Joaquin Phoenix has been in and out of my life for many years.The first time I sat down with him, Phoenix was an unknown actor and it was for the film Inventing the Abbots. I found him pleasant, cordial and handsome. I figured that would be the case in the future, but I was so wrong. He is very comfortable playing conflicted, insecure characters with a dark side and I wonder if some of his characters took over moments in his life when he wasn’t looking. I never knew when I would be given an interviewing assignment so every time I sat down with him it was like starting over again, as these jobs were on press junkets, I was one of fifty journalists who was there to ask questions and I didn’t expect him to know who I was and even care. I expected him to act. Let’s face it, he is an actor, glad to be there promoting his latest film. Each interview got harder and harder and I really tried to make him feel comfortable so we could have a conversation which was my style of interviewing. Things happen when you least expect it so I was really unprepared to run into him at the Cannes Film Festival when I went to interview James Grey, the director of the film The Yards, in which Joaquin was the star. Here he was hanging out at the interview site even tho he did not have do any interviews. While my TV crew was setting up for Grey’s interview I said to Joaquin how much I enjoyed his performance and the film. He said to me “would you tell my mother over there that”, and I said “ok”, which I did. So when I was given the film Ladder 49, little did I know that my brief meeting in Cannes would come in handy. I arrived at the press junket to be told by the studio executive that I could fail, as no one was getting an interview with Joaquin longer than 2 minutes and all he would say was yes and no because one of the stupid journalists who went before me asked him about his brother dying on Sunset Blvd. The journalist asked whether he called 911 like the characters in this film did and he went ballistic, which I didn’t blame him for, as that was an inappropriate question to ask. By the way if I did not get a usable interview I would not get payed. So I entered the interview suite knowing what to expect, failure. I walked in threw my arms in the air and said in movie star affected voice “Hello, you don’t remember me, I saw you at Cannes and told your mother how great you were in The Yards”, and then…silence. I started the interview and he talked in fact he talked for 16 minutes and when it was over he turned to the camera man behind him and said, ”Did I just do that”. He did and I never told the studio how I got him to talk… just a little mother love. That was the last time I interviewed him and to tell the truth I miss his off centered approach to promoting his films as he made me work hard to get an interview worth listening too. But he was always worth the effort!
Posts tagged film
A Taste of Lemmon
My first job for my new company was given to me by Michelle Reese, V.P. Universal Pictures in 1984. Before landing the job I had spent nearly two years knocking on doors trying to prove that my movie star interviews would play on a lot of stations as it had not been done before.
I was so lucky that she gave me Jack Lemmon to interview for the film Mass Appeal. I could not believe that he would share so many personal stories with me. Not only did he let me photograph his baby book, he also revealed to me that he knew that he wanted to be an actor from 9 years old, After he graduated from Harvard he went to New York and started getting very small parts doing live TV. After doing over 100 television shows he went to Hollywood and, as they say, the rest is history. He was nominated for an Oscar for The Days of Wine and Roses and for Save the Tiger, with the latter winning him an Academy Award. He reminisced about his role in Save The Tiger which touched him deeply and made him aware of his own behavior at home. His character had a drinking problem, which was how he dealt with unhappiness. Jack realized that the character was very close to himself, in fact there were moments when he felt that the character had taken over his life. Jack said: “I still like to drink and when I have too much I take it out on the walls and doors of my house.” He went on to say: “I never hit anybody.” Although Jack Lemmon went public with his drinking in the 1960’s, it wasn’t until three decades later that he revealed that he was a recovering alcoholic. I never showed that video with his personal stories to anyone. It’s interesting that his best Oscar nominated performances were for playing characters that were alcoholics.
At the conclusion of the interview he said some wonderful things to me and I said to Jack: “Do you really mean what you are saying?” He replied: “Yes.” I asked if he would put it in writing and he did. After his note arrived, I called his office and asked if I could show it to the studios, the answer was “Yes.”
I saw Jack one more time in 1996. when I was doing publicity for the film Getting Away With Murder. I told him that his letter changed my life as it put my career on the fast track. Jack Lemmon was a most charming man who gave so much of himself to others, like me who was just an unknown interviewer. Thank you Jack Lemmon! I am so glad you came into my life, even though it was only for that one day at the very beginning of my Hollywood career…you are a true Hollywood Gem!
Diane Keaton: Ageless
What I remember most about my first interview with Diane Keaton is that the executive that hired me was smiling as she got what she was looking for after two other interviewers had failed. I am grateful for not being told it might be tough, because it wasn’t- she was a joy!
