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Nancy Meyers
Alumni & Friends >> Nancy Meyers
 | Nancy MeyersBA '71, JournalismPresident & CEO, Waverly Films Director, Screenwriter, Producer |
Nancy Meyers is the president and chief executive officer of Waverly Films and a successful writer, director and producer of feature films. Meyers made an auspicious debut as director in 1998 – following two decades of accomplished screenwriting and producing – with the highly popular update of the Disney classic The Parent Trap. Meyers both directed and co-wrote the screenplay for the film. She then directed the blockbuster romantic comedy What Women Want starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt, which enjoyed critical acclaim and an international box office tally of $372 million. For his role, Gibson received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical. Meyers has a first look deal with Sony Pictures and is on the Sony lot with Waverly Films.
Meyers wrote, directed and produced Something's Gotta Give starring Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton. Both Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton received Golden Globe nominations for their performances and Keaton won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical. Keaton was also nominated for an Academy Award for her role as "Erica Barry" in Something's Gotta Give. In 2004, Meyers received the ShoWest Director of the Year Award. She is the first woman to ever receive this prestigious honor. Most recently, Meyers wrote and directed The Holiday starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Jack Black.
As a writer and producer, Meyers’ film debut was the groundbreaking Private Benjamin, starring Goldie Hawn, which Meyers produced and co-wrote with Charles Shyer. Released in 1980, the film bucked conventional wisdom at the time, which dictated that a female lead could not open a movie without a male star. The story of a pampered young woman who joins the Army, Private Benjamin became a hit with a worldwide gross of $150 million. The screenplay earned Meyers the Writers Guild of America Award, and the film earned three Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. The film also garnered multiple Golden Globe nominations, including Best Picture, Comedy or Musical and Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical. After the success of Private Benjamin, Meyers co-wrote and produced the critically acclaimed Irreconcilable Differences, followed by Baby Boom starring Diane Keaton and the box office hits Father of the Bride and Father of the Bride Part II, starring Steve Martin and Diane Keaton.
Meyers admits that her movies generally follow her life experience. "All my movies reflect my own state of mind, to tell you the truth," she says. It would be easy to mistake the protagonist in Something's Gotta Give for Meyers - Keaton's character is a successful and well-respected playwright, and Meyers is a widely recognized Hollywood writer, director, and producer of high repute.
Meyers began to learn the basics of film communication in the print journalism, photography, and broadcast classes she took at SOC. And she drank in the vibrant, shifting culture that engulfed AU's Washington campus. When she arrived, fraternities and sororities were central to campus life; by the time she left, "everything changed." Meyers remembers coming home after a political protest on campus, and learning that a girl her age had been killed during a similar event at Kent State. "That could have been me that day," she says now.
AU's Washington location kept students surrounded by influential policy makers who spoke on campus, and students who were committed to political and social change. "There just always seemed to be somebody in front of Mary Graydon Center standing there screaming, and the quad would be filled with people listening," she remembers. "I felt the times were shifting and I was in an environment where I could be part of it, but be sheltered at the same time."
As her career has matured, Meyers notes an increase in the number of women among her colleagues. "It went from no women, to women being a curiosity," she says, adding that now, many of the nominations for academy awards are from films directed by women. But, regardless of gender, says Meyers, the bottom line is, "You're either good or you're not good." Judging from both box office and critical awards, Meyers can clearly count herself among the former.
Meyers received her B.A. from American University’s School of Communication. She serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council for SOC, mentors communication students, lectures in classes and participates in the school’s Summer in L.A. program.
