May 8, 2024
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
you know, as someone who works “in the ocean”, i can tell you that the key to surviving this business is to not worry about everyone in the water around you.
Though i liked your analogy because it made me think of the USS Indianapolis. Los Angeles is the boat and the water is filled with hopeful writers, actors, and directors. The studios, agents, and managers would be the sharks picking them off one by one.
anyway… the downfall of people who work in this industry are those who are unable to separate themselves from it.
it’s not about being above it Dave. It’s about looking forward as oppose to scanning left and right and using that as some kind of mark to where you’re at and where you have to go. It’s that point over the horizon that makes everyone batshit crazy in Hollywood, that bigger, better place that no one ever seems to find but constantly runs to get there.
Last year when Crash won best picture, and then you saw 6 months of stories about people producing and acting in the film and never getting paid. It’s that kind of stuff that you read about and wonder if there is any level of happiness within the business.
Personally, i love what i do, and make a living at it, but i learned a long time ago that the key to success is to stop basing your self worth on your peers. There’s always going to be someone better or more successful, or someone who has more money, etc. etc. The key is to realize that you’re not in a race, and the only person you’re truly competing with is yourself.
So, while i appreciate your analogy, it’s not true for everyone. The smart ones only travel to L.A. for business and then get the hell out before they become spore infected sycophants who are more concerned with who is wearing what and who is fucking whom than the quality of the work being done. I know not everyone thinks that way or works that way, but my experiences in Los Angeles (and there are many of them) is that everyone spends so much time desperate to be successful, even though they have no idea what the definition of success is.
I used to do a radio show years ago, and i remember interviewing Penn and Teller. Well, Penn anyway. Teller doesn’t talk. And when i asked him what he thought the key to their success was, he said “keeping it small. there are 250 million people in this country. if you can get 1 percent of them to like you, see your shows, buy your stuff, you’ll have a nice little career, and for me, it’s enough” They used to say the same thing about Elvis Costello. Every album he put out sold 500,000 copies. He was never the biggest superstar in the world, but he sold enough albums to do what he wanted to do, how he wanted to do it over the span of 30 years. On the other side you have disposable celebrities like the Lohan/Simpson/Hilton crowd who put out albums that don’t sell, movies that don’t make money, and will whore themselves out to the highest bidder.
Perspective is a word that always comes to mind. There’s not a lot of it in L.A. I wish people out there had more of it.
‘being above it’ is part of the problem, not the solution.
no.
looking down is part of the problem.
and jeff, just to add another though:
there is no real ‘solution’ here. I don’t think there’s any way to solve the ills of the business. They have, and will always be there. The bad attitudes, the egos, the starfucking, the backstabbing… there’s no solution here. It’s an unfortunate byproduct of the industry.
I can’t worry about what everyone else is doing, but i can keep myself in check and make sure i don’t become like that. To thine own self be true.
But if you find a solution, feel free to let us know. Achieving a lasting peace in Hollywood could net you a Nobel Prize. Hell, they gave one to Yassar Arafat, why not you?
Well said, Anghus.
I never talk about shit and piss while sitting in a restaurant, but that’s just me.
I would comment back, but I have not actually watched the video.
On the other side you have disposable celebrities like the Lohan/Simpson/Hilton crowd who put out albums that don’t sell, movies that don’t make money, and will whore themselves out to the highest bidder.
So we’re ready to totally write off Lohan then?
It’s a sincere question…
Jeff you would comment back because you have this incredible NEED to be “right”. Even when you’re wrong.
Egads man, have you ever conceded a point to anyone on this blog ever?
Not even once as the top poster here, as well as making your mark on HE?
Though when you are right, it’s usually insightful commentary, so as I said before you have my respect.
But, man, that need to ALWAYS be right…..
“The smart ones only travel to L.A. for business and then get the hell out”
i am not smart, I am very frightened.
THX, certainly I have condeded that I have been wrong. But not lately that I can think of.
The problem that I have is that DP and JW both think they are right all the time as well. And I think you can agree that is not the truth.
Before I entered academia, a friend warned me that the battles would be all the more vicious there because the stakes were so small. I wonder if something similar could be said about the clashes that often occur on this blog. (And, no, I’m saying I always consider myself above the nasty fray.)