Today's Flashback Friday features an interview between Paul and "his favorite actor" John C. Reilly circa January 2000 in Movieline magazine. Enjoy!Paul Thomas Anderson: I first became aware of you when I saw your first movie Casualties of War. Then you worked with Sean Penn again in We’re No Angels and State of Grace and I thought you were almost his sidekick, but also a really good actor.
John C. Reilly: It was like, would you like an entrée of Sean Penn with a side of John C. Reilly? Although I got along well with Sean as an actor, I purposely didn’t spend a lot of personal time with him and I didn’t want people to think that I was getting parts because I was his friend. By the time we did The Thin Red Line together, we were fucking sick and tired of each other and were like, “Oh, you old woman, just leave me alone.”
Q: Your first branch-off from Penn was Days of Thunder, which was with Tom Cruise, and now you’re in Magnolia together.
A: I love Tom and think he’s a great actor, but at the time it was all about working with Robert Duvall. That movie was a bizarre experience. I was coming off serious movies and suddenly there’s Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer in their fucking heyday like Sodom and Gomorrah. It was a fall from grace for me as a young man to see the decadence that movie and Hollywood at its most extreme - $100,000 parties and recruiting girls off the beach to come be extras. It was nuts.
Q: Actually, between Days of Thunder and Magnolia, you starred in the short film Tom directed for Showtime’s series Fallen Angels, “The Frightening Frammis.” Tom told me he was concerned he wouldn’t get you for his movie, and I was concerned I wouldn’t get you for Hard Eight because you were too big a star to do it.
A: Which is so the opposite of my pathetic life. I was told Tom wanted to meet me, but it seemed like he didn’t doubt at all I was gonna do it. He was like, “OK, we’re starting on Wednesday, could you comb your hair down?”
Q: So, how does it feel now to be the star of a Tom Cruise movie?
A: It didn’t cross my mind. I’m glad it didn’t, because it would have been more pressure. I just felt like I was part of this huge jigsaw.
Q: Do you feel excited about being “the character actor who gets the girl” in the movie?
A: The thing is, you seemed to be writing for me before we even knew each other. I felt like we were already on the same wavelength when we met.
Q: How would you describe the differences in shooting Hard Eight, Boogie Nights and Magnolia?
A: Hard Eight was like we billed somebody’s rich uncle and were getting away with some crazy scheme out in the desert and had to finish before anyone figured out what happened. Gwyneth Paltrow was fairly new in the movie business and it was exciting, all of us giddy with getting to know each other. We knew we were doing a good, original movie. By Boogie Nights, we already had our groove on. This really felt like we were in the big time. One great thing about the three characters I’ve played in your movies is that they’re so committed to the dream of their life, they’re just unshakable. There’s something really poignant and funny about people like that.
Q: What about the vibe on Magnolia?
A: You just took it to the next level and came into your own. There were certain aspects of Boogie Nights that, because of its size, seemed like you were kinda playing it by ear. On Magnolia, it was like, “All right, I don’t have to play it by ear. I know what I like to say and the ways to say it.” It was a very intricate masterwork and you pulled it off.
Q: The character I wrote for you stems from the summer a movie project was taken away from me. In our restlessness, we did video improvs of faux Cops episodes with you and Philip Seymour Hoffman. That’s how the dialogue and characters were created, directly from the improvs – it was a character you’d already lived with for two years.
A: Those improv videos were so great because we were just having a blast. The guy became more grounded in your script.
Q: Remember you once asked me, “Come on, man, can’t you write me a sunrise where I get the fucking girl?” It’s kind of a romantic leading man, right?
A: You did this with a few people in Magnolia – tapped into what’s real not just for the characters, but for the people playing them. In the beginning, it was kind of a joke: “Be careful what you say around Paul, it’ll end up in the movie.” Now, that’s just become a given. But I can’t be “cool John” in front of you. I lay it on the line. I say stupid shit to people. I don’t try to hide my personality at all.
Q: Do you think you’ll get to a point where you just don’t do any publicity?
