A Constant Forge Page #18

He's the devil.

You've been acting a little strange.

Uh, I - I wonder if you've been

aware of that or not.

Mario Gallo

played that part. Very intense actor.

I loved him.

He always thought that something might

be happening he didn't know about.

Take off your coats.

That day, when he came in

with his child...

to visit my child...

and I was hiding underneath

the door with the glass in it...

'cause we were gonna surprise him.

But we'd been working

quite a long time then...

and I guess I was more exhausted

than I realized.

So I opened the door

and yelled "surprise, "and I fainted.

Because my blood pressure was low,

and I was just tired.

And Mario told me - and Mario -

John cut, of course.

He said, "Mario, pick her up,

at least, you know. "

Mario said, "I didn't know whether

she was planning to do that...

because she didn't like my kid,

her kid didn't like -"

I mean, he was very into it,

very into the thing.

He wasn't - He thought maybe

I was trying to trick him.

Thejump alone

had to be 12 feet.

So we shot it the first time,

and said we had to do it again.

Okay. "Seymour, come on back. "

By this time,you know,

he's about 800 yards away.

So, he had to run back up the hill,

in the house -

"Action. " Go out the window,

run across the roof...

leap down this 12 feet,

run down a hill, run up a road.

And so we did that about four times.

And by this time, he'd come back,

and he's really panting.

And he was in good shape

in those days...

but he was exhausted.

And he said, "Do we have to do this?"

He says, "I -"

"One more time, Seymour. "

So we made him do it again.

And he came back and he said,

"You sons of b*tches. "

He says, "I can't do this anymore. "

I said, "That's okay. We've got it.

In fact, we didn't even run

the camera the last three takes. "

That's their story,

'cause that was so much fun for them.

I don't know. I think we did seven.

After about the seventh take...

I'm coming back up the hill,

and I'm saying...

"You got to have one

out of the seven,John.

"I don't give a sh*t, Al.

You guys,you can kiss my rear end.

I'm not gonna do it again. "

And I'm talkin'away.

And I- He said, "Come up, "

and I don't see them.

And I hear this giggling and laughing.

They're lying on the roof.

They're laughing their ass off.

They thought it was so funny

that I had done seven of those, see.

It's healthy to laugh at somebody.

Do you know why people

don't laugh at people?

Because they are too

high-and-mighty to laugh.

They don't like them enough

to invest their time to laugh.

Because if you laugh at somebody...

you know you're going to have to

be connected with them.

You're going to have to

put some time in with them.

You know that you're going to

have to truly like those people.

The truth of the matter is that nobody

can afford to laugh at anybody.

When friends get together,

they laugh at each other.

When enemies get together,

no chance, baby. No laughter.

No!

I did something

terrible toJohn with the slapping...

'cause he always does have

somebody being slapped.

Oh!

We were in Minnie and Moskowitz,

and hejust whaps me.

Now, he didn't come

this close to me.

Because he - of the angle -

You're shooting that way, you pull

your hand back hard enough and go like that.

It looks like you're making contact.

What I did that - that -

when he did it, I went -

Down here.

None of the guys saw me do this.

They jumped on him.

They were furious.

- I didn't hit her.

- Walk away.

He said, "Gena, tell them. "

And I said, "I don't know

what you're talking about. "

Whoa!

He said, "Gena, I didn't come within that-"

I said, "Of course not. "

But I made it look like I was lying.

And, uh, 'cause I thought

it was funny.

Oh, they were all mad at him.

Then, he said, "Look at her face.

If I had hit her, there would be

a mark on her face. "

And I kept him going

for about a half an hour.

- Leola -

- Golly. What do I do now?

All you have to do

is not pretend.

- How can I not pretend if I -

- Shove it on a line, Leola.

- How can I not pretend -

- Give it that old pelvic twist.

I said to him, "What? What?

What -What the hell is goin' on here?

What -Wh-What -What -What?"

I even used the word "motivation. "

Motivation.

Very good.

Let's just try another.

I feel - I feel we could do it better.

I feel something could happen

that isn't happening. I feel -

We're anticipating the end of it,

you know, before it happens, okay?

And he said,

"Well,your motivation is not to be left out. "

- So on the next take-

- I never knew you

I went over, and I started

talking to her.

I said, "If you don't do it right,

I'm gonna take off my pants. "

- Move me. Who are you? Move me.

- I -

- Move me. Come over here. Move me.

- Mmm.

That's it.

- It's nothing.

- Very good.

I'm not gonna be left out.

Let them top this.

I'll drop my pants.

And the scene kept going,

and I had to do it.

Now I'm taking the belt off,

I'm unbuttoning the fly.

Now I'm pulling down my pants.

At that moment...

just before the camera would get

to the critical portion of your body...

John is right there.

He pulls me out of the shot.

He drags me down to the floor,

so he could use it.

When an actress gets drunk

in a John picture, she gets falling-down drunk.

Now, in reality, no actress would be

allowed to go onstage in that condition.

But not in a Cassavetes film.

He believed that an actress...

could get offher knees

and sober up in 10 minutes...

and give a great performance, you know.

That was his idea - the magic of film.

I've seen a lot of drunks in my day...

but I never seen anybody as drunk as you

and still be able to walk.

You're fantastic.

Thank you, Bobby.

When we were about to start

Woman Under the Influence...

we had no money on the film.

A few days before we were gonna start

shooting, we had a production meeting...

and Michael Alley,Jr., our production manager,

was conducting the meeting.

He says, 'John, we're gonna have to

push back a little bit...

because we don't have any film.

We don't have any money. "

And John just got up,

and he was irate.

He says, "I don't care

if we don't have any money.

"I don't care if we don't have

any food. We'll cook.

"On November 1,

we're gonna be on that set...

"the actors are gonna be in front of

the camera, we're gonna be behind the camera.

"And I don't care if there's

any film in there or not.

We're gonna be there. "

And the night before, we got

10,000 feet of film somewhere...

and we started on time.

And, uh, the whole production

was like that.

The day that my character, Mabel...

comes back from the mental institution.

It was in the summertime...

and it was in California

that we were shooting...

and there's not a cloud

in the sky.

It's just one of those really

beautiful, beautiful days...

that you find in California.

And John said, "Oh, God. "

He said, "I wish -"

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