A Constant Forge Page #8

and really got them interested...

not only in their characters

but what the story was.

And by that I mean

by what was happening at the moment.

Because something would develop

that would be not in the script.

And quite often we'd take that on a trip.

One of the reasons we've been

trying to develop that game aspect, Ben...

is every time we get in trouble -

Ta-da!

We have a real excuse to...

get in and enjoy ourselves.

It's a feeling of fearlessness on the set.

I mean,you have a director who's fearless.

That means he's not in a hurry.

John was more interested

in the surprise moment...

than he was in the planned moment.

There are things done

not only by us, but by extras...

who come in just to be background,

and all of a sudden John is working with them...

and they give performances

that'll stun you.

Better than any actor could.

They're free of all pre-

preplanning that actors do...

kind of setting themselves.

- Oh, Doc.

- Oh. No, it's -

He wanted you off-balance.

He didn't want you on two feet,

knowing what you were doin'.

Sometimes you feel that

he invited a bunch of actors to dinner...

and halfway through the second

bottle of wine said, 'Action'..

and there was the camera and they said,

"Oh, what the f***," and just kept going.

You were less aware of the camera...

in John's pictures than in

any other pictures I'd ever been in.

He wanted it that way.

And I was less aware of the director.

I didn't know where he was.

And he would suddenly-

"Oh, are we rolling?

Oh. Oh, goodness. "

You know, on most movie sets,

they give you two minutes...

in which to tighten up.

They make sure

you have those two minutes.

"Quiet!

Quiet, everybody. "

There's another advantage,

though, ofJohn's directing.

They don't say, "All right.

Now we're gonna go to the close-up. "

He starts at the beginning every time.

The beginning of the scene.

Not midway.

Even though he has

what he wants perfectly...

he never shortchanges the actor.

So you have your emotional...

mathematics, really, in a way.

And - So that at a certain point

something will happen.

It doesn't happen

'cause you planned it to happen.

It happens because

emotionally it had to happen.

And at that time...

shejust had

all of that pent-up frustration...

and -

You know, I have no idea.

I've never done it before,

never done it since.

But that is part of the thing

of working with John.

What's the matter with you?

What's the -

You would never get that

on another set -

to go every single time.

And that's not just for the main actors.

That's for every actor.

Oh, my God, Dickie! You're getting old

and gray, and I'm getting fat and gray.

John loves to do 10-minute takes.

He'd shoot until the film ran out. He'd never cut.

John would say, "Let's do it again. "

I dream

And by the end of the day,

we had done 52 takes on two cameras...

10 minutes each of this particular scene...

until the actors were punch-drunk...

because it was notJohn's style

to tell an actor what to do.

He kept saying,

"Let's do another take'..

in hopes that something

would have come out of that scene...

was more than what he saw.

John had a great passion...

and that was for trying to see

something happen in front ofhis eyes.

Oh, he tortures you.

He - He hates to say "cut. "

He goes on and on and on.

When he sees something you're doing,

he keeps you going...

and you're wondering,

"When is this guy gonna say 'cut'?"

I kept telling them, "Listen,

we've gotta go further, and we've gotta go underneath. "

I was giving these

absolutely amateurish directions.

I would stand there like some tyrant...

to the point that everybody

would want to quit...

waiting with great faith and apprehension

for this miracle to take place.

If you're doing less than you can do, he's mad.

He's mad.

He won't accept it...

and he'll just, like -

Cut in there.

Itjust would never work.

Cut. Cut. Bullshit.

He told me about an actor-

I won't mention his name. A star-

a star, star, star-

he was directing.

And, uh, "Can we do it again,John?"

"Sure. Do it again. "

"Can we do it again,John?"

"Sure. Do it again. " Did it about 20 times.

John said it was never, ever different.

Always the same.

You fall back on something

that feels like...

you know, something

because you saw it before.

Or that's the way people behave

when they're in love or something.

Whoa, I mean.

Um, won't do.

But when he had actors that brought surprises,

he could watch you all day long.

He'd shoot all day long.

When there was a contribution

by an actor that seemed...

more sensitive, more revealing...

he would develop that

with that actor.

Take down your pants

Take down your drawers

Gonna show your daddy

what his balls are for

He gave actors a lot of freedom...

to bring more to it

than what he gave them on the page.

When you realize

how well he's written a character...

and that you can have that freedom

tojust add something here and there...

that's really special.

Then you really feel

that you're really collaborating, uh...

with the writer-director of the piece.

When he first started giving me

directions, he would never direct me as an actor.

He wouldjust say,

"Okay, hold it.

"Now,Jon, go over to a phone...

"and, uh -Take this down.

"Uh, you pick up the phone.

You pick up the phone.

"Uh - Uh, it's ringing.

You pick up the phone.

No, you go -You dial it.

Dial it. Dial it. "

A quick number.

And they get on the phone and says...

"Who is this I'm speaking to?

"Yeah, well, I need to

speak to somebody because...

"I, uh - I live alone.

"Do you live alone? Do you live -

"Oh, you have friends?

Isn't that nice.

Uh, well, I'm more of

a loner kind of person. "

And as we got into it,

he would improvise this.

Then I started improvising too.

I said, "I'll come up with this. "

Wejust had a great, fun time.

He did want you to collaborate,

but he did have a focus...

of where he wanted it to go.

And if you went beyond that -

You could do anything you wanted

in those parameters that he set.

You break that parameter,

and he'll say, "No.

No. This is where it has to be. "

There was this tremendous freedom...

but there was a painter, you know...

behind the brush.

You were the brush,

and there was the painter.

The brush didn't just go -whoosh -

all over the canvas, you know.

You were incredibly supported

and incredibly well guided.

You always felt free

to do whatever you wanted to do.

If you have that freedom,

you're going to use that freedom.

- You wanna fight or not?

- You wanna go through with it?

- What are you, yellow?

- And it got to be a game after a while.

You know,you'd do something,

and then somebody would try to top you.

And then somebody would try to top him.

It would go back and forth,

like passing a ball around.

- We would bet that we would shoot the best shot.

- Yeah?

- I won all the time.

- He won all the time...

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