Latest news with #NewHollywood
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
50 Years On, Michael Douglas Reflects On His Epic Journey Making ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest': 'The Movie Reflects What's Happening In America'
EXCLUSIVE: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the New Hollywood classic adapted from Ken Kesey's book, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year with a special screening today [21st] at the Cannes Film Festival and a stateside re-release by Fathom Entertainment in July. Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz served as producers of Miloš Forman's anti-establishment firecracker, which remains one of just three movies ever to win all five major Academy Awards — Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and Screenplay. Thirteen years in the making and knocked back by countless A-list actors and studios, the movie overcame myriad challenges to become 1975's second highest-grossing U.S. film (over $100 million worldwide), beaten only by Jaws. Douglas was only 31 at the time. More from Deadline Scarlett Johansson On Why The Script For Her Directorial Debut 'Eleanor The Great' Made Her Cry: 'It's About Forgiveness' – Cannes Cover Story Dakota Johnson Talks Romantic Experiments In Cannes Comedy 'Splitsville', Upcoming 'Materialists' And 'Juicy' Colleen Hoover Adaptation 'Verity' Joachim Trier's 'Sentimental Value' Wows Cannes In Premiere, Gets Extraordinary 19-Minute Ovation Jack Nicholson serves as Randle McMurphy, a role that had been played by Douglas' father Kirk in the Broadway play version. Randall is a rebellious new patient at a mental institution who does battle with Louise Fletcher's domineering head nurse Mildred Ratched. Will Sampson, Danny DeVito, Sydney Lassick, William Redfield, Christopher Lloyd and Brad Dourif also star, the latter two making their feature debuts. Screenplay came from Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman. Here, Douglas (80) recalls the remarkable journey behind the film, his father's role in bringing it to him, and the ways in which it remains relevant to this day. RELATED: DEADLINE: Michael, how do you view today? MICHAEL DOUGLAS: I think the movie reflects what's happening in America right now, in terms of the Presidency and a struggle that we never anticipated we would see in our country: a struggle for democracy. There is a parallel between Nurse Ratched and the system she operates within and what's happening in America today. We are certainly under attack in in in our country right now. But I also look back on the production as a magical process and with the greatest satisfaction for how much I learned and how important it was for my career as a producer. Saul Zaentz, my fellow producer on the movie, was an amazing man, a three-time Best Picture winner, which perhaps doesn't get the credit it should. RELATED: DEADLINE: How fired up were you by the material when your dad was trying to get it made in the '60s? DOUGLAS: I was taking a freshman course in 20th century American literature at the time. I was a hippie in California and Ken's book just floored me. I saw dad in the play, and years after, I heard by chance that he was in the process of selling the rights to the book after not being able to get it made as a movie. I said, 'I'll make my best effort for you to be in it.' He was very sweet and agreed to give the kid a chance. DEADLINE: Your dad really struggled to let it go, though. He even said the process 'destroyed' him. How challenging was that? DOUGLAS: He was proud of his son producing it, but the aspect he struggled to let go of was not playing the part. It was extremely difficult for him. When you look back as an actor, maybe you get four great parts in your career. R.P. McMurphy was one of those parts. We joked about it later, that it was my responsibility he didn't star in our film, but I reminded him that the director has the final say. I tried, but it wasn't possible. Too much time had passed. When Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando turned it down, I thought there might be more of a chance, but then Miloš really wanted Burt Reynolds. Later on, Hal Ashby showed us some outtakes of Jack Nicholson from The Last Detail and that was that. RELATED: Neon's Palme D'Or Whisperer Tom Quinn Reveals Keys To Cannes And Oscar Success: 'I'm Happy To Share A Playbook' DEADLINE: He wasn't the only Douglas interested in a part, right. You had wanted to play Billy? DOUGLAS: That was a brief moment in time, early on in production, but as soon as we auditioned Brad Dourif that thought disappeared. I soon realized producing was a full-time job, anyway. Both Saul and I were pretty much virgin producers but we soon both learned to go with our instincts and to do things even though people told us not to. For instance, shooting on location in January in Oregon on a film that 90% of took place inside, that could have easily been staged in Los Angeles. It was hard to explain, but having the cooperation of Dr Dean Brooks [the real doctor who stars in the film as Dr. Spivey], the actors being able to spend time with real patients in a real