Today is the 21st day of production,
according to the call sheet, out of a 42 day schedule. As many days have been completed as
there are left to go. It's half time.
Well, we don't have an elaborate show for you. No Ice
Capades, no Leann Rimes, no million dollar 3-Point Shot. All we have is the ongoing story
of a film crew getting back to work after a too-short weekend.
So before we plunge ahead, a quick look back at some Cherry
pits.
Scene 71 takes place on Leila's stoop. Eddie, dressed as a
Roman gladiator, has Leila tucked inside his cape, she rests her head on his shoulder.
That morning she woke up with a massive hangover, and a recognition that while she had
been drinking with Eddie the night before--and helpless before him-- he had been a perfect
gentleman.
Now, with a bond of trust genuinely made between them, they
banter, each seducing the other. It is a lovely scene, charming, playful, and fully felt.
Watching Shalom and Donovan
together is a pleasure. Just as she and Jake seem to have a
deeper potential, but a more brittle surface, she and Donovan have an easygoing amiability
that reflects both the script and their real lives. They were friends first, acting
partners second.
This confusion, between persons, public personas and
acting, is the essence of movie acting. Our interest in the private lives of these public
people, whose jobs are to create identifiable emotions so that we might empathize with
them, is in part a way of checking whether we're getting the real deal or not.
If you want to be a movie actor, a movie star really, the
most essential element is the ability to conflate your public persona with the roles you
play. It is that tension, however modest, that fuels the public's imagination, which they
transmute into desire: "I got to see that new Matt Damon movie! Now!"
Watching the dailies of Shalom and Donovan playing the
scene, it is easy to get enthusiastic about how beautifully this scene is going to
play on the big screen. There are five takes, and each is winning in its own particular
way. Not all of them are screenworthy, however.
As Take 3 is ending Spartacus (Eddie) says: "Let's
draw the sword," pulling it shamelessly from the scabbard on his belt.
"You would be so shamelessly used?" Leila asks,
coyly.
"I'm Spartacus," he declares, manfully, and (as
he has the preceding two takes) he moves to lift her into his arms, . Only this time he
starts with his knees unbent, and as he pulls her into his arms he stumbles and then
grunts, "Nearly."
On the next take everything goes perfectly. Not only are
their readings playful and warm, but Donovan lifts Shalom easily, and carries her through
the door into her house. The door closes behind them, scene over, but as they step inside
and the crane swooshes up into the night sky we can hear their radio mikes.
"That was a good one," Shalom coos
enthusiastically. Everybody laughs, and Jon says, "We agree."
Moments later, when she and Donovan emerge Jon says,
"One more time." Something about the movement of the crane wasn't perfect. Oh,
well.
One of the fun spots to hang out these days is Hair and
Makeup, where with just a few deft strokes Kyra and Evelyne can make something over into something else
entirely.
"You must get his permission," Kyra said.
When I asked, Richard
said, "As long as it's nutty."
It is.
___
And finally, I was standing near
Video Village the other night when it came up that Terry had
never uttered a word my brother won't allow his children to say. Scott's kids say,
instead, "flatulate."
"I've never said that word," Terry said.
"Really?" Janna exclaimed. "That part of the
script is true?" (It is a characteristic of Leila, as well.)
"It's all true," Terry replied, because that's a
good line, not because it's strictly so. "I've written it but I've never said
it."
But with hardly a pause Janna came up with a better line:
"Her life was devoted to her Art
Not once did she ever
Say the word Fart."
"That goes on my tombstone," Terry declared.
Noted.
Peter Kreutzer |
