Empire UK

American Beauty premiered on September 8 1999

to rapturous reviews and went on to receive eight

Oscar nominations of which it won five.

Bentley:I haven’t really told anybody this but I wasn’t terribly

impressed with myself in the film. I was kicking myself thinking

“I didn’t do what could have been done with this.” But it’s a real

testament to the writing and direction that it turned out so well.

Thank God Sam was there! (Laughs) He was solid and confident

in his direction. I still don’t really know if I did it full justice.

Bening:I remember when the film came out I was at a park and

there was this kid who was on a bike he was about 12. And he

said “Oh you’re the lady from American Beauty. I snuck into it

five times.” So it struck a nerve even in this kid. It appealed to

a lot of different types of people. I saw it twice with an audience

and the reactions were absolutely different. Moments where

one group absolutely laughed and the other was silent.

Ball:Something gets hyped about being so wonderful and so

great and then people start to turn on it. There was a little

backlash against the hype. I didn’t pay too much attention. I’m

very very pleased with how it turned out. I’m very proud of the

screenplay but I don’t fool myself for a minute that it couldn’t

have gone totally south if people who don’t really understand

what the film wanted to be had made it. So I feel very fortunate.

Bentley:I loved what was very prominent in the ’90s

dark satirical comedies reflections of America at the time.

We were in a kind of a comfortable state then and sure

did think a lot of ourselves and felt very safe so it was a

moment to look inward and a lot of the films I loved

reflected that.

Suvari:It was just a really special film. I’m completely grateful

to have had that moment of time with everyone. It taught me

a lot about the power of what I do that was something I’d never

really connected with. People coming up to me and saying

“Well the film really moved me...” That had a huge impact on

the kind of work I wanted to do.

Birch:For me remembering it it’s like you have a photo album

and you are sitting on your couch just kind of flicking through it

and you turn the page and it just stops you. You’re like “Oh

yeah and then there wasthat.”

Mendes:Is it my favourite [of my own movies]? I’m not

sure. But it’s the movie that started everything and that’s

why the poster sits in the lobby here. Without American

Beauty there’d be no Neal Street there’d be no production

company. Out of it came the deal with DreamWorks where

we were able to begin the production company and it gave

me the status to be able to produce other people’s work as

well as my own and to be able to branch out into television

to be able to create a company that unifies TV film and

theatre which is what I’d always wanted to do. Without

American Beauty I’m not sure we’d be sitting here.

jail because the world is a shitty place.” But then the movie
sort of does illuminate the beauty of existence so to have
that at the end there was just a big bummer. Sam said
something: “This is not what the movie wants to be.” And
I totally agree with him. It took me maybe 48 hours.
Cooper: There was one fl ashback to show Colonel Fitts’
service in Vietnam and that he had a male lover that he lost
in a fi refi ght and that was hugely helpful to me to have that
because that built a great foundation as to why he has
turned out the way he did.
Mendes: The fi rst thing Chris Cooper said was “Where’s
the thing around which I built his entire character
which was his homosexual experience in the Marines
as a young man?” There was evidence of that in the end
and I cut that out. So he felt that it was unmotivated
which to a degree was true.
Cooper: Sam did a wonderful job on his fi nal edit. He
told a really tight story. But seeing the fi lm that soon at the
premiere was a shock because you remember so many
of those missing scenes. I need distance from a fi lm that
I’ve worked on before I can be objective. So after about
a year-and-a-half I eventually could look at American
Beauty and say “By golly that’s a nice piece of work.”
Spacey: Well other than having to have been hung by wires
for days and days for the fl ying sequences in Lester’s
dreams I didn’t mind losing any of the material that he left
on the cutting-room fl oor. The trial wasn’t necessary in the
end and the fl ying made the fi lm have a diff erent tone. Sam
ultimately felt that the fi lm could survive losing all that.
And frankly no-one has any sense that anything has gone
missing. But that’s the amazing thing about how a fi lm is
made three times: when it’s written when it’s shot and
when it’s cut.

The Thing

(1982)

John Carpenter’s

horror/sci-fi

originally ended

with a sequence

that mirrored the

fi lm’s opening in

which we see a

dog run from the

ruins of the base

look backwards

and then run off. It

was abandoned in

favour of the

ambiguous

conclusion that has

fans debating to

this day.

Fatal

Attraction

(1987)

Adrian Lyne

originally had Alex

(Glenn Close)

slashing her own

throat and setting

Dan (Michael

Douglas) up for

murder. Test

audiences hated

the ending which

didn’t give them

the satisfaction

of seeing the

bunny-boiler get

blown away.

Terminator 2:

Judgment Day

(1991)

Audiences were left

with the image of

a road speeding by

and Sarah Connor

(Linda Hamilton)

refl ecting on her

unknown future.

But originally it was

a future-set ending

with an aged

Connor revealing

that her son

became a US

Senator whose

sensible policies on

Skynet averted

cybergeddon.

CODA

UNKNOWN

continued

“American Beaut y

is the movie that

started everything

for me.”

SAM MENDES