mental institution, these were things we couldn't have done on a set. DEADLINE: And Saul financed the whole thing? DOUGLAS: He did. We started at around $1.4 million and ended up close to $4 million. His partners at his music and production label Fantasy Records [whose success with Creedence Clearwater Revival helped fund the movie] were outraged. They thought I was hustling. But Saul played poker and pool, he had a gambler's instinct…I was working as an actor on The Streets Of San Francisco and was able to go back and forth between San Francisco and Berkeley where Saul was based but come the fifth season of the show I decided not to carry on and dedicated myself to the movie when it finally came together. RELATED: Brazilian Comeback: How The Cannes 2025 Country Of Honor Is Following The Success Of 'I'm Still Here' DEADLINE: It was years and years looking for finance and a director and cast. Miloš had loved the project but had been detained for years in Czechoslovakia by the Russians so couldn't make it. Multiple studios and major actors turned the movie down. And then when he finally got to the U.S., Miloš had a mental health episode in the Chelsea Hotel… DOUGLAS: Finding Miloš had been so cathartic for us. We had loved his films The Firemen's Ball and Loves Of A Blonde. We had spoken to other filmmakers, but they kept their cards so close to their chests. Miloš was collaborative and open with us, despite his European background where the auteur director is top of the pyramid. When Miloš came up to my house in LA with Saul we swelled up with emotion when we sat down to read the script together. DEADLINE: Did you ever think it wouldn't get made? DOUGLAS: I was probably a little naive. But I knew Saul had the same passion I did. Did I get nervous as we got a little closer and the budget started going up? Yeah, to some degree. But I believed we'd get there. DEADLINE: You must have been so relieved when you finally got to production in Oregon. But there were plenty of ups and downs to come, from illness to actors' mental health crises, and key players not seeing eye to eye… DOUGLAS: There's no question about it. We had to wait for Jack for another six months before shooting due to a prior commitment, and that gave us more time to audition, which was so vital. To give you an idea of how disparate the search was, the casting of Will Sampson came about after he was recommended to me by a used car dealer and rodeo announcer I sat next to one time on a flight. Jack, Saul and I went up to meet Will in Washington where he was working as a forest fire ranger. When he walked through the arrival gate, with cowboy hat and cowboy boots on, all seven feet of him, Jack said, 'That's the Chief.' We flew back down to Oregon in a tiny plane, so Jack basically had to sit on Will's lap. It was an ecstatic moment to have the casting finally complete… RELATED: Ooh-La-La Land: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex* (*And The Cannes Film Festival) DEADLINE: Danny DeVito, someone you've worked with a few times in your career, was a former roommate of yours, right? DOUGLAS: That's right. We knew each other while I was at college and were roommates after that in New York. He played Martini in the off Broadway version of the book. He was the first person cast. But I first met Danny when I was at the Eugene O'Neill Memorial theater in Waterford, Connecticut, over the summers of college and Danny came up as a member of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts which was presenting a show there. We bonded at that time… But no doubt it was an eventful shoot. We went through three DoPs on the film. Haskell Wexler, our original DoP, was very talented. He had also been a director and had strong thoughts on how things should go, some of which Miloš took on board, some he didn't. But he started to undermine Miloš a little so that didn't end well. There were other challenges. One Friday, a couple of us were having a few drinks when we learnt that Bill Redfield, who played Harding, was diagnosed with leukemia after showing symptoms on set. I met his wife soon after and she told me they had known before Bill started filming but kept it secret because he had wanted to do the part so much. We were terrified. We were told Bill wasn't long for this world. We had a real quandary as to whether to continue with Bill or recast. But he and his wife begged us to continue and that's what we did. Sadly, he passed away not long after we wrapped shoot. The boat scene was another major issue. It was horrendous for a lot of the actors. We were out there for a week and people were dry heaving, nauseous, that was a tough one to get through. There were tears. But this was such a tight group. That was the best thing about it. The ensemble. It was a truly great thing to watch the dailies. RELATED: 'Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning' Review: The Sky's The Limit In Ethan Hunt's 'Last' Adventure – Cannes Film Festival DEADLINE: How difficult was it when Jack and Miloš had their falling out? DOUGLAS: That was largely related to Miloš not letting the actors see the dailies. They patched it up in the end. When Jack