Rebels on the Backlot (54 page)

170 “Everyone backed away from the movie”: De Luca, author interview.

170 stomped on the shreds: Confidential source, author interview.

171 “naked, humping butts …”: Tichenor, author interview.

171 “We put it in the movie, got the rating”:
Village Voice
, October 14, 1997.

171 He quietly showed the version to
Newsweek
critic David Ansen: Tichenor, author interview.

171 “gloriously alive”: David Ansen, “Get Inside His Head,”
Newsweek
, November 1, 1999.

172 “What can you say?”: Lynn Hirschberg, “His Way,”
New York Times
, December 19, 1999.

172 At the opening screening in Pasadena: Tichenor, author interview.

172 “this year’s fireworks event.” Janet Maslin, “An Actor Whose Talents Are the Sum of His Parts,”
New York Times
, October 8, 1997.

172 “Like Spielberg’s
Sugarland Express”:
David Ansen, “Born in the U.S.A.,”
Newsweek
, October 6, 1997.

172
“Boogie Nights
is a startling film”: Kenneth Turan, “Ford Had Wayne, Capra Had Stewart, Scorsese Has De Niro,”
Los Angeles Times
, October 17, 1997.

172 “triumph of substance over style”: Cineaste.

173 “I feel I should thank you …”: Mim Udovitch, “Light … Camera … hold it, hold it,”
Esquire
, October 1997.

174 I feel like I’ve been assaulted”:
www.tranquileye.com/historyofporn/boogie_nights.html

174 “I couldn’t justify it in practical terms”: De Luca, author interview.

174 “How do you feel about making a movie with frogs falling out of the sky?”: Sellar, author interview.

175 “I’m not interested in making the movie
with
you”: David Fincher, author interview.

176 who he derisively called Saucy Rossy: Fincher, author interview.

177 “Brad will have to cut his fee”: Laura Ziskin, author interview.

178 “He looked very young and yet…”: Fincher, author interview.

178 “I love it, but do you think it’s funny?” Edward Norton, author interview.

179 they had to pay him $2.5 million to woo him away: Fincher and Brian Swardstrom, author interviews.

179 “They had me over a barrel”: Norton, author interview.

179 “I ultimately said, ‘I’m not gonna be out of this film’”: Norton, author interview.

179 sent the script to a friend: Fincher and Cameron Crowe, author interviews.

181 Pitt and Norton also learned how to make soap: Norton, author interview.

181 “She was this tiny little pale thing”: Fincher, author interview.

182 “Her mother was just howling, she was rolling in the aisles”: Fincher, author interview.

182 “It had to be a woman …”: Fincher, author interview.

183 “At $50 million it was a good bet”: Ziskin, author interview.

184 “The more I talked to Charlie …” Spike Jonze, author interview.

185 “It was a scary thing …”: Jonze, author interview.

185 “There’s something so enigmatic about him”: Jonze, author interview.

185 Jonze … wooed Coppola in the oddest of ways: Ethan Smith, “Spike Jonze Unmasked,”
New York Magazine
, October 25, 1999.

185 “Francis said, ‘In 10 years we’ll all be working for him’”: Peter Kobel, “The Fun and Games of Living a Virtual Life,”
New York Times
, October 24, 1999.

186 In late 1997, on a gray day in Paris: Jonze, Landay, author interviews; John Malkovich interviews in
New York Times
, et al.

187 “I am ridiculous.” Kobel, “The Fun and Games of Living a Virtual Life.”

187 “I kind of felt like it was a lose-lose situation …” Jonze, author interview.

187 “in Hollywood that means yes”: Steve Golin, author interview.

188 “I was trying to figure out how to get out of it”: Michael Kuhn, author interview.

188 “It was a famous script …”: John Cusack, author interview.

189 “When I first met her I was really skeptical …” Jonze, author interview.

189 “We started pushing the character …” Jonze, author interview.

190 “I was so stubborn”: Claudia Eller, “Quirky
Being John Malkovich
May Have Last, Best Laugh,”
Los Angeles Times
, November 30, 1999.

190 The director called: Kuhn, author interview.

190 “I couldn’t think of any more excuses, so I said okay”: Kuhn, author interview.

190 “Golin’s penis is on the line in a big way”: Eller, “Quirky
Being John Malkovich
May Have Last, Best Laugh.”

