A Constant Forge Page #13

He was spent, I was spent.

I learned more

in that little period of time-

And I can't put it into words...

but the fact of the matter is,

I was body kinetic from dance...

and the whole training

is about physicality.

And he figured that out.

Telling me what was wrong

with the scene was irrelevant.

There was no other way

to approach me.

And what did I learn?

I can't tell you, because it's not mental.

It's molecular.

That's who he was.

He says for her to do it to him.

- That's funny.

- When he gets -

John did take a lot of takes...

and he did get to tickling

at a certain point.

You know, grab-ass - ass-grabbing

or something, I don't know what -

after so long

to keep it going.

But under the table.

I'm wondering if I knew

I had that laugh.

I don't know.

Maybe we found that together.

Lynn went totally with it.

I mean, what a trouper she was,

'cause I put my fingers in her throat...

to make her really gag.

John egged Seymour on.

I don't think Seymour instinctively

would have grabbed some actress...

and shoved his finger

down her throat.

John made you- He allowed you,

he gave you permission...

to do the things

that Seymour probably wanted to do.

Or if I wanted to do it.

He allowed you to do it.

I throw her in the shower.

She's half naked- doesn't matter.

Come on, now.

Don't go back out.

It's just the drama of what we're doing

and the honesty of that.

There was this guy-

the guy who hassles me, Nico Papatakis-

who is the most

sinister-looking person.

And all of a sudden there he was.

I slipped and fell down...

and that's when John came in

and started hassling him away.

It was really because Nico was gonna try

and pick me up because he's a gentleman.

But Cassavetes recognized

that ifhe picked me up concerned...

it would have destroyed the whole thing.

So he then took over and started pushing him

out of the picture entirely.

I remember once, in Husbands,

we were doing a take -

I don't remember

what the scene was -

and he suddenly came running in

in front of the camera.

He started talking, he'd run out,

he'd come back again.

He'd put a banana up his behind.

He'd do anything.

- I think you're beautiful.

- I'm under the table.

I really think you're beautiful.

You wanna go?

- Mmm.

- Vice versa.

Let's go. Wanna go?

Okay.

She's terrific!

I really mean it!

He had this idea for my character.

He said, "This character doesn't like people.

He doesn't wanna be too close to people.

"Even if it's a close person...

"there's still that instinct

to put barriers.

"So this table that you have...

"there's a dead chicken there

that has been there for a while.

I tell you what - do the scene again,

and I'll be the dead chicken. "

And he gets on the table...

and he's just like this and he says...

"Go ahead. Go ahead, act.

You can start now. "

He's on the table,

and he stays on the table...

while Gena and I

act the whole scene.

And we're looking at each other-

We're looking at each other like this -

We start the words

and we're doing it...

and John is completely into

trying to be a dead chicken.

He's not listening. Nothing's happening.

But I'll tell you something

I never forgot that.

When I was onstage doing that scene, I never

forgotJohn on the table as the dead chicken.

I'm telling you,

that scene took life because of it.

I had this secret giggle that I had in every

performance when that scene came up.

But he was really trying to get to

this madness of this character...

and express it in logical terms.

When I finally caught it,

all of this stuff was released in me...

that is my kind of crazy, funny side.

I got into that energy with the piece,

and it became the character.

It's just... magical.

There was a line in the truck...

when I was talking to the Indian

where I said...

"I don't know what she's gonna do.

"You remember.

"Remember, once she went out in the street,

she had nothing on...

and she was selling lottery tickets?"

To this day...

I don't know whetherJohn...

ever thought of using that.

Maybe he never said,

"I will never use that.

"It's too on the nose.

It's too exact. "

But maybe he put it in there

just to give me some idea.

Or maybe he put it in there because

he knew it would tickle me to say it...

and maybe that would

help the next line.

I don't know.

I really don't know.

You see, there's something wrong

with her, Eddie.

She's not like a normal person.

This woman, you know,

she could get hit by a car...

burn down the house.

Jesus Christ.

I don't know what she can do.

He's been shooting pool upstairs.

Just a minute of that was in there.

But after he leaves,John had me

throwing pool balls all over the table.

I'm totally crazed. Totally mad.

He didn't use it,

and he brought it back...

but part of the catharsis of doing it

and being allowed to do it...

works for the other scenes.

Yesterday's shooting

affected next day's shooting...

because he would get new impulses,

new responses.

It wasn't something dead

and in concrete.

It was in the course of making it...

that you could find new things.

A lot of people

know what they're doing.

I don't know till the next day.

You know, if our films

are supposed to, uh...

be something like life is...

some -you know, some vague thing

that life has maybe films can contain...

then how can you determine

what's gonna happen tomorrow?

You were anxious

to come to work the next day...

- because you wanted to see what was going to happen.

- I just got carried away!

I think that was the great thrill of it.

After you say "cut"of the first take

and to influence the second take...

you say, "Hold on,"

and you scribble something...

which I know he did a lot of..

because you adjust to things that are

going on on that day with those actors.

He was a great writer.

Gena would say, "This speech

isn't working for me, "and he'd say, 'All right. "

He'd say, "Take a five-minute break. "

And he'd start writing and writing.

"All right, try this. "

And I was amazed.

I mean, the speech was better,

and it was clearer, and it was precise.

And I'd say, "How do you do that?

I don't understand how you can do that. "

That shocked me into realizing

what a talent this man was.

The great telephone call to the club...

about, "Is the Paris number on?"

He wrote that in -with me, we -

He said, "Let's go across the street. "

It was the daytime.

He said, "I think we gotta have

a telephone call. "

It wasn't in the script.

"You gotta stop, call the club. "

He wrote that in five minutes.

- P-A-R-

- It's so funny. I think it's terrific.

The Paris number. Are there letters

on the wall that say P-A-R-

There's another card that says "moon. "

- Well, what's he singing?

- Here's the guy going, "Yeah,yeah,yeah. The Paris number. "

"I Can't Give You

Anything but Love, Baby"?

Then he sings it.

I can't give you

Anything but love

Baby

Here's a guy going to kill the Chinese bookie,

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