The screening was hosted by Backstage and held at The Linwood Dunn Theater which is on Vine in Hollywood. Never hear of it? Yeah, neither had I. So imagine my surprise when it turns out it's within walking distance of one of my favorite places to visit: Amoeba Records, on Sunset Blvd.. I'd never noticed it there because it's actually not your average movie theater where there are multiple screens, and a concession stand. It's only one theater, with a 280+ people capacity inside what appears to bee an average office building from the outside, which apparently is the Academy of Arts and Sciences (or "the Oscars") Mary Pickford Center of Motion Picture Study. In any case, it's a nice little theater which is in pristine condition and actually still smells brand-spankin' new, which I'm pretty sure it is. Then again, I could be wrong, I really don't have a clue about that. The outside lobby and hallways are lined with large, colorful and quite beautiful Classic Movie posters, as well as a few large Oscar statuettes. Despite having a camera on me, I was not sure if we were allowed to use them inside so I didn't dare take any pictures. I didn't want to get kicked out so quickly upon arriving, as you might imagine.
As for the movie, it's based on a true story about a man (Sam Rockwell) who is sentenced to life in prison for a murder he did not commit and his sister (played by Hilary Swank) who puts herself through law school and pretty much dedicates her life to proving his innocence and setting him free. In addition to Hillary Swank and Sam Rockwell, the cast includes Minnie Driver, Juliette Lewis and Peter Gallagher. With actors of that caliber I imagine it's not necessary for me to say how great the acting is. But if you're thinking it is necessary, perhaps you should go out and rent some movies. I'm just sayin'. The movie is a bit slow at times but I found the story and the acting to be good enough that I didn't get restless. Juliette Lewis has a small amount of screen time but I thought she was amazing. I don't know that she had a big enough role to be able to be nominated for an Academy Award, but she was that good, in my opinion. As were Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell.
After the movie, as I mentioned, there was a Q&A with Sam Rockwell. He was interviewed by someone from Backstage for some time before taking questions from the audience. As a lot of the people there were apparently SAG members, there were a lot of questions about method, craft and representation, and while I'm very much not in the business, I still found a lot of that quite interesting. Also, I might mention, it was a damned well-dressed, good looking crowd. Is it a SAG thing? I don't know.
But back to Sam, he did tell this story which got a laugh (not so much because of the story but because of the answer to the question after) ,about The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and how he, Jeremy Renner and one of the other guys from the cast (can't remember who) all auditioned for Casey Affleck's role (Robert Ford) because that's the part they all really wanted. When he didn't get it, he was offered the part of Charley Ford which he really didn't want to do. Apparently, Brad Pitt really wanted him to take the role and kept trying to convince him to do it but Sam kept turning him down. Brad, who wasn't going to take no for answer, apparently showed up at Sam's door out of the blue and unannounced to talk him into it. After hanging out for a little bit at the house, Sam agreed to take the role. When the interviewer asked how Brad had even gotten his address to show up unannounced, Sam just shrugged his shoulders, shook his head and said "He's fuking Brad Pitt!".
He told another story about how a film canister containing sixteen hours of film was destroyed at the airport after being x-rayed despite being sealed with tape saying "Do not X-Ray". As it turned out, the film that was destroyed was of the hardest scenes he and Hilary had in the movie, both physically and mentally. So much so, that one of the actors or crew (he couldn't remember which) remarked that they wouldn't want to have to do that again! To break the news to them, Samuel Goldwyn, the director, asked to speak to Sam and Hilary in Hilary's trailer. After telling them they'd have to shoot it all over again, Hilary, trying to stay positive, according to Sam, (and maybe wishfully thinking) asked Goldwyn, "Are you sure it was the whole thing? How about the middle of the spool? Did they check that? Maybe some of that can be saved?" And then, Sam, (acting as Hilary) making a circle with his finger that indicated the spool was getting smaller and nearer to the center, asked, "or how about just in there? Could any of that have made it?", which got a sympathetic laugh from the audience. None of it was salvageable of course, so it did need to be re-shot, the prospect of which made Sam stress out so much he felt nauseated. In the end he said he felt it was actually a better performance on his part, so it worked out.
After the Q&A, Sam and his girlfriend Leslie Bibb, who'd been sitting in the audience, took off out a side door. Had I known that side entrance only lead to the lobby and that he'd be out there talking to some people and taking pictures, I'd have hauled ass out of the theater. Unfortunately I did not know that, and by the time we got out he was just about wrapping up the conversation and picture taking and seemed in a hurry to get out of there, so just as I was working my way through the remaining crowd, toward him, camera in hand, he took off! Bummer.
Anyway, all in all, it was a very good, free evening!
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