The annual Academy Awards Sunday will be March 4. It’s my equivalent of the Super Bowl and I’ll be watching even though the film industry has completely ignored my extensive body of work. You may remember from a past The Voice column that I spent some time as a movie extra, or to use the more dehumanizing term, background, the equivalent of a lowly amoeba wriggling through Paleozoic slime. When I went through extra training, we were told to never speak to the principals, the stars, or we’d be gnawed to death by rabid weasels. Of course, if a star should for some reason speak to you first, yeah, right, you could speak back.
A friend of mine does makeup at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, SAG Awards, so I’ll be waiting to hear from her who’s nasty or nice. Maybe you have the idea that individuals in the movie business are all weird individuals who give their kids strange names. Actually, they’re mostly just regular individuals who give their kids strange names. As with those in any business in the rest of the world, you find the good, the bad, and the ugly. Except for The Voice, where everybody is good and nice.
So who are these nasty, nice, or otherwise celebrities? I can only comment on those celebrity-types I’ve had contact. As far as the nice, friendliest, actors I’ve met, I’d include Ossie Davis, Anthony Quinn, Daniel J. Travanti, John Goodman, Kathy Najimy, John Heard, Ally Sheedy and Kevin Dunn. Kevin happens to be an Aurora Central High School grad who performed in school plays with my wife. On the set of Only the Lonely, he sent a “hello” to her and others from the Aurora Central group.
While filming a bistro scene in The Babe, between takes, John Goodman would plop himself down at our small table by the dance floor and crack jokes.
During the filming of Home Alone, John Heard played frisbee with me and sat with a couple of us extras at lunch.
Once at a Hollywood party, Kathy Najimy gave me a big hug.
All the aforementioned went out of their way to introduce themselves and be personable. For the generally nice and pleasant category, I’d list Cuba Gooding, Jr., Maureen O’Hara, Robert Loggia, Catherine O’Hara, Michael Lembeck, Joe Penny, and Lisa Eilbacher.
Next, the nasty. Actually, not really nasty, but ornery, I’d list Brian Dennehy. While filming Gladiator, a fight film, he grumbled at the director, didn’t interact with anyone and hurried back to his trailer between shots. In the final scene, the one I was in, Dennehy lost a grudge match to hero James Marshall and stormed out of the ring. I occupied a seat in the first row on the aisle (see photo). While I jumped and cheered for the hero, Dennehy unexpectedly crashed into me on his way out and almost knocked me over. Although the scene ended up on the cutting room floor, I had an achy upper arm for a couple of days to fondly remember it.
The movie directors were all pleasant, but the friendliest was Randall Kleiser (Grease, Blue Lagoon). He spent quite a while in conversation with me and I learned he’d started movie life in the Paleozoic slime as an extra in Von Ryan’s Express, a Frank Sinatra film. Easy-going Chris Columbus even let me watch the filming of a scene in Home Alone on his monitor and asked me what I thought.
I must make an exception for the recipient of the nasty title because, although I was in the same movie as he was, we were in different scenes, so I have to rely on the words of others, both extras and big names such as Academy Award-winner William Goldman. Their unanimous choice is Jim Belushi. I got into the habit of asking other background types if they ever worked with a nasty star and it was always Jim Belushi. They described him as aloof and downright rude. Each had a story to back it up. One lady told me when Mr. Nice Guy Belushi passed her by on one of the sets, she said “Good morning.” He didn’t answer, went straight over to the assistant director and told him to fire her. The assistant director didn’t, but told her to lay low and stay out of Belushi’s sight until the filming was complete.
Wasn’t this recollection just like reading an issue of Us or People without all the pictures? Maybe not. I’ve been out of the movie business for years. These days, I’m like the has-been Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, sitting around watching my old films and wondering why it’s taking Hollywood so long to call again.
I’m ready for my close up, Mr. Demille.