arrived on set after his previous commitment, the other actors were really deep into their characters, and some had been living and sleeping in the mental hospital for weeks by that time. Jack was taken aback — these guys didn't even break character during lunchtime — but he quickly realized how serious the production was. Miloš was a disciplinarian. He would say 'And cut! Perfect, perfect… Now let's do it one more time.' We would joke about that. DEADLINE: Did you know at the time that what you had was great? DOUGLAS: We knew what we had was incredible. I could show you a 10-minute reaction scene of Jack's, just his reaction in the group therapy section, and you would watch it mesmerized. DEADLINE: Someone who didn't ever come round was the author Ken Kesey who ultimately disavowed the film. How disappointing was that for you? DOUGLAS: Yeah, that was the one. That was the one real sadness. Ken's script kept a lot of the literary qualities of his novel, so it didn't quite work. The argument began under the auspices that we had screwed him somehow in his deal, but that wasn't the case. We felt we had been very generous in offering him 3%, but he wanted 6%. That was always a claw in the side of the project. It eventually led to a lawsuit. And by the time this came around, a couple of years after the movie was released, Ken's 3% was worth around $3 million. We didn't hear from Ken for a long time so we said 'ok, Ken, we're going to donate your share to the University Of Oregon in your hometown of Eugene. Then he finally go back to us and we finally came to a settlement…I felt bad at the Oscars. I think Miloš was the only person who mentioned Ken. I had worshipped him. He was an important part of my generation and I had spent a lot of time with him. But I'm not sure he ever even saw the movie. DEADLINE: No, apparently he only ever saw it years later by accident on TV one time…Like many, I was struck by the film's haunting, spare score, and Jack Nitzsche's unusual use of the saw… DOUGLAS: And crystal glasses. Spinning fingers over glasses filled with different amounts of water… DEADLINE: Right. I didn't know that. Was everyone on the team in favour of that sound? DOUGLAS: We were in favour. We were looking for something unique. It was a mental asylum after all, so we were looking for something haunting, but not too scary. Jack Nitzsche was a very interesting character, and very talented. We took a chance. And I remember he was recording it up at Fantasy Records in Berkeley. That's where we did our post-production. I remember going over there to see him one day and he was sitting there at this table full of crystal glasses, and was dipping his fingers in water, then running them over the rims to create different tones. Then this big bearded trucker brings in a massive saw. I thought what the hell is going on? But it was a phenomenally eerie, effective soundtrack. And again, it was one of those god given moments that worked out. DEADLINE: Who would you say was responsible for the success of the film's marketing? Presumably domestic distributor United Artists were key there because the movie found a vast audience…DOUGLAS: That's a good question. United Artists was largely responsible for the marketing. We went over the poster designs with them. It was Lisa Weinstein's mother, Marsha Weinstein, I believe. She became a confidante with Saul. But a lot of the movie's success was also down to word of mouth. There was such a small drop in box office each week and it just went on and on. Of course that doesn't happen today. It was the same overseas. DEADLINE: Yes, I think it was Sweden where the film played for years straight… DOUGLAS: Yes, this was pre-social media. People would actually talk about movies much more back then. Going to the cinema was more of a unique experience and people did that more often than today where more people consume at home. Releasing late in the year meant we got momentum going into the Oscars. DEADLINE: Did UA shy away from any of the tougher elements of the movie in their campaign? DOUGLAS: No, thank goodness. We'd had that difficulty when trying to get the movie set up with studios, and everyone told me no one wants to see another movie like The Snake Pit and they missed the humour of the movie. I remember the poster with Jack looking up to the sky, but it's kind of a hopeful look, you know. And of course we had a lot of very positive reviews. DEADLINE: The movie was an enormous box office hit, both in the U.S. and overseas. It made more than $100M globally, which is phenomenal for a socio-political drama made on a fraction of that budget. You can't have foreseen that level of success despite knowing what you had was very good? DOUGLAS: We didn't. We hadn't anticipated just how much it would connect all around the world, despite knowing how great Ken's story is and how well the cast did. DEADLINE: Presumably the key players on the movie did very well financially? DOUGLAS: Yes, we did. Me, Saul, Ken Kesey… I teased Jack for a long time that it was the best-performing movie of his career. I shared my back end with my father for giving me the rights. I think he made more money off that