A: If a project’s success depends on your promoting it, you should promote it. I’m just like an Irish bullshit artist from way back, so I don’t mind. It’s kind of like therapy. puff-piece therapy. There’s this code of silence on a press junket, like you just talk about how great your costars were and how Kevin Costner wasn’t a total prick.
Q: A portion of me thinks that the true appreciation of your work won’t happen until your movies are playing on AMC 40 years from now, a sort of “He was the fucking greatest,” sort of like looking back now on Elisha Cook Jr. or someone.
A: I think I’m appreciated by people who watch movies to the degree that they don’t know who I am from movie to movie. That’s actually a compliment. Some people think I’m just stupid for this, but I try think in long-term goals, to do work that I can be proud of in 10, 20 years, not just disposable crap that made everyone chuckle in the moment.
Q: [Sardonically] And what’s the name of the movie you’re making – The Perfect Storm?
A: Good movie, man. A good character in this movie. Wolfgang Petersen’s directing it. I just want it to be Das Boot, not Air Force One.
Q: Anyway, hopefully this is the last movie we’ll ever make together. I met Oliver Platt today.
A: Hey, I’m just trying to become the Michael Caine/Gene Hackman of my generation.
C&RV: How did you get started in the acting business?
PH: I came out to Los Angeles in the Spring of 1998. I had done a lot of series television prior to that. I did guest appearances on The Practice, Profiler, NYPD Blue & Buddy Faro (with Dennis Farina). That show didn't last too long. I think it was cancelled after they ran the opening credits. How about "Turks," does anyone remember that one? Hello.....
C&RV: How did your part in Magnolia happen?
PH: My agent had a relationship with the casting director Cassandra Kulukundis. So I sent her my picture. Paul had her looking for real unknown people to populate the world that he created. He wasn't looking for anyone to too familiar for the supporting roles.
C&RV: So she called you in for an audition?
PH: Yeah, I went in on short notice just to be put on tape. She & I just hit it off & we talked for about an hour. I then ran through the scene with her. She left the room & came back with Paul. I was totally blown away. Because I was already a "geeky fan boy" of his anyway. We're roughly the same age & have the same interests. We're both total film geeks.
I did the scene for him a bunch of times & he said, "You can have this part if you want it." I was like, "OK. I have never had that happen before." He said, "It's going to be great. We have the whole day to shoot the scene & Julianne is going to be there." So that's it. He gave me the part.
C&RV: Did you get the whole script at that point?
PH: I didn't have one at the time. I had to sign like two or three confidentiality agreements. It was pretty tight. Then I got the script which looked like a phone book. Every script had the actor's name & it was numbered with the actor's name on every page.
C&RV: So you were only aware that you were doing the part of the young pharmacist?
PH: Yeah. He hadn't talked to me about the prologue scene as Sir Edmund William Godfrey. I had read it in the script, but it never even occurred to me. I didn't know that I'd be doing that part until about five months later. Paul knew all along. I just got a call that they wanted to some additional scenes.
C&RV: How was that to shoot with the Pathe camera on the Universal lot for the prologue scenes?
PH: It was really exciting. Everybody was really excited because no one had used that camera before. They did some tests, but they're weren't sure how everything would turn out. They had a metronome to keep the timing. Paul was still able to move the camera the way he liked.
C&RV: Any problems during that part of the shoot?
PH: No. Except that the little girl who played my daughter was terrified of me. I had the long cape, big hat & mustache on. She was supposed to jump into my arms, but she would stand in the corner. Paul would try to coax her, but with not much luck. You don't end up seeing her much at all.
C&RV: Did you have to do the scene any slower when using the Pathe camera?
PH: No. We did it at normal speed. It's very strange. For example, when I get punched, the arm was nowhere near my face. But because of the speed of the camera, it looks like it hits me right in the face. But it wasn't even close.
C&RV: Tell me about shooting the scene with Julianne Moore in the pharmacy?
PH: It was shot in one, long twelve hour day. He shot her coverage first which was really great. I got see what see was doing which gave me plenty of time to prepare & know how to react to her. She was incredible. Paul shot her breakdown first & she just nailed it in three takes. I think the scene that was used was like the first or second take. She's just amazing.
