While hanging with friends this week I found myself pressed for “inside” stories of my long history on movie sets. In general, I don’t like rehashing the past. I’m thankful for the incredible world-wide experiences I’ve had and have learned something from each of them…but, I’d rather leave them where they are. Naturally, my pals wouldn’t let it go. Another nip of Jameson and my defenses crumbled. Once I started probing a lifetime of anecdotes, I couldn’t stop.
The one that got a good laugh concerned the photographing of some car shots from an old-fashioned process trailer in late-January 1997. The movie was a rom-com called Music From Another Room. Starring Jude Law, Gretchen Mol and Jennifer Tilly, it was written and directed by the brilliantly talented Charlie Peters and was on course for the record books…until it wasn’t. During post-production, noxious studio politics limited its release to a few contractually obligated backwaters. Reviews were strong, but no one cared. After so much dedication to what Charlie and I knew was a winner, we were heartbroken when it cratered on delivery.
But back to the driving shot… We’d been cruising the streets of Downtown Los Angeles all morning without incident. Then we pulled up to the stoplight at the corner of West 5th and South Main, in front of the fabled Roslyn Hotel. I was looking toward the oncoming traffic and saw a car approaching at high speed – never a good sign. Adding to the alert, someone was dangling from the passenger window frantically waving something I soon recognized as an LA Dodgers cap. What did this kook want? No one could tell, but they were coming in hot.
The car was about a hundred feet out when I started to recognize the raving lunatic. It was the team’s manager, Tommy Lasorda – and he was pissed. His rage was directed at the NY Yankees cap I was wearing.
At the top of his lungs, we heard: “Get that goddamn thing off your head! That’s a sacrilege in this city!” and it degenerated from there. Needless to say, he was a good guy and was winking the whole time. When he came to a full stop aside us, Lasorda and everyone aboard the process trailer cracked up and shared one of the great moments that could only happen as part of the movie business in LA.
He had a lot of success in baseball over the years, but I also have to give him this: At the distance he picked up the interlocking N-Y on my navy blue hat, he must’ve had some good eyes, too…
Great story!