190 “I was going to castrate him”: Kuhn, author interview.

190 “I don’t think anybody felt confident …” Tom Pollock, author interview.

191 “Tell Paul I’ll sweep the floors in his next movie”: John Lesher, author interview.

191 “I thought it had amazing energy …” David O. Russell, author interview.

192 “If you can get Cameron Crowe’s dick …”: Danny Bramson, author interview.

192 “I was in a position I will never ever be in again …”: Lynn Hirshberg, “His Way,”
New York Times
, December 19, 1999.

193 “I see Paul in all the characters …”: Mim Udovitch, “The Epic Obsessions of Paul Thomas Anderson,”
Rolling Stone
, February 3, 2000.

193 “I consider
Magnolia
a kind of beautiful accident …”: Hirschberg, “His Way.”

194 Apple and Tichenor had tears in their eyes: Dylan Tichenor, author interview.

194 “I thought it would be an important film”: Mike De Luca, author interview.

194 “I wanted to make something that was very intimate …” John Patterson, “Magnolia maniac; At the age of 30 and with just three films to his name, Paul Thomas Anderson has already been granted the heady power of the Final Cut,”
The Guardian (London)
, March 10, 2000.

195 “There are certain moments in your life when things are so fucked-up …”: David Konow, “PTA Meeting,”
Creative Screenwriting
7, no. 1 (January 2000).

196 “It was really foggy and the mountain road was covered in ice …”: Ibid.

196 “It was a completely crazy thing to be doing on a Thursday night …”: Sellar, author interview.

197 “New Line wanted to keep Paul in the fold”: Sellar, author interview.

197 “It was a big day for my little Paul”: Bumble Ward, author interview.

197 In the end the film cost $42 million: Sellar and Tichenor, author interview.

197 “I just went through the experience where the life-or-death thing …”: Interview in
That Moment
, making-of documentary on
Magnolia
DVD.

198 “A friend of mine was teaching a class on audio-recording …”: David Konow, “PTA Meeting.”

198 “I would just have to calm him down …”: Ibid.

198 “I want to intimidate her …”: Tichenor, author interview.

199 “David, I’m going to tell you something …”: Fincher, author interview.

200 “Arnon, I completely understand what you’re saying …”: Fincher, author interview.

200 “That $5 million is not going to come from Eastman Kodak …”: Fincher, author interview.

201 “This is crazy”: Bill Mechanic, author interview.

201 “I said if I couldn’t make the movie, I wouldn’t stay in the job …”: Mechanic, author interview.

202 “Dude—I have no sympathy for you …”: Fincher, author interview.

204 “You’ve gotta see what I’m up against …”: Lance Acord, author interview.

204 “There was a point early on where I worried for my job”: Acord, author interview.

204 “I thought Cameron Diaz was in this scene …”: Acord, author interview.

204 “I’m in this crazy movie,
Being John Malkovich …
”: Michael Kuhn, author interview.

205 “Nobody paid any attention, and we finished the movie”: Steve Golin, author interview.

205 “Hi, my name is Kevin Misher …”: Vince Landay, author interview.

206 “I think we all felt busted …”: Spike Jonze, author interview.

207 “He’s a screamer”: Golin, author interview.

207 “I think it’s about the need to escape yourself for fifteen minutes …”: Peter Kobel, “The Fun and Games of Living a Virtual Life,”
New York Times
, October 24, 1999.

207 “You open the door and where are you?”: K. K. Barrett, author interview.

208 “It may seem absurd to listen to that conversation …”: Barrett, author interview.

208 “If Terry Gilliam had made this, he’d have gone the opposite way …”: Acord, author interview.

209 “We’ve got enough frames just to do this quick shot”: Landay, author interview.

210 “When we shot it on Cameron’s close-up, we just let the camera roll …”: Jonze, author interview.

210 Finally Huber became available: Landay, author interview.

210 “it was just this miserable thing to watch”: Jonze, author interview.

211 “You feel like you’re on the brink of failure all the time …”: Jonze, author interview.

212 “If you make money on the movies, you keep your job”: Confidential source, author interview.

213 “It’s a mind-altering script, I thought it was unique …”: Lorenzo di Bonaventura, author interview.

214 “Desperation is not the word …”: di Bonaventura, author interview.

215 “This is one of the best presentations I’ve ever seen”: di Bonaventura, author interview.

