JOURNAL ONE:
My first day here on
GRINDHOUSE Austin Texas: Flight down was first
class on a small
jet. Watched HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, and INTO THE BLUE
on the
plane. HISTORY was an awesome, grisly, ballsy, sexy, powerful
movie. Can't wait to see it again. Picked up at airport by
Cecil, one
of the drivers on the show. Brought to the Omni hotel, rent
a car was
waiting for me here. Room was first class four star, and because
of the
Movie/Music festival going on in town there are not a lot of rooms
available.
They are moving me into suite when it's
over. . All the stuntmen are
staying 20 miles away and moving
here when the festival is over. I'm
on the sixteenth floor and on my
balcony at night the whole city is
like a huge juke box, music coming from
everywhere and the streets are
full of people.
Was picked up and
taken to the set around 7:30,and
got to watch on the monitor as Marlee, the
beautiful girl in the red
dress at the beginning of
it was over, Josh came out and to my surprise recognized me and came
over to shake my hand. I told him I had just watched him earlier in
INTO THE BLUE. Robert Rodriquez, the director, who directed me in DUSK
TIL DAWN, came out and we hugged and discussed my look for the film.
He originally wanted me to bleach my hair white so I'd look different
for this film, but we decided that I wouldn't do that but instead shave
off my goatee, keep a
cropped Ceasar haircut.
We went back to basecamp and while
waiting for
Ehrman, the head of make up to do me, I hung out with Greg
Nicotero in
the big special make up effects trailer. It was full of
dead bodies,
and zombie make ups and severed heads. "We hugged and I
thanked him
for his part in getting me down here and we talked about the
possibility of him coming to my school to help Dick Smith in critiquing
and helping students in their third semester preparation of final
projects. He likes the idea very much. Armand sent word he was
ready for me, and I got the best haircut I have ever had, shaved off
the
goatee, and styled my new handlebar mustache, created my new look
for this
movie.
We were driven back to
the set to show Robert and he
wanted to see me in my deputy costume and sent
for Nina, the costume
designer who brought my uniform and right there
outside I took off my
clothes and put it on for Robert. I got the
thumbs up, and joined
Greg and his crew for a midnight lunch with the cast
and crew. Jeff
the stunt co-ordinator came up to me and we talked of
all the stunt men
we know, and he described how they are going to have this
big zombie
pick me up and hurtle me 30 feet into the side of a police
car. I will
have to wear a harness attached to this 70 foot overhead
crane with
wires and the zombie will pick me up and spin me around in
the air and
hurtle me toward the car. There will be an automatic stop
on the
crane, and my stunt double will actually take the hit. More
later.
JOURNAL
TWO:
Last night was my
first night of shooting and it was at a police station in a place called
I have basically just stopped eating cause the police uniform I wear is so
tight. I am eating just salads at the enormous lunch they serve on the
set, and this is truly a test of discipline as there is so much food, and so
many delicious choices, and the desserts....oh my god. But my attitude is
I am doing this movie now, and there will still be food in the world when I am
done, and I really want to look as good as I can for this
project.
My uniform was waiting for me in the trailer and it is khaki pants with a brown
stripe down the side, matching shirt with police decals, and a brown tie, and
brown cowboy boots. I don't get the gun, and pistol belt and shoulder
walkie talkie till I get to the set. I suddenly realized that I forgot to
bring a pair of briefs and this is not good cause as I said, the uniform/costume
is tight. I search out the door for Susan, whose job it is to co-ordinate
rides to the set, see to our comforts and provide help to all the actors housed
in these trailers. Me, Michael Biehn (Alien, The Abyss,
I find Susan running around talking on her walkie talkie and explained the problem. Within minutes Vanessa from the costume department shows up with boxer shorts and I explained that this is like wearing nothing and I really need briefs, and also apologized and said I would not forget my own briefs any more. She returned with a sealed set of black ones and white ones. I thought I'd try the black ones but when I opened the package one of those big plastic don't-try-to-steal-this-from-the-store security devices was firmly attached to them. I opted for the white ones.
Once dressed I went the special make up effects trailer where the crew was working on turning a group of stunt men into diseased sort to zombies, or as Greg Nicotero and I renamed them later...Sickos. They are not really zombies but really disfigured disease victims. I had to have special make on my left hand to make it look like a finger was missing. In the scene tonight I've captured a trouble maker at a local bar who was causing a ruckus and after I handcuff him he bites off one of my fingers.
Greg, or I should say, Academy award winning Greg, personally applied the make up to my hand and explained that this was the same chopped off finger appliance they had prepared for Robert Downey Jr. on some previous movie. The top of my finger had to be taped down to the bottom half of my finger and then the appliance was attached and blood added. Todd came in and handed me my per diem (a daily allowance they give you for food and essentials) and after I signed for it and went outside to be delivered to the set for rehearsal, I opened the envelope and I am astounded as to how much they had given me. I'm not allowed to say. Then, Ermahn, the head make up artist, suggests that if I leave my ear studs in I will come across as one of the Village People so I run to the set to see if Robert wants them out. He is seated in the front seat of his new Hummer and as I approached him the window came down and he is on his cell phone. I pointed to my ear studs, and he simply gave me the the thumbs down gesture and I knew they had to go. I ran back to the trailers and Greg skillfully unscrewed them and went back to my trailer with my ear studs in a paper cup and waited to be called.
I was driven to the set and rehearsed the scene at the station where I tell fellow officers to go out and get the perp (perpetrator) and book him cause "I'll fucking kill him if I have to do it." Meanwhile the perp has broken out of the squad car window and escaped. We approach the car with caution and when my fellow officer Carlos approaches the car we realize the perp is gone and I want to know where my finger is. Carlos is attacked by the Sickos and Robert (the director) wants a spray of blood to splash up into the frame. Greg , to me the new King of Splatter, comes up with the idea of filling plastic soda bottles with blood and he and his assistant hold them in one hand and just punch the bottle and blood splashes/spurts upward.