than on any movie he had starred in. It was a win all the way round so I'm super proud. DEADLINE: I read online that Jack's pay eclipsed all the other actors, which is probably what you'd expect at that time. I thought I'd seen that Louise Fletcher was a bit frustrated that the pay wasn't slightly more evenly distributed. I don't know if that's true but was that ever an issue? DOUGLAS: I've never heard that complaint. Louise was a relatively unknown actress at that time. She was not a profit particpant in her career, nor were the other actors. The only thing I heard from the actors at the time was that it was the best thing that happened to their careers. I remained good friends with many of the actors for many many years, including Louise. Jack Nicholson and Michael Douglas playing pool. DEADLINE: After the film's enormous success, did you hear from any of the well-known actors who had turned down the roles of Murphy or Nurse Ratched? DOUGLAS: I know that Anne Bancroft, who turned the part of Nurse Ratched down, was at a cocktail party with her husband Mel Brooks shortly after the movie's release and she read him the riot act there and then for influencing her to turn it down. I heard that from some people who were there at the party. There were so many that turned the part down. Colleen Dewhurst and Angela Lansbury were others. The movie came shortly after the success of the women's liberation movement and I think there was a perception among some actresses that they didn't want to take on a villainous character at that time. DEADLINE: Did you ever have a conversation with Marlon Brando about the role of R.P. McMurphy? He was among those offered the part… DOUGLAS: No. No discussion. It was sent to him and that was it. DEADLINE: Five years ago you were an exec producer on the Ryan Murphy spin-off series called about Nurse Ratched's character. How often have there been requests for remakes and spinoffs and what did you make of Murphy's series? DOUGLAS: That would be a question for Paul Zaentz who is across the rights. I know he he's had multiple requests in the in the past, but he has been very selective and I think that was the only time they've done one, which is good because so much gets remade these days…as for the series, it was ok, just ok. I wasn't very much involved, to be honest. DEADLINE: Do you have anything coming up this year to celebrate the movie? DOUGLAS: I'm doing something with the Academy. Myself, Danny DeVito, Brad Douriff and Christopher Lloyd. I'll also be at a couple of festivals in coming months and there will be opportunities to discuss the movie there. DEADLINE: The major studios don't often want to get behind movies with social or political consciences today. They're even rare in the independent space. There were so many remarkable U.S. films in this vein in the '70s, from , to , and . The quality of moviemaking and the longevity of so many of the movies in that decade is remarkable. Why were movies so potent from that time and why do you think we have seen a dip in that type of U.S. moviemaking in recent years? DOUGLAS: Well, Cuckoo's Nest was an entirely independent production. The studios all passed on it. Maybe they didn't like the deal we offered, because we had already financed it. But they were also skeptical about the material. Today, streaming has taken over. It has inhaled Hollywood. It's very lucrative. Silicon Valley made us look like paupers. For Amazon and Apple, movies are a side business. At the same time, many of the great screenwriters went to work in TV and streaming. But you're right, if you compare the five Best Picture nominees from our year [also nominated in 1976 were Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws and Nashville], with some of the recent years… Theatrically it has become very difficult. Look at that Apple movie Wolfs. It was meant to be theatrical, and it turned into a one-week release. I'm working on a small movie right now that I'm going to produce and I'm aware how difficult it's going to be to get it into theaters for any length of time. The issue is whether the movie theater experience can hang in there. It's a tough time for theater owners. DEADLINE: A couple of years ago you acted with your son Cameron in the movie ? When might we see that? DOUGLAS: I don't know. I believe it's looking for distribution. DEADLINE: You were in three of the movies and appeared in . Would you do another Marvel movie? DOUGLAS: I don't think so. I had the experience, and I was excited to do it. I'd never done a green screen picture before. I did the The Kominsky Method because I wanted to work with Chuck Lorre and try some comedy. But I'm enjoying my hiatus and enjoying my life. It was overwhelming running the production company and acting at the same time. DEADLINE: Will you act again? DOUGLAS: Yes, if something good comes up that I really like. But I don't feel a burning desire. I'm still producing. I still love bringing people together. Best of Deadline Every 'The Voice' Winner Since Season 1, Including 9 Team Blake Champions Everything We Know About 'Jurassic World: Rebirth' So Far 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out?
