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| 1 | ]2012, on Drugstore Cowboy (1989)] I saw the script in my agent's office - the words Drugstore Cowboy were written on the spine - and I said, "What a cool title! What is that?" And she looked at me and said, "Oh, please. They want Patti Smith. It's a movie about the early '70s and drugs, and it's based on a true story, apparently". And I said, "Cool! Can I read it?" And my agent rolled her eyes and said, "You're wasting your time". But I read it, and I said, "Okay, I've got to do this". And she said, "Yeah, but they're looking at Patti Smith and Bob Dylan. Do you feel like you're like Patti Smith?" I was like, "I feel like I could be. I mean, I can be something different than I am". But I met with one of the producers, and he said, "I think you could do this, and I think this could be good for you". He seated me next to Gus [Van Sant] at this dinner, and Gus didn't know he was meeting me, but he'd heard about my name in the mix of things, and we had a great time hanging out together. And then I came in to read for him, and I stayed up the night before all night because everyone was afraid I was way too pretty for this drug addict. But we're young people. It's not like drug addicts are exclusively ugly. They're just... different. And when you're young, the worst of what's going to happen to you generally hasn't happened yet. But we picked scenes and I read with them, but then I asked if I could do one more scene, which was the scene where Dianne comes back and Bob is kind of cleaned up, with that long walk down the hallway, that whole bit where you realize that she's really in love with him, but she's an addict. For me, that's the character. That scene is who that character is. And that's what got me the part. I think I was the first person that Gus met, so when he got up and said, "Okay, I want you", the room of producers and people were, like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa... Gus, look, we've got a bunch of people we're meeting, and, Kelly, you were great, but this is just the very, very beginning of the casting process". And he said, "Yeah, okay". Then, he walked over to me and said, "Okay, so what are you doing in September? You keep it open". I said, "Uh, yeah, I will". Then, he pulled me out in the hallway and said outright, "I want you". And he took a picture of me in the T-shirt I was wearing, just a Polaroid and not a real flattering picture, but the kind that looks into your soul, almost. And that was the only time that's ever happened, where the director just made this decision. And he was effectively an amateur at the time. He had done a 20-minute short before "Drugstore Cowboy", and a lot of people were not up for working with a new director, but that's always my favorite experience, because they've got the passion. That person who's ready to go, who it means that much to, I love working with people like that, especially when they've got a handle on the script, as well. Robert D. Yeoman was the cinematographer, who's now Wes Anderson's DP, and I worked very closely with him. I loved what he did with the camera in that, the choices they made. I even worked out what kind of cigarettes I smoked. And that walk down the hallway, I said, "Can we film Dianne walking away? Because I have this weird walk that I want her to have". And he was like, "We really should see it first". And then he saw it, and he was like, "Oh, man, that's so great..." It was so much fun. And we really were laughing a lot. You know, in the part with Heather Graham, where her character dies and we're trying to shove her up in the attic... The whole thing was crazy. To play people who are medicated, who aren't really aware of how fucked up their lives are, you're not in a bad place when you're playing it, but when you're watching it, it's a much heavier experience. When you're playing someone like that, they're kind of in denial and pursuing their goals every day and reaching them somewhat, at least as far as getting their fix. So making the film, we were in heaven, all of us. The script that I read, the movie we made, and the movie I saw were all the same thing. And that rarely happens. |
