As a feat of casting, it’s peerless. “Al and I sat down and literally made a list of who we thought were the greatest living actors,” director @JamesFoleyJr said. “And we wound up with these guys.” 🧵
Baldwin’s scene wasn’t in the original play. He once asked Mamet, why the re-write?
“He said, ‘These men are gonna commit a crime and they’re not criminals .. I need to put the vice on them.’”
(3/x)
Ed Harris once said: “It wasn’t the most fun thing down there having Alec Baldwin give you that speech, but that was part of the character — just sitting there, taking it from this guy.”
(4/x)
By the way, Blake’s $970,000 salary in 1992 is equivalent to about $2,047,654.10 today.”
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“It was the hardest film anybody has ever worked on. We rehearsed it for a month, and when we weren’t on screen, we’d run over to our trailers .. and run lines. .. Mamet is harder than Shakespeare, by far.”
- Alan Arkin
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When Lemmon was cast, his agent called and said: "'Jack, on the billing, are we going to have a problem’ with Pacino's name going first?
“I said ‘hell no, put Al first.' .. I couldn’t care less."
(7/x)
This shot. Pure Lemmon magic.
(8/x)
"People are probably correct when they see me as the so-called Everyman,” Lemmon said. “I'm attracted primarily to contemporary characters. I understand them and their frustrations.”
If you’re a Jack Lemmon fan, you’ll love this 12-minute interview (from the “Glengarry” laserdisc), in which he talks the challenges of playing Mamet — and whether actors who hate each other can ever give a truly great performance.
(10/x)
Finally, I wish I’d been smart enough to have asked @JamesFoleyJr to sit for a “Glengarry 30th anniversary” chat this week — but this enterprising cinephile did just that, and Foley said yes. 💯
46 years ago today, @StevieWonder releases “Songs in the Key of Life” — widely considered to be his masterpiece, and inducted into the @librarycongress as an album deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” 🙏🏼
“Sir Duke”
2.
Stevie wrote “I Wish” after attending a Motown company picnic where there were children’s games. It reminded him of his childhood.
“I had such a good time .. I went to Crystal Recording Studio right afterward and the vibe came right to my mind.”
2.
“As” was the final single released from the album. Just an incredible tune & lyric — with Herbie Hancock on keys. 💯
A THREAD: on "GoodFellas", which premiered on this date in 1990.
"There's not a day that goes by that I don't hear somebody mention" it, Ray Liotta once said. "It's defined who I am, in a sense."
2.
Among the early casting ideas:
* Tom Cruise as Henry.
* Madonna as Karen.
* John Malkovich as De Niro’s character, Jimmy.
“It’s hard to explain why you end up in ‘Eragon’ instead of ‘GoodFellas’,” Malkovich once told @GQMagazine.
3.
“I was told that ‘GoodFellas’ is the most expensive movie soundtrack in history. Marty used, like, 30 seconds of a Rolling Stones song; he HAD to have it." - @Illeanarama
The Suntory sequence was based on a real advertising shoot that Coppola’s father once did with Akira Kurosawa.
“That was a real photographer,” Sofia said. “And Bill improvised that entire scene.”
3.
“There was a lot of throwing stuff at Bill and watching him respond. .. Also, I love to see him sing. Karaoke is always fun in Tokyo and I knew he’d be up to the task.”
“.. it is heartening to see the bond market’s one-year forward inflation expectation fall below 5% and the two-year expectation drop slightly below 4%. Those declines are some of the strongest evidence that overall inflation has peaked ..” - @LeutholdGroup [Paulsen]
2.
Short-term yields “are no longer leading the 10-year yield higher .. is this signaling the 10-year yield is also likely to soon terminate its recent rout?” - @LeutholdGroup
3.
“.. the collapse of industrial commodity prices has occurred only since April 21st, and perhaps many bond investors haven’t fully discounted the meaning of that shift.”
“.. the U.S. Inflation Surprise Index has recently dropped by the largest amount yet in this recovery .. a strong signal the inflation rate is likely nearing a peak.” @LeutholdGroup
(1/x)
“.. in the last five months, the labor supply has surged at a 4.2% annualized pace!” @LeutholdGroup
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“.. very heartening that [shipping] rates, of late, have fallen by a larger amount than any other time in this recovery.”