Rehearsal

Francis Ford Coppola

I always like to use a lot of improvisation when we rehearse and big, long improvisations. And what we did in this sequence in Lake Tahoe in Godfather Part II is we had the cast there a couple of weeks right on that location. And I went around and said, okay, this is...

17:37 · jump to transcript →

Francis Ford Coppola

We actually lived in these houses while we were rehearsing and preparing Godfather II, so these various houses that all the scenes are taking place in were where we slept at night. It was pretty funny. Then, of course, when the movie started, we...

1:16:16 · jump to transcript →

Francis Ford Coppola

I remember one incident about this scene is that we rehearsed it in the morning, and Frankie Pentangeli gave this performance

2:35:10 · jump to transcript →

Oh, look. Nice car, that, that woodie. Yes, and what was the tape playing? Was it Nixon? Nixon's-- which I... I don't like that speech being played, actually because it locks the movie into a time frame. I thought it was terribly clever. And that late November evening wasn't in time with Nixon's speech. Speech. And, you know, there's lots of things. Now we see this motorcyclist here. Those people who played Transylvanians were on the back of those motorbikes. They would have to go to the studio this very night, dress up, put all their Transylvanian gear on, and then put motorbike leathers on as well. Yeah. - And then go out on these motorbikes. They didn't drive them themselves. No, no. They had motorcyclists. They paid pillion passengers. Yeah. And, as Ramon Gow said, you know, I said, "Why are they coming in to do this? It could be anybody wet in the dark. And he said, "Could be a gorilla with a pipe, luv." Gorilla with a pipe? But I'll never forget the first day I saw the Transylvanians, 'cause they were rehearsing in a room in the house. And we didn't have Transylvanians in the play, and suddenly this door was open, and I don't want politically noncorrect, but it was so freaky because they were freaks. Sorry. - As indeed we all are. No, speak for yourself. And in the amazement of tall, small, fat, thin, you Know... You lost a sense of norms, you do. Sense of center. Yes, and I saw all these people dancing doing the "Time Warp," and I almost collapsed. I couldn't believe it. I thought... Because I didn't know they were going to be in this. I didn't know there was a cast of Transylvanians. No. - No. Well, when I went into the room and David Toguri was rehearsing them, Well, when I went into the room and David Toguri was rehearsing them, Well, when I went into the room and David Toguri was rehearsing them, and Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon was standing amongst these people, with hugely different, physically, SO very... I'll never work again for using the word "freak." It seemed to me that Susan and Barry, who most people would say are relatively good-looking human beings, seemed just as freakish. There was no standard. The standards had disappeared. Yes, that's what freakish-- yes, right. And that was interesting.

12:03 · jump to transcript →

Oh. - Whoo! Now this little-- That was a great little-little dance there. I-I-I came up with that little dance step. Did you? - In seconds. And I don't know how I did it. And I've never been able to do it since. I could've killed you, because I could hardly do it. And Toguri kept telling me... I kept falling over. It was that wiggling on one foot, and I had high heels. We did it very easily and very quickly. I know. Did you make it up? In seconds. It's not from the "Time Warp"? - No. Or did we just follow you? Obviously. Well, Nell went... ... That looks good. That's good." And I don't Know where it came from, because you know I'm a terrible dancer. And we did it in seconds. And, uh, it was all over. But it looks rather good, that little leg movement. Yeah. Yes, I love this bit. "He's okay." Because when-when we did it in rehearsal, I gave Nellie a note for this. She'd hate the word "note." You know, and she goes, "He's okay." And changed it completely from however she'd done it before. And Tim Curry was so shocked, that he really did react to it like he was furious with her. Because she completely changed the tone of it. Mm-hmm. And I loved it because it was, like, it wasn't what he was expecting, so his fury was real.

38:13 · jump to transcript →

It was very difficult to rehearse. They would have to use another level of truth in them. It sounds pompous, but it isn't as pompous as it sounds. Nate could probably make a deal for you. I'll bet you you could probably go back. I always have great feelings of inadequacy when it comes to explaining any kind of art, anyway. I've always totally...

2:01:37 · jump to transcript →

I mean, a lot of people like to plot through the whole sequence of events and storyboard and have an overall picture of what will be the final movie. I have a very, very sketchy overall picture. I find it very difficult to rehearse scenes before coming to the set.

2:03:04 · jump to transcript →

You choreographed this pavan between Mike and the tall man. How many times did we rehearse that? I don't know. I just remember talking about the sort of Western style of it. I mean, like a Western movie, you know. Like a gunfight. Gunfight kind of thing, right. It had to be very precise.

37:45 · jump to transcript →

word here in the film i never realized it would have so much impact when we were first rehearsing it this thing was an afterthought as i recall and i had got a haircut and no one to this day has ever accused me they don't seem to notice that the tall man for the first time doesn't have his long hair anymore well get on upstairs get your gear that's right i didn't even remember

1:25:18 · jump to transcript →

these electrodes in my arms, put airplane dope all over my arms, and explained to me what to do. They were very, very careful about it. They said, when we say cut, don't put your hands straight out. Don't put them up in the air. Don't do this. And then they rehearsed it through one time. And they did it, ignited it, and did that. And it was fine.

1:57:11 · jump to transcript →

Francis Ford Coppola

At least you're being authentic when you're insecure about what the bigger picture is that you're doing. I think the actors worked so well together because of a rehearsal period that we had before the movie started. I remember...

1:17:59 · jump to transcript →

I guess when they were rehearsing the scene beforehand, I guess Shaw accidentally banged his toe, kind of stubbed it, and the spark shot out of it. Apparently it just scared the crap out of him. So it's funny to imagine Robert Shaw being terrified by one of his props is an amusing idea. But yeah, apparently he didn't realize exactly what that shoe was going to do. Oh, sure. Yeah, but it's still a funny story. This got a huge laugh. And then...

1:35:49 · jump to transcript →