| 2 | [2012, on Curly Sue (1991)] That was another movie that started out as one movie and ended up being another movie entirely. But a great experience. I had a little girl at the time, one who's now a woman in her mid-20s, but she'd never seen my work at the time, so I thought, "Well, I'll go to Chicago". It was like a throwback to one of those Depression-era movies that you'd seen Jean Harlow in: A rich lady ends up taking in this little orphan. I thought it was very sweet, and I thought, "Well, she can finally see what I do for a living." As opposed to showing her, say, Drugstore Cowboy (1989), which, uh, wouldn't really be appropriate. It was originally going to be me, Alec Baldwin, and Kevin Spacey, which would've been a whole different situation. John Hughes had just come off of Home Alone (1990), he was the biggest director on the planet, and it was really exciting to be with him on what was the last movie he ever directed. I loved working with him, and it was interesting to see just how he worked and how he got performances. He really was very clear. It was almost like puppetry, where he had an idea about how you looked, your expressions, and your intonations. It was very precise. But somehow he made it feel organic, like it came from me as well. But he was very specific with what he wanted and very kind about how he got it. I liked working with him a lot. He and Jimmy [Jim Belushi] had a hard time, however. Alec Baldwin had to walk because he was doing Streetcar [Named Desire] with Jessica Lange, and the rehearsals on that had kind of accelerated because they'd decided that they were going to do them early. So he had to drop out, and I was heartbroken. And then Kevin Spacey got a different play, so his part was recast as well. Those were two guys I knew really well, but I'd never met Jimmy before, and then he and John didn't get along very well, so I kind of felt like a mom dealing with two 12-year-old boys. "Okay, now you stop it, you go over there and stay there until you can behave". It really was almost like that for me. Once, Jimmy had a monologue, and John just about lost it trying to get it filmed. One time production was stopped, and someone said it was because Jimmy needed softer toilet paper or hand towels or something ridiculous like that, and I was, like, "Well, that can't be true". I don't really know what was going on between the two of them, but they, uh, definitely weren't the best of friends. What I thought would be this cute, sweet little movie experience ended up going on for something like five months, and so much money was spent. It was insane. |
| 3 | [2012, on Road House (1989)] I got a call from my agent, and I had just done Drugstore Cowboy (1989), which was a little different, but he said, "There's this other movie". I was actually one of the last contract players, I guess, but I had a two-picture deal with United Artists, which I don't remember signing it, but apparently I had it, and that's how Road House first came up. The actress who'd been cast first to play against Patrick Swayze was Annette Bening, but she was fired. Patrick just didn't feel any chemistry with her or something. I don't know what it was. But I didn't know who she was, I didn't know what this movie was, all I knew was who Patrick Swayze was, and that's because he'd just done Dirty Dancing (1987), which was a big movie. And I thought, "Man, he's a really interesting guy", so I took the script, but then I read it and I was like, "Okay, I don't understand what this is. There's a big-wheel truck, there's a bad guy, there's a doctor in a mini-dress, and there are bouncers". It was just, like, a goulash. So many elements were thrown into this movie that it just didn't make any sense to me. But I took a meeting with the producer, the famous Joel Silver, who did not disappoint as far as offering a larger-than-life personality. He was hilariously funny and charming and a maniac. We sat in his office, and he basically talked me into doing it. He said, "Look, first of all, I don't make art, I buy it", which is his famous quote, but here I am, this young actress trying to become an artist, just coming off "Drugstore Cowboy", listening to him and just going, "Uh-huh". But he said, "I promise you that this will be the best drive-in movie ever made. It will be a movie that people will love. It will be fun, we'll have a great time making it, and just trust me". And then he just looked at me and said, "And by the way, you don't have a choice, you know. You're under contract. You can say 'no' and we can get really difficult, but we want you and you should do this. It could be great for you". So basically he said, "You have to do this". So I said, "Okay". I showed up for work, and I have to say that, between John Doe, Jeff Healey, and all these musicians, plus working with Sam Elliott and Patrick, it was like a barbecue on set every day. Just a really good time. All that "pain don't hurt" and "I used to fuck guys like you in prison", all those lines, we would be roaring at the time. I mean, it was just hilarious, you know? But no one winked at it. Everyone played it straight. I wore my tablecloth miniskirt dress, and we just had the best time. And I think it shows. And it lives on. I think it's playing on some