We are very excited that the 30th Anniversary of Say Anything… will be back on the big screen at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. Cameron will conduct a Q&A after the screening with Producer James L. Brooks, John Cusack and Ione Skye…and maybe a few other surprises too. More info over at Tribeca’s official site. We hope to see you there!
The summer movie season is in full swing. A few screenings have already happened around the country, but there’s more in the coming weeks and months. Here’s the list that I’m aware of right now with links for more details and tickets:
We’ve got a brand new addition to the Journalism section today as Cameron chats with The Who’s Roger Daltrey in this 1974 interview from Circus Magazine. Roger certainly was prophetic and this is over 40 years ago! You can also see how his philosophy has rubbed off on bands with longevity such as Pearl Jam. Enjoy!
Roger Daltrey Tells Why The Who Will Never Break Up
A sleek 747 jetliner rose from the rain-drenched runway of the San Francisco International Airport and swung across the night sky towards Los Angeles. Roger Daltrey stared reflectively out the plane’s window at the flickering lights outlining the Bay area. Many hours earlier, at the Cow Palace, The Who played before the first American audience they had seen in years.
It was ten years since the mop-topped microphone twirling singer first established a raucous band of English mods known as the High Numbers. Included in this noisy band was a solemn bassist named John Entwistle, a clowning drummer named Keith Moon and a beak-nosed guitarist named Pete Townshend. After a minor hit with a single called “I’m The Face,” the group’s name was changed to The Who. The rest, from instrument smashing to Woodstock to Tommy, is—as they say—history.
“Ten years,” Roger said as he turned away from the window and sighed incredulously. “Ten years of this.” He paused for a moment to adjust the paraphernalia in the seat pouch before him. Still an energetic ball of fire, Roger Daltrey is far from a weathered old rock and roll conversation piece. Just like his fellow band members, Daltrey is a professional in every sense of the word. “I used to wonder,” he mused, “how The Who have been able to stay together this long. Now I know. We all know. Pete, Keith, John and I have learned to stick together when times are at their toughest. We learned that when things are tough it’s precisely the time to stay at your closest.”
Thanks for your patience as we had to move the site to a new server. We are back and aim to post more regularly. I found these two interesting pieces (Clothes on Film over at Interview magazine) that discuss both Dorthy’s dress from Jerry Maguire and Penny Lane’s coat from Almost Famous with costumer designer Betsy Heimann. Enjoy!
In Almost Famous [2000], William Miller (Patrick Fugit), a young music lover, lives out his dream of writing for Rolling Stone by becoming a rock tour roadie with the Band-Aides, and their number one fan, Penny Lane. The storyline was loosely based on director Cameron Crowe’s early life, as a teen reporter for Rolling Stone. Costume designer Betsy Heimann is the woman who translated his heady ’70s tour life into unforgettable garms—but most notably, the ingénue Penny Lane’s (Kate Hudson) iconic shearling coat. The lead character’s outfit resurfaced online in 2015 when it was discovered that the fur collar was made from a rug purchased at Urban Outfitters, a rather genius bit of DIY. However, Heimann revealed even more about what made this coat so memorable.
BETSY HEIMANN: We did a lot of research from when Cameron [Crowe] was on the road. We had two rock photographers who Cameron and I were friendly with, Neal Preston and Joel Bernstein, and they were the premiere rock ’n’ roll photographers in the ’70s, so that’s where we started with inspiration. As far as Penny Lane goes, she was this young girl who was laughing on the outside and crying on the inside. It had to be that when she put that coat on, that was her sanctuary, her cocoon. I wanted it to be something that she could wrap herself up in. And my inspiration for the shape was a 1920’s opera coat because it has a broader collar and a swingy bottom. When she goes up that ramp and she looks back to William, I wanted there to be some detail in the back, so I added some pleats. I just wanted it to be her safety blanket. The collar, I’m sure you’ve read somewhere, was a rug from Urban Outfitters that I cut up and it had to be the right color to bounce the light off of her face. I worked closely with John Toll, our cinematographer, to get it just the right shade, so when the light bounces off of her face and she looks so innocent and she looks like she believes in the happy ending, whereas inside she’s like, “Please let there be a happy ending.” You know?