The Sicko/stuntman rehearses the timing with Greg
and his assistant, and I am worried the blood will splash all over me. It
has started raining and it is cold out and the idea of getting sticky blood all
over me is one of my own personal nightmares. The scene is shot and the
stuntman gets most of the blood right in his face and I got just a wee little
bit of spatter on my costume. No big deal, and we did it over a few
times. On the very last take, with a new camera position, the first
assistant director calls action and the stuntman attacks and Greg and the
assistant punch the plastic bottles and I am drenched in blood. I thank
Greg very much for making my nightmare come true, and I am standing there wet
from the rain and the blood, sticky and freezing, but it was all worth it when
Robert gave me his thumbs up. More later
JOURNAL
THREE:
Acting is the
toughest job in this business, and as last night proved to me, sometimes the
most rewarding. We are still shooting in
I arrived at my trailer and got into my costume/police uniform, walked over
to the special make up trailer and once again Greg Nicotero
applied the appliance to my left hand making it look like one of
my fingers was bitten off. I then visited the regular make up trailer
and
I got to the set for rehearsal and Tony, the second assistant director, asked me if I wanted a Chai Tea Latte. I was given one the night before and loved it and now it's the first thing I do when I get there. Ah the perks. The first thing I noticed was a huge crane above the set and Josh was attached to long wired leading down from a traveling rig high in the crane. I was told by, the first assistant director, and someone I worked with on Dusk til Dawn to watch how he lands as I would have to simulate his landing in close up later.
I sat in the doorway of the police station to watch and Josh was hurtled upside
down and very fast and hard into the already imploded police car. There
was gathering of minds and Josh did it again, this time after he hit the
car he fell to the ground and hit the top of his head, and this was the
only thing he complained about to the medics who rushed over. There
was a meeting of minds and Josh did it again with two other stunt guys
under the opposite side of the car who held him in place when he hit it with
cables they were tugging. Josh did it another few times
and the last one was totally awesome with Josh hitting with
tremendous impact and them fell to the ground onto strategically place mats
hidden in the shadows, and the cast and crew applauded him. They
were setting up the next shot where I would mimic Josh's landing when the
dark sky opened up with loud claps of thunder, purple lightning and a deluge of
rain. The crew hustled to get everything indoors or under plastic and
I was rushed under an umbrella to a waiting van and taken back to my
trailer.
It felt good to be in my nice warm trailer and I was a little relieved as the thought of hanging upside down in a harness for the hurtle, and then later that night doing the most intense scene I had in the movie was not something I was in the mood for right then. But a true professional does the job not matter how he feels, and when the time comes you just gear up and do it. I got into a comfortable position on my little trailer couch and there was a loud knock and Greg Nicotero came in and said "why don't you turn off all these lights" and he proceeded to turn off the lights and we sat around listening to the rain hitting hard on the trailer, and had one of our pleasant conversations about movies and stuff. Greg has been taking really good care of me on this set making sure if they don't need me I am comfortable, or returned to the trailer. We soon joined his crew for a midnight lunch and I was back in my trailer for a long nap.
I
was all settled in and comfy, thinking well this is it for me tonight. I
will just lie here dozing in and out and they will knock on my door around 5:30
and say it's time to go back to the hotel. It seemed hours went by and I
was alone with my thoughts of that intense scene that I would have to do some
day soon but not tonight because of the rain. I was worried about the
scene cause it involved some really intense emotion from me reacting to having
just had my finger bitten off and I have to be angry, and the scene was with
Michael Biehn and Freddy Rodriquez, and Carlos Gallardo from the original El
Mariachi. I wanted to do the scene and the fun is seeing what happens when
you do something like that, but I was so comfortable lying here and listening to
the rain, letting the time pass and I just drifted off into a deep
sleep.
There was a knock on the door and Susan said "just want to make sure you were awake cause they are going to call for you on the set soon." Shit, I thought she was knocking to tell me they would be taking me back to the hotel, as surely many hours had gone by. I looked at my watch and it was only 2:30 in the morning. Within a minute or two I was taken to the set to rehearse. I had to quickly get rid of the cobwebs in my head and wake up for the rehearsal for scene 32, the intense one, the one I was so worried about.
Robert blocked out the scene with us, Me, Michael, Freddy, and Carlos and his energy was inspiring. The video monitors were moved inside a hallway of the police station and it was dubbed the "video village." We would be heading back and forth to the "village to watch a series of takes Robert would shoot. It didn't take long to get into it and we did take after take after take and I was screaming, and there were props involved, and timing moves to the move of the camera, and changing dialogue a bit, and I was screaming more intensely the more takes we did, and after about the 30th time I felt my voice was leaving me and Greg tracked down some throat lozenges for me, and we would huddle around the video monitors, and Rose McGowan was sitting there watching the takes and gave me a thumbs up, and that motivated me even more, and we did more takes for more coverage when the camera was moved to feature the other actors, and the intensity was building, and the rain was coming down outside and finally it was over.
This was tough, especially so early in the morning coming out of a deep sleep, but after my gun belt was removed, and props took my badge off, and Robert was satisfied at the takes, one by one Freddy, who I've only known for a day because he was just there, came over and hugged me and looked me right in the eyes and said "great work." Then Robert announced that I was done for the night and there was applause from everyone. The quiet guys behind monitors and working under tents and people I didn’t' know cause there were so many were applauding, and Robert did his Mexican chant/holler hoopla thing and hugged me and said "awesome." I had no idea it had gone so well cause I was just in the scene so to speak of, and just doing it. I was ready to burst into tears. I left the set through a gauntlet of pats on the back and Michael Biehn grabbing my hand and shaking his head yes told me "good work" In the van sharing a ride back to the hotel with Greg, who was sitting behind me, in a quiet moment, Greg just reached over and in an unspoken show of affection silently patted me a few times on my shoulder. .....THAT is what I meant by acting being one of the most rewarding thing.
JOURNAL
FOUR:
As soon as I got there Brian placed me on top of this big rusty flatbed/tow
truck and said it has to appear you were just hoisted up here by your fellow
officers, and once here you have to help the other officers onto the truck, and
the truck will be moving. Dana, a cute little stunt girl was
dressed as an officer, and Josh, my stunt double was there in uniform and we
rehearsed Dana running to the truck and being helped aboard by me
and Josh. On the first take as as Dana rushed to the moving truck I
stabbed her in the chest with my right index finger.
I was sure it was going to hurt later as it got really jammed hard. On the second take I stabbed her in the forehead with the same index finger. After "cut" I said boy I'm really having trouble with this finger.
Robert dictated through Brian that on the next take on "action" I stand up on the truck pull out my revolver and shoot a bunch of Sickos as the truck is mounted by officers for the big escape. All of us were handed our guns by the gun team who first showed us the barrels were empty and we are supposed to acknowledge, then carefully close the cylinder and prepare for the scene. On the first take I helped Dana on the truck and whipped out my pistol and shot Sickos who reacted and fell to the ground. I saw Greg, in all his make up glory, was part of the Sicko group we were firing at. I said "Greg let me shoot you when the truck goes by." He gave me the OK sign. He was wearing a baseball cap and I told him to put it on loosely and when I fire at him to jerk his head back so the cap flies off and it looks like I've shot him in the head. He said he was already doing that and told me where he would be coming from just behind the smoldering car. This was the car that exploded the night before. I yelled at him "I will kill you personally." And it got laughs and became the chant on the set from the crew." "I will kill you personally."
