"I hope that 'The Guys' offers a personal glimpse and portrait of New Yorkers after the attack on the World Trade Center. Names and some details have been changed but for the most part this meeting between a writer and a Fire Captain actually occurred. Two strangers working together to put a human face on a catastrophe. It's a story that wasn't covered by the news. I think the movie version is even more intimate and warm than the play and it features two of our best actors in simple eloquent performances."
Director/screenwriter Jim Simpson

"'The Guys' was written in the desire that it could serve as a ray of hope, to remind people that the captain's qualities of generosity and courage are very much among us, even in our darkest moments. 'The Guys' offers the audience a quiet way to reflect on an experience of loss, and to rediscover the bonds of kindness, compassion and humour that are the foundation of our strength."
Screenwriter/playwright Anne Nelson

"'Where were you on September 11^th?' That's the question of the year," observes Joan, a journalist who lives with her family on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Portrayed by Sigourney Weaver, Joan, like every other New Yorker, is uncertain of how to deal with her feelings in the days after September 11^th. As she helps Nick (Anthony LaPaglia), a fire captain, eulogise his men, those feelings - anger, confusion and sadness - rush to the surface. 

The Guys captures that unique period of terrible emotional upheaval and uncertainty in New York City. Ten days after the attacks, ramifications of loss and feelings of powerlessness bring together two New Yorkers who may otherwise never have met. The emotions Joan and Nick express, both in the eulogies and in their private conversation, are by turns angry, heart-wrenching, and contemplative. The words they create together honour the memories of the men who gave their lives to save others.

On Tuesday, December 4^th, 2001, the Flea Theater began a series of workshop performances of Anne Nelson's play "The Guys," directed by the Flea's founder, Jim Simpson. Sigourney Weaver and Bill Murray originated the play's two roles: the fire captain who has lost most of his men in the World Trade Center attack, and the editor who helps him write the eulogies as they both struggle to come to terms with the events.

The genesis of "The Guys" was unique. One of the young actors in the repertory company asked Simpson to try to find a work that addressed 9/11 directly. Simpson reviewed texts, but could not find the right piece. One night in mid-October, he happened to be seated next to writer Anne Nelson at a benefit dinner for a human rights organisation. Their conversation inevitably turned to 9/11. Nelson, director of the international program at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, had never written a play before, but at Simpson's request she agreed to weave experiences and ideas relating to 9/11 into a play that the theatre could stage. She based her piece on her own real-life working relationship that came about in the aftermath of the tragedy. A working mother, she wrote "The Guys" during the midnight hours in a little over a week. Two days after that, Simpson scheduled the one-act play for staging.

The Flea Theater, one of New York's leading off-off-Broadway repertory companies, had been severely impacted by 9/11. It is located at 41 White Street, seven blocks from Ground Zero. Over the preceding five years, the Flea had served as a thriving performance space for music and dance performances, as well as innovative theatrical presentations. In the week leading up to 9/11, the Flea was hosting a repertoire of 5 plays, 2 dance presentations and a concert. On 9/11, all activity ceased. When the neighbourhood reopened two-and-one-half weeks later, the Flea's audience attendance plummeted from 90% of capacity to 5%. Audiences were unable or unwilling to venture into the area, since dust and ash from the debris continued to hang in the air for weeks. The initial workshop production "The Guys," it was fervently hoped, would help generate foot traffic and drop-in business in and around the lower Manhattan area.

Sigourney Weaver - Simpson's wife - expressed interest in performing the lead role, and recruited her friend Bill Murray to play opposite her. She explains, "I really believed that theatre could nourish us during this time and that 'The Guys' could illuminate some of what we're all going through. As a New Yorker, I jumped at the chance to be part of this. It's an amazing play."

"The Guys" debuted on December 4^th at the 80-seat Flea. At most performances, every seat in the audience was occupied. Seats were given, free of charge, to fire-fighters and their family members who wished to see the play. The workshop production continued the theatre's tradition of outreach to the New York community, and its ongoing emphasis on artistic expression that is timely and connected to the lives of the public it serves.