C&RV: How is Paul to work for in terms of what he gives to you as a director?
PH: He's great. He's just a fan of actors, so he's completely supportive of anything & everything that you want to bring to the role. His writing is good, so there's just no need to a lot of improvising or adding on to the scene.
He's like a kid. He gets really excited about the camera & the actors. He gets you excited about it. He was really generous while shooting the pharmacy scene, we did it a couple of times & he was like, "OK, that's great, we got it."
I didn't say anything, but I had a look on my face & he looks at me & says, "What?" I told him that if we did it one more time, I think I could really nail it. So he says, "OK, everybody, set it back up, we're gonna do it one more time". Which was really great, because who the fuck am I?
C&RV: Do you find it easier to act the way that Paul writes or do you like more specifics about the character?
PH: I like the way he writes. He really trusts his actors. I just shot my first short film "Mullitt" & found that really good actors will bring a lot to the part. It's been submitted to the Sundance Film Festival. Henry Gibson is in it. He plays a gay landlord.
C&RV: How did you get Henry Gibson?
PH: I met him at the first cast & crew screening of Magnolia. He came up to me after the movie & was very complimentary of my work. He was just a really sweet & nice man. While I finished writing the screenplay, I was watching Magnolia & thought he would be perfect. So I sent him a script & a letter never thinking he would have time or anything. Then a week later I got a call from him & told me he really liked the script. He had some great ideas & said that he'd really like to do it which was great.
C&RV: Any experiences or advice while making your own film that you can share for aspiring directors?
PH: This was a really interesting experience for me making my own film. Just write something that you would like to see & everyday just do something to get it done. Whether that's talking to somebody about being in the film, trying to get your crew, give your script to people, etc.
When you start working on films, you meet people & develop relationships. If you write something good, you'll find that people will want to help you make it. Don't listen to any of the conventional wisdom. You don't have to kiss up to people or sell your soul to make a film.
A huge lesson that I learned from Paul is that he's really excited about what he's doing. More importantly, he's a nice man & he's nice to his cast & crew, so they have a tremendous amount of respect for him.
They all have a good time on the set. If people believe in the project, they will do anything to help out. Paul shot Magnolia for six months, but everyone remained positive & would do anything for him. He also comes to work extremely prepared.
If you think everything out ahead of time, half of your job is done when you get to the set.
C&RV: What else is on the horizon for you?
PH: In the spring, I finished filming In Memory of My Father, Ghost World with Steve Buscemi & I have a small part in Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor. But I've had the most fun shooting my own short film which I'm also acting in.
C&RV: Thanks for your time.
PH: Thanks a lot man. I frequent your site & I'm really honored to be a part of it.And now, the moment some of you have been waiting for: The Winner Of The Poorly Planned Facebook/Twitter Contest. The winner is Max Watts. Max wins a copy of PTA's 6 Music Videos DVD and having any future contest regulations/limitations named in his honor.
Reliving "That Moment" with Mark RanceMark Rance & his company, 3 Legged Cat has been a pioneer in creating supplemental footage for special edition releases. Mark made a name for himself working for Criterion on their LaserDisc releases such as Silence of the Lambs, This is Spinal Tap, El Cid & Lord of the Flies from 1991 - 1995.
Mark then helped establish New Line with the ground breaking Platinum Series DVD’s. Mark was an integral part of many of the early releases including Spawn, Blade, Lost in Space, Nightmare on Elm Street Collection, Detroit Rock City, Austin Powers, Dark City, The Corrupter, Pleasantville & more.It’s Mark’s work with Paul Thomas Anderson that immediately comes to mind. He worked on the commentary tracks for both the Criterion LaserDisc of Boogie Nights & New Line’s first DVD Platinum Release.
He followed that up with his work on the Hard Eight Special Edition for Columbia/Tri Star before tackling his most ambitious DVD project to date. That Moment, A Magnolia Diary, is a 74 minute intimate look at the creative process following PTA’s latest film from conception to creation.
Not your typical promotional documentary or featurette, That Moment shows you the highs, lows & especially the hard work required to make a film. I spoke with Mark about his relationship with PTA, making “That Moment” & his future projects.
