Dinner
For Five - hosted by Jon Favreau. With special guests Vince Vaughn,
Rory Cochrane, Cole Hauser, and Brian Cox. Filmed at Zucca restaurant
in Los Angeles.
Vince Vaughn: (To Rory) What are you
most proud of, you're performance in Dazed and Confused? It's a great
performance.
Jon Favreau: That was good.
Vince: Great.
Rory Cochrane: I've had a couple of
good runs, ya know.
Jon: (joking to Rory) That's the
exception.
(laughter)
Jon: CSI, Dazed and Confused,
let's list the good ones(?), Love and a .45.
Vince: He's always good. He is
always good.
Cole Hauser: (talking through Jon)
Let's break it down.
Rory: Don't do it to me, babe.
(laughter) -shows Cole bending down to pick up a folder
Jon: He's getting out the
bio.
Brian Cox: What is it?
Oh, I see. That's you. (points to folder)
Rory: Well, I can get my
bio out too, I got mine. - Yours is edited, your f*ckin'
bio, I know it. (points to Cole)
Cole: (reading from bio)
His first roles included a part in a docudrama about drugs on Saturday
Night with Connie Chung in 1989 and an appearance in an episode of
H.E.L.P. (looks at Rory) Let's talk about help. (laughs)
Rory: Can I get some
help? Listen, yours is f*ckin' edited cause I know. I know that, that...
Cole: Mine's edited?
Rory: ..the movie you did
with the tail, that's not on here. (turns to Jon) Where's his sheet?
Vince and Jon: What movie with the tail?
(laughing)
Cole: The tail?
Rory: That little
ducktail you had...
Jon: Tail on the back of
his head.
Cole: Oh yeah, that's
uhh, that's uhhh, that's uhhh...
Rory: (interrupts) Yeah,
let's talk about that.
Cole: ...Do The Right
Thing or some shit. (laughs) I don't know what the name of
that one is.
Jon: (to Cole) So you
worked with Singleton, and you're gonna work with Singleton again huh?
Cole: I'm working with
him now actually, yeah.
Vince: That's why you're
here and your eyebrows are such as they are.
Brian: (to Cole) Oh we've
been in the same film!
(everyone laughs)
Cole: Is that right?
Brian: Yeah, I didn't
even realize we were in the same film.
Rory: (in background)
That's how the world works.
Brian: This is
really weird.
Vince: Which film? Jon: What movie? (said
simultaneously)
Brian: A film called,
well it was called The Cup, it's now called....
Cole: Oh yeah,yeah,
yeah...
Brian: A shot at Glory.
Cole: ...you played the
(?something?) manager.
Brian: What did you
play?
Cole: I played
Kelsey, the goalie.
Brian: You...Ohhhhh...you
had that...Oh I remember that horrible day.
Cole: Which one?
Brian: When they knocked
goals at you.
Cole: Oh yeah, in
Hamden(?)
Brian: That was horrible.
That was horrible, in Hamden Park.
Cole: Yeah, I had Rangers
- real, professional....
Vince: This the Duvall
film?
Brian: Oh my God, I
remember it now, it was horrible. I felt so sorry for you.
Vince: (to Cole) So
Duvall called you and asked you to come play a goalie?
Brian: It was terrible.
Cole: Yeah.
Vince: ...and you've
never played soccer...?
Cole: No, no I played
soccer all my life. But these guys are pro. I'm talking about I
played soccer from like 11 to 13.
Brian: Oh my God, I
forgot that.
Vince: (playfully lays
his head down) That horrible day!
(laughter)
Brian: This was a
horrible day. And I felt so sorry for him (points to Cole) because the
guy, the guy who's playing, who was kicking...
Cole: Ally McCoist
Brian: Ally McCoist,
who's like one of the hero's of Scottish football.
Cole: He's the best
Scottish football player ever lived.
Brian: Ever, ever.
Vince: And he was taking
shots at you?
Brian: But he was
supposed to, he was supposed to miss the penalty. But he couldn't
resist putting it past.
Cole: It was like his
little Scottish way of being a prick bastard. (laughter) You know what
I mean, like aww f*ck you Americans.
Brian: (laughs) Nooo.
Cole: Let me tell you
something (Brian tries to speak) No, let me tell you something...
Brian: It's muscular
memory. When you've got muscular memory you've got to score.
Cole: (speaking at the
same time as Brian) He's a prick c*cksucker for that, but the thing is
that it is so easy to shoot a penalty kick by anybody. Number One, none
of the professional goalkeepers can stop penalty kicks. Every once in a
while they get their hands on the ball.
Vince: Well, it's a
guessing game, you either dive left or right, right?
Cole: You either go left
or right.