Simpson notes, "Small theaters, while more vulnerable to current events, also have the ability to react and respond. When the Flea was threatened, we rediscovered our ability to respond in an immediate and direct fashion. Theater can be immediate, and its obligation is to be more than escapist. Here was an opportunity for the community to come together to confront the catastrophe on human terms. New Yorkers showed their best, and this piece hopefully gives people a sense of community. Even strangers can help each other get through something like this."

"The Guys" ran for nearly 13 months, with a full production from January through December 2002, at The Flea. Actors rotated playing the lead roles. Bill Murray was followed by Bill Irwin, then by Anthony LaPaglia (who played opposite Sigourney Weaver prior to making the film version with her). Next, Susan Sarandon performed in the play for a number of weeks, also playing opposite LaPaglia. Tim Robbins starred with Swoosie Kurtz. Tom Wopat and Amy Irving performed the piece for a number of weeks. Stephen Lang, Marlo Thomas, and Carol Kane also starred in the play. In July 2002, Tim Robbins and Helen Hunt first performed the play in Los Angeles, under the auspices of the theatre troupe The Actors' Gang. Subsequent performers in Los Angeles have included Jeanne Tripplehorn, Philip Baker Hall, David Hyde Pierce, and Glenne Headly.

In August 2002, Random House published the play in paperback, while Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon took the play to Dublin's Abbey Theatre for a limited run. The play has also been performed in Edinburgh, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Raleigh. The Los Angeles run is ongoing; additionally, on September 11^th, 2002, Sigourney Weaver returned to the play once more for a separate free-admission staging, opposite Stephen Lang, at New York's Lincoln Center. Also on that day, there were non-profit performances as part of commemorative observances around the country in dozens of cities. Many of these were held with the active participation of local fire-fighters.

By late 2001, word of the play had spread through Manhattan's creative community. Casting director and producer Bonnie Timmermann brought the idea of a film version of The Guys to Edward R. Pressman and John Schmidt, who had recently formed the production company ContentFilm. (The company had been officially launched at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7^th, 2001.) Another pair of New York-based producers, Open City Films' Joana Vicente and Jason Kliot, were also deeply moved by the play and had begun talks with Simpson about a film version. Vicente and Kliot, who were displaced from their Tribeca offices in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center, quickly partnered with ContentFilm to make The Guys a reality.

I had a choice among many producers, and I picked the ones who I felt understood the subject matter best - who understood that it was a very intimate piece," says Simpson.  "Before I went with Joana and Jason and the folks at ContentFilm, I had met with producers who wanted a sexual affair to happen between Joan and Nick, who wanted to see each of the fire-fighters in flashbacks, all kinds of Hollywood stuff. Joana and Jason and the people at ContentFilm were the rare producers who understood that the film version should stay faithful to the play."

Nelson's play has attracted audiences world-wide over the past year because it focuses on individuals, not on global issues. Simpson acknowledged that, with The Guys, "the audience has to do a little work, and use their imagination, to put human faces to the guys that the fire captain is describing. I think that this act of imagination makes for a very intimate movie, but also one that, like the play, avoids sentimentality. But this approach required excellent actors."

Another question that The Guys asks is, "How were you doing on September 21^st?" Fires were still burning in the rubble of Ground Zero. Missing-persons posters, candles, and flowers still filled the streets, especially in Union Square Park. We still didn't know how many people had been lost.

"I never wanted to make a film about the enormity of what happened on 9/11," says Simpson. "We were never going to talk about what happened, just about these guys. One journalist asked me if I was worried about appearing to exploit the tragedy of 9/11, of being a part of plays and films and TV shows that would inevitably bubble up. And the answer is no, that was never a worry. Everyone is trying to deal with the event in their own way, and the play and film are organic expressions of how two people dealt with the aftermath in their own personal ways."

As he did with Anne Nelson's original manuscript, Simpson strove to make the film version a reality as quickly as possible: "I think the material offers a missing piece. I've heard from a lot of firemen who are very, very uncomfortable with how they and how those who were lost have been portrayed in the news media, as heroes. I think they've been able to appreciate the project because if you don't get to know these guys and take part in what their daily life is like, you're missing something.

