A Constant Forge Page #17

Then everybody agrees with me.

Christ. So what do you do?

He loved people.

That's why his films are about people

and the difficulties that people have...

in communicating honestly

to each other.

I worked with John on and off

for about a year...

on what was originally titled

She's De Lovely.

We were talking about

where we might shoot the movie.

It seemed he'd written it very Brooklynese-

that kind of tempo of the speech.

So I sort of meekly suggested...

"Well, perhaps we should shoot it

in Brooklyn. "

And he says - No, he says...

"What we do is, we pick the town

with the best restaurants. "

He had this idea -

You should be alive while you're making

a movie, I think was the idea of that...

and know that when you finish the day,

you're gonna have a good meal.

We can't stop, because if we stop,

we'll never get done.

We have shot 250,000 feet of film...

and 250,000 feet of film to sync.

Everything that's out of sync

takes a long time.

We average about two reels a day.

We have about a hundred reels to go.

But, uh, such is the price

of not having any money...

and not being able to -

to do it professionally.

We prefer to do it this way

because it's better.

Besides, we all like each other.

At the end of the day we have

a little aperitif and we have a good time.

And we have dinner, right, George?

Aw, you bums!

You bums. That's all.

I did a play with him called Thorn Hill.

It was in New York. Ben Gazzara was in it.

And not infrequentlyJohn said,

"Let's meet at the Plaza. "

And we would go to the Oak Room

and have some fabulous breakfast.

This would be before rehearsal...

and we would just talk and talk and talk

and talk about the work and the play.

But it was never-

It was this kind of thing...

where you just did not wanna get up

to go to the bathroom...

or do anything else in your life

except be at the table...

because you couldn't miss

a second of it.

It was all just the most nourishing,

most exciting, most romantic...

most vivid experience-

more vivid than anything else

I can imagine in life.

He was an impulsive man.

In some ways, people considered him

this untamed revolutionary.

But the fact is,

at the same time...

the family was at

the very center of his universe.

His marriage and his children-

that was right at the center.

He was, uh, a brother I never had...

and he was about six years older

than I was, or seven.

And so he had

a tremendous influence with me.

It was someone to play with.

No one liked to play more than John did,

and we had that fun with each other.

Do you believe in me?

Rupert, do you believe in me?

I don't mean what

those other people think of me.

I mean what we give each other.

You know, what comes out of both of us.

Do you believe this?

Because, Rupert...

I believe that you're

the greatest manager in the world.

And we're together.

Rupe, you're the greatest

manager in the world.

George, who you've seen -

seen me with...

over here...

he is an actor...

he's a - he's a cinematographer...

lighting man, grip, bartender, uh...

editor, mechanic...

fool, genius -

He's everything and all things to us.

He's the best. The best there is.

Right, George? Are you the best?

He was a very infectious guy.

We're out of sound!

I would come up to the house...

and I wouldn't know what we were going to do,

if we were gonna read through the script...

or just talk through it -

or talk about the deal of the thing.

Are we gonna get -Who are we gonna get

to give us the money to make this movie?

Or whatever it was.

And I just, you know,

my biggest memory is starting to laugh...

when I got in there, you know.

He'd be talking about something with

a certain energy in whatever it was.

Wait. Let's just see

what the hell happens here.

And very excited by

the whole process, the doing of it.

First line of the script.

Jesus, this is terrific.

Wait a minute.

Here's the desk. I don't know how this works.

We'll go up there. We'll take a look.

Every week, a fruit and vegetable

truck would come up to the house...

and I remember going out

to the truck with John...

for him to pick

the vegetables he wanted.

It was just the most extraordinary

experience, you know.

Him and the guy-

It was like this dance, you know,

where he celebrated the guy...

and celebrated the guy's

fruit and vegetables.

The beautiful ones.

What did the guy have to say, you know...

about the asparagus,

or the tomatoes or-

I- It was as creative

as - as anything I've ever seen.

He brought this enthusiasm...

to the set and to the actors...

and we all felt enormously elated...

all of the time we were working.

Aaah!

Even sometimes he'd be asking us

to do something impossible...

and I'd say,

"You hold him, I'll hit him, "you know.

It was a madhouse,

but a wonderful madhouse.

And we all loved it very much.

Ahh. Oh, boy.

When we were

doing Faces, I worked on a crew...

and I took that week off..

while they were shooting

at Gena's mother's house.

Come on, Stella. Let's go.

Shake it up.

And I'd call John up,

and John said, "I can't talk. "

I said, "Let me talk to Al.

Al, what's going on?"

He said, "Val's tired. He wants

to go home. He doesn't feel well. "

I said, "Bullshit. Benny's in town.

He probably wants to meet Benny

at some bar and get drunk with him. "

By the time, you know,

12 hours, 13 hours...

you know, you're -you're exhausted.

- I said, "I'm leaving. "

- Come on. Let's go. Let's go.

I went over there,

and I said, "What's going on?"

And Val says, "John, why can't we do it -

Nobody's getting paid. " And this and that.

He had all this energy, and he expected you

to have the same thing.

And I go out, and I go back home.

I go out to my car

and my tires are flat.

I call up about a halfhour later,

and I said...

"How's it going? Val didn't leave?"

He said, "No. "

I said, "Why do you think

he didn't leave?"

He said, "You son of a b*tch,"

and he hung up.

I had taken a knife and I'd...

punctured both Val's rear tires.

I come back. I'm furious.

John said something,

and I said something.

We went back and forth.

And I said - I said, "I'll tear your head off. "

I'll kill him! Let go!

Take it easy, will ya?

Oh, God!

I'll kill that bum. I'll take him apart

and put him together again.

Val accused John of doing it,

and he started screaming at him...

"You Greek son of a b*tch. I'll kill you.

"You- What kind of a director is that...

that would stab my tires?"

And John said, "What are you talking about?

I'm here arguing with you.

How could I have done that?"

He said, "I know you did it,

you Greek son of a b*tch. "

"Come on out to the yard. "

So we went out in the yard.

I was ready to throttle him.

He says,

"Can you fight in the dark?"

I just broke up.

You son of a -

I never told Val that

until maybe a few years ago...

that I had done it.

Seymour was always full of pranks.

He was always, you know -

He was - He still is. He's a devil.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes