Anticipation: Waiting's Finally Over For 'Exhale' Author

Date: December 21, 1995
By Tonya Pendleton, Staff Writer

From Philadelphia Daily News
Submitted by: Larry A.


Like the characters in her best-selling book "Waiting to Exhale," Terry McMillan is a strong, vibrant black woman. Unlike them, she's no longer waiting for release in either her personal or professional life.

After three years, she is able to see the impressive characters she created on the large screen, shaped by actresses Angela Bassett, Whitney Houston, Lela Rochon and Loretta Devine. The movie opens nationally tomorrow.

McMillan also has evolved. Long gone are the high-top fade and defiant demeanor. Replacing them: the attributes of a woman more at ease with her place in the world.

And why not? With the help of screenwriter Ron Bass - an Academy Award winning screenwriter who adapted "The Joy Luck Club" for the screen with its author Amy Tan - McMillan turned a best-selling book into a much anticipated film.

Even though she didn't think it would make a good movie.

"It was a character-driven story and not a plot-driven story," McMillan says. "And because there were so many characters ... I didn't think it would make such a hot film."

McMillan was unhappy with the first screenplay, but when 20th Century Fox asked her to write it herself, she was a little intimidated. Since Tan had raved about Bass, McMillan asked the studio for a "Ron Bass type." Instead, she got the real thing.

Phoning and faxing between their California homes, Bass and McMillan completed the script before their 12-week deadline.

McMillan took some flak by collaborating on the screenplay with a man. She said Bass proved to be an empathic partner - one who saw the universality of the story.

Indeed, Bass explained: "I've had my heart broken by someone I trusted who wasn't there for me. I went through a divorce and the woman who left me was seeing another guy. I've been there.

"People will sit in the theater who are not African-American or female and will say, 'I've been there. I never knew I could feel so connected to a black woman ...'

"When a film is doing that, you walk away feeling more connected to other people. I think our film has a shot at doing that." her third novel - and now her screen adaptation of it have brought sweeping changes to her life. A single mother, she's now financially comfortable and said she expects to collaborate again with Bass on the movie version of her second book "Disappearing Acts."

Her fourth novel, "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" will be released in May. With a self-satisfied smile she makes it clear that all is right in her world: "No, I'm not waiting to exhale. I'm doing fine."