C&RV: When did you first meet PTA & get involved with the Boogie Nights releases on DVD & LaserDisc?MR: I had already been given the assignment to work on the Criterion LaserDisc of Boogie Nights, when we met really briefly at the Los Angeles Film Critics Award luncheon. I went over to an apartment where he was living. I got there early so I was in the building sitting on the steps across the door from the apartment & he comes up carrying groceries.
There's this young woman following him carrying groceries as well. "Hi I'm Paul, how are you doing?" I really didn't put two & two together until everybody sat down for the interview & I realized, "Oh, that's Fiona Apple." She sat there during the interview drawing pictures & listening. We did that in the living room of his apartment in January 1998.C&RV: How did the Hard Eight DVD come about. Did PTA seek you out?MR: Yeah. I was at a screening of one of my friend's films & we ran into each other. Paul says, "You gotta help with this thing". We began recording the tracks with Philip Baker Hall while he was still writing Magnolia. We probably did about six hours worth of recording. This is my tendency. I like these longer interviews & try to reduce them down to fit. Edit them to sound chatty without them being chatty.
There was a lot to talk about on this film. When it was edited down, we had one full track & a half hour worth of material for a second track. We dedicated the first track to PTA & Philip on his first film & making the thing. The second was dedicated to isolating the soundtrack cues & talking about Rysher. I wanted to make the ultimate commentary about first films, bad experience & successful experience.C&RV: Rumor has it that Columbia/TriStar was not happy with one of the commentary tracks that PTA did & his comments about Rysher. The word inflammatory comes to mind. Did anything have to be reedited for the release?MR: Yes. When the thing was submitted to Columbia, they reviewed it with their legal department & asked us to take out all the stuff referring to Rysher. Around that time, MGM had been sued by a writer who did not receive proper credit on a commentary track. The suit went through & the guy won.
That made some of the studios nervous about what people might say on these things. It's that whole issue when an opinion is libel. It took them months to decide this & Magnolia was in production. I came on the set & I was thinking exactly what Paul said. Let's go around & interview everybody that worked on Hard Eight.C&RV: Whose idea was it to isolate the score on the second commentary track?MR: I wanted to do that because I'm always fooling around with the format. I loved the score & sort of by accident put it up against the picture without any dialogue. I thought in that in a couple of cases, when you do that with a movie, it becomes a different movie in a good way. In addition, the soundtrack's not available, so it seemed like a good idea.C&RV: And include the alternate closing credits song [Aimee Mann's "I Should've Known"]?MR: Yeah, it was a surprise because he was singing that song during one of the commentary recordings to loosen up. I knew the song really well & thought these lyrics are kinda cool for this movie. I had it better in a rough cut, the timing was cooler.
They're was a better edit. It's off a few frames. The really interesting thing is that it's the exact running time of the original credit sequence. The great thing about working with Paul is that he lets you surprise him & I try to.C&RV: Tell me about recording his commentary tracks. I know you prefer to do extensive interviews & then edit them coherently to the film? Is that what you did with the Boogie Nights & Hard Eight?MR: There's a lot of stopping & starting. I'm a firm believer in not forcing people to watch the movies. It's the technique that a lot of studios have adopted because it's fucking cheap. But I also think it's the technique that's killing commentaries.
That's why a lot of people don't want to do them anymore. There's so much resistance at this point from people who have heard all the dumb ones. There's more of those than the smart ones, that the idea of being trapped, having to come up with something as fast as the movies are generally cut is criminal.
