MOVIEMAKER.COM SPRING 2020 13BOOK EXCERPT
LEFT: COURTESY OF FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX; RIGHT: PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF PHOTOFEST
stay as it is.” Was it a hoax? No, it wasn’t.
We not only had our director; we had one
of the finest in the world.AT THE END of our first evening
together, Louis looked at me sharply. “If we
do this, André,” he said, “it’ll be the most
difficult thing you have ever done.” And how
right he was.
First, I had to memorize hundreds of pages
of dialogue. I would learn fifteen pages and
try for another two. But as I learned the
new pages, three others would slip away.
This went on for nine months. Sometimes,
worried awake, I would get out of bed,
make coffee, and go back to memorizing.
I practiced everywhere—on the subway, in
Colorado, where I went to lead a workshop,
on a two-week holiday with Chiquita in
Mexico. It spoiled her vacation. If I stopped
for even a day, I would begin to forget.THERE WAS ALSO THE ISSUE of
money. We had to raise a hell of a lot of it to
make this work. Everyone we approachedthought we were nuts. A good friend who
had invested in many of my productions
over the years reprimanded me: “You know
what? I’m deeply hurt. I’ve helped you for
years, and now you’re asking me to put
money in something that will not only lose
all its money but is silly and stupid. You
should be ashamed of yourselves.” I asked
an old friend who headed the National
Endowment for the Arts for a small grant to
cover the costs of videotaping rehearsals to
plan camera angles ahead of time (we would
never be able to afford a long film shoot).
We met at her home, and I described the
project. When I finished she said, “I haven’t
understood a single word. I don’t know
what the hell you think you are doing. I’ve
helped you in the past, but I’m certainly not
going to help you with this bullshit.”
Louis had always raised money through
the usual movie channels, which were closed
to us with a small, strange project like this.
He kindly joined Wally and me when we
made our pitch to the wealthy. For him—for
all of us—it was a humiliating experience.LOUIS TAUGHT ME how to act for film.
He gave me one direction: Speak faster.
Was he demanding that because I was
so boring? No, I was used to theater acting,
he told me, and this had to be film acting.
(This was the same direction John Huston
gave to his father, Walter Huston,
also a theater actor, in their film
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and it
won Walter an Oscar.) The role was already
there—in my eyes—Louis explained. I’d done
so much rehearsing, I didn’t have to “act”
or “perform.” The camera sees everything.
Talking fast would take my mind off acting.
It would help me create “André,” a character
who is driven, obsessed, and narcissistic,
who delights in the sound of his own voice.
Even with this direction, though, I didn’t
yet have a character.
The film’s André was modeled on this
André (me). He said things André said,ANDRÉ GREGORY IN THE 1981 FILM
MY DINNER WITH ANDRÉ