Child actors

Hey, that's you. - That's me. So this was, uh-- I guess we... We could start about... Talking about the beginning of how this whole movie came about, really. I was in dire straits at the time, in terms of my career. I had just come off of a complete disaster, a big bomb. I didn't know if I was gonna direct again. I thought I'd have to go back to writing. So I was in Chicago staying at my in-laws' house... ...and my first daughter was just born... ...and John Hughes sent me, out of the kindness of his heart, two scripts. One was called Reach the Rock and the other was called Home Alone. One of them, it was rumored... I think it was this one. was written over a weekend... ...which some critics would probably jump on the bandwagon... ...and say, "Well, we always knew that." - Exactly. Ha, ha. So I read Home Alone and immediately responded to it. I thought it was just a great, great piece of material. And it talked about some of the things that I was interested in making a film about. Now, we had a meeting, I remember, in New York. I just-- It was-- You and my father were talking most of the time... ...and I was just imitating everything you were doing. Everything I was doing. - Yeah. You'd drink your water, I drank my water. Like that. I think I did that... I think I way overdid it. I think I just kept doing it the whole, like, hour. Well, you know, the interesting thing is we... Again, it was the kind of situation where we looked at hundreds of kids, again. And I was like-- Even though I didn't know if I'd ever direct a film again... ...I was like, "Well, you know, Macaulay was in Uncle Buck... ...and I don't wanna just cast him based on John Hughes producing the movie... ...because then it looks like I'm gonna give in to John Hughes and be a wimp." And I met all these... I met hundreds of kids. And when I met Macaulay, there was just no one else who came close... ...to what we needed for this film. I mean, really, in terms of an actor... ...a Child actor, at the time, you were the most unique, original kid I'd ever seen. So that was pretty... - Oh, thank you. I mean, I totally agree with you, but thank you anyway. But it really is-- It's sort of, uh... Because it was the fact that you, um... The camera loved you, obviously. You see the shots from the film. The camera loves you, but at the same time, uh... ... you were relatable to every kid in America... ...because you weren't an idealized version of a kid. Kids are used to-- Accustomed to seeing this ridiculously... Shirley Temple, and the curls and the whole thing, you know. And there was just something enormously real about you. That, and I could remember my lines and I had a lot of energy. That is true. You did have a lot of energy. Almost a sad amount of energy. It was, I mean.... Still do too. Uh, now, do you remem--? Like, this particular scene. We're starting from the beginning of the film. And I'm curious, because there were so many scenes in the film... We were talking before we started. where we would shoot your coverage first and then send you home... ...or I'd still be in jail. - Child labor laws. Yes, I'm still well-versed in the child labor laws. So there are obviously certain elements of the film-- Like this. Do you remember this being shot? - No. Because you weren't here. - I remember we did the whole... There was a whole sequence with, you know... ...people coming up the stairs, down. - Right. He's there, and the pizza guy's there. I remember that, and just like, you know, trying to coordinate that whole thing. But, no, in general, there's a lot of stuff... There's a lot of holes in it... In my memory. And this guy went on to do something on Nickelodeon. My kids know him. Yeah, Pete & Pete. - Yeah, Pete & Pete. Is it still on the air? - No, no. It lasted a couple years. It was actually a really kind of neat show. Yeah, my kids loved that show. But what was interesting about the whole look of this film... I guess we could talk about it a little bit. You'll even notice... Some people will think, "Well, this wasn't intentional." But we intended the film to feel like Christmas sort of. I wanted the house to feel very warm. You look at... - Greens, reds. Macaulay's wearing greens, a green and red shirt. There's a green and red jumper sweater on this guy back here. The wallpaper is all... - That's very clever. All conveying a warmth of Christmas and something that, uh... It just was interesting to us. So it wouldn't be over-the-top, but it'd feel warm. I wanted the house to feel like a warm place. Joe Pesci. What do you remember about Joe Pesci? What is, like, your first--? My first-- Gosh, I don't even... I have-- I still show this. I have a scar on my finger. - Uh-huh. We'll get to that part near the end... - Ha-ha-ha. ...when, you Know, he says, you know: - Okay. "I'm gonna bite each one of your fingers off, one at a time." During rehearsal, he actually bit my finger a little harder than I think he thought. I still have a little scar on my finger. It's my little Joe Pesci tooth mark. I'm telling you something, I believe... And I know Joe would probably get a little upset with me about this... ...but there was a little professional jealousy from a lot of the actors on set... ...because you were the star. There's this little kid who was the star, who we were all paying attention to... ...who was carrying the film. And there was a lot of passive-aggressive stuff going on. And I don't think Joe meant to bite through your finger... But, heck, you know, you never know. He was not particularly happy during the course of making this film. And I don't-- I think he would probably say the same thing. He had just come off of Goodfellas and Raging Bull, and he was... I don't know, did he win the Academy Award? He won for Goodfellas. His acceptance speech was, "Thanks," and that was it. Okay. Well, there you go, so, um.... And when he... I remember I was such a fan of his. Asking him to do the Goodfellas... The clown speech, you know. "Make me laugh," you know? "What do--? Am I funny to you like a clown?" And he would do that every day, and it was great. But at the same time, I could feel it from the actors. Because there's always a sense of rivalry between actors. There was this feeling of, you were the star of this movie, and that was un... That was not really common at the time. - Yeah, yeah. It created an interesting tension on the set, I have to say. Yeah, see, I never really felt that, but I was 9. Everyone around here knows he did it. It'll just be a matter of time... ...before he does it again. What's he doing? He walks up and down the streets every night... ... Salting the sidewalks. Maybe he's just trying to be nice. No way. See that garbage can full of salt? That's where he keeps his victims. The salt turns the bodies... ... Into mummies. Wow. - Mummies!