MR: In all of these cases & especially with Paul, I like just sitting & talking, seeing where he's at, trying to understand where he's coming from. Finding more if I can about the background to a particular movie, a particular scene, working with an actor, an idea in the film, films that he likes, what he admires in those films. Let those digressions take the conversation where it goes because often enough, it comes back.C&RV: It seems that PTA went from house to house doing segments with all the principal actors on Boogie Nights, were you involved with the recording?MR: Paul & Dylan Tichenor did the original actors & I helped with the new additions of Melora Walters & Luis Guzman. When I got it, I made separate tracks with each voice. We dropped in the new interviews where Paul's solo commentary used to be since it duplicates the other commentary track. The new material will hopefully make the "Is Luis Guzman High?" joke pay off.C&RV: Your condensed version of what happened to Exhausted?MR: Paul toyed with the idea of including WADD: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes but decided to stay with the Exhausted footage from the Criterion LaserDisc. It ultimately came down to money & the director of Exhausted & New Line couldn't agree on a price.C&RV: Moving to the Magnolia DVD, with PTA’s public comments about not wanting to do a commentary track for this film, did you explore other possibilities such as a cast & crew, actors, composer or film critic [Roger Ebert recorded one for New Line’s Dark City Platinum Edition]?MR: No commentary period. No analysis.C&RV: Did you guys explore other supplemental material such as the Charlie Rose Show, The "Cops" Footage or the Worm subplot?MR: We did talk about all that kind of stuff, but he really didn't want any more of the deleted scenes on the disc. He was very specific about that. Paul's vision here was a simplified DVD with the fewest buttons to push. After Paul saw the work done on New Line's Detroit Rock City DVD, he called me up & said, "OK, Mark we got to talk about this. What the fuck were you doing?"C&RV: I assume PTA chose the Magnolia 12 chapter stops as well?MR: Yes, I think the beauty of it is that it emphasizes, as Julianne Moore says, the operatic structure. It's in movement, it's in passages. It's not in scenes. These scenes interconnect. There's an association building up between the characters, the lives they lead & the meaning of those lives. Paul is dead on about this & he told me that you could probably do it with one button or chapter. It's probably coming. Someone's gonna do that again.C&RV: How did “That Moment” come to fruition?MR: It was Paul's idea. He told me that I would be the only one on the set & "do my thing." He had seen a documentary I made called "Mom". He told me to try & document everything. It was that simple. There was no other direction or list of things to get.C&RV: Tom Cruise, was noticeably absent from the film. Were there any limitations to your filming or access?MR: Cruise's people asked that he not be filmed. The only limitations were my availability as I was working on multiple projects for New Line.C&RV: It's surprising to see Tom Cruise in the outtakes then?MR: We thought since we didn't have him in the documentary & Tom liked those outtakes, thought they were hysterical, & that they would represent his participation. Paul & Tom had a great relationship, so it really wasn't a stretch to include them.C&RV: Was there every any tension on the set between you & the cast & crew?MR: The only time that happened was when one of the actors was ready to start work & didn't want to be distracted. He made a good point that when the second camera is there, his peripheral vision would catch that & he's not sure where to play. It throws him & I understood that. The way that I was taught to make films is that it's not the camera, it's you. It's your job as a filmmaker to be human, to be present, to be the person you are. You just happen to have a camera.
You do things to make them familiar with you holding the camera. In this way, you develop a more intimate relationship with everyone around you. Try to minimize the idea that they should feel like there's something different between you with the camera & without. That's just the whole style. Not to over analyze this, but interviews tend to separate you. The power switches from the star to the interviewer. In that imbalance, you get less.
