A Constant Forge Page #7

that by the end you were very involved

with people you didn't know at all...

and probably wouldn't ever know.

Anybody that would

let a - a guy-

a wom -

slap her and not be mad at him or-

- You're supposed to be saving my life.

- Hasn't got much to say.

I've got lots to say.

You wanna try me?

Lynn Carlin's character, Maria...

who, for me, is one of the most fascinating

creatures in a film of the late '60s-

This is someone who really doesn't quite

know how to live her life.

And to learn that Lynn Carlin had never

acted in a film before Faces...

to me, that was incredible.

It makes the intensity ofher performance

that much more remarkable.

It's the first, best acting class

available is to see his movies.

Cassavetes was perhaps

the greatest director of actors...

in the history of cinema.

There's a lot of actors

in search of a John, you know.

I don't even think of myself as a director.

As a matter of fact, I think I'm probably

one of the worst directors around.

But I do have an interest in, uh...

my fellow man.

Orson Welles once said, "The terrible thing

about movies is they're canned. "

And I said, "What?"

He says, "You know, they're canned. "

I said, "What do you mean?"

"Well, they come in cans. "

"Oh, yeah, right. I see. Well?"

He said,

"Anything that comes in cans...

isn't exactly fresh, is it?"

And I said,

"Right. You know. I get it. "

Um, so, obviously, when do we can things?

Well, when they're at their freshest.

John has a way of making

these performances- these moments-

They all kind oflook like

they're captured accidentally.

- Give me a better "ba-ba. "

- Ba-ba.

No! A real "ba-ba. "

Come on.

That's hard to do.

In the theater you get this incredible,

visceral excitement of live theater.

Film, because it's celluloid,

is always - kind of puts you off a bit.

You're kind of not really as excited.

Because it's film.

ButJohn was able to get you excited.

You could have your pulse

and your heart beating...

because of some of the performances

that he was able to get.

I'm a great believer in spontaneity...

because I think planning

is the most destructive thing in the world...

because it kills the human spirit.

So does too much discipline, because then

you can't get caught up in the moment.

And if you can't get caught up

in the moment, life has no magic.

Without the magic,

we might as well all give up...

and admit we're gonna be dead

in a few years.

He achieved this -

this incredible spontaneity...

that you really feel like you're watching

something happen for the first time.

Don't help her, Leo.

I said don't help her, goddamn it!

- Manny-

- Leave her alone!

Oh, horseshit!

- Get up.

- Leave her, goddamn it!

- You stay away!

- I don't wanna hear it.!

When I started working with John, I said-

It's like... a wind from -

a trade wind from the islands.

I just started feeling clean again.

I missed working that way so long.

So, what I mean is that, yes...

I missed carrying the character

with me day in and day out...

morning, noon and night,

thinking what I could do with it...

how I could dare -

how I could - how I could -

That's work.

That's where your life is full.

- Like that.

- Oh, terrific.

With John,your life was full.

That's terrific.

John was a true original.

And...

he really wanted to strip you...

of everything that you knew.

He wanted to strip you

of your technique.

He wanted to strip you of your ideas...

as to what is dramatic -

fast then slow...

loud then soft.

No matter what position

you were in...

John was always the one to remind you

that you were just full of it.

You were laced with convention. And he would

do whatever it took to break you out of it.

And I often wondered why it is

that somebody as articulate as John...

would be so confusing

when he would tell you...

what -what you were doing.

This is one man against the world.

These are three guys against the world.

And the minute they join the world -

You know? That's fine. You'll join it,

but you want what you want, when you want it.

So you're there right in the middle

of all this going on.

It's terrific.

John was not

a complicated person in his dialogue.

And he'd be talking,

and he'd use the word "thing"a lot.

He says,

"Now, when you move the thing -"

"Remember the thing

we talked about last night?

I want you to have more of that

inner thing going that -You know?"

John never gave direction - direct.

He would never say "Sit there. "

He would say,

"Now, listen. If, uh -

I don't know. You came in,

you're tired and you're -you're hungry. "

He wants you to sit there,

you understand.

But he'd talk-

And Peter would turn to me.

He said, "Do you understand

what this man is saying?"

I said, "Yeah, he wants you to sit there. "

He said, "Well, if he wants me to sit there,

why doesn't he tell me to sit there?"

I said, "I don't know, Peter.

Ask him why he doesn't tell you to sit there.

He might tell you in about another halfhour

why he doesn't tell you to sit there. "

Ah, we had a lot of fun.

A lot of fun.

He was capable of telling you...

but he didn't want to

because he was afraid of the clichs...

and he wanted you to respond

in some way that was you.

I became increasingly

more comfortable with it.

And then, in the end,

I became a great, great admirer of it.

But I didn't embrace it right away.

No. It took a little time.

But I'm slow.

Ready! Action!

During the actual filming,

I'm not really listening to dialogue.

I'm watching to see if the actors

are communicating something...

and expressing something.

I'm just watching a conversation.

You're not aware of exactly

what people are saying.

You are aware of what they are intending and

what kind of feeling is going on in that scene.

John was not a person

who gave you a lot of direction.

Even if you asked sometimes.

He would say,

"I wrote this, and I gave it to you...

"and now it belongs to you...

and you know more about this character

than I know or anybody else in the world knows. "

There's no way that you could

play this scene wrong -

That you,Jenny Runacre, could play

this scene wrong, except by rushing it...

and not listening.

And not feeling the pressure

that surrounds you.

He wouldjust say,

"Let's rehearse. Let's rehearse. "

And we would do that for a couple of weeks

before we'd start shooting.

Or even during the shooting,

we'd break off and rehearse certain scenes...

until the actors became comfortable

in what they were doing.

When we first started doing this -

It had no chance if we started

right on the set.

But now we know what our pitfalls are,

and we know where we are.

- Right. Right. Right.

- We'd be a lot better off.

- Right. - And we know what we individually

do wrong without anybody having to tell -

- We know when we're pushing too hard and when we're going too hard.

- Right.

This generated a kind of

competition between the actors...

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