In Jerry Maguire [1996], single mother Dorothy Boyd [Renee Zellweger] makes the bold decision to leave the stability of her full-time job to join Jerry [Tom Cruise] in starting his own sports management company, after a memo he sends to their entire staff gets him fired. At first, they have only one client and, when the pair get involved in a romantic relationship, things grow even more uncertain.
Remembering John Mahoney
While filming his 1989 debut, Say Anything…, director Cameron Crowe found himself working with esteemed character actor John Mahoney. Mahoney, who died February 4th, 2018, was a formidable stage performer before portraying Jim Court, the divorced father of Diane (Iona Skye) who becomes embroiled in an IRS investigation while simultaneously trying to deter his daughter’s budding romance with Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack).
While the role ostensibly made Mahoney the film’s antagonist, Crowe tells Rolling Stone that the actor arrived on set “with a bounce in his step and a twinkle in his eye” and “brought joy to every scene and every take.” Most of all, the director remembered the actor’s brilliant laugh, which rang out long after they finished shooting one of the film’s most intense and emotional scenes.
John Mahoney came into our Say Anything… world with a bounce in his step and a twinkle in his eye. He had mighty Chicago cred too. He’d come from the esteemed Steppenwolf acting troupe, was already friends with John Cusack and had just performed in John Guare’s House of Blue Leaves on the Broadway stage. Mahoney brought joy to every scene and every take. The more dramatic and powerful the performance, the louder his unmistakable laugh as soon as I called “cut.”
You see, John Mahoney’s laugh wasn’t just a laugh. It was a two-note foghorn; a call to arms that said, “That’s right, when it’s good, it’s fun!” The biggest Mahoney laugh might have been when we shot the scene in which Lloyd (Cusack) visits Jim Court on the prison yard, bringing him a final letter from his daughter Diane (Ione Skye). The scene was fraught with tension. We discussed many different tonal versions, deciding on a quiet one. We stood out by the barbed prison fence. Action.
“How you doing?” Lloyd asks Jim Court, almost tenderly. Mahoney then used all the character frustration and love and pain he’d been building for the entire shoot of the movie and just yelled: “I’M INCARCERATED, LLOYD!” That moment and John Cusack’s reaction is one of those moments I’ll be forever grateful for. They sure made a young director feel good. And when the take was over, you know what happened. The Laugh. And it was loud.
A few months later, I ran into John Mahoney again. I was in my neighborhood McDonald’s and felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around. It was Mahoney. He saw the curious look on my face. This consummate actor, born for the stage, just standing waiting for a Big Mac. The laugh was unforgettable. With skill and hilarity and soul and pain and a dash of mystery, John Mahoney always did make unforgettable look easy. I hope this made you laugh, John, wherever you are, feeling all this love from so many. Bravo, my friend.
Courtesy of Rolling Stone – Cameron Crowe – February 6, 2018
Cameron shares 20 movie soundtrack songs to download (before the streaming days!) from the November, 2005 issue of Blender Magazine.
20 Songs You Should Download This Month
Cameron Crowe, Director of Elizabethtown and soundtrack geek extraordinaire, selects his all-time favorite movie tunes
1.Harry Nilsson – “Jump Into The Fire” – Goodfellas (Atlantic)
A perfect Scorsese marriage of visuals and song. And, of course, a lot of blow.
2. Aimee Mann – “Wise Up” – Magnolia (Reprise)
One of my favorite Aimee Mann songs, used here to a worshipful degree.
3. Henry Mancini – “Moon River” – Breakfast At Tiffany’s (RCA)
Audrey Hepburn, Henry Mancini, Blake Edwards – all at their JFK-era peak.
25 years ago today, Singles (finally) debuted at a theater near you. If you haven’t done so, explore the Singles section of The Uncool where you’ll find Deleted Scenes from the script, Locations Then & Now, a collection of foreign posters and so much more. We hope you like the (never before seen) alternate shot from Poster shoot above and the negatives from Citizen Dick at the Java Stop below!