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No. But it's interesting. In a film like this, which is a highly... ... you know, at times over-the-top comedy, you play the scene very straight. And I have to hand it to you, you really did... You came in and you knew all your lines this day, which is hard. I now have a-- You were what, 9? We say you're 8 in the movie, but I think you were 9... I was actually 9 when we shot it. And I have a 9-year-old, and I wouldn't be able to convince her... ... to be able to memorize a three-and-a-half-page speech. Well, that's what they're looking for in child actors, though. The first thing that they look for is, can they remember their lines? Right. And, you know, it just... You have a certain relaxed quality. - It was easy. You don't-- It doesn't feel like... Well, you're not just saying words. Yeah, exactly. - You know.

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There is such a... I have to say... Again, to commend you as an actor... ...at such a young age. The look on your face when you see your mother... . IS exactly what a kid... And John had written this. It's exactly what a kid would do. Anger at first. You know, you're angry because she left, she abandoned you, right? And you just did it beautifully. I think this really sums up why you had such a great career. Thank you. - You will continue to have a great career. Yeah, that old career. - The old career. Well, that's... You cannot be considered a child actor. - Yes. No, that is true. Look at you. You just... - Well, thank you. And it was the emotion that I think... Aside from all the laughter in the film... ...[I think the emotion really brought people back, you know? People... - It got George Costanza crying. Yeah, it got George Costanza crying.

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The good news is if we ever do the sequel to Forrest Gump, Haley's turned into this big star actor now. When he was that little and that young, he was a great actor. He just always had the fire, so it was fun to see him go. And Hannah too, little Hannah. She just showed up in Virgin Suicides. I love to see these young actors mature and become good adult actors.

2:13:08 · jump to transcript →

And he was actually offered all the James Bond movies. He was a very handsome young actor, and he was real hot, had a lot of heat on him, and he turned it down because he didn't think it was a proper thing to do, I guess. I never really got to the bottom of that, he said. Great actor. No problem to anyone with strength. But how will they believe our strength when we cannot rule the whole of our own island? There's something kind of austere about him, and frightening even. There's this kind of wildness in the eye that's...

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They just make each other better. You taught me that. I remember you telling me that on League of Your Own that she asked you to always come with more things, to always come with more ideas than not just expect. And I use that all the time now when I direct with young actors. Penny used to say to us on the bus, she's like, okay, what are you doing on the bus? I'm like, well, I'm not in the shot. She's like, I don't care if you're in the shot. What are you doing?

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Curtis and I had lunch and several phone conversations and probably a meeting or two and we found real common ground in how to mount the picture and the potential of populating it with different cast and that there would be a young cast and