I told Josh I don't need to help Dana onto the truck because he was great in grabbing her arm and hoisting her up all by himself. On the next take Brian yelled action and I rose up whipped out my pistol and fired right at a Sicko near the camera who then wiped past the camera causing a shadow of a Sicko to pass through the frame. I, and all the officers were firing at Sickos and when I fired at Greg his timing was perfect and his head jerked back and his hat flew off and it felt like I really killed him. This was better than being a kid and playing cowboys and Indians as we were firing real guns and everyone we shot played dead. "we did this scene lots of times and each time the truck would back up to the starting position, we were handed our guns, and on "action" killed Sickos.
I went back to my trailer, and after a midnight lunch where I sat with Michael Biehn, who was telling TERMINATOR, and ALIENS stories, fell asleep there till I opened my eyes and saw my watch said 5:30. I thought this was a short night for me and soon they would be knocking on my door to tell me it is time to go back to the hotel. Almost instantly there was a knock and it was Susan telling me they want me on the set. I was driven the two blocks to the set and saw they were shooting a scene with Carlos on the hood of the police car, but this is a scene before it blows up. He had two or three Sickos on him acting like they were tearing him apart and blood was spraying everywhere. The Stuntmen playing Sickos were drenched in blood. Then it was time for my scene.
JOURNAL
FIVE:
Last night was
the easiest night on this movie for me, and one of the most exciting. I
did not get drenched in blood. Ray Harryhausen, (for those of
you who have been living in a cave the last thirty years, is the stop
motion animation wizard behind such classics as Clash of the Titans,
most of the Sinbad movies, Jason and the Argonauts and many
many more action fantasy horror movies) is arriving tomorrow and
we're all going over to the Alamo Draft house theatre where he is hosting a
showing of the original King Kong on the big screen. Everyone is jazzed
about this, including Quentin Tarantino who has been here, for the last
three days. I didn't see him till last night.
I was picked up at the hotel at 7:45 and driven not very far to the Armory,
right next door to the Hangars at the old airport that Robert Rodriguez leases
from the state, which are his own private movie studio and where he
filmed Sin City, Spy Kids, Once Upon a Time In Mexico, and
now Grindhouse, though so far we have just been on locations around
Austin. After make up and hair, no severed finger appliance tonight, I
hung out in my trailer watching a documentary about the Alamo I
bought AT the Alamo the day before in
About twenty minutes later Susan said they are serving the midnight lunch
at 11:30 so I went to the huge circus tent where the crew would eat lunch
shortly. I got a salad and sat in the big empty space, and soon the crew
poured in. Greg and his effects guys came in and Greg's arms were
spattered with blood and he came to me and hugged me. I checked my
costume/uniform for blood. Nothing. I hadn't seen him in
a few days and It's always exciting. Soon Quentin came in as I was
getting rid of my tray. His attention was elsewhere so I walked over
and squeezed his belly. He turned and saw me and yelled "Tom" and we
hugged. Robert was behind him and said "After lunch come over to my
office, I want to show you something." I took a seat with the prop guys
and showed them I still had the wedding ring on from the other night. They
apologized that they hadn't taken in back from me and I said no way,
it was my fault for going home with it.
After lunch as Robert was leaving he motioned me and Carlos to come with
him. We got in his Hummer with him and we drove next door to his
studio. Michael Biehn, Josh Brolin and Freddy Rodriguez took a
van. As we approached the many gates at the studio, Robert just
pressed buttons in the Hummer and the gates just rolled out of our
way. Robert's office is huge, and the big comfortable furniture would not
be out of place in a medieval castle. Extra large posters of all his
movies decorate the walls and free standing lifesize characters
like Marv from Sin City, and body
armor from Spy kids stand in corners, and on one wide brick wall
is a huge impressionistic painting of Selma Hayek.
Breathtaking. Robert came in and opened a cabinet under a 65 inch
plazma screen TV, pressed a button and scene 32 came on fully edited
with John Carpenter music added. He used the best takes and
we all howled, and then he showed us more scenes he had edited together
from other scenes on the shoot. The guy doesn't sleep. When the
long shooting day if over, he comes here and edits. An AD came in and said
we're due back on the set, and it was back in the Hummer and back to the
set. I decided then I must have a Hummer.
We blocked out a scene where Michael, Carlos and I arrive at the hospital to
arrest Freddy, shotguns at the ready. It was a low camera angle shot that
Robert will render in slow motion of the hospital doors opening and the three of
us ominously walk down the corridor side by side. We did it around twenty
five times, and as usual when about five to ten takes were shot we huddled
around the "
JOURNAL
SIX:
I love the dreams that happen away from home. You know the dreams that only happen when you're in a strange bed in a hotel somewhere. Last night I worked in the studio inside the elaborate set that was built of the interior of JT's Barbecue Shack. Jeff Fahey is JT and he's Michael Biehn's character's brother. All I did was burst into the place as a continuation of when we were actually outside the real Barbecue Shack last month. I burst in gun raised behind Michael/the Sheriff who is carrying and aiming a shotgun followed by all the townspeople that we deputized. They are all carrying guns we passed out to them and JT has just killed a couple of Sickos and passed out behind the counter. His dog is lying loyally by his side. After a few surprises Michael orders us all to pack up supplies for the hunt for Sickos cause we leave in twenty minutes. That's all we shot and I was there all night.
Got back to the hotel around 6:30 am and passed out immediately and soon
in dreamland I was on an elaborate Scaramouche or Romeo and Juliet type
movie set with everyone in Renaissance costumes and I had this elaborate fencing
scene where I swung on chandeliers and fenced with this bad guy while
trying to win the affection of this lovely brown eyed arched eyebrow beauty
named Fiorenza. I remember climbing up a wall and hanging onto plants
calling "Firorenza" but she didn't come out and I was going to be late for my
next entrance on camera so I bounded down this extraordinary staircase and soon
I was skipping down whole tiers of steps and then I was flying high in the air
over the stairs and looking for something large and solf to land on and
looked below and there was Frankenstein walking on the stairs. What the
hell was he doing there? It was my dream so I must have created him
there. The dream kind of fell apart after that.
I woke
up around noon and went to Gold's to workout and came back to the
hotel and went up to the roof to swim in the stainless steel trough
that is the swimming pool. Those two lovely dark haired bikini clad
deaf girls were lying by the side of the pool holding hands and
.......kissing. They seemed very happy. Not only is this
the week of the Biker Rally with 40,000 bikers already here, but it is
also Gay Pride week here with a big Gay and Lesbian parade today. So,
and don't expect me to be politically correct here, this is the week of
Bikes Dykes and Faggots. How shocking! Please......I love them all,
and I especially like the sound of the words together.
