How the Women Directors of ‘The Last Movie Stars’ and ‘The U.S. and the Holocaust’ Focused on Propping Up True Stories
Malina Saval Associate Editor, Features Documentarian Emily Wachtel met Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward when she was two years old. They were neighbors in Westport. Conn, the dearest of family friends. “I knew them my whole life,” says Wachtel. “They are the reason I am in film.” Wachtel, producer of CNN’s six-part docuseries “The Last Movie Stars,” which paints a sweeping, intimate, romantic portrait of the life, love and careers of Newman and Woodward, describes her childhood with the famed couple as if something out of a suburban New England dream. “They were incredible people,” says Wachtel. “I was so young when I met them, and I didn’t understand what a movie star was at the time. But part of that is because they were so real. They’d pick you up to go to birthday parties, Joanne made sweaters. They had this big, beautiful barn on the property and they would entertain almost every weekend. Not in a formal way, but with everyone. Not necessarily actors. It was neighbors and friends from all walks of life. They would have everybody over and make hamburgers. They screened movies. I saw a lot of old movies with them, from ‘Lady in the Tramp’ to ‘The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.’ It was just part of the fabric of that household. And it was a gift.”