Japan Times
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
‘Boy': An ambitious portrait of alienated youth
In 1999, commercial director Yuji Dan started work on his first feature. 'Boy' was an ambitious youth drama and state-of-the-nation address inspired by the Japanese government's controversial move that year to give legal recognition to the country's national flag and anthem. Evoking the radical spirit of Japan's Art Theatre Guild and the New Hollywood movement, it was a film that sounded great on paper. The only problem was, its creator couldn't seem to finish it. Dan shot 'Boy' intermittently until 2003 and screened a rough cut of the movie at Germany's Nippon Connection festival in 2007. It then languished for the best part of two decades, before the director finally managed to complete the damn thing. The film's tortuous gestation has imbued it with an aura of mystery, suggesting a homegrown answer to Francis Ford Coppola's 'Megalopolis' (did I mention that 'Boy' is also three hours long?). Yet it's more curate's egg than lost classic, albeit a fascinating time capsule from a troubled moment in the country's not-so-distant past. A young Katsuya Kobayashi (now a director himself) plays the film's 16-year-old protagonist, Jun. When he refuses to stand up and sing the national anthem at his high-school graduation ceremony, the star pupil doesn't intend it to be a political statement. But that's how everyone else — including his teachers and the school's Marxist cabal — chooses to interpret it, sending him on a downward spiral that he does little to resist. A chance encounter with Nozomi (Aimi Nakamura), a young woman who's been forced into prostitution by her father, leads Jun further astray. As he moves from minor transgressions to full-blown delinquency, including a brief spell hanging out with uyoku (ultra-rightists), his family life also starts to crumble. Even as he's going off the rails, however, Jun continues to look after his bedridden grandfather — a shell-shocked veteran for whom World War II never ended — and pay regular visits to a hikikomori (shut-in) friend. Jun's increasingly nihilistic journal entries ('Nobody understands me,' et cetera) are a reminder that, even as he adopts a tough carapace, he's still just a teenager. Or, similarly, his adulation for an adolescent pop star, Myu (Maiko Tomeoku), which turns toxic after she announces her retirement and marriage to a much older man. TV news clips provide a background chorus on the litany of problems that Japan was facing at the time, including a wave of violent youth crime. However, as 'Boy' makes abundantly clear, appealing to old-fashioned values and the Hinomaru flag aren't going to solve anything. Much of the most interesting material comes during the film's pungent first hour, which surveys the fallout from Jun's initial (and misunderstood) act of defiance. An elderly Seijun Suzuki makes a cameo appearance in the unlikely role of an uyoku guru, while the cast also includes Mariko Tsutsui as Jun's restive mother. After Jun elopes with Nozomi, 'Boy' settles into a more familiar lovers-on-the-run narrative that's less enthralling, even before it devolves into outright melodrama. Three hours is a long time to spend in the company of this film, with visuals, seemingly shot on consumer-grade cameras, that seldom rise above the level of a daytime TV drama. However, it's worth sticking around for the bleak, raging finale. If nothing else, anyone who makes it to the end of 'Boy' should have plenty to talk about.
New York Times
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
She Captured Some of the Most Famous Faces. Then She Put Them in a Drawer.
Jeff Bridges taught her how to drive in his Volkswagen bus. Steven Spielberg refused to flirt with her. She successfully talked the actor Rip Torn out of assaulting the director Nicolas Roeg on a movie set. While lying on a beach in Mexico with the painter Ed Ruscha, she was grazed by a stray bullet on the thigh. Once, she pinched David Bowie's nipples. In Los Angeles, a city built on oversize lore and swaggering legend, where does one file away stories like these? Revealing but not gossipy. Candid but not lurid. Occasionally surreal but consistently sweet. 