Philadelphia-raised writer-director Nancy Meyers returns with 'The Intern'

LOS ANGELES - Good things come to those who wait.

That's basically what writer/director/producer Nancy Meyers has to say to her fans, who have waited six years for her new project, the Robert De Niro/Anne Hathaway comedy "The Intern."

But Philadelphia native Meyers - responsible for many hits through the decades, including 1980's "Private Benjamin," 2000's "What Women Want" and 2009's "It's Complicated" - said that there are simple reasons for the unusually large gap of time in-between her projects.

"I write them, you know," she said. "I'm not reading scripts. I don't want to do other people's work, so I actually have to come up with the idea. I actually have to write it. Then I have to get it made. So it takes as long as it takes.

"I'm not a fast writer," she said. "The writing process takes a while and I also like to take a year off after a movie. Sort of in my mid-40s I decided that I was going to take a year off after each movie, because doing everything takes a lot out of me.

"It may take longer than normal, but I think I've had a movie every three years for about 12 or 15 years, and then as much as 5 years or so. . . . It's just how long it takes me."

Even though "The Intern" has the tag line "Experience Never Gets Old," Meyers said she feels that the film is a lot deeper than that.

"I hope what you take away from the movie is a friendship between Jules [played by Anne Hathaway] and Ben [played by Robert De Niro], the relationship between the intern and his boss," she said. "It's about them. But it's about a lot of other things, too, and you wouldn't care what's going on between them unless the other layers of the movie were in place."

Having Hathaway and De Niro as the two leads went a long way toward making the film special, said Meyers.

"Some actors take a long while to figure [things] out, and I didn't experience that with this movie," she said. "First of all, Annie made herself super available during the prep period. She was prepping here in New York [and] living here, and would come to the office a lot [and] sit in on meetings, [and] sometimes she would even act with the people auditioning.

"I found that I got to know her really well and she got to know me and my process."

De Niro's performance in "The Intern" has been lauded as being one of his most memorable in the past 20 years, just a notch below his roles in David O. Russell films, which Meyers says is ironic.

"When I saw Bob in 'Silver Linings Playbook,' the next day, I sent him a script," she said. "When I saw him in that movie I said, 'This guy is one of the all-time great actors,' so I was really honored that he committed to it.

"Both of them were extremely well prepared and on board, right from the get-go, and I feel they both really embody what I was looking for. So, that was a pleasure for me."

With De Niro and Hathaway having a non-romantic relationship on-screen, Meyers was also pleased by something else.

"I didn't have to write a dinner date! I was thrilled! You know how often I've written a dinner date where the two leads get to know each other.

"Yeah, I was very happy to explore a different relationship between a man and a woman. I really enjoyed it."