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Thank You John,
Remembering a fellow artist and a friend
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In 1996, my agent, Patrick Whitesell, told me about a script called The Long Rains. A pretty big action movie, set in the 1930s during a massive flood somewhere in the South. It was an Imagine Entertainment project to be produced by Brian Grazer who was talking to the legendary John Frankenheimer about directing it. I had recently worked with Brian on Apollo 13 and Ransom, and I got a call that he wanted to talk to me about it. At the time, Brian was producing Liar Liar and I remember going to the set, sitting in his trailer discussing the movie and his feeling that John was a fantastic director for this material. I also met Jim Carey for the first time that day.
Brian wanted to set up a meeting between John and me, and within a few days I was on my way to the Hamburger Hamlet in Brentwood to meet one of America's greatest directors - The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May, The Birdman of Alcatraz, The Train, Black Sunday, Grand Prix, Seconds, The Iceman Cometh, The French Connection 2. He had also recently won three Emmys in a row for directing the cable TV films Against The Wall, The Burning Season and Andersonville. I was knocked out at the possibility of working with this man.
When I arrived at the restaurant, John was already there and I was struck by how young and energetic he seemed. How strong he was. How incredibly smart he was. Here was a man who had tremendous energy and passion for movies, and the making of movies. He was also extremely funny and I was in hysterics as he told me one crazy Hollywood tale after another. I loved him immediately. We ordered some burgers and eventually got around to discussing The Long Rains. John told me it was something that he would really like to do with me, but he had a feeling that it wasn't going to get made. He had another project that he wanted me to read though. A movie for TNT based on the book by Marshall Frady about the life of the former governor of Alabama, George Wallace.
I had recently played Harry Truman in a movie for HBO and a few weeks earlier my agent called to say that, "TNT was doing George Wallace and was I interested?" I told him that I was not because I just didn't feel like doing another political biography on cable. Truman was an enormous and rewarding challenge, but I was looking for something different, hopefully a feature film. There was a project that John Daul was doing and I was waiting to see if that was going to work out. At the time, I didn't know John was involved with Wallace. Sitting at lunch that day, it was extremely difficult to ignore his passion for the project and his desire for me to do it with him. He was so complimentary about my work. I told him that I would, of course, read it because it was him, but that I still didn't think that it was going to be something I would want to do right now. John understood and said he thought I would feel differently after I read it. I drove home kind of stunned. First, that I had actually met him, and second, that the original project, The Long Rains, looked bleak.
I wanted to do a feature and not another cable movie. Now I had to read this script and deal with the real possibility that I would have to say "No" to John Frankenheimer.
I read the script the following day and, although I thought it was pretty good, it didn't grab me enough to make me shift my position of not wanting to do another biography.
John called and, as difficult as it was, I told him that the script didn't change my mind and I would have to pass on it. " No! Don't say that!" John screamed into the phone. "You have to do this. You don't understand. I am not going to make this picture without you. My God! This is a great role in an important movie. You are making a terrible mistake!"
I paused for a second, because I didn't really expect him to challenge my decision in such a forceful way. "John," I said, "I'm not happy about this myself. I would really love to work with you and I'm sorry that The Long Rains is falling apart. I wish I would have responded differently to the Wallace script, but I still can't get wrapped around the idea of playing this guy."
John said, " Listen, before you say no, let me come out to your house with some videotape on Wallace. I'll sit there and watch it with you. I also have some books on him that I'd like you to look at. I know the script needs work and I'm willing to do the work. I just need you to do it with me. You have got to play this role. Period."
Wow! This was one persistent guy. He was not taking my "No" lying down and I respected that. I also was a bit flattered that John Frankenheimer would fight for me this way. This was one of the great directors in American Cinema and he wanted to drive out to my house? I thought for a second about Truman. I had resisted doing that picture as well and the director, Frank Pierson, was very persuasive when I met with him. Truman ended up being a tremendous experience and one of the best things I had ever done.
"Of course," I said. "Come on out this afternoon."
