During filming they were amazingly gracious -- they put up actors, we used guest bedrooms for hair and makeup, for holding areas.

It was kind of schizophrenic at times because she was still mom. But after a while, in a weird way, I really started thinking of her as Florence. In fact, I started calling her Florence because on the set 'Mom' doesn't work. I expected everything from her that I would from a regular producer.

She rose to the occasion. She knew Boynton Beach, and that helped a lot because we were working on a low budget, but at the same time we still wanted it to look like a big Hollywood movie.

I hoped the chemistry was going to be there. There were six leading actors, and I wanted them all to mesh. I didn't know how they were going to relate. But a lot of them came out of a certain Hollywood generation, so they all knew each other and it was like a reunion. When I felt that click, I breathed a sigh of relief.

In the 20 years I've been making movies, my mother has suggested ideas, but either we didn't agree or I was working something else.

It was an idea, I thought, that could almost be written as a helping tool. People seemed to like the idea that we were doing something like this. I did not go out and solicit from my friends. They came to me.