I started the interview about her childhood, as it was one of my favorite ice breaking questions. Diane told me that she knew she wanted to perform at about the age of five and both of her parents “were very encouraging to me, always….My father in particular was really thrilled when I would be on stage.That was very rewarding when Daddy likes you,” she said as she laughed. Diane began her career on stage in the original Broadway production Hair. She gained some notoriety for her refusal to disrobe at the end of act one even if it meant not receiving the $50 bonus for appearing nude. I really don’t know how she kept her career going when she admitted that she got very nervous trying out for a role. “I was not very good at auditioning…I think you have elements of all the people you play somewhere in you, they are always lurking about,” which is what she used in the early days. Thanks to lover at the time, Woody Allen, who wrote and directed Annie Hall she never had to audition again. The Oscar she won for the role cemented her career. A little trivia, Hall is her last name and Annie her nickname. She changed her last name to her mother’s maiden name as there was already Diane Hall in the actors union. I never asked her about her famous lovers,Warren Beatty and Al Pacino, all of which are still her friends today, but they were really good to her by getting her roles in some really great films. However, she did say that if she hadn’t had a successful career, “I don’t know what my life would have been like. I can only imagine that I would have been a miserable, unhappy person, an undeveloped, ignorant woman who was driving some guy nuts because I was so emotional.” What I always asked near the end of an interview is the question “Is fame every thing you thought it would be ?” and she replied “NO, no, no. It couldn’t be what you think it is. It is ridiculous. Fame is much more interesting and complicated…but ultimately I really feel if you can survive fame and kind of have your feet on the ground, still, then you’ve done something pretty good. Because I don’t think it’s easy.” I went on to interview her a few more times and she never seem to age as her mind was quick her body oh so slender and her spirit filled with love even for the journalists like me who always wanted more.This wonderful, ageless woman will be acting forever and aren’t we lucky?!
The Ford Factor
I am on my way to Los Angles to do some interviews for my morning TV show on CBS in San Diego. I love movies and their stars so I am looking forward to the short plane trip, limo ride and hotel suite that Fox is providing. It’s early May and this is one of three films that I that I will work on over the weekend. The first screening is arranged for that night with interviews set for the following morning, then more screenings and interviews to follow. I see the film and like it but do not love it, so I only ask questions from the production notes that the studio provides. Since I have never heard of any of the actors I am looking for stories that would introduce them to my TV audience. The last interview for the film is with the star, a really good looking guy with starling blue eyes. Oh so handsome and oh so boring, it could have been my questions, but I cannot wait for the interview to be over. I even look at my watch to see how much time is left and know he has no idea that I cannot wait to leave, as I keep smiling. I have to wait 3 weeks for the film to open and when it does on May 25,1977 it becomes the biggest film of that year. I know you guessed it, the film is Star Wars and the boring star: Harrison Ford.
I am only sorry that the interview was not a better one, I found it later in a grocery bag in my storage locker and still have it. Years later, I sat down with Ford for the film Air Force One and had one of the greatest interviews of my career, this time I did a lot of research and the personal stories just poured out, some of them are in my book Nearly Famous: Secrets, Lies and Addiction. So when they announced the new cast of Star Wars this past week all those memories came flooding back.
The Secrets Behind Winning An Oscar
I wrote the article below before the oscars… and guess what? For the first time in a my career as an academy voter I was denied tickets. Could they be related? Read on and let me know what you think.
You might be surprised to know that to win an Oscar takes much more than talent. It takes a strategic campaign. Let me translate. Outrageous budgets go towards lavish lunch and dinner parties to win the favor of Oscar voters. Big publicity budgets go towards new 30 second TV spots, and self-congratulatory magazine and newspaper ads. Does this sound familiar? Could it be that the studios are running a political campaign? Why all the hoopla? Well, Every Oscar win is money in the pockets of the releasing studio and let’s face it, money is king.
The best-kept secret of an Oscar campaign is that competing studios try to destroy the competition anonymously. The cleverest publicist who operates like a seasoned campaign manager will plant stories which ever so subtly throw shade over the successes of competing films. For example in a Huffington Post article about The Wolf Of Wall Street, the article has DiCaprio defending the film for condoning the excessive behavior it depicts, instead of raving about how great it was to participate in the film. Bringing these subtle details about the film to light can make an Oscar voter take a second look which may in turn change their vote.
The moral of this story is you can’t just make a great film and expect it to win on it’s own merits, you have to spend the money, use the publicity machine and plant subliminal messages that will put the golden man in your hand.
