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The Man Behind Mermaids:
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Talking in THE JEWISH NEWS
C
ritics are praising his
latest effort, which
stars Cher and
Winona Ryder as an odd
couple of floundering char-
acters: Mom is a sexy
'60s sweetie with hip-
huggers where her heart
should be; daughter
Charlotte is a nice Jewish
girl who wants nothing more
than to be a nun.
Mermaids is doing swimm-
ingly — and so is Mr. Ben-
jamin, who left the world of
acting in 1982 for directing,
winning raves and respect
for his first effort, My Favor-
ite Year.
In the years since, Mr.
Benjamin has helmed Rac-
ing With the Moon, City Heat
and My Stepmother Is An
Alien.
The serio-comic sense of
alienation existing between
the misguided mom and
daughter of Mermaids hits
home for many in the au-
dience. Mr. Benjamin most
likely identifies more with
the conflicts between the
Jewish characters of Good-
bye, Columbus, in which he
made his movie acting debut
21 years ago.
At the time, Columbus was
a brave new world for the
then-30-year-old actor,
whose earlier work had in-
cluded Broadway's The Star-
Spangled Girl and a TV
series with his wife, Paula
Prentiss.
The film world discovered
Richard Benjamin in
Columbus, and Mr. Ben-
jamin found fame. The actor
also had a close encounter
with reality in that first
film, with its jabs and japes
at Jewish sensibilities.
"It depicted the middle-
class neighborhood I grew up
in," says New Yorker Ben-
jamin of Columbus. "I felt
the same insecurities the
character did when he was
going out with a girl who
came from a better financial
situation."
Mermaids is making
money in a competitive
market. Mr. Banjamin, not .
surprisingly, has nothing
but kind words for
Cher, nothwithstanding re-
ported rifts the star had with
the film's first two directors
Call the Jewish News Advertising Dept.
354-6060
72
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1991
Michael Elkin is an enter-
tainment writer for the Jewish
Exponent in Philadelphia.
Richard Benjamin on the set.
before Mr. Benjamin took
over.
But Mr. Benjamin would
rather direct his attention to
the here and now. And one
question draws a loud laugh:
Who would survive if two
demanding Jewish mamas
Benjamin is well familiar
with — Mrs. Portnoy of
Portnoy's Complaint, a film
in which Mr. Benjamin
starred some years ago as
the put-upon son, and Mrs.
Flax of Mermaids — were
forced to share a room the
size of a closet?
"I don't know," he muses.
"But I'd like to see that
one."
Mr. Benjamin has seen his
way clear to a successful ca-
reer that now includes his
current coming-of-age com-
edy. When did Richard Ben-
jamin come of age? He
laughs.- "It hasn't happened
yet."
But Mr. Benjamin did
learn responsibility early
on. "When I was young, my
mother became ill. I felt I
had to grow up quickly."
The little boy surfaced at
matinees. "I went to the
movies- every week," re-
members Mr. Benjamin of
those afternoons that
helped give direction to his
life.
"My uncle was in
vaudeville," Mr. Benjamin
says of comedian Joe Brown-
ing, who used to perform at
the Palace in New York.
"When I was 5, my parents
took me out to see him. I was
only in pajamas and a robe, I
remember. It's like a dream
to me now."
A dream burnished with a
golden glow. "My uncle was
like a 'Sunshine Boy,' " says
Mr. Benjamin, who, ironical-
ly, earned a 1975 Golden
Globe Award as "best sup-
porting actor" for portraying
the nephew of a legendary
comedian in The Sunshine
Boys.
But back at the Palace .. .
"I remember my uncle stan-
ding up there on stage. I
knew he was talking and
people were laughing, and I
thought, 'Gee, Uncle Joe has
all these friends. He knows
2,000 people who like to visit
him.' "
Certainly, his nephew was
one of them. "I remember
very vividly as a child how I
used to visit him at the
Beacon Hotel. And he
always had this trunk in the
middle of the room."
Have vaudeville, will
travel? "He was always
ready to go."
Years later, Richard Ben-
jamin, then in his 20s, had
the opportunity to meet the
legendary Stan Laurel.
"And when I visited him,
there it was — the same
thing, a trunk in the middle
of the room. It was the same
deal — he was ready to go."
That sense of mission
beckons Mr. Benjamin. Only
now, he says, the trunk has
been traded in for a
streamlined model. "The
contemporary version for
me," chuckles Mr. Ben-
jamin, "is the hanging gar-
ment bag."
Don't hang a "woman's
movie" label on his Mer-
maids, says Mr. Benjamin,