Even in a hard place, Tomlin's new 'Grandma' is fun

Lily Tomlin has been part of the national comedy landscape since she appeared in "Laugh-In" in the late 1960s. However, despite appearing in a slew of TV shows and movies over the years, she's never played the sole lead in a film.

Now that's changing with "Grandma," an acerbic comedy opening in Minnesota this weekend.

"It's very funny — much funnier than I ever thought it would be," she said in June, following a sold-out solo show at Orchestra Hall the night before.

"I was kind of amazed the first time I saw a screening with an audience and they laughed so much. I mean uproariously. And yet they were moved too."

"Grandma" is the story of a woman called Elle. She's a writer in her 70s, easy to anger and inclined to speak her mind, loudly. This can rub people the wrong way.

The project began with Paul Weitz, a writer and director who first hit it big with "American Pie" but followed up with movies as varied as "About a Boy" and "Being Flynn." He had a story idea about a grandmother visited by a granddaughter who needs help. At the time, he was directing Tomlin in the movie "Admission."

"And I thought to myself, 'Wow! What if this was your grandmother? Somebody with as much edge and insight and humor as Lily?' And then this idea of these two going on this road trip that was almost like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza occurred to me," he recalled.

So, without telling Tomlin, he wrote a script.

Weitz surprised Tomlin with a first draft over lunch one day. They then refined it over several months.

"Part of that was hanging out with her and her telling me stories about her life, some of which were very funny," he said, laughing. "And then some of which I jammed into the movie."

In the film, Tomlin's character Elle is in a bad place. Her writing career is in the tank and she's grieving the death of the woman she has loved for 40 years.

Then her teenage granddaughter Sage arrives on her doorstep, announcing she is pregnant. She needs money for an abortion. Elle doesn't have the money, so they set out to find someone who does.

Tomlin said she didn't take the storyline lightly. "It was a big concern, in terms of not treating it trivially," she said.

Weitz said that given the number of abortions in the United States every year, he believes many more people have encountered such situations than may admit it. "It's specious to think that we don't know somebody who been faced with a decision about this," he said.

As Elle and Sage pursue ways of raising the money, they learn about each other, and how history, in a way, is repeating itself.

There's a lot of Tomlin in Elle. Tomlin married Jane Wagner, her partner of four decades, in 2013. And she admits to a little temper too.

"I get very angry if there is inequity. Or if I can't get ahead in traffic, I might get pretty ticked off too," she said with a laugh.

Weitz said "Grandma" also deals with issues of sexual orientation and ageism in society. He shot it on a small budget, and he said it has reinvigorated his own love of storytelling. The film has drawn early praise, and even talk of awards. Tomlin says she hopes "Grandma" does well.

Whatever happens, she said, she likes Elle's energy. Again, that's a reflection of her own character.

"I consider her 'active,'" she said. "Oh, God, she was really fun. Maybe we'll do a sequel."

If so, she'll have to fit it in between her live concerts and her TV work. Even at 76, Tomlin likes to keep busy.