Luis Guzman Talks PTA, Getting Cast In ‘Boogie Nights'

Collider recently sat down with PTA regular Luis Guzman, promoting his new film "Arthur," and got a chance to ask him about his work with Paul. Nothing too revelatory here, just a few nice quotes from Maurice/Luis/Lance.

On how he ended up in "Boogie Nights"...

"He had sent me the script of "Boogie Nights" and it laid down on my desk for a while. One day I was cleaning my desk off and I found the script and said 'Maybe I should read this?' And I read it and was I blown away by it and I called him up. I said 'dude, are they gonna let you do this movie? It is so out there, it is so genuis.' His writing [is] really, really unbelievable, very passionate. And we hit it off, I showed up and then it was a hell of a ride doing "Boogie Nights." We had an incredible cast of people, we shot in some great locations and just the experience of being able to shoot with someone like Paul and seeing his vision come to life. It was really, really impressive."

On whether PTA has changed over the years...

"He's always been that passionate person. That's something that I respect about him, he gets what he wants as a director and I think that's really important, not to settle for less. Even if it means to go back and be shooting a certain scene, 3-4-5 times because you see it, it's just not there. So he's really passionate about those things and I've always admired that about him."

You can watch the entire interview over at Collider and as always, get the latest news on Cigarettes & Red Vines on Twitter and Facebook (including some pretty cool fan art we didn't post here on the site). Tell your friends.

November 8, 1999

Archived update from Cigarettes & Coffee, run by Greg Mariotti & CJ Wallis from 1999-2005

1st Magnolia Interview

Here's a great interview with John C. Reilly from the Sunday Edition of the LA Times. There is quite a bit about Magnolia as well as John's entire career. Some funny stories are shared about Paul and John and some of the wacky things they do. Check it out. 

Trailer Talk

A very funny and sarcastic take on the Magnolia trailer from my local paper, The Seattle Times: 

We don't really know what this is about, but it's got the director and the cast of Boogie Nights and one raggedy-looking Tom Cruise. He's grown out his hair - does this mean he can act? The camera spins from character to character, and each says, "I'm (fill in the character's name)." What they really should say is, "I'm (fill in character's name) from Boogie Nights, but now I have more facial hair." Except for Julianne Moore.

The Farrelly Brothers?

Entertainment Weekly recently concluded their Online Poll to coincide with the unveiling of their 100 Greatest Entertainers (1950 -2000). These online polls should be taken with a grain of salt (Seth Green from Buffy the Vampire Slayer won best TV actor), but I was interested in how the Best Movie Director category would shake out. Without further adieu, here's the results:

1.  Kevin Smith, 18.9%
 

2.  Quentin Tarantino               16.7%
 

3.  Tim Burton                           14.3% 


4.  Bobby & Peter Farrelly         7.3% 

5.  Andy & Larry Wachowski     5.0% 


6.  Paul Thomas Anderson        4.2% 

7.  John Singleton                       3.9% 


8.  David Fincher                        3.8% 


9.  Sam Mendes                         3.5%
 

10. M. Night Shyamalan             3.3%

Magnolia the Underdog 

Ten Underdog fall movies you shouldn’t miss by Peter Travers

1.  Magnolia - 
Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights) wants to keep this personal drama under wraps until it opens, but here’s what to expect: Anderson tracks 10 characters over one day in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley, crafting an intimate epic that exposes the emotional highs and lows of life at the end of the century. And look for an unbilled Tom Cruise to win the best reviews of his career as a sleazy motivational speaker.

Courtesy of US Magazine - November 1999 Issue

PTA on Cruise

An interesting quote from PTA on Mr. Cruise which was also found in EW's 100 Greatest Entertainers issue (Tom was #52).

"He's like an animal for information. He was always asking questions. Really interesting, technical stuff about what sort of lens I was using, or what I was thinking when I wrote a particular scene. He's ferociously curious."

PTA Alums at the Box Office

Philip Baker Hall turns in another great performance in Michael Mann's new film The Insider. Hall plays a 60 Minutes executive producer and goes toe to toe with Al Pacino. As usual, he's not given enough screen time, but he energizes the film whenever he shows up.

Luis Guzman has a critical (but small) role in the #1 film this past week, The Bone Collector. He gets most of laughs in this thriller in the vein of Silence of the Lambs and Seven (it doesn't hold a candle to these two movies). 

It's good to see these great actors get some screen time in major studio films.