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Taylor Hackford

Hello. My name is Taylor Hackford. I'm the director of Devil's Advocate. And. I thought that you might find it interesting for me to give you a little... ...commentary about what went into making this film. The opening credits were particularly important to me... ...because I was not going to have a normal credit sequence... ...meaning two minutes of listing everybody who worked on the film. I wanted to get right into the action, and I asked Richard Greenberg... ...and Lauren Schluter, who are fabulous title designers... ...to come up with something very unique that could speak to the fact that... ...this film is a little extraordinary. It's going to have a little something... ...let's call "supernatural" to it, because we immediately go right into the film... ...which is extremely realistic. It's a courtroom scene. The actress you see in full close-up... ...is named Heather Matarazzo. She is probably known to a general audience as the star of... ...Welcome to the Doll's House. You now see Kevin Lomax, who is the star of the movie played by Keanu Reeves. But you see his boots. I wanted to say, this guy dressed in a wash-and-wear Southern suit... ...has something a little bit wild about him. Tony Gilroy, who is the writer with... ...my collaborator on this piece, we wanted to basically say this guy... ...may look straight on the upper half of his body. But look at those boots! They're $500 boots. They show that he's got a little flair... ...a little wildness to him, and those are little characteristics that one wants to use. You see him just basically doing his job, supporting his client... ...and then, all of a sudden, you want to feel that this man believes in his client. He's there. He's confident. He's about to take this girl apart. And then he discovers something that completely changes the course... ...of one, this trial and two, his life. He realizes that the man next to him, who he thought was innocent is guilty. That revelation, right now, and this moment of decision... ...is what the film is all about, because this is a moral tale. One has to make these choices, professional choices, in your life... ...where you realize your job says: "I must go forward. In this instance, as a lawyer, I have a professional oath." But on the other hand, you have a personal code of morals and ethics. What the entire film is about is this moment of decision, right now... ...where Kevin Lomax has to decide: "Do I go forward? "Do I take this girl apart on the stand, and do I win the case for my client... "...or do I do the right thing?" And he takes a break, and he takes a moment to think. At this point, we go into what the film is truly about... ...which is moral choices. Kevin's client, Lloyd Gettys, is a math teacher at the local high school. He's played by Chris Bauer, who's a fabulous, young actor... ...I discovered in New York. I didn't discover him... ...but I found him in the casting process. He had gone to Yale. He doesn't look like this. It just shows the chameleon quality... ...of what an actor can do. But at this point, you can really see the passion and the anger in Keanu here. I wanted to establish: here is a guy who thought he was on top of the world... ...who had it all basically lined up. He sat there calm and collected at the table. You can tell he's not at all upset. Everyone in the room thinks: "Oh my God, this girl is gonna take him apart." But right here, he's got to look at himself in the mirror... ...and realize, "My God, what do I do? "I've never had to make this choice before." I think that maybe some lawyers never have to make it. But I think this is a moment of truth, where you realize: "What do I do, my professional ethics or my personal ethics?" At this moment of choice, in the bathroom enters a character... ...that you will see later in the film. He's the Southern reporter, newspaper reporter... ...a friend of Kevin Lomax's, a drinking buddy. He's played by Neal Jones... ...who's a wonderful New York actor. You want to feel a sense of familiarity here. These are a couple of cynics who like to get together and drink... ...and laugh about life in the courthouse. But basically, right now, he's setting up the fact that this character, Kevin Lomax... ...is unbeaten, he's a hotshot, he doesn't really take anything too seriously... ...because he's got great confidence. But right now, he's about to lose his first case. While looking in the mirror... ...Keanu has to decide, "What am I gonna do?" I thought particularly interesting, and it was an actor's choice... ...Keanu goes through that whole thing. He has his moment of seriousness. He's looking at himself. And then he checked his teeth. It looks like a smile. It's not a smile. It's a smirk. It basically is saying, and is in the best kind of cynical sense: "Hey, I'm going to do my job. I'm a tough son of a bitch. "And I'm gonna go in that courtroom and I'm gonna take this little girl apart. "Because that's what I do. I'm a lawyer and I'm a winner. "And I'm not about to become a loser here." And I think that choice that Keanu made, it was the only time he did it in a take... ...and I included it in the film. He comes in this courtroom and he starts very nice, very sweet to her... ...and appears to be... You know, she's been warned by the opposition that he's a killer, so be careful. You can tell that Heather is being very wary of him. But she's a little arrogant herself. She tends to feel that she's pretty confident. She's supposed to play a character who's very bright... ...and kind of the leader of her group. I think she feels that she's righteous... ...and in a good position right now. So she challenges him a little bit... ...and then Kevin springs a trap. He has this piece of evidence... ...which is a piece of her homework... ...where she's doodled and made a derogatory comment about Mr. Gettys. The fact is, however, that this is an unscrupulous bit of professional behavior. If you notice at the beginning of the scene, Kevin Lomax goes over. He doesn't know whether the judge will admit this or not. He turns his back to the jury, holds the piece up so that they can see it. If the judge doesn't admit it as evidence, he's already shown it to the jury. And this, actually, is a lawyer's trick. It is a bit of an unscrupulous trick... ...but it shows how far Kevin Lomax will go and how tricky he is... ...in terms of getting what he wants. He does, at the same time, get it in place, because he is also a very good lawyer. He's able to, as you see, he starts very nice and then he gets progressively tougher... ...and he's nice, kind of nice to her for a while. When the attorney objects, immediately you could see... ...Keanu Reeves jump like a cat... ...in terms of qualifying why he wants the objection sustained... ...and why he wants to win over the objection. Pardon me. And in this instance, he starts getting tougher and tougher and tougher... ...with Heather. Barbara is the character's name. He is going to take her apart, and slowly the opposition and everyone... ...in the courtroom starts to realize that this guy is not gonna be Mr. Nice Guy. He is perfectly capable of destroying a 13, 14-year old girl.

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