I heard the engine roar into my driveway. It was John. He arrived right on time in his souped-up Mercedes. He loved cars and driving fast. Just look at Grand Prix and Ronin and you'll understand a little bit about John. John knew a hell of a lot about cars and later that day he would take me for a little ride down Pacific Coast Highway just to show me that his car could go 0 to 60 in two seconds or something. This was, after all, the director of Grand Prix. I remembered seeing it when I was about 11 or 12 years old and freaking out when Yves Montand crashed his car and died. I made sure I was strapped in tight.
We watched a documentary on Wallace and it was very interesting. Sitting silently for a couple of hours I was starting to get the feeling that there was much more story here than was reflected in the script. At the conclusion, John turned it off and said, " Now, you can see that there is a compelling and important American story here can't you?" "Of course," I said. John went on. "You could play the hell out of this role. Take a look at some of these books and let's talk in a day or two." I agreed that I would take a look, and think about it all, and then we headed out to lunch in the Mercedes.
I read through some of the books and saw that there were many more compelling and dramatic aspects of Wallace's life that could, and should, be included in the script, but I still felt a little resistant to play the guy. I just didn't like him. He did some horrible things and it was hard to picture myself in this part. John called and I told him that I was still having trouble with the idea, and also sort of secretly hoping that I would be offered that huge movie star part in that big old feature film. John would not let go. He convinced me that we would be total partners on the project and that I would be a part of every single script meeting. He knew that we could make a great movie together and it was something that I would regret if I didn't do it.
Well, it finally got through my thick skull that John was right. How could I pass this up? I would get to work on a tremendously rich Shakespearean-type tale with a legendary American filmmaker. What was I thinking? This was the kind of challenge that an actor exists for. I would be a complete idiot not to do this and, thanks to John's persistence and his refusal to let me off the hook, I finally saw the light and said yes. John taught me a very good lesson. As a director, when you have a gut feeling, and you know it is right, you fight for it until the very last breath. I may have taken no for an answer and moved on to another actor, but John did not give in. He kept at it and he convinced me that he was right. He gave me the confidence to jump off the cliff and into the water.
And as an actor, I learned that sometimes, when I am most resistant, IGNORE MYSELF!
When John said that we would do the work on the script he meant it. Together, with writer Marshall Frady, we shaped it so much that it went from what was supposed to be a TV movie to a two-night mini-series. John and I were doing so much research, and bringing in so many ideas, that the script must have grown by at least another 10 to 15 pages. John just had to figure out how to shoot it all within our schedule. It required a couple of unscheduled 22-hour days, but he did it. Don't ask me how he got away with them. As long as I could keep walking and talking I kept going because I loved the work and I believed in John and what we were doing. I never ever felt left out of the making of George Wallace. From the beginning John said we would be total partners and he kept his word. During the making of the film we became very close and remained so right up until the day he died. I consider Wallace to be the best thing I have done on film and never have I had a more rewarding experience as an actor. It was because of John.
Now I have directed a few movies myself, and I know that we all have to fight to get what we want, but I have never seen a director fight harder to preserve his vision than John. One time I was sitting in my trailer and all of a sudden I hear, "GARY! GARY SINISE!" I opened the door and John was standing in the doorway of his trailer yelling, "GARY! Get over here! I need you!" I walked into his trailer and there sat one of our producers, John's long time friend, Ethel Winant, and Nick Lombardo, an executive from TNT. We had been shooting for about 45 days at this point and some of the most critical scenes were still to be done. The most important of which was a scene where, in 1963, Wallace is inaugurated governor of Alabama. For the final four days of our schedule, we were going to fly up to Sacramento to shoot this, and a few remaining scenes, in front of the Capitol building, which would double for the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. I entered John's trailer and he said to me, "Now Gary, Nick has just informed me that they are going to pull the plug on us at the end of the week. That they are not going to let us go up to Sacramento to shoot the scene where Wallace becomes the governor. All this work, and all this time, and we are not going to shoot the scene where Wallace says, 'Segregation now. Segregation tomorrow. And segregation forever.' These are the words that defined him and his governorship. In a movie about THE GOVERNOR of Alabama, we are not going to see him actually BECOME THE GOVERNOR! What the hell do you think about that?"
I paused.
