The beautiful, surreal weirdness of The Big Empty on full display. We shot this sequence over three nights on Silurian Dry Lake Bed, north of Baker, near Dumont Dunes. We were all freezing, but Jon Favreau, Gary Farmer, Racheal Leigh Cook and Sean Bean and the blue-suited travelers were all game. I love the transition from from the campfire intimacy between Bob the Indian/John Person to the epic, rock and roll arrival of Cowboy. I’ll never forget that first look in the monitor at the crane shot as it rises revealing the circle of suitcases and dust rising behind the RV. Not something you see every day. It felt like we were on another planet.
A solid comic two-hander between Jon Favreau and Kelsey Grammar, with an able assist from Daryl Hannah. One of my favorite memories of this scene happened prior to filming. Jon and I went to Kelsey’s office on the Paramount lot to do a run through. Their reading was pitch perfect from that start. I was a first-time writer/director and just sat back in awe, hearing my words come alive for the first time. I was mesmerized by Kelsey’s voice. After, they both turned to me and said “What do you think? Any notes?” I’m sure I mumbled something, but I had no notes. I just remember thinking “this is going to be a great movie."
I’ve always loved this short, emotional scene between Rhys Coiro and Jeananne Goossen. Their connection is immediate. A true example of great actors at work, under tough circumstances. Shot in a squalid room in the Baltimore Hotel in downtown L.A, it was late, at the end of a very long day. One of the producers had to take the building manager up the street to bribe him $300 so we could get another hour - including the load out. We all met Jeananne for the first time when she walked in the hotel room door just prior to the scene. But both actors locked in and delivered. There are few words in this scene, but every emotion believable and real. Great actors make a director’s best friend.
The wonderful Olivia Thirlby plays the introverted, but intrepid Claire Decker. In this sequence, Claire wants to know more and takes a calculated risk by essentially becoming the murder victim. Seduced by the woman’s style and mystery, Claire transforms herself into a femme fatale. It was challenging to shoot and edit, as the sequence itself transforms from an intimate, romantic interlude into a tense thriller. But I’m very happy the way it turned out. Yes, it would be hard for me to deny the influence of Hitchcock and DePalma here.
The fun sequence comes near the end of the documentary. I wanted to revisit all the interviews, attempting to sum up what we’ve just seen. We also wanted to display the myriad ways that the word fuck could be used. We kept a running list during editing, adding to it every time someone came up with a new fuck phrase. It was a bit of a strange editing room. Though the film falls on the side of fuck and free speech, I thought we did a good job at presenting views from all sides. I’m pretty sure that this is the only film to have both Miss Manner and Ron Jeremy in it. In retrospect, Hunter S. Thompson was especially prescient on where our country was headed.
Fair warning - this late in the film sequence is FULL of spoilers. The first section here is a master class from Xander Berkeley. His character’s troubled soul suffers a hard revelation. In less than a minute, every conflicting emotion is clear on his face, until an eruption into a murderous rage. Carly Pope and Rhys Coiro ratchet up the tension with skilled performances of desperation and cunning. Just when it’s about to explode, another layer of tension strings tight with Robert Knott as the suspicious CHP Officer. I love how he uses the flashlight as a key light on the actors, into light and darkness with the flick of a wrist. In the end, Carly Pope puts on a femme fatale master class of her own.
John Carroll Lynch as Sheriff Mann. Cast this man in your film, and it will be a better film, I can assure you that. We shot this early scene (late in the production) in the empty L.A. Times building in downtown Los Angeles. You could almost feel the wandering ghosts of history walking the halls, so it was a great place for Mann to lay out the mysterious facts of this troubling murder case. It’s sometimes difficult to layer in backstory, but this scene works. I like the tense, almost father/daughter relationship between Mann and Claire.
As an interviewer, it’s best to be engaged, to be a listener, but also be detached - in a professional manner. You don’t want to influence the subject. All that was totally impossible while interviewing Billy Connolly. We sat down in a nice suite at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills and within moments he had our crew laughing so hard it was almost impossible to do the filming. The camera would shake for Andre, Bruce had to leave the room and I honestly almost fell on the floor. It was a treat to watch such a brilliant mind at work. And this clip is a prime example - Billy even fools himself at the end, but on a dime turns it into the perfect punchline.