The
other night on the set Freddy Rodriquez who has a role in the new Poseidon movie
asked me if I had seen it and I said no and we asked all the extras if they had
seen it and no one raised their hands so I went to see it last night and it was
really good and suspenseful and Freddy died much too soon but very
well. When I returned to the hotel and fell asleep this time in
dreamland I was at
Okay here's what showbiz is and mind you I am not complaining as I love every
minute of it and sometimes it's just crazy and illogical. I came down here
to
Then I had a few days off and went to the set last night but they never got to
my stuff. Tomorrow I fly home for another break and come
back down here the beginning of July for my final days as
the Deputy and my big fight scene leading to my death. I can't tell
you how I die, but it is glorious and pretty juicy. Again, I am
not complaining as it was a blast last night to ride the 40 minutes to location
and Freddy had Reggae music blasting in the van and I sat next to Jeff
Fahey behind Michael. Freddy was in the front seat. We joked that as
we approached the location we should crank the music up and rock the van as we
pull in. Michael talked about this woman he worked with who was really good
and had a scene in the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre where she
blows her brains out and I told him "Greg did that" and explained how
they used the snorkel camera to pull back through the big hole in her
fake head.
Lunch was terrific and I sat with Robert and Freddy and Rose McGowen and Marlee Shelton and talked about our favorite scary movie things. Rose talked about working in a Funeral home and asked Freddy if he did a lot of research for his part in in the HBO series Six Feet Under and Michael asked about an episode where a cadaver had a "hard on." Freddy talked about the special effects penis and mentioned Dirk Digler's penis from Boogie Nights and once again I was able to say "Greg did that." Rose talked about this thing she saw where cockroaches come out of this guy and I said... "I did that"....she was talking about my special effects work in Creepshow. So I had the opportunity to tell the table about how the entemologists collected the roaches and how we did the effects. Later that night they blew up a truck which flipped completely over bursting into flames and there were about 50 zombie/sickos milling about.
JOURNAL
SEVEN:
Last night was so much fun on the set. Got picked up at the hotel, delivered, made up and right to the set. The first thing that happened was Marlee, who has broken hands is trying to start her car with her teeth, and as she tries, Jamie the stunt man doubling Freddy Rodriquez, runs up to her car and yells "help me....help me." The shot is from inside the car. That was the rehearsal. For the actual take, he is set on fire, completely, head to toe. A huge blaze that lit up the night sky. So over and over again he is set on fire and runs to her window and sometimes says his line, sometimes he doesn't but the shot is on Marlee inside the car as this guy enveloped in flames approaches her and slams on her window and then stumbles away to the awaiting stunt team that puts him out.
The
next set up we rehearsed is me and a bunch of stunt guys on that big
flatbed/tow truck with all the rusty chains pulling up in front of the hospital
and we all jump off guns blazing, me with my revolver, and some with shotguns,
killing Sickos while trying to discern which are the escaping patients, and
which are Sickos. The camera is featuring me confused by all the escaping
patients and here and there firing off camera at Sickos. At one point,
after a car explodes behind me, I turn around fast and shoot someone, but it is
not a Sicko. It's a poor old patient in one of those hospital gowns
wheeling along his I V stand. I go into a mild shock and then Michael
Biehn, playing the sherrif walks up to me and says "Dumbass," and calmly walks
away. I do a take as if I've told him a hundred times not to call me
that. The crew erupts with laughter.
Before
we roll camera make up does touch ups on me, and Greg does a quick severed
finger on my left hand, applies some blood, and I climb onto the truck.
Jamie the stunt guy backs up the truck and
So we do this whole thing again about fifteen times, sometimes the camera moves
to get different angles. It is a calm warm night, and every time they hand
me the gun I look around and see Robert behind the camera, and Quentin and I
marvel at how lucky I am to be here. Quentin is just enjoying
the hell out of all the action and gunfire and exploding cars and dozens of
extras running all over the parking lot. It is his birthday and when I
went to craft services to get a cup of coffee between takes I saw the back of
this truck filled with all these cakes and candles that Roberts
wife Elizabeth made to spring on Quentin at lunchtime. They are special
Spanish cakes and Quentin doesn't know anything about
it.
On around the last take, a car pulls up and Ray Harryhausen gets
out. THE Ray Harryhausen, as I explained in earlier journals,
the stop motion animation wizard behind so many movies Quentin,
myself, Robert, Greg, and so many others grew up on. We
crowded around him and fawned all over him as he cracked many
jokes about movies and pulling up and seeing cars explode. We
all posed for pictures with him and I could look around and see those
in the know explaining to the younger crew members
who Ray Harryhausen is.
Lunch is called around midnight again, and I'm really eating light cause I want
the cake. Fifteen minutes into it they bring out the cakes and there
must be a hundred and fifty candles on enough cake to feed the entire cast and
crew. There must be a candle for every crew member. Quentin
was floored and we all sang happy birthday and he tried to blow out all the
candles and Robert joined in and every one with a camera, including me, got
great shots of the two of them huffing and puffing and blowing all the candles
out.
After lunch Greg cleaned all the blood off my face and unwrapped my finger and I had to put on a clean costume/uniform for the next scene inside the hospital that takes place early on in the script way before the big action scene we just did. It's a scene where the sherrif questions Freddy"s character and all I have to do is stand there behind him holding a shotgun. Between takes we huddle in the "video village" and watch the scene on the monitors. As they set up the new angles, Robert picks up his guitar, a permanent fixture always alongside the monitors, and plays Flamenco guitar for us. We wrap early and I am back in the hotel. We have the next two days off and tonight I join a private dinner party with Greg and the cast for Quentin's birthday at Robert's favorite Mexican restaurant, followed by all of us going to a nightclub to hear Robert's sister sing, and then to the Alamo Drafthouse movie theatre to see some Grindhouse movies that Quentin is screening. Jesus...pinch me I am dreaming as this is all so wonderful.
