Even though songwriter Diane Warren hasn’t won yet at the Oscars in the Best Original Song category after 13 nominations, what it does underscore is the continued high regard and esteem which the Academy holds her in.
Sundance Film Festival Even more so, Warren’s resilience in staying sharp with her craft. And it was resilience which inspired in writing “Somehow You Do” for the Mila Kunis-Glenn Close drama Four Good Days.
In an underrated performance that completely turns heads, Kunis plays a struggling heroin addict who is trying to get back on track, and Close the tough, but compassionate mother who looks to steer her daughter.
Deadline “It has a happy ending that a lot of these stories don’t have,” says Warren, “I wanted to write a song about resilience, about whatever you go through that there is hope and you can get through it.” She wrote the song at the start of the pandemic shutdown, alone in her office.
“I sat at the keyboard, it had a string sound on it, and came up with a chorus — those are the good ones,” the songwriter, whose work has spanned close to 40 years, comments.
Whenever Warren pens a song for a movie, it’s akin to a casting process in how she then attaches it to notable performer, in this case her frequent collaborator Reba McEntire who she first worked on the hit 2000 song “I’ll Be”
“Glenn Close would listen to Reba McEntire,” says Warrens, “(McEntire) epitomizes resiliency and being a survivor. She has that…in every note that she sings. There was no choice; this had to be Reba.”
We talk with the “Rhythm of the Night” hit-meister on her history in penning songs for movies, that song from the Barry Gordon production The Last Dragon being the first she wrote for a feature film, her talent for writing bridges, and how she was a force in owning the rights to her entire library well before it became a shrewd practice for any songwriter or performer to do.”