Then, standing there in my Wallace hairpiece, I said, "Well...uh...I think that's kind of stupid. I mean it seems to me that everything we have done up to this point, the last 45 days of shooting, is kind of pointless with out the scene where the governor becomes the governor. I kind of feel that everything I have done as an actor on this movie would be rendered senseless because I have been thinking the whole time that I was playing a guy who desperately wanted to be the governor of Alabama. If we're not going to see him become the governor in the movie, then I sort of feel that there would be no point in continuing the rest of the shoot this week because the movie has just been killed. Why go on? Are we done? Should I go home?"
There was a pause. Nick, from TNT, stared.
Then John launched. He pleaded and spit and turned fire red. His eyes were popping out of his head. He went ballistic. " NICK, YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO US! WE HAVE ALL WORKED TOO HARD! MY GOD! DON'T DO THIS! YOU MAY AS WELL HAVE JUST THROWN TED TURNER'S MONEY DOWN THE TOILET! THE MOVIE WILL NOT WORK WITHOUT THIS SCENE! PLEASE COME TO YOUR SENSES! WE ARE MAKING WHAT COULD BE A TREMENDOUS MOVIE HERE! BUT IT WON'T BE UNLESS YOU LET US FINISH WHAT WE STARTED."
This kind of thing went on for another 20 minutes.
The next day John informed me that we were going to Sacramento.
John did everything he could for our project and at one point, towards the end of editing, he even went straight to Ted Turner to get them to buy a piece of music, Louis Armstrong's version of We Shall Overcome, to be used at the end of the film. As I said, he delivered a longer version than TNT had ordered. He cut the movie down to 3 hours and 10 minutes and refused to cut any more. It would have destroyed the movie and TNT wisely gave him what he wanted. Wallace aired over two nights and went on to win the Golden Globe for best mini-series. Angelina Jolie won her first Golden Globe, Mare Winningham won an Emmy and I won a SAG Award and an Emmy. John picked up his 4th Emmy for Best Director. It got tremendous reviews and also won a Peabody Award.
The day that John spit nails in his trailer I must admit that I was a little afraid he was going to have a heart attack or drop dead or something. But I understood later that John was not someone who just yelled for the sake of yelling. He knew exactly when to pick his battles and when to back off. At that moment, he knew that his legacy as a filmmaker was in jeopardy. He knew that at this time next year this particular executive might be working for another network, or possibly be out of the business altogether, but he, John Frankenheimer, would still be directing movies and what he did right now, at this moment, would live with him forever. If he didn't get those scenes he would not have made the film he wanted to make and that would have haunted him, not TNT, for the rest of his life. This was going to be A John Frankenheimer Film and he would protect it with everything he had.
I know that he respected the folks at TNT and they obviously respected him because, ultimately, they supported everything he wanted. Sometimes he would have to wrestle, as we all do, and he would call me in to help him convince them of something, but they were good to him and he appreciated them. He loved the movies he did for them and he loved working with HBO. These cable companies brought him back to life. He was grateful and he told me several times.
In early May of this year, John went into the hospital for back surgery and the day before his surgery he called to ask me to stand in for him at a tribute at the DGA. I said I would do anything for him. He sounded strong and positive that things would work out. I knew it would. This was my dear, indestructible good friend John. He was like General Patton or something. The guy you would willingly follow into battle because you knew that he is going to win and he is going to take care of you. He was like that on the set. You always knew that he had vision, that he was going to make something special, and that you were definitely working with a master. He would go on for years.
He called me the day after his 7½ hour surgery and he sounded like nothing had happened. His voice was as strong as ever. He was ready to start his physical therapy and get back to work as soon as possible. He thanked me for filling in for him at the DGA and then he asked me if I would become his partner in a new production company where he would produce movies that I directed and I would produce his projects with him. Together we would develop the kinds of scripts that we were both interested in. He felt strongly that HBO would want to become involved with us and if we developed things that they decided were not right for them, we would take them elsewhere to try and get them made. THIS WAS THE DAY AFTER A 7½ HOUR SURGERY! Nothing was going to get in his way. He was looking forward with excitement and vision. My response was immediate. "What are we going to call the company?" I didn't have to think about it at all. It never occurred to me that this would never come to be.
