and I tend not to be friends with people who do. It seems that many in the media believe that they have the power to decide what another person may or may not keep private; I strongly disagree and prefer the individual make those decisions for him- or herself, so I don’t see an invasion of privacy as ever having an ‘expiration date.’ YIKES…gettin’ too serious, please forgive me.

Actors from Maine seem to have a great regard for each other. Are there other parts in Salt Hay where you’d like to see another Maine celebrity at work?

Nelson: Any and every actor from Maine would be great to have in the project. There’s Liv Tyler, Andrea Martin, Patrick Dempsey, Bob Marley, and more. I really think someone should ask Stephen King to play a role.

What gets to you about Salt Hay?

Huey: I like the coming-of-age part of the story, how to deal with all the new discoveries in your life when you are young, when there are still so many mysteries to life. The script also has plenty of room for a director to put his visual stamp on the film. I am eager to work with Jim Cole, director of photography, in creating the visual world of Salt Hay.

What’s so unique about the setting, and how will you use it to ground Gower’s innocence?

Huey: Brian has captured the spirit of the times. I remember 1963 and JFK’s assassination. I had just started high school, so that year is filled with vivid memories for me. The underlying social mores or lifestyles of the early sixties were a carry-over from 1950s conservatism. Nineteen sixty-three was a pivotal year when a whole generation was about to explode on the world as young adults. Maybe it was the sheer number of youth or just the right timing. Something was in the air, and great, hard-fought change was coming like the struggle of the civil rights movement, the war in Vietnam, and the hippie lifestyle.

What’s your most recent film?

Nelson: [I’ve just finished shooting] All Saints Day, the sequel to The Boondock Saints, with fellow Maine-native Bob Marley.

Why do you think Judd Nelson is such a great pick to play Roger?

Daly: He’ll make my writing look good. In The Breakfast Club, for instance, Judd had so much screen presence that audiences were compelled to watch him. They saw what was going on inside his character, but they also got the feeling–somehow–that there was even more in there. He has a way of deepening the mystery of his characters.

Huey: From the beginning, [I’ve felt] that Judd brings a nice physical presence to his acting. Often his characters exude a certain insouciance–in all the complexity of meaning of that word–from indifference to composure to airiness. He uses it well to cover up the deeper emotions that emerge later in the film. Roger is a showy guy who likes to have fun. But we sense this is a cover for a dissatisfaction with life.

He’s always looking for the next thing–which [he believes must be] better than any current thing, person, moment. This affects his marriage so that at the same time that he can’t keep up his relationship with Marilyn, he loves Gower.
Roger’s struggle to handle his inner battle with himself over the fact that leaving Marilyn means leaving Gower is at the core of his character. I look forward to seeing Judd’s interpretation of that.

If you were back at Stella Adler’s famous acting school in New York, what would she tell you to look for in your characterization of Roger in Salt Hay?

Nelson: Mmmmm… What would Ms. Stella Adler tell me to find in the screenplay? Probably to find “The Truth.”

Enough about you guys. What scene will be the best opportunity for Mainers to snag walk-on bit parts?

Daly: The backyard discotheque party calls for people to do the Twist and the Limbo, and there’s a funny sequence at an Old Orchard Beach-ish seaside amusement park that’s exhilarating and mortifying for Gower, his summer in miniature.

What do you hope to achieve with Salt Hay?

Daly: Our aim is to produce a high-quality, low-budget independent film for family audiences. If we can do that, we’ll introduce the brand-name value of a product “Made In Maine” to the movie business.

If everything went perfectly from this point forward, what do you see happening?

Huey: We have a good core creative team. We know the best crew people in the state and have connections to Maine’s wonderful actors. We need a few key name actors like Judd to help us push this over the top. I feel my fellow producers and I can handle that. What we need now is for people who believe in Maine and want to invest in the state to step forward. We need money to make the film, there’s no way around that. We need insightful people who understand that investing in a film being made in Maine with Maine people is a good idea for the state and worthy of supporting.

How can interested Mainers get involved in the production of Salt Hay at any level?

Huey: Write to our production team at salthay@me.com.

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