Adventures in the Screen Trade

If he saw a pen he wanted, he put it in his bag. A watch, a pack of gum, anything. If the crew member called him on it, the star would make a joke, of course return the object, and the next day the crew member was gone. It got so that at the end of each day, the crew would simply report to the production manager what was taken that day and its valu

As Mr. Fitzgerald said to Mr. Hemingway about the rich, stars are different from you and me. Yes, they get up in the morning, just like we do. And sure, they go to bed like we do too. But—big but—if they are hot, their day differs from ours in one simple way: From morning till, they live in a world in which no one disagrees with them.

Perhaps the largest percentage of the “one-third” that makes up “the shit” is star behavior.

“ADD ONE-THIRD FOR THE SHIT” This is a Hollywood expression I have heard used mainly by production managers. Production managers, sometimes called line producers, are at the heart of any film. They are the men who make out the schedules, do the budgeting, and are on call every hour of every day, both before and during and after shooting. When there

Therefore, there will be salaries paid for double (or triple) makeup personnel, many of whom end up with nothing to do. Why production managers bother to engage in these little wars I can’t say—because the studio rarely backs them up. Day after day, the production manager gets pasted. I suppose they hang in because they care. And maybe someday, som

A star is someone who opens. (When a movie begins its run and no one comes, people in the business will say this of the movie, “It didn’t open.”) A star may not guarantee you a profit—budgets can grow wildly for reasons totally out of their control—but they will absolutely be a hedge against disaster.

Well, if half the world suddenly thinks of you as this guard’s wife thought of Redford, that’s bound to be just the least bit unsettling. You’ve spent three decades walking along being one thing, and you’re still that thing—part of you is—but no one’s seeing that. You don’t know for sure what the public is reacting to, but you do know it’s not you.

I said it was. “Always take this long?” I said it did, or longer.

George Segal may have put it best. I had watched him be terrific on a talk show, playing his banjo or whatever the hell instrument he plays, and joking it up. I asked him if he had always been able to enjoy himself that way. He said, “That’s like class: I prepare myself—I do an acting exercise. I tell myself I’m playing a character who’s enjoying h