Vince: What do I know
about soccer? I play the video games. (shows Jon laughing)
Cole: Yeah, but I mean
the thing is is that to be fair, back me up (said to Brian), if you're
a goalie, it's like maybe 1 out of 10 you might stop.
Vince: (in the
background) Is that true?
Brian: Oh no, you're
right. No, no it's absolutely right.
Cole: I mean it's
literally, it's from here to that light right there.
Brian: He's absolutely
right. He's on the money on that one. You're absolutely right.
Cole: ...and it's like,
you guess and you go. And you know it, it,
Vince: It's like a bad
game of (Wo ? Bo <--I have no idea what he said!).
Jon: (in the background)
Not 1 out of 10 though.
Cole and Brian: Yeah.
Jon: I watched the World
Cup, it wasn't 1 out of 10.
Cole: Let me tell you
something, the only guy I ever stopped was this guy who actually played
for the Rangers. And he, uh he...I just guessed the right way and
I stopped it and they kept it in the movie.
Jon: Vince had an
experience with Rudy, with the uh, with the football stuff.
Vince: Well, I didn't
even have the experience. They wouldn't give me a shot.
Brian: Are you talking
football?
Jon: American football.
Brian: Ahh yeah, exactly.
(laughs)
Jon: Our first film
together, ahh, was Rudy. We met. I didn't get to play a football
player. I was all excited. He got to play a football player and run out
of the tunnel. Notre Dame, alot of tradition.
Vince: But, it, it
started off to be like a fun thing and then it turned sad for me.
Brian: You were a
football player, you played football.
(everyone laughs at Vince's last statement)
Vince: American football,
yeah.
Cole: That's the same way
it started with me.
Brian: But you played
before, you played...
Vince: I played in high
school. I played 7th and 8th grade and my freshman and sophomore year
of high school.
Jon: He missed the bus.
(says to Vince) Wanna tell that story?
Vince: I wanted a
starting position in high school and I missed the bus that day. And
Favreau, i've told Favreau that story...
Jon: And I put in the
movie, I put it in Made.
Vince: ...put it in Made.
But, so we come out..so, we get halftime at Notre Dame. Notre
Dame is you know...
Brian: Yeah, I know.
Famous Catholic University...
Vince: So, so at halftime
we get to come out of this particular game. There's too much to fill
the stands with extras, it's a large stadium. It's cold too. So they
let us come out for halftime. We have a chance to run, I think, two
plays or three plays. So there really can't be any mistakes because...
Jon: Plus the entrance, the big
entrance. Don't play that down, cause that's a big deal.
Vince: That was a big
deal, but then it turned, that was like a good thing and it was like
judo(?). All that momentum hurt me all the more. (Jon laughs) So what
they say, we have like three chances, three plays they had and they
couldn't afford any mistakes because they had this certain amount of
time because obviously they had to stay with the program and let the
real players come out and play. So, on the day i'm excited. I have an
option pass that i'm going to throw. Which is, i'm playing a
flankerback, get a pitch, pull up, throw the ball. And they pull me
aside on the day, and they say look Vince we can only get a couple of
cracks at this, run out of the tunnel, get in the huddle, get excited
and then sneak off the field this way. (laughs and points left) And
another guy- who was like an ex-college football player- is gonna come
in and actually throw the pass for you. So like in front of all these
people, I come running out, Go Irish!, i'm excited. haha, Ra Ra! and
their all kinda, and then I have to run out of the huddle like this,
quietly and hide and so the other guy comes in and throws the
ball. (laughs) And Favreau teased me, the first time me and
Favreau hung out...
Jon: We hung out in L. A.
Vince: ...he was teasing
me in front of friends of mine how I...he said, "You can't throw a
football. Who are you kidding? That's why they had this guy do that."
And I poured a drink on you.
Jon: He poured a beer on
me. (laughter) That was our first night hanging out.
---Auditions---
Vince: You beat me out
for uhhh (points to Cole)
Cole: Yeah, Dazed.
Vince: Dazed and
Confused. (Cole laughs)
Jon: I would say
you were still in a funk when we worked on Swingers from that whole,
that was part of the experience that...
Vince: F*ck, I think that
for all actors you go, I was at a stage where, not just that movie but
four or five films, I would come in second for. You know, it'd be me
and another guy and I wouldn't get it. So it's like playing sports or
anything else, if you're close - you strike out, you gotta forget that
and go about your work - the process...
Jon: (in the background)
It's like the Buffalo Bills.
