Empire UK

Mendes:They didn’t want me to cast Kevin Spacey. The

names bandied around were Kevin Costner Bruce Willis

John Travolta and for Carolyn Holly Hunter and Sharon

Stone. But for some reason I had Kevin in my head. He’d had

a double whammy with Seven and The Usual Suspects he’d

been very brilliant in Glengarry Glen Ross and then he’d

stormed the London stage with Iceman Cometh. So I felt

that it couldn’t be any cooler than Kevin Spacey.

Kevin Spacey (Lester Burnham):I was living in London

performing Iceman Cometh at the Old Vic. I very much

remember reading the script for the first time. Sitting in

a chair and then on the edge of a bed. I wanted to read it

because I knew it was the first film Sam Mendes was going

to direct and I knew his work as a theatre director. It was one

of the most beautiful things I’d ever read. A kind of poem to

America both its good and bad — funny brilliant and honest.

Annette Bening (Carolyn Burnham):People thought this

screenplay was very special. What I saw was this incredible

combination of humour and pathos. Of course I didn’t really

know it was going to turn out as well as it did but there was

room for something there. It didn’t really get shopped around

to a lot of actors.

Thora Birch (Jane Burnham):It felt really new to me. It was

definitely the first truly dark thing I had ever done. The script

was such a star script. You were aware that you were going

to be a part of something that was unique so you treated it

with respect. Every single role in that screenplay is a great

role. I never saw another response to a script quite like that.

Wes Bentley (Ricky Fitts):At the time it felt like I was

struggling but having looked back in fact I was very lucky.

I had been bouncing around agencies. At William Morris the

first screenplay they gave me in the meeting was American

Beauty and all they said was “We think you’d be right for this.”

I remember feeling it was going to be a good film. I didn’t know

about it making money I didn’t know anything about that stuff

in the business but my instincts told me it was going to be good.

Bening:I was aware that Sam was the boy wonder of the theatre

in London but I had never met him. He has this interesting

combination. He is very low key and humble yet you immediately

feel he knows exactly what he’s doing. He didn’t talk a lot; the

best film directors that I’ve worked with don’t. He was very

clear and simple and I was really taken with him.

Mena Suvari (Angela Hayes):It was an amazing year for me. I’d

fallen into this industry and moved out to Los Angeles before

I was 15 and then I booked American Pie. I ended up working

on American Beauty right after that. And the type of director

that Sam is he worked in a way that I’d never experienced in

my life. Having rehearsals and his attention to detail was very

new to me. I didn’t come from any kind of theatre experience.

He spoiled me!

went to see it. One of those people was Steven Spielberg.
Hollywood takes notice of about three or four hits on
Broadway every year and they decide they want to go have
a look and see what the latest bright young thing is all about.
Ball: I heard that everybody was really interested in Sam.
And so I went to New York to watch Cabaret and I really
liked it. I thought that here was somebody who knows how
to put their individual stamp on something without turning
it into something else.
Mendes: I was suddenly off ered a fl urry of scripts and my
agent said “Look you’ve got to come out to LA. These
people all want to meet you.” I had been to LA before and
found it a very cold and unwelcoming place. I thought “I’m
not going to go out there and be made to feel small.” And of
course the opposite happened. They all bigged me up and
blew smoke and the usual things. My agent said “Steven
Spielberg wants to have lunch with you.” It was insane!
There was this pile of scripts waiting for me in LA. On top
was American Beauty. I thought “Oh that’s a good title.”
Then I went to meet Steven and he said “Have you read
this script? It’s really good you should read it.” On the
plane back I read it and thought it was a masterpiece.
Literally the fi rst thing I did when I got off the plane was
phone my agent. She said “Well there are other directors
who are interested. But my feeling is that they’re all gonna
pass. Robert Zemeckis is going to pass. Mike Nichols is
going to pass. Curtis Hanson is going to pass. Just hold tight.”
There was an agonising three weeks. Fair enough — it’s
Mike fucking Nichols! Eventually they off ered it to me.
Ball: Other directors read it I heard some ideas that were
really horrible. Somebody wanted to put a bunch of
surveillance cameras in Jane’s house so Ricky was watching
her all the time. Well that was a completely diff erent movie.

UNKNOWN

American

Beauty was

hardly the fi rst

movie to shoot

then completely

ditch its

original ending.

The Shining

(1980)

Kubrick cut

a two-minute

sequence at the

very end in which

we see Wendy and

Danny in hospital

visited by Overlook

General manager

Stuart Ullman. The

fi nal shot was to

have been Danny

catching a green

tennis ball thrown

to him by Ullman.

The fi lm was

already on limited

release when

Kubrick decided to

junk it — he sent

out assistants to

physically remove

the scene from

the prints.

Rambo:

First Blood

(1982)

Ted Kotcheff’s

adaptation of David

Morrell’s bleak

novel was originally

more faithful to the

source material

ending with John

Rambo (Sylvester

Stallone) grabbing

a gun and shooting

himself thus

putting paid to his

own inner anguish

and denying future

audiences the

pleasure of Rambo:

First Blood II. Test

audiences rebelled

and Kotcheff

replaced it with

Rambo handing

himself in to the

military authorities.

H

“The script was

one of the most

beautif ul I had

ever read.”

KEVIN SPACEY