'It's a confessional era, right?' said Candy Clark, a former actress who wears a neat blonde bob and Warby Parker glasses, sitting in a booth at the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood, Calif. It was a recent Sunday afternoon, and Ms. Clark — the one behind the wheel of Mr. Bridges's van, the starlet who tried to flirt with Mr. Spielberg, the peacemaker, the bullet-wound victim and the nipple-twisting culprit — was nibbling on pita and hummus. Dodging a life of mundane midcentury expectations, she started a modeling career in New York and went on to become a darling of the 'New Hollywood' era in the 1970s. During her five decades onscreen, she collected over 80 film and television credits, establishing herself as a ubiquitous face who played mostly free-spirited lovers and burnouts like Debbie Dunham in 'American Graffiti,' the part that earned Ms. Clark an Oscar nomination. It was her second-ever acting role. 'It was my arrival,' she said, recalling the nomination. 'You're just the center of the universe, and it's really wonderful.' If she ever begins to doubt that all of these things happened to her, she can flip through the stack of photos she took on a small SX-70 Polaroid camera, which she used to capture life on sets with the likes of John Huston and George Lucas. Ms. Clark's glossy Polaroids, and her laconic anecdotes about the famous faces in her world, have been gathered for the first time in a book called 'Tight Heads,' published last month. It's both a visual memoir of the actress's charmed life and a document of a halcyon cultural moment, when directors had free rein, an independent spirit flourished and a girl from a small town with no acting experience could be discovered at a casting call. The book is 'not quite a tell-all,' she admitted. 'It's a tell-some.' One-Way Ticket Born in Oklahoma and raised 'poor' in Fort Worth, Texas, with four younger brothers, Ms. Clark likes to say that her childhood dreams were about attainable things. She wanted to be a secretary receptionist when she grew up. But after a chance encounter with a visitor from New York in 1968, Ms. Clark impulsively bought a $45 one-way plane ticket to the big city. She was 19 years old. 'I remember looking out the window at Manhattan and thinking, 'I'm never going back,'' Ms. Clark, 77, said. She started out working as a model in department stores, living on 50 cents a day. Eventually, she began modeling for magazines like Seventeen and Ingenue. Now and then she took work as an extra in films (for the free lunch). Content with her newfound career, Ms. Clark initially resisted when the casting director Fred Roos, whom she met while he was casting 'The Godfather,' insisted she fly to Los Angeles to audition for Mr. Huston's adaptation of the novel 'Fat City.' 'I didn't want to be an actor at all,' Ms. Clark said. 'So I drove a hard bargain. I said, 'I'll fly out only if I can go to the Academy Awards and visit Disneyland.'' Soon after, she was watching the Oscars through rented binoculars on the upper decks of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Days later, wearing a wide-brimmed hat with Disneyland printed across the front, she auditioned for Mr. Huston, Mr. Roos and the producer Ray Stark. The scene called for tears. Ms. Clark recalls trying to make sobbing noises while hiding behind the brim of her hat. Then she fled, assuming the audition had been a flop. But Mr. Roos chased her down, asking her to try a screen test. As she tells it in the book, the good news made her burst into real tears. 'I just want to be an extra!' she cried. Ms. Clark spent the summer of 1971 filming 'Fat City' in Stockton, Calif. When the cameras weren't rolling, she and a troupe of young actors swigged tequila with Mr. Huston and tried the local Mexican food. During the shoot, Ms. Clark, who played Faye, the pregnant girlfriend of a struggling young boxer, became romantically involved with Jeff Bridges, who at 22 was just becoming a household name. 'She was a natural actress, ' Mr. Bridges said in an interview. 'But she didn't want to count on having all of her happiness come from an acting career, and she's had a great one.' The pair moved into a stuccoed beach shack in Malibu, and spent the next four years cooking for friends and family, playing guitar and raising dogs and turtles. Elements of their relationship, Ms. Clark wrote, inspired Mr. Bridges's performance as 'the Dude' in the 'The Big Lebowski,' specifically their shared love for Kahlua and smoking grass. Mr. Bridges was less sure. 'I don't remember the Kahlua so much,' he said. 'But the pot, I do.' Headshots Mr. Bridges's is the first face in 'Tight Heads.' In the photo, he wears a boyish grin. Beyond the A-listers and 'big boy' directors, the 87 Polaroids in the book are a testament to Ms. Clark's expansive social appetites. She cultivated a circle, mostly men, that included best-selling authors, dancers, agents, artists, screenwriters, rock stars and hotshot producers. To Ms. Clark, though, they were a small, tight-knit community of striving actors and artists who had not yet achieved mega-fame. 'The camera brought people together, and it was magical,' she said. 