The next time I talked to John he sounded a bit tired. He was at home doing his physical therapy and when I called his voice was weak. I never thought that things might not be going well. He just sounded sleepy and I continued to stay away to give him his chance to recuperate. I said I would be by next week when he felt a little stronger, still never considering that anything bad would happen. I was wrong and I regret that now. It was the last time I would talk to him.
When I called him the next week, I got his machine and I left a message that I wanted to come by. His wonderful wife Evans called me back. John had asked her to let me know that he had developed some blood clots and that he was going to go back into the hospital to have them dissolved. She thought that he would stay in the hospital for a bit, to continue his physical therapy under the steady care of the doctors, and I told her that I would come by the hospital to see him. When I called the next week, to set up a time, I got her voice mail. She called me back and left a message that the news was not good. I called her back at the hospital and she told me that John had had a stroke and would not make it. My heart sank. It was too hard for me to comprehend. My God. How could this be? I was so stunned and saddened by this news.
The next morning Nancy Lesser from HBO, a dear friend of the Frankenheimers, called me on my cell to tell me that John had passed away at 8:00 A.M. It was Saturday, July 6th and I stood there in an outdoor courtyard of a shopping mall, with two of my kids, in total shock. Even though I had talked to Evans the night before, and I was prepared for the worst, it was devastating to hear the words. Twenty minutes later, when I got home, my wife Moira, who had just gotten out of Saturday morning Mass, called me from her cell. I told her the news and I broke down sobbing. I so regretted not seeing my friend at the end and how it never occurred to me that I should get over there and see him. I just didn't expect this to happen. This great man, this giant, who I loved and admired so much, was gone. The next day I went to see Evans and we cried together. She was so strong. She got me to laugh a bit as she told me stories about John and she also got me to do my John imitation for Elise, one of his two beautiful daughters. It helped me to be there with Evans. I stayed for the entire afternoon. I didn't want to leave. I think she comforted me more than I comforted her that day.
The last time I saw John he was editing his final film, Path to War for HBO. I reprised my role of George Wallace for the film, and we sat at lunch and talked about how excited he was with the movie. He loved making it and we talked about working together again as soon as possible. That's who he was. John was always looking ahead. He was someone who was never going to stop growing and learning and kickin'ass. A guy with the energy and enthusiasm of a much younger man. Just take a look at Ronin. He did the car chases in that movie all himself. No second unit. He stayed for an extra month just to shoot the cars. In my opinion, those two chase scenes stand right alongside Bullitt and The French Connection as the best chase scenes ever done on film. No CGI. All stunts. All done live.
I sat next to him at the premiere and when I saw those scenes I turned to him and said, "Damn! Those two scenes were incredible, John." He smiled back and said, " They are pretty good, aren't they?" He was 70 years old when he made that movie.
I am a lucky guy. I got to work with this man three times. George Wallace, Reindeer Games and Path to War, and for the past seven years we were very close.
I learned so much from him and I loved him dearly. I owe him a great deal. He supported me through some personal troubles and he was always there if I needed him. John was a good and loyal friend who was always so supportive of my work. John was sometimes pretty gruff on the set but, always underneath, this man was a compassionate and caring human being. A smart, funny, unique individual, that left a legacy of great work to us all. He cared about the subjects and the stories he chose to put his energies into and he loved the actors, designers and crews that helped him tell those stories. At one point in his life he went into the darkness, but he came back into the light shining brighter than ever. He wanted to be better at the end than at the beginning, and I think he achieved that. His later work is every bit as strong, if not stronger, as his most successful early work. The short film he did with David Fincher's company and BMW was especially meaningful to him. He loved hanging with, and learning new things from, the younger filmmakers. He was never satisfied to just repeat himself. His Catholic faith was a big part of his life these past two years and I believe, at the end, he was at peace. He dearly loved his wife of 41 years, Evans, and I think he felt that he really had had a wonderful life.
God bless you John. I will miss you terribly.
But when I think of you, I will always see you on the set, towering over everyone, and I will hear your voice saying, "LET'S GET IT QUIET IN HERE! ROLL THE CAMERA! ... Action."
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