“When I see this picture, the chemistry between us is delightful still,” began Jon Voight as he and Dustin Hoffman took the stage late last night after a packed Los Angeles Film Festival screening of John Schlesinger’s 1969 classic Midnight Cowboy at the Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theater. “It's still a little bit of a miracle to see, when actors have such chemistry; when one of us starts moving, the other one does too.” Forty-some years after making the film, that chemistry was still on display during the two great actor’s conversation, hosted by LA Times critic Kenneth Turan. Exceedingly generous with their time and thoughtful responses, Voight and Hoffman entertained the audience with recollections of the film’s shooting, the director John Schlesinger and his working style, American filmmaking in the early Seventies, and, above all, their collaboration together. Seeing the film again (the two claimed to have sat in the audience for the final half hour), what’s clear is that Midnight Cowboy has lost none of its power over the decades. In fact, compared to many contemporary “independent visions” on display here, it’s probably gained power, its scaly gutter-level realism and humanist force only serving to highlight the relative lack of such filmmaking in today’s American independent cinema.

What follows is a loose transcription of highlights from a memorable evening….

ON (FINALLY) GETTING CAST IN MIDNIGHT COWBOY

DH: I was just going to go back to the stage after The Graduate (Hoffman’s first role, which made him an immediate star). As a New York actor working in theater and used to working with great works, film scripts were a bit “thin,” so I wasn’t getting anything interesting. But Midnight Cowboy had an amazing script (by Waldo Salt), and was based on a novel. The problem was that Schlesinger, as a serious “artist,” refused to see me, because of the success of The Graduate; he considered it, and me, too lightweight.

“When I finally got an audition, I got all dressed up in character, and had him meet me at around 3am around Times Square, in some laundromat, just to show how serious I was.”

JV: “I thought of Dusty immediately when reading the script.”

"On a trip to London I saw Schlesinger's A Kind of Loving, and couldn't believe what I saw, couldn't believe that I could work with this guy."

“When I first went in to read, I think I lost it. Put too much into it. A few months later I ran into an actor friend of mine in LA, who said, “Oh, I’m doin’ GREAT; I’m up for this great part in a new Schlesinger film!” And then I realized I needed to get back to New York, and read again for that part, and get it.”

(Voight went on to praise the casting director, a friend and champion who was able to get him another audition. "I pleaded with her, and when I went in to audition, she was there, and was able to introduce me to Schlesinger; I think that personal introduction from her truly helped.")

DH: "Schlesinger didn’t want Voight because he was from Yonkers, didn’t have that Texas accent, but I told him, “Well, John, He’s an actor.” So Jon went to Midlands, Texas, or Big Springs, with a tape recorder to nail the Texas accent.”

JV: "I’d go into bars to try and get away with being Texan."


THEIR COLLABORATIVE PROCESS:

DH: "Jon and I were fascinated with these guys (the characters), and how they were friends. We’d improvise and rehearse together forever."

"We improvised that bit with the comb (on the stairs after the party). Putting my head on his chest was improvised. And improvisation work is just something they don’t make time for now."


On their friendly rivalry during the shoot, each anxious to upstage the other: DH: "We were like fighters, who in the end would embrace."

On an early shoot, even before they really began to work on their characters, the walk across a bridge in the snow:
DH: "So I’m still working on my character, and even trying to get a sense what the cough is all about. So I’m coughing and coughing, and I start coughing so much as we’re walking, I throw up all over his boots. And Jon goes up to Schlesinger, and says, 'Is he going to do that every scene?'”

WORKING WITH DIRECTOR JOHN SCHLESINGER (a key figure in the British New Wave, whose features included Billy Liar, Darling, and A Kind of Loving; Midnight Cowboy was his first American feature)

JV: "Schlesinger was an artist. Whatever he’s doing onscreen, he’s painting. You see him up there, and that’s what he’s doing with the film."

“What I remember about John is his self-doubt. And that was his process. Like he was having a child, having labor pains before each scene. This film came out of him.”

"We knew something was happening, and it was because of John Schlesinger."

"The director is the man. We’re the beneficiaries of this great talent.”

On the final day of shooting, in Texas, when Voight noticed Schlesinger shaking and sweating in the hot Texan sun, looking ill:
"I thought he was having a heart attack, and I asked him what was wrong. 'What will they think of us?!,' he said. 'We’ve made a film about a dishwasher who goes to New York City and fucks a lot of women!” (Laughter).

"He had finally realized what the film was about." (Laughter).

"And I grabbed him and said, “We’ve made a masterpiece that we’ll live in the shadow of forever.”

On Hoffman's doubtfulness over the movie's power:
"I always do little sketches during my shoots, and I had done a little sketch of me and Dusty in character. And Dusty sees it, and just says, “Geez, I hope the movie is that good.”

DH: "He knew about acting, and could talk the language of actors more than any other actor that I knew.”

SCENES AND MOMENTS:

On the hippie/acid sex party scene, with cast members culled from the Andy Warhol circle (including Viva, Ultra Violet, and Paul Morrissey):
DH: "John was friends with all of those people. That shoot for the party went on for a week. It sure didn’t have to." (Laughter).

“We’d get there at 7am for makeup and prep and everyone would still be there, shooting up, with all kinds of oral sex going on….”


On the "taxi" scene ("I'm walkin' here! I'm walkin' here!!!):
DH: "Schlesinger just told us to walk down and then across this street. We didn’t have any permits or anything, so we were shooting with a hidden camera in a van across the street. Jon and I were in character, looking like real New Yorkers, and nobody knew who we were. It was a real problem, though, walking and then getting to the light, to time it right on the “walk” signal, because Schlesinger didn’t want us to stop and wait, just keep walking."

"So it took us like 10-15 takes, and we were always messing up the timing. And then finally we get it right, and we’re walking across the street…and this cab runs the red light. My brain is yelling, 'Hey, I'm ACTING here,' because it was messing up the take, but I can’t do that, cause we’re still shooting, so my mouth translates that as 'Hey, I’m WALKING here.' And so it worked. But that cab still almost hit us."

On the toilet-sex scene:
DH: "In previews, blocks of people would just get up and walk out. Bob Balaban (actor and future director) was all excited about his first role; he even called up his parents. But he’s gotta tell them, 'Hey, it’s my first role; I’m getting a blow job in a toilet.'" (Laughter)

JV (laughing): "See, whenever I do an interview with Dusty, I’m getting upstaged.”

DH (deadpan): Well, I’m sure my memory is, um, somewhat faulty.”

THE TIMES OF MIDNIGHT COWBOY, AND ITS POWER:

DH: "Back then there was no language of hits or indies. We were just trying to make a movie, and stay true to it, and naturalistic. Those were good days. We were experiencing the residue of the New Waves. The French, the Italian, the British, were all coming into the Thalia, the other New York theaters."

JV: "The studio system had gotten stale. Stars were fading, films were not making money, but all these new artists were coming up at the same time, all eager to make films more real, to express what we were seeing. Some of those talents broke through; it was a very interesting time."

"This movie has a moral force to it. It’s a very rough film, but it has a tremendous love for humanity in it."

# posted by Jason Sanders @ 6/26/2009 05:17:00 PM

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