Santa Monica Beach – The 1996 Independent Spirit Awards

• Tweet
• Pin It

I read a headline saying Sandra Bullock is not interested in taking part in “The Heat 2” and it reminded me of an interaction I had with her shortly after I moved to LA.

For whatever reason, beginning with her first big role in “Speed” (which, in turn, made her big), I didn’t understand her appeal.  I found trailers of her films grating.  Sometimes you just have an irrational dislike of someone.  Since my policy is “if you don’t like it, just ignore it”, I actually dwelled on how it didn’t make sense that I found Bullock annoying because I feel that kind of thinking is flawed and the energy misdirected.  She was pretty and had her own screen presence but there was still something . . .

Sorvino and Allen. This scene is not in “Mighty Aphrodite” but it’s a great still of the character.

While I looked for work after moving to LA, I was a volunteer at the 1996 Independent Spirit Awards, which is the indy film world’s version of the Academy Awards® and the nominees and winners can sometimes mirror those of the Oscars®.  The event was held during the day under a huge tent on the beach in Santa Monica.  They were the day before the Oscars that were the coming out party for Mira Sorvino, who was the night’s most popular winner for her Best Supporting role in Woody Allen’s “Mighty Aphrodite”.  She fleshed out the role beautifully and really earned her Oscar.  Like many Supporting Oscar winners, none of her subsequent roles or performances came anywhere near approaching what she did in that movie.  If you’ve never seen it, you owe it to yourself to watch her charming, inspired, and well-directed performance.  Those adjectives also apply to the film itself.

The entire volunteer experience was enjoyable.  I helped with mailings to attendees, nominees, IFP members, and presenters and with making phone calls to follow up on those mailings.  Most of the other volunteers were aspiring actors and were great to work with.  Another fun aspect of volunteering was getting to introduce screenings of nominated films and doing so at different theatres, mostly in areas surrounding West Hollywood, which is where I lived at the time.  Sometimes I’d break from the script I was given to get a laugh from the crowd but usually I stuck to what I was given.  I can see why someone would want to be a standup comedian.

Heavy D in the video for the Janet Jackson song, “Alright”

Because of the screenings, I got to see some good movies for free.  The movie I remember most is “New Jersey Drive”, which I liked and which had the late Dwight Myers in a supporting role. Myers was a clever and rapid-fire rapper I liked known as Heavy D, and is someone I had a surprisingly pleasant interaction with later that year.  What a cool, cool guy.  Most successful entertainment people in LA are cool, which is something that helps them get to where they are.  Here’s the music video for his cover of the O’Jays’ “Now That We Found Love”:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNEgUPKxk7A

Tilly and Palminteri in “Bullets Over Broadway”

The culmination of the volunteer stint was the ceremony itself and many of us escorted presenters at the event.  I escorted Jennifer Tilly, who was prettier in person than she is on screen.  She was also very pleasant.  I liked Woody Allen’s “Bullets Over Broadway”, for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination the previous year.  When we went behind the tent just before she presented, we met her co-presenter, Chazz Palminteri, who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the same movie.  He seemed taller than the 6’2 ½” listed on imdb.  Both nominations were well-deserved.  While the three of us, along with Chazz’ escort, were waiting for our turn to walk to the stage, the two had this exchange:

The Scene

JT (very energetically):        “Hi Chazz, I haven’t seen you since the movie.  How are you?”

CP (very him):                      “Hey Jennifer.  You know, whenever anyone stops me, they all say the same thing; that the scene when I shot you was their favorite part of the movie.”

That made everyone within earshot laugh, especially because of his delivery and the way his deep voice projected.  It was very commanding and I got a feel for his stage presence in that one comment.  The part of the movie he mentioned was also my favorite.  Once Tilly presented, my escort duties ended. although I had to stand near her table in case she needed anything.  She was very low maintenance.  Actually, there was a bit of a stressful situation before the event started and it’s a lucky thing she showed up a little early.  When we got to her vacant table, Tilly noticed “reserved for” place cards with the names of CAA agents and her demeanor changed to one of fright.  She said, “I can’t sit here.  CAA used to be my agency.  I just left them.  You have to do something.”  I assured her I would and hunted down one of the head IFP West people (it was their event) and explained my predicament.  With a call or two on his two-way radio, the problem was resolved and we went to a different table.  He and Tilly both told me they were impressed by the way I handled what could have been a very awkward situation and how I did it so quickly.  The luck was that I found the IFP West guy as soon as I did and from that point on it was all him.