JOURNAL EIGHT:
Obviously I've been off for a week and went back to work
this past weekend. Our work week is Thursday to Monday and that is a five
day week and we are off on Tuesday and Wednesday and that's our Saturday and
Sunday. On Tuesday nights at midnight Quentin brings in some of his 35mm
film collection and shows them at the Alamo Drafthouse movie theatre here in
My days off have been filled
with interesting things happening. My typical day is I get up, I check
email and write a journal from the night before, go to the gym and do aerobics
on the treadmill or the sitting bike and then workout a body part like Monday is
chest, Tuesday arms and so forth. The gym only has dumbbells and a bench
and the aerobic stuff, but even so I've lost sixteen pounds in the 25 days I've
been here cause if you remember from the day I tried on my costume/police
uniform I decided to lose weight and now that uniform is loose and exactly what
I wanted to happen. Then back to my suite and I either order a grilled
chicken Caesar salad with ice tea, or I drive to Whole Foods and get a spicy
white chicken noodle bowl, and that's it till I am on set and more
salad.
There's been Quentin's birthday
where we all went first to this Mexican Restaurant and Quentin got his first
pair of Cowboy boots, and I sat with Jeff Fahey and Greg Nicotero.
Robert had a Mariachi band come over and serenade Quentin and they sang Happy
Birthday in Spanish. We had a little celebration the night before on set
at Lunch and those hundred or so birthday candles, but that night it was a very
long table with gobs and gobs of Mexican food that I faithfully ignored till
Greg offered me some of his beef enchilada and I succumbed to the smell and
helped him finish his plate. Then on to Antones, and nightclub
where Robert's sister was performing and from the VIP room above the club
we watched her with Robert accompanying on an electric guitar. We
hung out there with the cast until around midnight and we went to the Alamo
Drafthouse for Quentin's showing of a sexploitation flick called
something like The Girl From Venus. I only made it halfway through
that and walked back to my hotel and crashed.
Then there was Robert's Art Exhibit which benefited a charity I can't recall right now, and we were picked up in vans and taken to San Antonio to one of Robert's favorite Mexican Restaurants when he was growing up and this was not the elegant Mexican place from the other night but a little mom and pop place that was tiny and sparsely decorated with a tables arranged in a long room and it seemed like Robert just rented the place for the night as we were the only customers. I rode down with Michael Parks and his wife and it was like I was riding with Sheriff Muldoon from Kill Bill and Dusk til Dawn as Michael has a charming down to earth conversational tone. I pigged out at this restaurant and then we were put in individual SUV's and driven to the red carpet outside the art gallery with tons of photographers and reporters, but beforehand we were instructed not to talk about the movie. It seemed strange to us to be there for the press and not to talk about the movie, but we did it and I'm sure it's to help the secrecy thing about this film.
Robert's paintings, around twelve of them, were the same pose of Salma Hayek but rendered differently, and were stupefying, amazing, fantasmagorical twelve feet high jaw dropping gorgeous. This man never stops amazing me. There is more talent in one square inch of him than most people have in a lifetime. I saw someone photograph one of the paintings and realized we were allowed to and shot all of them. Later, after emailing my daughter Lia some shots, she fell in love with one of Salma as the Sacred Heart. I emailed the Gallery director for a price and it was somewhere in the neighborhood of $25,000. Let's see....new Hummer or Painting for Lia. Hummer wins.
Reporters took lots of
photos of me and Michael Biehn and Josh Logan, and Jeff Fahey together and
we decided we weren't going to stay for a private reception and went back
to
The next night same thing with
costume and make up but this time I was immediately taken to the set for the
rehearsal of a complicated scene. The big flatbed rusty tow truck was to
turn a corner and come down a hill to me and Michael and a dozen townsfolk while
I carry a shoebox full of badges and two duffel bags of guns into the scene and
ask Michael, the Sherrif, if he's sure he wants to do this, and he says yes and
we deputize the townsfolk and pass out the guns, except to Freddy to whom
Michael says "Except you Ray." Michael turns his back and Rose McGowan,
playing Dakota, slips him one of the guns and I quickly snatch it out from
behind his back where he hides it and say "Nope," and we all proceed up the
hill, guns in hand, to JT's barbecue hut, to fight and kill the Sickos who are
hiding there. At one Point I joked to Robert that the bag of guns didn't
contain the DickGun I wore in Dusk til Dawn. He seriously considered
putting it in and asked if I had mine with me. I said no, and he said his
was at home, but maybe when we get inside the barbecue hut I could find it and
do a take and toss it aside.
This took most of the night cause the
trucks brakes gave out twice and then the back up truck was brought in and
it's brakes gave out as well as it's power steering. So the scene is the
truck comes down the hill, Robert behind the camera on a dolly on tracks backs
up in front of me and when it passes I cross the tracks to Michael and say "you
sure you want to do this," he says "break em out" and I take the box of badges
and slam it onto a pick up truck and throw the duffel bags of guns on the truck
and another deputy distributes the guns and badges to the townsfolk. We
did maybe twenty takes and then the camera was moved on top of the hill so that
before lunch we did take after take of all of us running up the hill. A
good workout.
As we move up the hill Michael/the Sherrif says something like "be careful, don't shoot yourselves, and especially......don't shoot me. I do a take and mouth the words "dumbass" and I slipped and fell. Robert and Quentin thought that was funny for some reason, and insisted I leave it in. So here I am trying to look cool as the deputy running up the hill with my gun at the ready, and I have to trip and fall on my face every time. We did this endlessly and then we had a break while they shot the barbecue hut engulfed in flames as Rose escapes past the camera and some Sickos are shot and the camera finds her again only this time it is her stunt double Dana and Dana runs down the hill and falls and rolls head over hills. Rose is wearing the skimpiest leather mini shirt and a small top and it is freezing and there is a reason women like her are famous. She is really really hot and gorgeous and beautiful and friendly. Dana in her stunt double costume of Rose is not so bad either and very nice to look at. I spent some of my lunch hour tracking down Rose to get a shot of us together and she emerged from the make up trailer and was happy to let Susan photograph us but warned me with "don't get any blood on me." I happily obliged.
After lunch I sat at the
video village on top of the hill with Jeff Fahey for a while and watched the
Sickos Greg and his crew prepared do their shtick. Jeff was talking about
his favorite colors of Jelly Beans and I asked the set co-ordinator Tony if he
could get some Jelly Beans for Jeff. It was getting really cold and I went
to the craft service truck to get some hot soup, check on Jeff's Jelly Beans,
and then to my trailer to put on some thermal silks when Susan knocked on the
door and said I was wrapped and could go back to the hotel. Me and
Jeff, who was handed Jelly Beans in the van, Michael, and Freddy
and a bunch of others were driven back the hour to the hotel. I packed and
was on a plane that afternoon, and got home just in time to watch James, my
grandson, so that Lia could be taken to dinner and out that night with
co-workers for her birthday. It is now the day after her birthday, I still
haven't seen her, and tonight I will take her for a birthday dinner
and then home to the cake I had made for her with one of those food coloring
photos on top of a montage of twenty photos of her from a baby to the the 21
year old woman she is today.