Tomorrow we will have details for an interesting upcoming screening of There Will Be Blood.People are less willing to talk. They become guarded. If you show that you are not threatening them, then you get different kinds of footage. Like walking up to Bill Macy to ask him what he thinks about the script is sort of like walking up to Macy for the umpteenth time & asking him a stupid question. That's the way he talked to me all the time. If you needed a laugh, just go say something to Macy.C&RV: How much footage did you shoot?MR: 128 hours. I had two very good people logging the stuff. We started thinking about structure & because we didn't have a lot of time to edit. I kept shooting. We decided on the most linear structure. It could been much more of a mosaic or organized in a different manner. The diary thing just became the guiding rule because there was no time to play with it more than once. The first edit was eight hours. The second edit was four. Then it hovered around 2:20 - 3:00 hours for a couple of weeks. I showed the cut to Paul three times after it was less than three hours. Paul gave me notes three times & we finally ended up at 74 minutes.C&RV: Did you have complete freedom in what footage was ultimately included?MR: Yeah. Paul did give me suggestions on where to trim it. There was plenty to choose from & that is always a problem. Throwing away a lot of good stuff early was kind of painful, but it was the only way. If you hang on to something, then you would have to hang on to two other things to explain it. You want to try to avoid adding voice over & let it evolve from the camera's point of view.C&RV: Was the very funny exchange between Paul/Fiona spontaneous or scripted? How did it come to pass?MR: Spontaneous. I came upstairs & Paul said watch this. They did it again later in the evening at dinner. It wasn't quite as funny because she couldn't move around as much. They probably did some version of it at home. It was on the night it went into wide release (January 7th). We were about to get in a car & drive around to the various theaters & see the audience reaction.C&RV: The last shot shows PTA listening to Aimee Mann’s Red Vines & working. Was this actual footage shot during the editing process?MR: Paul was working on Fiona's Limp video. There was still this residue from the release of the film. Articles were lying around. There was just this feeling of exhaustion. I don't even know why I started shooting. I was just goofing around. I really love that song, too.C&RV: What are your thoughts now looking back on the Magnolia Diary?MR: The beauty of what Paul asked me to do...He's like the first person who really believed me as a filmmaker in ten years. I can't thank him enough. Making that thing for Magnolia was maybe the most challenging & the most fun thing I've had to do in all of this. As much as I like meeting all my cinema heroes & making these commentaries that is more meaningful to me. The fact that he liked it is even better.C&RV: What future DVD projects can we expect from 3 Legged Cat productions?MR: We're working on the Seven Platinum Series, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me & a John Waters box set for New Line. A Crow box set & Red, White & Blue for Miramax. I really want to do more work on foreign films but the market still isn't there yet. The market is still heavy into the science fiction films because they are the big sellers.
Design director Randy Balsmeyer and his team at Balsmeyer & Everett designed and produced the opening title sequence for P.T. Anderson's enigmatic film Magnolia. Working from abstract design directions born out of Anderson's mental imagery, Balsmeyer and his team combined a blooming magnolia flower with street maps and images from the film to create a poignant and provocative sequence. The result is a dynamic explosion of contrast and color that heralds the fortuitous character intersections of the film's intricate storyline.
"Director Paul Anderson and editor Dylan Tichenor were incredibly secretive about the film. We never got to see the whole thing -- only the first reel and numerous scene clips -- so the project was quite mysterious. We knew only that the film was about the intersections of people's lives. The creative thrust for the title sequence came from Paul.
The veins in flower petals had always reminded him of street maps, and he wanted to tap into that idea to communicate the notion of the characters' lives crossing and connecting, almost tangentially. He also wanted the opening to include a montage of images from every scene from the film so the viewer would subliminally recognize each scene when it played.
He couldn't really define what he wanted much more tightly than that, so it was a question of us trying to see things as he saw them -- all in a six-and-a-half second graphical sequence. We came up with three ideas and showed video tests to Paul and Dylan. We had no way of knowing if we were on the right track, but one of our tests was exactly what Paul wanted. It would have been just as easy to completely miss the mark, but what I saw in my mind turned out to be the same thing Paul was seeing.
"We thought we were going to have to shoot original time-lapse photography of a blooming magnolia flower, but our research revealed that magnolias bloom only once a year, and we had just missed that year's bloom. We opted to use stock photography instead. After coming up with three or four passable clips, we found one that was outstanding. We had it scanned, skipped out a number of frames to get it to bloom in the allotted time, and brought it into Photoshop to do the paint work.
We removed a number of branches that crossed in front of the petals and added all the veins in the flower." "The street maps were scanned from a poster-sized version of the Thomas Guide to Los Angeles and combined with satellite photos of the corresponding geography. We turned them into 10K-20K textures in Photoshop and used After Effects to edit them into the order we wanted. As the sequence progresses, the map layer evolves from the street map to the satellite photo. We constructed the final layer of the sequence out of single frames from every scene in the film.
Our original plan was to use high resolution film scans to preserve the image quality, but time got short and we realized it would be much more expedient to work off videotape. Everyone was nervous about it, but we ran a film-out test with a few dozen digitized frames from the dailies and were pleased with the results. In terms of the balance between the film frames and the other two layers, we didn't tweak the color of each frame individually; it was more a question of selecting the right frame to complement what was happening in the other two layers.