'Everybody would gather around the film watching it develop. It wasn't a cheap medium, so you couldn't just fire off with your cellphone.' For the last 50 years, the photos have sat largely untouched, tucked away in the drawer of an antique credenza in Ms. Clark's Van Nuys ranch house. 'To me, they were just souvenirs,' Ms. Clark said. But they piqued the curiosity of Sam Sweet, a Los Angeles archivist who, in the fall of 2022, asked Ms. Clark for an interview. During their conversation, Ms. Clark casually mentioned the trove of photos and offered to show him some. Mr. Sweet was instantly struck by the stature of her subjects: an introverted Harrison Ford glaring at the camera, Robin Williams holding his newborn son in Griffith Park, a 20-something Anjelica Huston clutching a lover. Ms. Clark seemed genuinely amused by each shot: 'As if she was delighted that the life they depicted was actually her life,' Mr. Sweet, 44, said. 'Like, 'Can you believe this?'' Mr. Sweet, who since 2014 had been running All Night Menu, an imprint focused on Los Angeles history, suggested she publish them with his press. He considers 'Tight Heads' the whimsical antithesis to a book like 'Easy Riders, Raging Bulls,' the blistering expose of 1970s Hollywood by Peter Biskind. 'Rather than giving the illusion of impossibility, Candy's photos place mythical figures on a tangible landscape,' Mr. Sweet writes in the book's introduction. 'Her scenes suggest that the real dreamworks of Hollywood are not locked behind the gates of Paramount.' Warhol by Way of Babitz As with all of the best chroniclers of Hollywood, Ms. Clark had a knack for dissolving the psychic barriers of celebrity, even as she was drawn to it. 'Candy always had a magnetic attraction to art and artists,' the artist Ed Ruscha wrote by email. 'She is very worldly without ever losing her roots.' Ms. Clark had her share of famous flings, like the ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and the actor William Hurt. Mr. Ruscha, whom Ms. Clark describes as having 'Modigliani eyes,' was among her long-term boyfriends. Her social calendar included lunches with the novelist Ray Bradbury and the screenwriter Ivan Moffat, and Dodgers games with the agent Irving Azoff. Three years after her arrival in Hollywood, she made it to the Academy Awards again — this time not as a tourist, but as a nominee for her supporting role in 'American Graffiti,' with Mr. Bridges on her arm. Ms. Clark had started a one-woman P.R. blitz for the nomination, spending $1,700 of her own money on quarter-page ads in trade publications. In the end, she lost to Tatum O'Neal, who, at age 10, became the youngest actor ever to win an Oscar. Not long after, Ms. Clark came down with infectious hepatitis, spending a month in the hospital and almost a year recovering. After being out of the spotlight, her career struggled to get going again. 'You go back to zero, basically,' Ms. Clark said. The British director Nicholas Roeg gave Ms. Clark another shot after he met her at a beach party. Without an audition, Mr. Roeg — who would become another paramour of Ms. Clark's — cast her in his twisted sci-fi social drama 'The Man Who Fell to Earth,' opposite David Bowie. The film resulted in one of Ms. Clark's most memorable roles as Mary-Lou, the lonely Oklahoma woman who introduces Mr. Bowie's character, an extraterrestrial, to alcohol, sex and other earthly pleasures. But as the 'New Hollywood' years waned, free-spirited producers and directors no longer had carte blanche to realize their visions, narrowing opportunities for character actors like Ms. Clark. She found steady work on TV shows like 'Magnum P.I.,' 'Matlock' and 'Baywatch.' ('Always playing the floozy,' Ms. Clark noted.) She also had a few side hustles in the 1980s and '90s, briefly running a limousine service and producing a line of custom pillows for ABC Home and Carpet. Occasionally, she found her way back onto the sets of her generation's big directors, including for parts in David Fincher's 'Zodiac,' Steven Soderbergh's 'The Informant' and David Lynch's reboot of 'Twin Peaks.' Checks for 'American Graffiti' still come in. (When he made the film, Mr. Lucas agreed to split one percentage point of its profits with 10 of his actors, including Ms. Clark.) She'd rather not cling to her past fame, though. Ms. Clark prefers to live in a present of her own design, hitting the estate sale circuit, collecting art, doting on her pet rat, Herman, and spending weekends with her boyfriend of 25 years. But looking back occasionally isn't necessarily a bad thing. 'I found out who I was putting this book together,' she said, 'It's a life full of a lot of yes.'