Inside the tent of a recent edition of the ceremony. The one I attended didn’t have all this color. This one also appears to be more formal and held at night.

Before the event, the volunteers set up tables and chairs and anything else that needed to be done and it was exciting to be a part of the activities.  I had no idea at the time that the experience would serve as a precursor to the following year, when I attended the Oscars.  In retrospect and appropriately, it all seems to have been scripted, which just occurred to me in recounting this experience.

Samuel L. Jackson in a career-defining scene and role. Jules in “Pulp Fiction”‘s assassination scene.

All the volunteers really hustled as we prepared for the event and we were constantly in and out of the tent during the process.  At one point, I walked toward the tent’s exit and Samuel L. Jackson, who was the event’s MC, walked into the tent and toward me.  Like Chazz,Jackson is listed at 6’2 ½” but seemed taller.  Because we made eye contact and we were the only two people in the vicinity, he stuck out his hand very professionally, and said, “(I’m) Sam”.  I smiled, shook his hand, and said, “Hi Sam, I’m Dan.  I’m one of the volunteers”, which made him smile, loosen up, look to the left and to the right and say, “This is gonna be fun but I can’t drink til it’s over” in exactly the way you’d expect him to say it.  Phonetically, the “a” in “can’t” was hard and the “i” in “drink” was a soft “a”.

“Pulp Fiction” poster hanging in my home.

The energy I put into the introduction seemed to break him out of the more formal demeanor with which it started.  I couldn’t help responding with a slightly suppressed laugh because I love his delivery and he put all of it and his personality into that his comment.   I felt like I was given a gift.  I replied, “I’m really looking forward to this.  It was nice meeting you, Sam”, implying I didn’t want to take up any more of his time, and we shook hands again.  Putting all of Samuel L. Jackson into it, he said, “It was nice meeting YOU, Dan”, somehow getting two syllables out of my name.  He did something all talent did when I interacted with them; he ended almost every sentence with my name.  Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman did it when I met them at the Oscars the following year.  Talent seemed to be drawn to the fact that I was well-spoken and polite.  I also thought it was because I was very fit and looked much younger than I was, which I was told constantly to the point it gave me a complex.  That metaphorical side of LA and the film industry are both very youth and health-oriented.

I wonder if Sam (I can refer to him as that) could tell I was bursting out of my skin interacting with him because, aside from his amazing versatility, I think he adds a lot of value and tremendous presence to any movie he’s in.  He owned “Pulp Fiction”, which I saw twice during the first week of its release, and was great in every Spike Lee film I’d seen him in up to that point.  When I was at Miramax, I was buddies with Tarantino’s graphic artist Jerry and I sat closest to the big office they shared.  Jerry invited me to the set of Jackson’s re-teaming with Tarantino, “Jackie Brown”, which was filmed in the area of Hawthorne.  He said, “I have to warn you, shooting movies might sound exciting, but all everyone does is stand around because it takes a long time to set up shots.  It’s pretty boring, actually.”  That was all I needed to hear and graciously declined his invite and thanked him for the caveat.  I like “Jackie Brown” even more than I like “Pulp Fiction.”

Two of Grier’s defining roles have the same last name and are the title characters. The main titles for both movies are done in identical lettering.

I went to a very black high school in the mid-70’s and was more than aware of who Pam Grier was – a goddess to my buddies – and thought both her casting and performance in the movie were brilliant.  She owns that movie like Jackson owns “Pulp Fiction”, although everyone in both movies is great in them.  Don’t get me started.

(Too late.)  I read an interview Grier did after the film came out.  She tried out for the part that went to Rosanna Arquette (another person I had a great interaction with on the night I went to the Oscars) in “Pulp Fiction” but Tarantino said he’d keep her in mind for future projects.  Grier figured he was just being nice and put nothing into it.

Grier literally toe-to-toe with Jackson in “Jackie Brown”. That’s DeNiro on the sofa playing Louis the ex-con.

He surprised her by calling a few years later, giving an intentionally vague explanation of a movie he was working on.  It was based on Elmore Leonard’s Rum Punch and he thought she would be good in it.  She asked, “What’s my character’s name?”  He told her, they ended the call, and she figured it was a small role and appreciated that he followed up on his word and kept her in mind.  When the script arrived, she pulled it out of its envelope and saw “Jackie Brown” in big letters on the cover page.  Imagine the rush she must have experienced at that moment.  This was someone whose career prime was more than twenty years earlier and limited to blaxploitation films.  How cool it was for Tarantino to play down the role when he was on the phone with her, knowing how joyful-to-the-point-of-exploding she would be in realizing she was offered not only a lead but the title role.  I’m sure he wished he could have been there when she opened the envelope.  I wish I was.  I love that movie.