We did quite a few passes like that, and subject matter made a big difference; for example, one particular iteration had a film frame with a big sign in it. Having the text from the sign showing up underneath the 'magnolia' title was very distracting. It was a one-frame blip, but it brought the whole sequence to its knees. In other iterations we had light-colored frames that washed everything in the frame out. We focused on the overall composition -- a balance of light and dark and considering the interplay of tonal values rather than colors. We wanted a feeling of randomness, so if we had too much repetition, the whole sequence would stall.
"The title sequence remained in three layers until the end, allowing us to manipulate any part until we were satisfied. As we developed each layer, we checked it against the other two. We'd look at a portion, and think for example, 'The picture looks good but the flower's overpowering it, so let's bring the flower down.' It was always a question of balance, which amounted to a great deal of fussing over six seconds of image.
When we got the sequence to the point where we were happy with the total composition, we brought it together in After Effects and added the solarizing effect on a secondary pass. Gray Miller was the principal hands-on guy for the After Effects work, and he certainly deserves the lion's share of credit for making it work.
In retrospect, there was some trepidation on our part going in because the project was so loosely defined. I was concerned that we could go around in circles for months, but it turned out to be one of the most straightforward, streamlined projects I've been involved with -- none of those horrendous dead-ends that you sometimes run into. In spite of our initial concerns, everything came together beautifully."
Poster: Out of all of your films, is there one particular scene or moment that you absolutely cringe at... just an awful moment. "What was I thinking???"
Kevin Smith: The scene where I had the little boy come into his father's room and insist he be treated better.
Oh wait - that wasn't me.
There are a few moments in all the stuff we've done that I shake my head at. Can't call any to mind right now, though, but I know I've spotted my share.
I'm going to take a different approach on today's edition of Flashback Friday. Burt Reynolds was recently interviewed for the September issue of FHM (For Him Magazine) & had some interesting comments. Watch how he carefully dodges the second question.When you were researching your role for Boogie Nights, did you go to any porno sets?Yeah, it's depressing. I knew some directors in that business, if you can call them that, guys who just turned left at the hard-on. They're never going to get out of it and the illusion that they will is a great tragedy. I knew this one director who was always saying, "I'm gonna get my shot. I'm gonna get my shot." And I'm thinking, "You poor guy, do you really think Spielberg's going to get sick one day and they're going to call you?"There was a rumor that you and Boogie Nights director Paul Thomas Anderson didn't quite see eye-to-eye. What do you think of all these young hot directors today?They amaze me. I haven't seen them in theater or in cancelled television shows, so where they learned how to be so good, I don't know. Today there's no place to fail. When I was starting out, nobody cared if you failed on Sea Hunt. Bad television is where I learned how to act. I think I'm only the actor around today who's been cancelled by all three networks!
Magnolia debuts at Number 4 on the Top 25 VHS Rental charts according to National Rental Revenue earning 7.22 million in rental revenue. It was also the 5th most rented title of the week. These numbers are for the week ending July 30th. I will keep you updated on its success in the wonderful world of VHS.There's an interesting article from the Toledo Blade which discusses the evolution of the modern musical. They mention Magnolia frequently & there's multiple quotes from PTA. (Thanks Paul Bean!)If you somehow missed the great Q & A that Roger Ebert did with PTA in 1997, it's spotlighted in today's edition of Flashback Friday. He touches on Hard Eight, but most of the discussion surrounds Boogie Nights. PTA even pulls a fast one on Roger about the famous last shot in the film.
Today's edition of Flashback Friday is an interesting one. The wonderful Australian magazine Film Ink ran a great interview with PTA in March 1998 for Boogie Nights. They also ran a cover story on Magnolia in the March 2000 issue & planned to interview PTA for it. Unfortunately, Paul cancelled his Australian press tour & FilmInk was forced to used bits & pieces of the 1998 interview that were not used. Their editor, Erin Free, was kind enough to send me the uncut, full transcript for that interview. They are fans of the site & I really appreciate their contribution.