NBC News
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
Celebrity tributes pour in for Gene Hackman: 'Powerful, subtle, brilliant'
Celebrity tributes are pouring in for Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman, who is credited with helping define the 'New Hollywood' cinema of the 1970s and went on to a legendary film career that spanned six decades. The 95-year-old screen icon and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, 65, were found dead in their Santa Fe, New Mexico, home Wednesday, along with their dog. An investigation into their deaths is underway. Rising to prominence in the late '60s and early '70s, Hackman established himself as one of the most distinctive and dependable film stars of his generation. His roles in classics such as 'The French Connection,' 'The Conversation' and 'Unforgiven' made him one of the most respected performers in Hollywood. In a tribute to the star, Dustin Hoffman said he met Hackman in acting school at the Pasadena Playhouse in their youth, and they would play conga drums like Marlon Brando, their hero. The longtime friends worked together on the 2003 film" Runaway Jury." "And Gene was like Brando, in that he brought something unprecedented to our craft, something people didn't immediately understand as genius: He was expelled from our school after three months for 'not having talent,'" Hoffman said. "It was the first time they ever did that. He was that good. Powerful, subtle, brilliant. A giant among actors. I miss him already.' Marcia Gay Harden, who starred with Hackman in "Welcome to Mooseport," said she was mesmerized by his work "even during rehearsals." "He was the real deal," Harden said. "Every line was as if he was saying it for the first time." Hackman's "Bat*21" and "The Royal Tenenbaums" co-star, Danny Glover, praised Hackman's passion for acting, calling it "extraordinary." "I appreciated his dedication and learned a great deal from him," Glover said about the late actor. Valerie Perrine, who starred as the Eve Teschmacher to Hackman's Lex Luthor in the 1978 "Superman," called him "1 of the greatest to grace the silver screen." 'His performances are legendary. His talent will be missed,' Perrine wrote on X. 'Goodbye my sweet Lex.' Gwyneth Paltrow, who starred as Hackman's daughter in Wes Anderson's "The Royal Tenenbaums," shared a picture of the two on Instagram, along with Luke Wilson, who played her brother in the film. She captioned the picture with a broken heart emoji. Tom Hanks also shared a tribute to the late star on Instagram, celebrating his importance in Hollywood. "There has never been a 'Gene Hackman Type,'" Hanks wrote . "There has only been Gene Hackman."
New York Times
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Gene Hackman's Smile Could Give You Shivers
When Clint Eastwood needed a performer who could persuasively go boot-toe to boot-toe with him in his brutal 1992 western 'Unforgiven,' he needed an actor who was his towering equal onscreen. Eastwood needed a performer with strange charisma, one who could at once effortlessly draw the audience to his character and repulse it without skipping a beat. This actor didn't need the audience's love, and would never ask for it. He instead needed to go deep and dark, playing a villain of such depravity that he inspired the viewer's own blood lust. Eastwood needed a legend who could send shivers up spines. He needed Gene Hackman. Hackman, whose death at 95 was announced on Thursday, was one of the defining actors of New Hollywood, that roughly decadelong, feverish period of artistic ferment that began with films like 'Bonnie and Clyde,' Arthur Penn's 1967 gangster drama. The era was famously defined by directors who helped rejuvenate the industry but was also known for male stars who didn't conform to old studio ideals. With their unfixed noses and rough edges, these were men who once would have been largely confined to character roles. The glamorous-looking Warren Beatty played the male lead in 'Bonnie and Clyde,' but it was Hackman's striking supporting turn as Clyde's brother, Buck, that heralded something new. Hackman holds your gaze the moment that Buck jumps out of a jalopy in 'Bonnie and Clyde' into his brother's arms; Buck is soon in Clyde's gang, too. Buck is an outsized character, given to flailing and whooping, and Hackman delivers a suitably full-bodied, demonstrative performance that instantly gives you a sense of the character without once edging into scene stealing. His slight whine thickened with a deep-fried accent, Hackman also smiles a great deal as Buck, which humanizes the character so wholly that it lulls you into brief complacency, leaving you unprepared — almost — for the violence that rapidly engulfs him. Hackman's smiles were one of his signature moves, and he used them to great disarming effect, deploying them to put other characters (and you) at ease before he abruptly shifted gears. It's one reason he was such an effective villain. (His restraint as a surveillance expert in Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 thriller, 'The Conversation,' is one reason the film is so unnerving.) Hackman used smiles to charm and seduce, but also to obfuscate. Some actors let you see the rage boiling in their characters, the throbbing veins of hate. If you made a study of Hackman's work, you might note that when one of his characters draws you to him with an upward curve of his mouth, something bad might happen soon. You would also divine that, thanks to his superb control, you could never predict when that false front would drop. There's something sublimely fitting then in the fact that Hackman is dressed as Santa when he appears in his star-making role in William Friedkin's 'The French Connection,' the 1971 thriller that earned him a best actor Oscar. Hackman plays Popeye Doyle, a New York detective helping to bring down a heroin-smuggling outfit. Popeye is undercover in the opener, watching a suspect while ringing Santa's bell and charming some kids with his patter, a smile peeping out from under his ill-fitting white beard. All of a sudden, Popeye and another cop (Roy Scheider) are chasing the suspect through the city's derelict, litter-strewn streets. As soon as the detectives tackle the runaway in an empty lot, Popeye begins hitting the guy savagely. 'I wanna bust him,' he says repeatedly, blood smeared on his Santa sleeve. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