Vince: ...But see
auditioning is different because people that are strong auditioners,
they can get to a certain level very quickly and be comfortable with
something but for me, it takes me alot longer just to daydream and
think about it, imagine -whatever to actually get to a set and feel
prepared to actually commit to playing a character and understanding
it. And I think that, so when you go into an auditio, it's sooo. You're
not really working from the place you're used to working from, where
you're just sort of, i'm playing this character, here's my backstory,
this is what matters -whatever. You're going and trying to win a part
and alot of it's just the b.s. in the room. Do I shake his hand? Do I
(make?) this guy this? What are they looking for? Ya know, such a
strange, ya know, mixed bag of what they're looking for.
Cole: Yeah, does he have
blue eyes or have brown eyes, red hair or brown hair.
Rory: But, I think
unfortunate luck for an actor builds character and I think it's a
blessing in disguise. I really do.
Brian: Yeah, but it is -
so much of it is about. I used to do audtions cause I taught, have
taught alot. But what used to happen is you used to have kids come to
the audition and they would never get further than the tube(?) station.
Like for, there was a girl who came five years running and she couldn't
get any further than the tube station cause she always threw up...
Vince: Wow.
Brian: And so she finally
arrived and she was like (demonstrates severe shaking) that.
Vince: Bless her heart
man.
Brian: She was
completely like that. And when I, just calm her down, quietly
take her outside and just say, "It's okay. It's fine. We're on your
side, we want you to make your best." Come in. And finally she got in.
She got in the school. So...
Vince: What do you think
that fear's base in?
Brian: Its based on
because, it's based on the notion of failure. Which is a big problem
for an actor.
Vince: But, failure
of giving a performance, or you think a failure of being accepted? Or...
Brian: Failure of
being accepted. I think it's failure of being accepted more than
anything else.
Vince: Or maybe,
maybe it's a fear of actually being successful.
Brian: Well, ayyy.
That's a bit too sophisticated. (Vince tries to interrupt) I think it's
really fear of being a failure, that you yourself have failed, that you
yourself have let yourself down.
Rory: Plus you're
putting your neck out, your body. It's not like your not, hey this is
my craft that I built, this is like your Hey, how ya doing. (gestures)
Brian: Exactly.
Vince: But I think
there's something to the fact too, that when you grow up and you're not
really growing up in a place where, uh, everyone in your family is an
actor or an artist or a singer and it's not really your reality and you
sort of put a lot, uh, of importance on what that would be like
as something that you'd love to do.
Brian: That's right.
Vince: There's
something very scary about them doing it. Because there's something in
a way that's safe about it having be a dream that's not attainable.
Brian: Exactly. (Brian
tries to talk more but Vince just keeps on talking.)
Vince: So there's a
fear I think of actually now i'm going to do this in my life, allowing
yourself to have your life be better.
Brian: And that's
sick(?) making. Alec Guiness. Alec Guiness was notoriously the worst
auditioner ever. I mean he used to be violently ill.
Vince: (in
background while Brian is talking) Good actor.
Rory: Well it goes,
the whole audition process goes against what you're taught as an actor.
And if you're not taught it just still goes against it, your instincts.
You're in a room with somebody who's answering the phone, who couldn't
give a shit about you. You're reading off some..
(inaudible as Brian cuts in)
Brian: Well that's
particularly bad over here.
Vince: Do you love
the move where they get a phone call, you're in the middle of a reading
and they get a phone call and say, "Can you hang on a second?"
Rory: (laughs)
That's happened to me.
Vince: And they get
on the phone and their like, "I know, he was such a jerk at the party",
and they would roll their eyes like they want to get off the phone.
---Bathtub Scene---
Jon: (to Rory) You fall
in love on the set.
Rory: Jesus Christ.
Jon: You do. Don't
you?
Rory: With you.
Jon: I never have.
(Rory laughs) We fell in love on ummm...
Rory: Talk about
how we....
Jon: ... perhaps
the worst movie.
Rory: ...how we were
doing the movie and not only did the SAG dog make more money than us
(Jon laughs) right, per day, the f*cking SAG dog was there.
Vince: What movie
was this?
Jon: This was
Hickenlooper's thing. (referring to Dogtown.)
Rory: Then before
the take he would go, "Do the Dazed and Confused shit. They responded
to that, they like that. Do the Dazed and Confused shit."
(everyone laughs)
Vince: Right before
your take?
Rory: Yeah, right
before my take. And then I did a movie with this guy (points to Vince)
where i'm supposed to be emotional, i'm on crutches, I have some kind
of weird disease right.
Vince: Prime Gig.
Jon: Ed Harris.
Rory: And he's
singing. I'm in the bathtub and i'm supposed to, i'm crying...
Cole: Is that how
you went in to it? I have some kind of weird disease, just don't know
what it is.
(Jon laughs)
Rory: Nn,
yeah. They didn't give me time. I wanted to do the method thing and go
and prepare. Muscular Dys - whatever.
