Amy Irving and Peter Riegert made Crossing Delancey more than 30 years ago, but their chemistry came back in an instant when the two reunited at the TCM Classic Film Festival on April 15 to introduce the film. The two shared stories about how they got involved in the classic romantic comedy with TCM co-host Eddie Muller and made sure to honor the late director Joan Micklin Silver. Irving and Riegert also revealed that the film nearly didn’t get made at all.
Crossing Delancey was written by Susan Sandler and based on her play of the same name. Irving plays Izzy Grossman, a 33-year-old New York City bookstore employee who becomes infatuated with author Anton Maes (Joroen Krabbe). Meanwhile, her Bubbe (Reizl Bozyk) hires a matchmaker (Sylvia Miles), who sets Izzy up with the pickle man, Sam Posner (Riegert). What follows is a hilarious set of missteps on Izzy’s part as she tries to avoid giving in to her feelings for Sam.
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While Riegert knew Silver because they made Chilly Scenes of Winter together in 1979, Irving said she got involved because Silver “liked the way I scarfed my popcorn.” She recalled how Silver randomly showed up at the home she was renting with then-husband Steven Spielberg in Spain and “rescued” her with the script. “She told me, ‘Amy, I saw you, I was looking for my leading lady and I was worried that maybe you weren’t down to earth enough and I saw you in this Upper West Side movie theater, scarfing popcorn, and I said, there’s my Izzy Grossman!’”
The two stars also noted how the movie almost didn’t get made out of fears it would be seen as “too Jewish.” Warner Bros. executive Steve Ross “fell in love with the script” and made it happen, Irving said. The studio also had trouble making the finances work. The movie only cost $5 million to make, which was very little at the time for a studio without an independent film branch. Then, it would cost another $5 million just to market the movie. In the end, Crossing Delancey grossed $16 million during its original theatrical run.
Silver died on Dec. 31, 2020, at 85. When asked if Silver had any trouble making the film because she was a woman, Riegert was inspired to explain how he felt about working with women directors.
“As I said, I worked with her once before and I know, of course, Carol Kane had worked with her once before on on on Hester Street,” Riegert said. “To me, it was just another director. I don’t want to… underestimate how rare it was that there were women directing. I had been lucky enough to work with some women directors in the theater. I’ve since gone on to work with women directors in different countries. Really, the truth of the matter is every director is different in their way. That’s what they bring. That’s the whole argument. It’s not like… I don’t think… I think a woman brings her life to telling a story as a man does as anybody in any community that’s different. When we were starting out, it was a white male world and it’s, you know, changed for the better. But Joan stood her ground. She would not be denied, but she wasn’t tyrannical. She drew the best out of us.”
Crossing Delancey was one of the newer films played at the TCM festival, but it is already 35 years old. The movie itself also shares many similar traits with the romantic comedies TCM fans love from the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. It wasn’t a topic that came up while making the movie though since they were just having so much fun.
“It was just so much fun to do,” Riegert said. “I had met Amy over the years in crossing – not Delancey, but I just mean in crossing – so I was thrilled. My job was to fall in love. If you’re playing opposite Amy Irving, it’s pretty easy.”