"Within the department, and to the surviving spouses and family members, I think the piece has become more important with the passage of time, as the media coverage and obituaries fade. Part of its lasting appeal is that, to Anne's credit, it's well-written. With the film, the piece will now endure and always be around."

Nelson adds, "Over time, audiences have brought new emotional connections to the piece. Recently, a human rights advocate from Cambodia told me that it helped her with the experience of losing a close friend to cancer. People have started to talk about it as a metaphor for different kinds of grief and loss. The warmth, emotion, and humor conveyed by the actors contributes to a healing process."

"The Guys" had brought two talented actors, Sigourney Weaver and Anthony LaPaglia, together for the first time. While they were in the same movie ("Company Man") a couple of years earlier, they did not share any scenes, and so had never met until the first night they read the play on stage. Simpson recalls, "I think Sigourney and Anthony shook hands, said 'Hi, how are you?' and sat down and began performing the piece. It was great, in a way, that their first meeting was before an audience at the Flea."

When it came time for the film to be made, "we were lucky," says Simpson. "Sigourney had performed the play on stage for two months, and Anthony had done it for a month, before we shot the film. So they were very familiar with the material. On stage, they had the freedom to reinterpret the material every night; on film, our mandate was to distill it into one consistent piece."

The Guys went into production in New York City in the spring of 2002. Many of the crew members came to work on The Guys having done stints on the NBC drama series "Third Watch," and were therefore very familiar with members of New York's Bravest and Finest in the uniformed services. LaPaglia, too, spent time with real-life NYC fire-fighters. The movie was filmed on locations that included Manhattan's Upper West Side, a Harlem brownstone, and a firehouse in Greenwich Village; and the interiors of Cadman Memorial Church in Brooklyn. The latter location is where LaPaglia's Nick closes the film by delivering a eulogy for one of his men.

The day the scene was filmed, the pews in the Fort Greene church were filled not with hired extras, but with volunteers from various firehouses, police stations, and organisations of families who had lost loved ones at the World Trade Center. Performing in front of real family members, fire-fighters, and police officers was a real challenge for LaPaglia. "I'm not the nervous type," the actor states. "But in that church, in front of those people, I was really sweating. I felt a tremendous responsibility to everyone in that room to get it right." 

Simpson says, "I learned from Sigourney and Anthony, after being with them on the set every day and every night, that not a lot of film directors talk to actors the way we talked about how we wanted to make The Guys. The collaborative process on this film was, I think, a real pleasure for all of us. And, for me, the editing process is a blast too.

"In the theatre, the work happens faster, there are fewer technical considerations, and there is less involvement with money and more freedom. Film is much more about logistics, the team you have around you, and the limited chances to get it right - but I think, with The Guys, we've gotten it right."

Jim Simpson (Director/Screenplay)
Jim Simpson is the artistic director and founder of the Flea Theater, which was established in lower Manhattan in 1996. The Flea has to date presented 40 plays and over 90 music and dance performances. It also offers workshops and training and rehearsal facilities for young artists from many different performance disciplines.


Also for the New York stage, Simpson has directed the premieres of Mac Wellman's "Sincerity Forever," "A Murder of Crows," "Three Americanisms," "Seven Blowjobs," and "Bad Penny" (which earned him an Obie Award for his direction); Christopher Walken's "Him"; Russell Lee's "Nixon's Nixon" (for Manhattan City Center and Westside Arts); Arthur Kopits' "Road to Nirvana" (at Circle Rep); as well as Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" (for Classic Stage Company).

Regionally, he has staged Harold Pinter's "The Homecoming"; Tennessee Williams' "Summer and Smoke"; and Sam Shepard's "Curse of the Starving Class," among others. He has directed for eight seasons at the Williamstown Theater Festival; and has also staged projects at Yale Rep, the Actors' Theater of Louisville, and the La Jolla Playhouse, among others. Abroad, he has directed productions in London, Dublin, Edinburgh, and Melbourne.