Producer Léo L. Fuchs had originally wanted Goldie Hawn for the role of Susan while he was attached to Columbia Pictures, but when Fuchs moved the project to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the role was remade for Sissy Spacek. She became pregnant before production began, and the role went to 20-year-old McNichol, who had been a successful child actress on television, winning two Emmys for her role on Family and had transitioned into more mature parts.
Filming on Just the Way You Are began in Toronto, Canada on Halloween 1982 and lasted until mid-November, when the cast flew to Paris, shot from November 21st until December 17th and then took a break for the holidays. Variety reported on February 23, 1983 that McNichol had fallen ill and was not yet well enough to resume filming, so MGM shut down production. McNichol later discussed her illness in People magazine in 1989, saying that she had been suffering from anxiety and hadn't wanted to make the film, telling her manager on the way to the airport, "'I honestly don't think I should do this movie.' And everybody said, 'Don't worry, we'll get through it.' No one could look at me as this person who was in trouble. It was like, 'Please, listen to me,' and no one ever did. I was so confused. I was so depressed. I was so full of anxiety. I was a wreck. And there I was filming a movie." During the first part of filming, McNichol said that her weight dropped to 96 pounds and when she returned to California for the holidays, a friend took her to a psychiatrist who specialized in adolescents. The doctor advised McNichol to stop work on the film and get help, which she did with the support of her brother, Jimmy. McNichol would later quash unfair rumors about drug use and alcoholism, saying that her emotional breakdown was caused by exhaustion after years of continuous work as a child star and the responsibilities that came with it left her with little time to have a normal life. In time, she was able to recover.
The producers had already spent $6 million when McNichol fell ill, and MGM had considered scrapping the film and taking the loss, but studio executives decided to continue after Léo L. Fuchs showed them the footage he had already shot. MGM gave Fuchs an additional $1.75 million for completion costs and the studio would eventually receive $4 million in insurance from Lloyd's of London. In August of 1983, The Los Angeles Times reported that production would resume in the winter of 1983-1984 under a new and final title of Just the Way You Are. Filming resumed for two weeks in late December, lasting until the middle of January 1984 in Paris.
The film was finally released in November 1984 but The New York Times critic Janet Maslin was not impressed, writing that "Everywhere Susan goes, it seems, she is the target of relentless male flirting. Two of the film's problems are that Miss McNichol is never appealing enough to explain all this, and that she hasn't the faintest notion of how to flirt back. [...] The process by which she eventually wins a ski contest, learns to live with her handicap and winnows the field of suitors to one is stupefying dull."
SOURCES:
AFI|Catalog. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://catalog.afi.com/Search?searchField=MovieName&searchText=just+the+way+you+are+&sortType=sortBytitle
Maslin, J. (1984, November 16). FILM: KRISTY MCNICHOL IN 'JUST THE WAY YOU ARE'. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/16/movies/film-kristy-mcnichol-in-just-the-way-you-are.html
Just the Way You Are (1984). (1984, November 16). Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087525/?ref_=nv_sr_3
'I Was Crying All the Time'. (1989, April 3). Retrieved from
https://people.com/archive/cover-story-i-was-crying-all-the-time-vol-31-no-13/
Lorraine LoBianco
