Really Good R&R Movies
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dale_fortune
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beatlefreak
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jingle_jangle
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jingle_jangle
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jingle_jangle
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Charlie, you already did, and they were delicious.
Long story...
I was living in LA at the time; heard from a girlfriend that there was a cattle call for casting the film, so I dressed up as Andy Warhol, complete with bleached blonde wig (I believe Warhol wore a wig, too), black turtleneck, and little Yorkie. When I wore my hairpiece, which I did from 1983-85, friends kept telling me I looked like Warhol, and there was a strong Polish gene thing going on.
I went to the cattle call at Fairfax High thusly attired, and arrived at the end of a line of about 5,000 hopefuls. The line was 4 blocks long when I got there and we were very near the end after an hour of waiting. There was a lot of buzz, and a golf cart came slowly down the sidewalk. There were only two people in the cart; one was the casting director and one the AD. The cart stopped in front of me; my girlfriend freaked. The AD told me to get on, and they took me right to a theater building on campus where I read for the Warhol part. This all happened completely spontaneously and so fast it made my head spin. I then was asked to read for the part of the Tampa concert promoter. They took my contact info and kept me imprisoned for a couple of hours, then released me with info for the scenes I was going to be in, three weeks hence.
I arrived at the LA Temporary Contemporary Art Museum parking lot on the morning of the filming, along with about a hundred and fifty other folks, mostly extras. We boarded buses which took us about three miles to an industrial area just south of downtown LA; very seedy area. The filming was on the third floor of a vacant loft building. My name was called and I went to makeup, where they fitted me in monk's robes...there must've been a mistake...turns out the Warhol role went to Crispin Glover (wacka-wacka) and Billy Vera got the Tampa promoter role. Benefits of having an agent, I suppose. Glover took several hours of makeup to look like Warhol, except he didn't even come close. Sour grapes.
So I played the part of a Buddhist monk for two days and dozens of takes, smoked about five packs of prop cigarettes that were over 20 years old (messed up my throat for weeks), met a lot of celeb lookalikes, schmoozed with lots of beauty queens, sat out on a fire escape with Nicholas Cage one midnight eating crab legs, spent time talking with Paul Williams, had Meg Ryan ask me to hear her confession (she thought I was a Catholic priest?), and rode up and down on the freight elevator with Val Kilmer several times a day. He was quite unsociable; in his role, I suppose. I befriended three women who appeared with me in most pan scenes; one who was a Chris Hind lookalike (don't remember her name), one who was a Cybil Shepherd doppelganger (Chrissie Winterbotham); third was a gorgeous Asian model (Mary Mei).
We arrived at the parking lot at 6 am the first day and did not leave the building for over three days. At the end of the third day (we started shooting about 10 pm and worked around the clock), at about 3 am, we were beyond exhausted and 70% of the directing was done by the AD; crowd scenes. Oliver Stone showed up and things got mystical...he asked me and Mary Mei to accompany Warhol on a long walk down the corridor into Warhol's bedroom, where some hanky-panky was going on between Morrison and one of Warhol's girls. That's all the setup we got; it was one take and we were asked to write some lines to speak during the corridor walk. We had five minutes while they set up the lights. "Warhol" was stoned out of his mind; Mary and I had to prop him up between us, fireman-style, and drag him along. We fed each other lines walking down the hall, the door opened and--reaction shot, which I was not prepared for. I was surprised by the camera--right in my face--and looked right at it. Second take came off better, but Glover was not up for a third, so we stopped there. It was the last thing filmed those days. When we got done, the extras were already on their buses.
Although Mary and I both spoke a lot, and I got Taft-Hartleyed and paid for lines, my own voice ended up on the cutting-room floor, though they kept a snippet of Mary's giggle.
And they kept the first take, too, so there I am, google-eyed, staring at the camera.
End of movie career.
Long story...
I was living in LA at the time; heard from a girlfriend that there was a cattle call for casting the film, so I dressed up as Andy Warhol, complete with bleached blonde wig (I believe Warhol wore a wig, too), black turtleneck, and little Yorkie. When I wore my hairpiece, which I did from 1983-85, friends kept telling me I looked like Warhol, and there was a strong Polish gene thing going on.
I went to the cattle call at Fairfax High thusly attired, and arrived at the end of a line of about 5,000 hopefuls. The line was 4 blocks long when I got there and we were very near the end after an hour of waiting. There was a lot of buzz, and a golf cart came slowly down the sidewalk. There were only two people in the cart; one was the casting director and one the AD. The cart stopped in front of me; my girlfriend freaked. The AD told me to get on, and they took me right to a theater building on campus where I read for the Warhol part. This all happened completely spontaneously and so fast it made my head spin. I then was asked to read for the part of the Tampa concert promoter. They took my contact info and kept me imprisoned for a couple of hours, then released me with info for the scenes I was going to be in, three weeks hence.
I arrived at the LA Temporary Contemporary Art Museum parking lot on the morning of the filming, along with about a hundred and fifty other folks, mostly extras. We boarded buses which took us about three miles to an industrial area just south of downtown LA; very seedy area. The filming was on the third floor of a vacant loft building. My name was called and I went to makeup, where they fitted me in monk's robes...there must've been a mistake...turns out the Warhol role went to Crispin Glover (wacka-wacka) and Billy Vera got the Tampa promoter role. Benefits of having an agent, I suppose. Glover took several hours of makeup to look like Warhol, except he didn't even come close. Sour grapes.
So I played the part of a Buddhist monk for two days and dozens of takes, smoked about five packs of prop cigarettes that were over 20 years old (messed up my throat for weeks), met a lot of celeb lookalikes, schmoozed with lots of beauty queens, sat out on a fire escape with Nicholas Cage one midnight eating crab legs, spent time talking with Paul Williams, had Meg Ryan ask me to hear her confession (she thought I was a Catholic priest?), and rode up and down on the freight elevator with Val Kilmer several times a day. He was quite unsociable; in his role, I suppose. I befriended three women who appeared with me in most pan scenes; one who was a Chris Hind lookalike (don't remember her name), one who was a Cybil Shepherd doppelganger (Chrissie Winterbotham); third was a gorgeous Asian model (Mary Mei).
We arrived at the parking lot at 6 am the first day and did not leave the building for over three days. At the end of the third day (we started shooting about 10 pm and worked around the clock), at about 3 am, we were beyond exhausted and 70% of the directing was done by the AD; crowd scenes. Oliver Stone showed up and things got mystical...he asked me and Mary Mei to accompany Warhol on a long walk down the corridor into Warhol's bedroom, where some hanky-panky was going on between Morrison and one of Warhol's girls. That's all the setup we got; it was one take and we were asked to write some lines to speak during the corridor walk. We had five minutes while they set up the lights. "Warhol" was stoned out of his mind; Mary and I had to prop him up between us, fireman-style, and drag him along. We fed each other lines walking down the hall, the door opened and--reaction shot, which I was not prepared for. I was surprised by the camera--right in my face--and looked right at it. Second take came off better, but Glover was not up for a third, so we stopped there. It was the last thing filmed those days. When we got done, the extras were already on their buses.
Although Mary and I both spoke a lot, and I got Taft-Hartleyed and paid for lines, my own voice ended up on the cutting-room floor, though they kept a snippet of Mary's giggle.
And they kept the first take, too, so there I am, google-eyed, staring at the camera.
End of movie career.
“I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did.”
― Kurt Vonnegut
― Kurt Vonnegut