In about a week or two I
will travel back to
JOURNAL
NINE:
Well, I'm back in
the saddle again..(Sung to the tune of BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN).....Everybody
sing.. I'm back in the saddle again..Oh I'm back in the saddle
again. Okay..stop..stop singing. I am back in
Saw Michael Biehn in the elevator and then in the lobby and he is staying here
now. The deal is, for me and for him, it's either a suite here at the Omni
or a room at the Four Season's. We happily chose a suite here and we both
joined Gold's Gym about two blocks away. The hotel gyms are not that
great. Went to the studio and met Robert in his office and he is doing
just great and chomping at the bit to start up again. Shook hands
with lots of folks who are back and who I haven't seen in over a month. I
was in the AD's office and someone grabbed me from behind in a bear hug.
It was Greg. I went with him to his special make up trailer and
he and his crew were unloading some of the most grotesque body suits and masks
I've ever seen. The world isn't ready for this movie. I stopped in
to see the stunt guys and they gave me a taco and Jeff, the stunt coordinator
showed me on his laptop just how the zombie/stunt man is going to lift me and
hurl me into the police car. Josh my stunt double had me try on the
harness I will wear when they attach me to the wires and crane. Steve
Jacobson, the stunt coordinator from Dusk Till Dawn was there and we
hugged.
I am trying to hang onto my goatee as long as possible. I think
I look like a Mexican turtle without it. I was scheduled to shoot tonight,
more of the scene at JT's barbecue hut where we deputize the townsfolk. I
got ready at 4:30 for a 5:30 pickup by shaving off the goatee and showering and
got a phone call from David the 2nd AD and he told me they cancelled the outdoor
shoot and going inside the cover set at the studio and I am essentially off till
Monday. Today is Wednesday. Could have kept the goatee longer, hell
could have stayed in
My plan is to spend the time working out, shopping, and I'll probably go to the
studio tonight and hang out with Greg. He is off tonight as well but
it's more fun to be at the studio around Robert and the crew than hanging at the
hotel.
Aha, David just called and I AM working tomorrow night. Scene 46 is something that was planned to shoot sometime in July. It's been raining a lot down here and they are looking for stuff to shoot inside the studio as rain cover. I went to the studio getting lost a few times and hung out around the video monitors. Joe the make up guy said I looked so young and did I have work done and I told him no it's because I lost some weight. I didn’t want to tell him it was 25 pounds. The general consensus was that everyone is glad to be back and working on this project again. Robert came off the set and saw me and did an evil laugh which I returned and he shook my hand as he walked to the video monitors to check the scene he just shot of Freddy Rodriguez entering the barbecue shack and sitting next to a dog on a stool eating barbecue on the counter that Jeff Fahey was feeding him. The dog kept getting up and blocking Freddy. Greg Nicotero was sitting next to me and said "Dogs and kids" calling attention to the old film axiom about never working with dogs or kids. I said "Or monkeys" reminding him that we worked with all those damn monkeys on the movie MONKEY SHINES. Robert sat in front of the monitors making lighting suggestions and camera moves while playing classical flamenco music on his guitar. It's good to be back in this environment.
Today I woke up late and worked out at Gold's gym a few blocks away
and came back to swim in the hotel pool. It's on the roof of
this place and it's essentially a stainless steel trough, and the jacuzzi
is a stainless steel pot. I am sitting in the jacuzzi with a huge guy
with the words "Travis" and "Jesse" tattooed on his back. "Travis"
takes up his entire upper back from shoulder to shoulder,
and "Jesse" takes up his entire lower back. He asked me if
I was a biker as he is and just drove his Harley from
JOURNAL
TEN:
I love the dreams that happen away from home. You know the dreams that only happen when you're in a strange bed in a hotel somewhere. Last night I worked in the studio inside the elaborate set that was built of the interior of JT's Barbecue Shack. Jeff Fahey is JT and he's Michael Biehn's character's brother. All I did was burst into the place as a continuation of when we were actually outside the real Barbecue Shack last month. I burst in gun raised behind Michael/the Sheriff who is carrying and aiming a shotgun followed by all the townspeople that we deputized. They are all carrying guns we passed out to them and JT has just killed a couple of Sickos and passed out behind the counter. His dog is lying loyally by his side. After a few surprises Michael orders us all to pack up supplies for the hunt for Sickos cause we leave in twenty minutes. That's all we shot and I was there all night.
Got back to the hotel around 6:30 am and passed out immediately and soon in dreamland I was on an elaborate Scaramouche or Romeo and Juliet type movie set with everyone in Renaissance costumes and I had this elaborate fencing scene where I swung on chandeliers and fenced with this bad guy while trying to win the affection of this lovely brown eyed arched eyebrow beauty named Fiorenza. I remember climbing up a wall and hanging onto plants calling "Firorenza" but she didn't come out and I was going to be late for my next entrance on camera so I bounded down this extraordinary staircase and soon I was skipping down whole tiers of steps and then I was flying high in the air over the stairs and looking for something large and solf to land on and looked below and there was Frankenstein walking on the stairs. What the hell was he doing there? It was my dream so I must have created him there. The dream kind of fell apart after that.
I woke
up around noon and went to Gold's to workout and came back to the
hotel and went up to the roof to swim in the stainless steel trough
that is the swimming pool. Those two lovely dark haired bikini clad
deaf girls were lying by the side of the pool holding hands and
.......kissing. They seemed very happy. Not only is this
the week of the Biker Rally with 40,000 bikers already here, but it is
also Gay Pride week here with a big Gay and Lesbian parade today. So,
and don't expect me to be politically correct here, this is the week of
Bikes Dykes and Faggots. How shocking! Please......I love them all,
and I especially like the sound of the words together.
The
other night on the set Freddy Rodriquez who has a role in the new Poseidon movie
asked me if I had seen it and I said no and we asked all the extras if they had
seen it and no one raised their hands so I went to see it last night and it was
really good and suspenseful and Freddy died much too soon but very
well. When I returned to the hotel and fell asleep this time in
dreamland I was at
Okay here's what showbiz is and mind you I am not complaining as I love every
minute of it and sometimes it's just crazy and illogical. I came down here
to
Then I had a few days off and went to the set last night but they never got to
my stuff. Tomorrow I fly home for another break and come
back down here the beginning of July for my final days as
the Deputy and my big fight scene leading to my death. I can't tell
you how I die, but it is glorious and pretty juicy. Again, I am
not complaining as it was a blast last night to ride the 40 minutes to location
and Freddy had Reggae music blasting in the van and I sat next to Jeff
Fahey behind Michael. Freddy was in the front seat. We joked that as
we approached the location we should crank the music up and rock the van as we
pull in. Michael talked about this woman he worked with who was really good
and had a scene in the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre where she
blows her brains out and I told him "Greg did that" and explained how
they used the snorkel camera to pull back through the big hole in her
fake head.
