ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601120006
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO
SOURCE: JANE GANAHL SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
Terry McMillan's got a news bulletin for the millions of single-and-depressed-about-it American women who empathized with her characters in ``Waiting to Exhale'': Wait no longer, girls. Stop holding your breath. And get on with life.
``I realize now that as soon as you stop having expectations, worrying about how much money he has, where your future is together, you can really start have some fun ... some serious fun,'' says the 44-year-old author, eyes flashing with mischief...There are millions of smart, attractive women out there in their 30s and 40s who are lonely as hell because life hasn't given them what they expected. I'm not going to live my life like that.''
McMillan's new convictions are based only partly on the inevitable early-40s life assessments. A lot has happened to the author in the three years since penning the hugely best-selling novel. At the time, she was single, looking for the perfect man, waiting to ... well, you know. But that guy never materialized, both her mother and best friend died, and she endured the rigors of rewriting ``Exhale'' into a screenplay. (The movie is playing at Valley View Mall 6.)
But out of the upheaval came revelation.
``I realized that five years from now I might get cancer and my a-- will be out of here. So I'm not going to spend my time praying that one day I'll be married. I'm going to enjoy what I got while I got it. Doesn't matter if something lasts three weeks or three months, as long as it's good.''
McMillan could be considered a goddess of girl talk, that ancient art of sharing mutual female experience in an edifying manner. Dishing, in other words.
Today, McMillan seems poised for a get-down chat. Despite having designer furniture in the immaculate home she shares with 11-year-old son Solomon, she hunkers down on the living room carpet in workout clothes with a plastic bag of grapes. Frank and humorous, the former professor of English has become a media personality herself, in high demand for her pungent commentary.
When asked about her plain-talk writing style, McMillan snaps: ``I pride myself on writing very simplistically. I'm not trying to be Nietzsche, you know what I'm saying? Smart people know simple things connote larger issues. I could be Jane f---ing Austen if I wanted to; I could write like Virginia Woolf. But it's not my style.''
On the too-often-posed question of ``Waiting to Exhale's'' male-bashing quotient, she sighs, as if tired of giving the P.C. response. ``You know, if the shoe fits, wear it. There are still a lot of men who just don't get it. But then I was also trying to point out that we women always choose these guys who aren't good for us and who are not healthy.''
That message might be lost on movie audiences, who will doubtlessly cheer the four heroines - including Academy-award nominee Angela Bassett and pop diva Whitney Houston - in their search for the perfect man. McMillan was involved in many aspects of the movie, and had requested a black director. Many were surprised when Forest Whitaker was chosen, as he is known more for his acting roles in ``The Crying Game'' and ``Bird'' than for his one directing job on an HBO movie. But McMillan was pleased.
``He really got it. He said he understood that these women were victims of poor self-esteem, not that they were just after a man. He seemed to really understand what makes women tick.''
The result is surely the ``sisterhood'' movie of the decade, where four very divergent personalities come together in love and support. There is career woman Savannah, spurned housewife Bernadine, good-hearted Gloria, and bad guy magnet Robin, who causes McMillan to turn up her nose in disgust.
``I know women like Robin, and I think their behavior is just despicable. And I'd just like to strangle them and tell them to snap out of it!''
She does sympathize with women who subvert themselves to get a man - any man. ``What's happening inside them to make them sell themselves so short? I made Robin beautiful, because it's how she defines herself. She doesn't know how else to do it.''
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Terry McMillan wrote the screenplay to her novel,by CNB``Waiting to Exhale,'' which has become the ``sisterhood'' movie of
the decade. color