Her Vivian is a grab-life-by-the-collar hotelier who’s largely avoided romantic attachment until this sequel throws a curveball her way.

“Book Club: The Next Chapter,” for Oscar-winner and post-“Grace and Frankie” Fonda, did offer a kind of “older woman with pizzazz” role she rarely sees anymore. Keaton, in a recent New York Times interview, demurred that the movie is “fine.” It’s fun, corny, escapist entertainment that should please fans of the book and especially the late-in-life set (and gay men) who adore seeing these women together onscreen. “Book Club: The Next Chapter” is not groundbreaking cinema, but after decades of provocative, Oscar-winning movies from these leading ladies, that probably comes as a relief for the cast, who were presumably looking to relax on set and hang out with their friends. So why Italy? “It was like a magnet,” said Bergen who, with Steenburgen back at CinemaCon 2018, hatched the idea for the follow-up film, knowing Italy had to be the place. “ Book Club: The Next Chapter” Focus Features She couldn’t participate in the junket, as she’s off filming a movie called “Summer Camp” with Kathy Bates. Whether Keaton has read the book, who knows. “I don’t read novels very much,” Fonda said with a laugh. “She gets an incomplete,” Bergen, who plays an acridly witty judge not quite over her retirement, said of her co-star.

I read it a couple of weeks ago, in fact, because I knew Mary was reading it, so I thought I had to be prepared,” said Bergen.īut Fonda hasn’t read the Portuguese novel about an Andalusian making his way to mythic treasure, which has been co-opted in literary circles as a kind of self-help text for those hoping to realize a far-off dream. Sydney Sweeney Learned How to ‘Not Be Self-Conscious’ in Glen Powell Rom-Com ‘Anyone but You’Įxcept, as Fonda, Steenburgen, and Bergen revealed in a lively interview with IndieWire, not all had read the book prior to filming on location in Italy, including at the famed Cinecittà Studios.

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