Director of 'Teen Beach Movie' Receives Directors Guild of America Award and Reflects on His Career

Jeffrey Hornaday first arrived on the scene in providing the choreography for Flashdance. He went onto orchestrate Dick Tracy, the film version of A Chorus Line, and laid down the numbers for Michael Jackson’s Captain EO. If that’s not enough, he’s worked alongside Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Robert Zemeckis, and directed world tours for Madonna and Paul McCartney. The unbelievable success of Teen Beach Movie, which was the highest rated cable movie in history, has earned him the Director’s Guild of America Award. On his mantle, the hardware goes a long way toward encapsulating his career in one question. What's really left to do?

"Sleep," Hornaday couldn't hold back the laughter.

But the repetitive moment that focused his future was no joke. "When I was a kid, I saw Cabaret. There was just something about it, so I went back and saw it 13 more times,” he revealed.

On a long leash, the child rearing approach might set off alarms today, but was pretty standard fare for the time. "I remember my mom dropping me off a couple of times. Movies were like daycare back then," he joked.

'West Side Story' begins his footwork.

Eventually Hornaday took part in a more traditional type of adult supervision, and before he knew it, his feet were on the loose. “The town I grew up in did a lot of musical theater, and there was a production of West Side Story, which made it cool to dance,” he said. “I got involved and got swept up.”

The future choreographer came into his own on the floor and danced with a lot of professional dancers. But putting down his strut served more as a foundation. “I was always a bit more interested in how things were done behind the scenes. I started assisting choreographers, and one thing led to another,” remembered Hornaday.

Hornaday’s professional progression moved along as he stepped in for an underling. “I was assisting this choreographer who was doing musical numbers that they would plug into programming overseas. I ended up taking over for him and was learning on the job. From that, I was able to compile enough stuff to make a reel,” said Hornaday.

Hornaday’s career went to the next level as MTV was killing the radio star. “Video was just starting in Europe, and the director of Flashdance was fascinated by the medium. So the stuff I was doing—choreography for Rock ‘n Roll—matched his interest,” said Hornaday. “We then met through one of the dance doubles in Flashdance, and that became my breakthrough.”

On the Rise with the King of Pop

On the rise, Hornaday didn’t level off and was soon working with the King of Pop. “Michael Jackson had this real innocence about him that allowed him to not get in his own way. He was the best performer I’ve ever been in a room with. He reminded me of Fred Astaire in that there was a real eloquence about what he did,” said Hornaday.

And upon reflection, Hornaday reminds us that all the moves and music were not a dream. “We almost take for granted what he accomplished. He actually did those things, which is amazing,” said Hornaday.

Hornaday considers himself fortunate to have not been a witness to Jackson’s downfall, though. “When I was working with him on Captain EO, he was at the height of his powers and before he took a dark turn,” said Hornaday. “So I was lucky.”

Magic with Paul McCartney

Good fortune literally came a calling in the form of another musical icon. “The guy I worked with before I directed the tour for Lionel Richie was a big promoter in Europe and turned out to be the go to guy for Paul McCartney. At the time, Paul hadn’t toured for about 10 years, and he said, if something comes up would you be interested. I was like, yeah. So one day, I was driving,” Hornaday said. “The cell phone rings, and I pick it up. Then I hear, 'This is Paul McCartney.'”

Hornaday was startled to say the least. “Of course, I wasn’t expecting the call so I’m heading across four lanes of traffic to get off the freeway. It was just a magic moment, Paul McCartney calling me,” Hornaday remembered fondly.

The experience of working with him was just as unique. “McCartney would come in with stuff in a real abstract way. Almost in a Sergeant Pepper-eque way, he would have these disparate images, and he wants to see what you can distill from that.”

In rehearsal, McCartney’s process was also eclectically abstract. “He’d be like, 'I was thinking last night about a 17th century woman in a powdered wig, a long wonky dress—see what you could do with that,'” Hornaday conveyed.

Reflecting again, Hornaday emerged with a clearer perspective on the former Beatle’s process. “Everything appears like very preconceived conceptual ideas when really it was this long improvisational effort.”

Despite living a dream come true, Hornaday was able to keep from getting star struck. But one moment when everyone was off to lunch may have had Hornaday pretty close to pinching himself. “Paul stayed behind to do a sound check. He started singing 'Yesterday,' and I got my camera phone out,” Hornaday beamed.

'Teen Beach Movie' Bingo

As for successfully delivering Teen Beach Movie, the production meant that a remake of the Beach Blanket movies would not do. “My memory of these movies is real different than how they are. I remember them being full of energy and choreography, but when look at them, they are very simple, very flat. So the concept we went with was, let’s try and recreate what it feels like when we look at these movies nostalgically. This rather than trying to recreate them,” he said. “That led to our mantra. If it’s not over the top, we’re not doing our job.”

He was drawn to the project on multiple levels. “What attracted was the story about a couple of modern kids who are into contemporary beach culture and find themselves trapped inside a boy’s favorite old movie—Beach Blanket Bingo. So for me, it’s like how cool is it to do a movie that’s funny and has a modern sensibility but is a full on, breakout, song and dance movie,” said Hornaday.

Nonetheless, the director went back to his beginnings to keep the dance from overshadowing the story. “Cabaret. That’s always the barometer. The music sequences absolutely reveal character and always drove the story forward,” Hornaday revealed. “You never have a sense of getting off the story so that’s engrained in my head.”

The ratings success turned out to be a case of all in the family. “The thing that was surprising was that a lot of adults with young children would sit down and feel obligated to watch something with their kids. As it turned out, pretty much all the adults I talked to really enjoyed it themselves. Like the Pixar movies, adults got as much pleasure out of it as their kids,” Hornaday said.

So many successes, 14 viewings of Cabaret clearly paid off. “Two dollars a movie, $28—oh yeah,” he concluded.

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Rich Monetti can be reached at [email protected]