Back to the Spirits:

Backstage at a more recent edition of the Spirits

After I did my escort duties, I asked Tilly if she minded if I walked around, offering to stay if she needed anything.   She said she was fine and we shook hands, exchanged “Nice meeting you”s, and she thanked me again for handling the seating problem so quickly and professionally.  I walked around outside the tent just to move around. I’m very hyper, which is why four-hour operas aren’t anywhere near my radar.  When I reentered the tent, I stopped because someone was presenting.

Bullock at the 1996 Spirits

To my right was a surprisingly tall (in heels) and thin Sandra Bullock, who, like Tilly, was more beautiful in person than she is on screen.  My memory is that she was dressed in something black and sheer that might have been a little more formal than the way the other women were dressed, which gave me the impression she didn’t live in LA.  On the way back into the proceedings, I had to excuse myself as I walked between Jennifer Jason Leigh and Elizabeth Shue, who were talking to each other, and both were surprisingly short and much more casually dressed than Bullock was.  Nobody was the height I expected them to be, except for Tom Cruise and Rosanna Arquette.  They were just right.  I think I could take Cruise if it ever came to that.  We both wrestled in school.

Bullock’s breakout role in Jan de Bont’s 1994 “Speed”

Because I appeared out of nowhere and stood beside her, Bullock, who must have been standing in that spot for the same reason I was, smiled and said, “Hi!” in a very friendly manner.  I realized then why people find her appealing.  Even at that moment, her sincerity and friendliness were disarming.  In the same way Jackson gave me the full Samuel L Jackson treatment, Bullock gave me the full Sandra Bullock.  I returned her smile and “hi”. Without a pause she said in a hushed but enthusiastic tone, leaning toward me so close I felt her breath in my right ear, “This is so much more fun than other award shows. I’m always so uncomfortable at those things”, and I responded, also in a loud whisper because of the proceedings, “I’m a volunteer and this is my first one and I’m having a great time”, which made her smile widen.  Not wanting to force conversation, I used my body language to imply I had a reason to split and said, “Have fun” and she smiled and said, “You, too”, as I walked away, thinking “I can’t believe that just happened.”  “Speed” had made her an instant star around that time.  The other interactions I had that day were because I was an event volunteer.  This one happened as a result of Sandra Bullock being Sandra Bullock.  LA and film people can be cool, but she out-cooled everyone in the room by initiating that short conversation with me.  Sam Jackson was still pretty cool, though.

Bullock’s Oscar-winning role

How could I not like her after that experience?  That doesn’t mean I’ll see her movies, although I did see “The Blind Side.”   I’m not sure she deserved that Oscar but, if Hillary Swank can have two (Swank owns two Oscars while Michelle Pfeiffer, a far superior and more versatile actress, has none), then Bullock definitely should have one for her work in that film and I’m happy for her.  Good people deserve good things to happen to them.  Personally, I think her likeability and sincerity, which I experienced first-hand, worked in her favor with Academy voters.  When I watched her win her Oscar and make her speech, it didn’t occur to me that I had actually met her.

Talk about taking the scenic route to make a point.  I forgot about my interaction with her until I saw the “Heat 2” headline.

You have to admit, I can tell ‘em.  And I have more and better ones to tell.

DPW

July 31, 2013

Now if somebody can just explain to me the deal with Julia Roberts.

(The images of Marina Del Rey, Venice, Santa Monica, sunny Malibu, and the Pacific Coast Highway were taken June 26, 2011.  The cloudy Malibu picture was taken December 23, 2012.)

Added September 9, 2013:

Sandra Bullock ‘didn’t feel worthy’ of her Oscar

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2013/09/08/gravity-debuts-in-toronto/2784587/

So fascinating this would come up not long after I wrote this account of my experience.   It just shows you how level-headed and humble she is.

Whoopi Goldberg should say the same thing for robbing Lorraine Bracco (“Goodfellas”) of 1990’s Best Supporting Actress Oscar®.  She won for basically playing herself in “Ghost”, which was forgettable for me even before it I’d finished watching it.

Related Posts

• My 2018 Oscar Picks
  My 2018 Oscar Picks
• Oscar Night Review
  Oscar Night Review
• My 2017 Oscar Picks
  My 2017 Oscar Picks
• “La La Land” Written and Directed by Damien Chazelle
  “La La Land” Written and Directed by Damien Chazelle

Leave a Reply Cancel reply