217 The story “seemed like something I could go nuts with …”: David O. Russell, author interview.

217 Gerber replied, “We’re not afraid of this type ofthing”: Russell, author interview.

219 “It was fairly singular”: di Bonaventura, author interview.

219 the studio was pushing Russell: George Clooney, author interview.

219 “He never said anything to me about that at the time”: Russell, author interview.

220 “Although superficially our relationship was not complicated …”: Steven Soderbergh,
Getting Away With It
(London: Faber and Faber, 2000), 215.

221 an article he’d read in the
Utne Reader
Edward Zwick, author interview.

221 “I am the perfect person to write this …”: Laura Bickford, author interview.

222 “I’d have been an idiot not to make that deal …”: Bickford, author interview.

222 “I was giving up creative vision of that movie to Steven Soderbergh …”: Zwick, author interview.

224 “I had a totally different idea about the law enforcement side …”: Geoff Pevere, “Traffic: The Movie That Holly-Wouldn’t.”
Toronto Star
, December 29, 2000.

224 “The whole movie should feel as though we showed up …”: David Konow, “PTA Meeting.”
Creative Screenwriting
, no. 1 (January 2000).

225 It ripped the skin off his palms: Edward Norton, author interview.

225 Do the breasts have to have nipples?: Norton, author interview.

225 Norton and Pitt … getting the same injuries: Norton, author interview.

226 “There was something in it that kicked my head back …”: Michael Cieply, author interview.

226 “At the time there was a kind of hipness around the whole enterprise …”: Cieply, author interview.

228 “No, you’ve got to do it the Jewish way …”: David O. Russell, author interview.

228 Clooney letter to Russell: Courtesy George Clooney.

229 Russell answered the door with his video camera: Chris Nashawaty, “Three the Hard Way,”
Entertainment Weekly
, October 8, 1999.

229 “Isn’t he that guy who’s always squinting …”: Russell, author interview; Janet Grillo, author interview.

229 He would consider Clooney for the role: Russell and George Clooney, author interview.

229 “I want you to be very still in this role”: Clooney, author interview.

230 October letter from Clooney to Russell: Courtesy George Clooney.

230 “I keep sort of stealing things …”: Russell, author interview.

231 Hackman and Anderson clash on set of
The Royal Tenenbaums:
Confidential source, author interview.

232 “Difficult as he might have been, they got through it …”: Fred Specter, author interview.

232 “You people are all weird”: Greg Goodman, author interview.

232 “They were afraid of investing $40 million …”: Goodman, author interview.

233 “No one gave me a manual …”: Goodman, author interview.

233 “something wasn’t right …”: Claudia Puig, “Hollywood’s Brave New War,”
USA Today
, October 1, 1999.

233 “Every step of the way …”: Bruce Newman, “Cutting the Apron Strings, a Director Turns to War,”
New York Times
, September 12, 1999.

234 “If you make this movie it will be a nightmare …”: Clooney and confidential source, author interview.

234 “If you want to pull the plug on this movie, go ahead …”: Russell, Clooney, author interviews.

234 Clooney letter to Terry Semel: Courtesy George Clooney.

235 “If I can’t make movies like this, I don’t want this job”: Russell, author interview.

235 He never shook Jim Miller’s hand again: Russell, author interview.

235 “There was a distinct turn …”: Russell, author interview.

236 “I once finished at 4:30 in the morning …”: Iain Blair, “To
ER
Is Human; Clooney Has No Regrets About Hard Work of
Three Kings,” Chicago Tribune
, September 30, 1999.

236 “None of it was fun”: Goodman, author interview.

237 “David is a painter, not a technician …”: Goodman, author interview.

237 “You don’t talk to the actors …”: Goodman, Clooney, author interviews.

237 The crew was also impatient: Grillo, author interview.

238 “David’s always in the moment…”: Chris Nashawaty: “Three the Hard Way.”

238 Russell would be hysterical: Clooney, author interview.

238 “This is insane. What movie are we making?”: Goodman, author interview.

238 “Why can’t I just be loyal to my friend?”: Goodman, author interview.

238 “Clooney to the rescue …”: Jack Carter, “Clooney to the Rescue in Real-Life
ER
Drama,”
Globe
, December 22, 1998.

238 “You can’t do that …”: Clooney, author interview.

238 “It’s five hundred yards from where I was …”: Russell, author interview.