The desires of two young people are put to the test by the rules of the eccentric billionaire they work for in Director Warren Beatty’s new comedic drama, Rules Don’t Apply.
Beatty’s film tells the story of Marla Mabrey (Lily Collins), a small town beauty queen aspiring young actress who arrives in Hollywood under contract to the infamous Howard Hughes (Beatty). A devout Baptist virgin, Marla is instantly attracted to her driver Frank Forbes (Alden Ehrenreich), an equally religious Methodist who is also engaged to his grade school sweetheart. As they are drawn deeper into Hughes’s bizarre world, their values are challenged and their mutual attraction also violates Hughes' main rule that no employee may have a relationship with a contract actress.
Following DGA membership screening in Los Angeles on the November 20, Beatty sat down with Director Richard Benjamin (A Little Thing Called Murder) to discuss the making of Rules Don’t Apply.
In addition to Rules Don’t Apply, Beatty’s credits include the feature films Bulworth and Dick Tracy. He and Director Buck Henry were nominated for the DGA Award for their 1978 feature Heaven Can Wait. Beatty won both the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures and the Oscar for Best Director for his 1982 feature Reds. He has been a DGA member since 1977.
You can listen to Beatty's Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find all DGA podcast episodes here.