arts & life
f i lm
Lynn Cohen in The Pickle Recipe
The Pickle Whisperer
Jennifer Lovy | Special to the Jewish News
The homegrown film
The Pickle Recipe make s its
Metro Detroit debut.
details
The Pickle Recipe opens on Friday, Nov. 4,
at the Maple Theater in Bloomfield Twp.
and Emagine Novi. Advance screenings
are scheduled on Nov. 3 at both theaters.
Tickets can be purchased at the box
office or online at themapletheater.com or
emagine-entertainment.com.
48 October 27 • 2016
S
heldon Cohn had just one actress
in mind to play the lead in
his first film. He wanted Lynn
Cohen, an octogenarian with significant
roles on television, Broadway and in a
number of films, including The Hunger
Games and Manhattan Murder Mystery,
and who many remember as Miranda’s
housekeeper Magda on Sex and the City.
The question was would this actress
— who has been acting since she was
15 and has worked with directors like
Woody Allen and Steven Spielberg —
agree to star in a film written and pro-
duced by two guys from Detroit who had
impressive careers making commercials
A LOVE LETTER
TO DETROIT
Despite its status as a low-budget film, the
production team of The Pickle Recipe was able
to snag Oscar nominee David Paymer (City
Slickers, Mr. Saturday Night and Get Shorty
among others) and Lynn Cohen (The Hunger
Games, Munich and Sex and the City). But per-
haps the biggest star in the film — at least
for locals — is the Detroit area.
Shot on location in and around Metro
Detroit last summer (in just 22 days), The
Pickle Recipe prominently features recogniz-
but almost no experience with anything
more than 30 seconds?
“She really was my only choice,” said
Cohn, a resident of West Bloomfield and
former advertising executive at Doner
advertising agency.
After talking to Cohn and his co-
writer/co-producer Gary Wolfson
many times before agreeing to the role,
Cohen accepted the part, stating that
just because a filmmaker isn’t known or
experienced, does not mean he can’t do
a good job.
Cohen said she was drawn to The
Pickle Recipe because the lead character
is a strong older woman who “knows life
should be lived with courage, strength
and kindness.
“I’m not interested in playing the part
of an old woman dying in a nursing
home,” said Cohen, who joking revealed
her age as 36 during a phone interview
from her home in New York.
The character Cohen is referring to is
Rose Glickman, a Jewish immigrant liv-
ing in Detroit with an unbelievably good
recipe for pickles that she serves at her
Detroit deli. The Pickle Recipe tells the
story of how Rose’s grandson Joey (Jon
Dore, How I Met Your Mother) is desper-
ate for money. His Uncle Morty, Rose’s
son (Oscar nominee David Paymer, Mr.
able locations such as Woodward Ave., Ford
Field and the Ambassador Bridge. Hygrade
Deli, owned by Stuart Litt, on Michigan Ave.
in Detroit, was transformed into “Irv’s Deli.”
Most notable in the Jewish community
are the scenes filmed at Temple Shir Shalom
in West Bloomfield and Clover Hill Park
Cemetery in Birmingham.
Patients of orthodontists Steven M. Lash
and Rebecca L. Rubin and pediatric dentist
Jeffrey Goldenberg in West Bloomfield might
recognize their Orchard Lake Road office
building (despite the addition of the fictitious
name Woodward Memory Center across the
top of the building).
“It’s sort of a love letter to Detroit,” says
Sheldon Cohn, who wrote and produced
the film with Gary Wolfson; West Bloomfield-
based Eddie Rubin was co-executive pro-
ducer. “You can tell we’re from here and
we love it here. Detroit is so diverse and so
photogenic.”
Cohn said they chose to film a bat mitzvah
scene at Shir Shalom because of the aesthet-
ics of the temple. “Everyone was blown away
by the building, especially the beautiful sky-
lights and gorgeous lobby,” he said. “I don’t
think we had a second choice because this
location was just so unique.”
Clover Hill, the location of one of the first