Lunch was terrific and I sat with Robert and Freddy and Rose McGowen and Marlee
Shelton and talked about our favorite scary movie things. Rose talked
about working in a Funeral home and asked Freddy if he did a lot of research for
his part in in the HBO series Six Feet Under and Michael asked about an
episode where a cadaver had a "hard on." Freddy talked about the special
effects penis and mentioned Dirk Digler's penis from Boogie Nights and once
again I was able to say "Greg did that." Rose talked about this thing
she saw where cockroaches come out of this guy and I said... "I did
that"....she was talking about my special effects work in Creepshow. So I
had the opportunity to tell the table about how the entemologists collected the
roaches and how we did the effects. Later that night they blew up a truck
which flipped completely over bursting into flames and there were about 50
zombie/sickos milling about.
JOURNAL
ELEVEN:
Yaeeeeyyy...I am back in Austin Texas continuing to play my part in the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez movie GRINDHOUSE. I flew down here with Gino Crognale, I call him Onig and he calls me Mot...that's our names backwards. I don't know why we do that but we always have. He was working on another movie and has now joined Greg and the other KNB guys on this movie. We've been friends ever since I hired him for Texas Chainsaw Massacre part II.
Last night I flew, and it wasn't on any airplane or in any dream.
I'll explainl. Got to the set around 9:30 P.M., rode in the pickup van
with Freddy Rodriguez, got some coffee and went to my trailer. On the
counter was a new set of black undergarments I'd never seen before or
worn. There was a note from the stunt department. "Tom, please put
these on under your costume as we are putting you into a harness tonight."
It was a long pair of black tight rubber-like underwear and black bicycle
shorts. I put everything on and it was immediately hotter for me as the
temperature outside was around 101.
I hung out with Greg and the effects guys for a while. They had
just driven a stake into Quentin's right eye the night before. I was
there, as sitting around in the hotel is not as exiting as being on the set
, and I came out to the studio last night and the night before.
Later that night, Quentin is about to rape Rose and he is infected with
the zombie juice and he starts to melt, including his dick, which
turns into this long stretched out lumpy squirting thing. Then he pukes
out this ghastly mebraneous tentacled blob of multicolored goo. The world
is not ready for this movie.
They called me to the set which was out near the runway of the sound stages that Robert owns, and I saw this high crane positioned over a reproduction of the police station exterior that I worked on months ago. I rode with what they call the first unit. That means the lead actors which tonight includes me, Michael Biehn, and Freddy Rodriquez. There was also dozens of extras and stuntmen made up as zombie/sickos. Everyone got final touches from wardrobe and props except me as I had to drop my drawers as the stuntmen fitted a harness onto me which would be hidden under my costume. Once they were finished and I was dressed again Vanessa, the on set wardrobe person, cut holes into my costume at the hips and the stuntmen attached small D-rings onto the harness underneath. This will be the scene where after Carlos is attacked and his arm is bitten off I, in shock, try to retrieve my wedding ring from the fingers of Carlos's severed arm and a zombie/sicko grabs me and hurls me thirty feet into an imploding police car. Josh, my stunt double, already did the upside hit into the police car months ago, now we have to shoot the beginning when I am grabbed and lifted into the air and tossed. Josh does it first so we can see what's going to happen and it was pretty smooth as he was lifted and spotted by other stuntmen circling the stunt pads on the ground. "The cables will be erased later in post production.
They clicked me into the cables suspended from the high crane above the set and tested how the harness felt as it grabbed me under my ass and thighs and it felt comfortable. Jamie, another stuntman who doubles Freddy Rodriquez, was in charge of lifting me up by pulling a cable which he could operate with one hand while standing on the ground about forty feet away at the base of the high crane. He could pull the cable easily with one hand and I would be lifted into the air. Now this is what I meant by I flew. While we were waiting for the lighting and camera to be set up I would make a motion as if I was preparing to fly, say like Peter Pan or Superman where you outstretch one arm in front of you and make a fist and the other by your side and you bend one knee. Jamie saw me do this and lifted me up and I flew into the air. This was a spontaneous thing as I had said nothing to him Jamie but when he saw me pretend to take off to fly he made it happen. It was hilarious and the cast and crew laughed, and when I landed I gave Jamie the thumbs up. This felt great and it really felt like I took off and flew like in a dream, so I did it over and over and each time I did something different like running like Superman and raising both arms into the air in front of me and I left the ground and soared. I was a little sorry when they were ready and we had to stop the flying and shoot.
Greg
taped my index finger down and applied my bloody severed finger and on
"action" I bend down to retrieve the ring from Carlos's severed arm and
the zombie/sicko/stuntman grabs me, lifts me up and turns me upside
down and throws me into the waiting stuntman but somehow I got whacked
in the left eye. I told the stuntman and it didn't happen again
for seven more takes. I also asked the set medic for some
Dramamine before we did this as I didn’t want to get sick and
hurl on the cast and crew below me. This worked out real well and
Robert was satisfied and we moved on.
The rest of the scene is after I hit the car and land on the ground and I see
the ring about five feet away and have to crawl to it and pick it up but when I
go to place the ring on my finger of course my finger is gone so I get pissed
and say "fuck" and then put it hastily on my middle finger and look around for
the fucking zombie/sicko who did this to me an pull out my gun. I see him
approach me so I punch him in the stomach and chest with my gun, each time
firing the gun, and his back explodes twice from my shots. If you've been
following these journals you know we already shot that scene but Robert wants to
do it over again and the first time it was too light as the sun was coming
up. We did about nine takes of this and each time I hurled
myself backwards onto the ground as if I had just hit the police car, and did my
crawl toward the ring. Between each take Gino would touch up the blood on
my finger and splash more blood on my face. My eyes were burning and I
thought it was from the handy wipes I was using to keep the blood off my hands
and ring so they weren't sticky.
Between set ups I was sitting in my personal directors chair, yes there is a chair with my name on it, and three o'clock in the morning they brought out this buffet of sushi. I don't eat sushi but I was so amazed that they brought sushi out to the set that I ate about four helpings and I have no idea what I was eating.