network somewhere in the universe every single day, probably even as we speak. It's pretty girls, guys fighting, good guys and bad guys... and mullets! We all had a mullet, for God's sake! I remember saying, "How are you getting my hair to do that?" Because my hair's really straight. But they put stuff in it and made it happen. It was amazing. So, yeah, it lives on. In fact, my daughter was at the Fairfax Theater, where they had a "Road House" trivia night, and she was, like, "You've got to go! A bunch of us are going!" They said it was like "Rocky Horror", where they do all the lines and everything. So she's like, "You've got to come! You've got that dress. I bet it still fits you. Come on, you've got to put that dress on!" I was like, "Oh, I wish I could, but I just can't. You guys go have a good time with it, but..." It's so great that it's such a fun thing for everybody. It is what it is, but people love it for that. |
| 4 | [2012, on Mr. Magoo (1997)] -"Luanne" KL: The opportunity to work with Leslie Nielsen was one of those that I could not pass up. He delivered, as I would've thought. A little bit off-screen, a little bit onscreen, but he was a complete sweetheart and really funny. It was my first encounter with martial-arts filmmaking. We had a Hong Kong filmmaker and, again, I had a team of people working with me on kicks and stunts, and I always try to do as much of that as I can. Jennifer Garner had a couple of scenes in the movie, and I thought she was adorable. When she broke through with Alias (2001), I said, "I thought there was something about her". And it was fun. I mean, I got a chance to spend most of a winter in Vancouver, and I'm a skier, so the opportunity to work and ski was great. And Leslie was amazing. |
| 5 | [2012, on Heaven's Prisoners (1996)] My love affair with New Orleans began there. It was the first time I was in New Orleans for a film, and I knocked off my second of the Baldwin brothers. I've still got Stephen to go, although I feel like I worked with him, because he came down there with Alec. When we were working on Lake Pontchartrain, I had a large houseboat as my dressing facility, and Alec decided he'd be really super-cool and get a cigarette boat, but he didn't realize he wouldn't really have a cabin or anywhere to go of significant space. My bitch barge, as I called it, had a pirate flag flying, and I pursued the cigarette boat and puttered along beside them and got them with water balloons so bad. Stephen made T-shirts and everything promising retribution, but I got 'em. It was a fun film to shoot, and great music. I just adore Alec. There was a scene where I was supposed to be crying hysterically, and Alec would suddenly go into a Captain Kirk impression. I was like, "You fucking asshole!" Which reminds me: My family was so angry at me, because my character gets machined-gunned about a third of the way into the movie, but I didn't tell my parents about it. I think my dad almost had a heart attack! But it was such a great experience being in New Orleans. It's too bad that they weren't able to make an ongoing series of Dave Robicheaux movies, because the books are great, but there was some sort of production mishap, and it just never happened. |
| 6 | [2012, on Cocktail (1988)] My audition for that was wearing the many and various bikinis, which... I'd say they're really just strings tied different ways. No, that was actually a really complicated story about the '80s and power and money, and it was really re-edited where they completely lost my character's backstory - her low self-esteem, who her father was, why she was this person that she was - but it was obviously a really successful movie, if not as good as it could've been. It was written by the guy who wrote Fort Apache the Bronx (1981) [Heywood Gould], and it was a much darker movie, but Disney took it, re-shot about a third of it, and turned it into flipping the bottles and this and that. But it was my first really big movie, and I'm making out with Tom Cruise, who is a really good kisser. And we're in Jamaica! Again, it was one of those things where I had to pinch myself. I couldn't believe it. It was a great opportunity to me. And as embarrassed as I was with all those little bikinis, now I'm so glad. I'm all like, "Yep, that's me. That's me walking down those stairs with that butt hanging out right in Tom's face. That is me". But we had a really great time. And Tom was so much fun, just a ball to work with, both on and off camera. We'd go to bars in Jamaica, listen to music and hang out. Everybody was great. Bryan Brown was there, with his beautiful wife, Rachel Ward. It was a lot of fun with a great group of people, and it was a really successful movie. |
$20 Million