The sun was coming up so they wrapped me and Freddy and once I wiped off all the
blood and changed my clothes we were driven back to the hotel. My eyes
were really burning at this point and when I got back to my suite and took
out my contact lenses they were dyed red
JOURNAL
TWELVE:
Last night was a blast....literally...I mean I got to finally blast the zombie/sicko that hurtles me thirty feet into a police car. We shot it before a month and a half ago but Robert said he couldn't cut it cause it was too light out and the squibs went off too late. I told him I'm glad we were shooting it over again cause I hadn't been through the harness flying and ring finding of the previous journal and now that it is fresh in my mind I should really be pissed off when that zombie/sicko approaches me. In fact, I told him "I should be looking for that next fucking zombie/sicko to show up and how about if I just grab him and yell you mother fucker as I punch and shoot him." Robert said "go ahead."
So
I got to relax a bit while they shot other stuff and Greg applied my severed
finger and spattered my face with blood for continuity and they called me to the
set to set up the shot. Tim, the stuntman who I blast, showed up with two
explosive squibs on his backand a hard breastplate on his stomach and chest for
when I hit him with the gun, and we rehearsed the action for the
cameras. After a little "move to the left a bit more Tom" and "you too
Tim" they drew chalk outlines around our feet so we knew the placement and then
our stand ins took over while they lit the scene.
While I was waiting I tried to think of some emotional equivalent in my life that I could use to be really pissed off and the first thing that came to my mind was when I was a kid, like in grade school , and casually strolled down to the local recreation center in my neighborhood one summer night. The usual local crowd of teenagers was there including lots of my friends and I saw a guy I liked but we weren't close friends or anything named Steve Fisher standing over by the fence and I went over to say hi. I didn't know it but he was very drunk and as I approached him he slapped me so hard in the face my ears rang and I was in total shock as my friends saw him do it and it embarrassed the hell out of me. I couldn’t understand why he did it cause I didn't and hadn't ever done anything to him to provoke it. I just had to think he was drunk and didn't know what he was doing and he's a big guy and I just walked home confused. But ever since then I played out dozens of scenarios of what I should have done. You know, I could have punched him right back in his face but he probably wouldn't have felt it, of kicked him in his balls or something, anything but just walk home with my face hurting and my ears ringing.
So last night Tim the stuntman was Steve Fisher and he just slapped me and I am finally going to do what I should have done. In acting class this would classify as Sense Memory. So I am crouching down on the ground as a continuation from what we shot Friday and what I already told you about in the previous journal. I have just put my wedding ring on my middle finger cause my index finger has been bitten off, I've pulled out my police revolver and on "ACTION" from Robert, I stand up and here comes Tim. I yelled "You Mother" and smashed my revolver into his stomach and the explosive squib on his back behind his stomach shot our a big blob of methyl cellulose slime and fake blood. I drew back again and yelled "Fucker" and drove my revolver into his chest and the squib behind his upper chest blew out and even bigger blob of red goo, and then I just screamed and upper cut him in the face with my gun and he spit out about a quart of blood, and all the time I was imagining him to be Steve Fisher. You know...it was a summer night, the moon was full, and I felt like I expunged all those pent up feelings I had of that childhood memory. Acting is wonderful.
We all huddled around the video monitors to watch the scene and technically it
was great and Robert said "you have the greatest angry facial
expressions." Sense Memory....you see....it works, but he wanted to shoot
the uppercut again as they didn't catch the blood spitting from Tim's mouth, so
we did just that part again and on the second take some of the blood hit me in
the face and it was like bloodlust and I went apeshit and held onto that emotion
as Robert wanted to shoot wild lines of just my yelling. That means there
is no action just the boom man holding the microphone near you to cleanly
capture the dialogue and I got to scream into the night sky....."YOU MOTHER
FUCKER" and it echoed across the countryside. How many times do you
get to do THAT?
JOURNAL
THIRTEEN:
Gino is already scheduled to leave tomorrow and Greg has already packed his room
and is ready to travel. There is a lot we have to shoot tonight leading up
to my death, which we are shooting in the studio on the Jt's Barbecue Hut set,
with the crew scheduled to leave in the middle of all this to shoot something on
the airport runway outside the studio. Not a good sign as anything can
happen when they are outside. We can't just set up and shoot my death as
continuity is important and we have to shoot in chronological
order.
I was hanging around the set and I heard Robert tell Michael that he decided who
would shoot him accidentally. If you remember from a previous journal we
are charging up the hill at the exterior location of Jt's Barbecue Hut, after
deputizing the town's folk, and Michael as the sheriff tells them to be careful
and above all ""don't shoot me." Robert told Michael he would
be shot accidentally by Tolo.......me. I burst out laughing and
Robert turned and didn't realize I was there and we shared sporadic bursts of
laughter. You know, the kind where there is silence and you are thinking
about it and just laugh out of reflex. He added a line where Michael
says "I warned everyone not to shoot me and I never thought it would be
you....TOLO!!!!
This sounded funny but turned very serious the way we shot it. Freddy and I drag Michael into the burning Barbecue Hut, flames and townspeople running around and major chaos, and Michael is bleeding from his throat and you think he's going to die. All I could think about was if this really happened how sorry I would be. In my actor's preparation I had already made Michael my brother -in- law married to my sister and established myself as his protector. "So I'm thinking how on Earth am I going to tell my sister I just accidentally shot her husband, and how I fucked up so badly protecting the sheriff.
So we rehearsed and I really wanted my reaction to be genuine so using the
"Method" I tried to remember anything similar in my life I could relate to and
immediately I thought of when I lived in North Carolina and was rushing to work
in the morning and got in my car and backed up and heard the little dog named
Hamlet belonging to the little boy next door, whom I adored, yelp and run into
the yard. It was more than a yelp it was a dog scream. I had
run over him I got out and ran to the dog and so did little Jimmy
Reese the boy next door and when we got to Hamlet he was standing up and
panting and we thought nothing serious had happened to him. Then his back
legs collapsed under him and slowly he sort of laid down and Jimmy and I started
crying when he stopped breathing and died. It was an accident and Jimmy
new that but nevertheless it devastated me.
As I looked down on Michael bleeding from the throat, among the chaos of the set
on fire and people running around, I pictured little Hamlet collapsing and on
"Action" out of me came a very real and sympathetic "I'm
sorry......I'm so sorry" to Michael and to Freddy. We cut to later on as
Freddy starts to bandage Michaels throat and I am handing out guns to the
townspeople and we have to get out of the Barbecue Hut as it is on fire,
and in their scene Michael gives Freddy his gun and I'm
supposed to scream "NO...you're not....not to him." I imagined
that I gave Michael the gun for Christmas and he promised it to me if
anything ever happened to him and it gave my line some
added meaning.
Everyone runs out the Barbecue Hut and as I am leaving Robert wanted me to casually take out my gun and turn as I hear something outside the window. This was the preparation for the four zombified stuntmen who