Cole: Read up on it?
Rory: Yeah. They
didn't have the budg - It wasn't in the budget. So anyway, we're in the
bathtub right? And he's singing...
Vince: (didn't
understand the first few words) ...that we were in the bathtub. You
were in the bathtub.
(Jon laughs)
Rory: I was in the
bathtub and he's singing. He's supposed...
Cole: You were in
the bathtub with the (?) ?
Rory: ... he's
supposed to be caressing me, or whatever cause i'm hurt.
Jon: Giving you a
sponge bath.
Cole: What movie is
this?
Jon: Prime Gig.
Rory: And he starts
singing - bath time brings me down, bath time brings me down, i'd
rather slip under the water than have your liver spotted hands caress
me down, Oh Daddy, Oh Daddy...
(laughter)
Vince: Because it
was so, (laughs) it was so...
Brian: Is it a real
song?
Vince: No, me and
Rory...
Brian: Is it a real
song?
Rory: Is it a real
song?
Vince: No. The
thing is like, there's supposed to be emotion to the scene and you
don't want to play that. So he's in the bathtub and there's and
there's an odd ridiculousness to it so I would just joke around and
make it like, hey look you're a guy who's in the bathtub, (laughter)
i'm a guy who's cleaning you off here. But let's not make this like, ya
know...
Rory: Nahh, it was
fine, it was...
Cole: Why didn't I
ever see this movie?
Jon: Neither one of
these got distribution.
Cole: (to Jon) Did
you ever see this flick?
Jon: Sure. I saw it
on IFC.
Cole: Did you
really?
Vince: Yeah.
Cole: That's
terrific.
---Improv Olympic---
Jon: I did four in
Chicago cause I wanted to learn improv. I moved there. I'm from New
York originally. Vince is from Chicago...
Vince: The suburbs
of Chicago, Lake Forest.
Jon: Lake Forest.
We missed each other. He moved out here before...
Vince: I was
actually involved in the same improv group prior, before you got to
Improv Olympic.
Jon: Before I was
even there.
Vince: With Del
Close and Charna Halpern
Brian: Which improv
group was that? Was it the...
Vince: It's called
the Improv Olympic, which is now in Los Angeles as well.
Jon: They have one
here too.
Brian: It was
comedy?
Vince: Comedy.
Sometimes. Some nights it was comedy, sometimes it was tragedy.
Jon: He was, yeah,
he was a dark fellow this Del Close. He practiced witchcraft and was an
ex- junky and...
Vince: I remember
my first class. I went in there and he's like, "There's nothing f*ckin'
funny about comedy." I was like, "I signed up for the comedy class."
(laughter)
Jon: But like,
Belushi had trained with him and all the people we grew up watching.
Vince: Bill Murray
had trained with him. All of our heroes did.
Brian: (asks Jon)
And you went there deliberately from New York? I mean you went to work,
cause you had obviously heard about these people.
Jon: Yeah.
Vince: Well he
started Second City and then at Second City they started doing planned
bits, planned skits. So it wasn't like it was improv anymore. They
would just insert whatever names that the audience came up with. They'd
say a celebrities name but they had already a pre-written skit that
they would do that everyone would sort of think was improv but it
wasn't. So Dale, I think frustrated with that, came up with this new
format called the Harold - which was completely improvisation. So you'd
learn these games and these different techniques and you'd get on stage
and you'd take suggestions. And you know, you'd work with the group so
hopefully you knew each other's skills and you'd kind of navigate your
way through it and try to make sense of it.
Jon: It was long
form too. It was like half hour from one suggestion.
Vince: Halftime at
the Improv and...
Jon: And it taught
me, it really literally taught me how to write. I mean cause you had to
write on your feet...
Brian: (to
Jon) Now how did you find out about it? I mean...
Jon: I was passing
through town. I had gone...
Vince: On a
motorcycle.
Jon: That's
right. I was working on Wall Street for a year.
Rory: What kind of
motorcycle?
Jon: A Harley. You
ever owned one?
Rory: No, I don't
do that.
Jon: You never did,
you do Ducati's?
Rory: Ducati's. But
go ahead.
Jon: But I went
cross country on a Harley after like being locked up for a year at a
Wall Street job. And I gave my notice and the market crashed on
my birthday. One week into my two week notice I just bought a Harley, I
left my job and I went to Sturgis(?) for the bike rally.
Rory: Is there a
helmet law in Chicago?
Jon: No, no there
is isn't. There wasn't in most of the country...
Cole: Still to this
day?
Rory: Yeah, I think
so.
Jon: I don't know.
There was none here either at the time. And I went all the way... I had
a girlfriend at the time was staying out here in L.A. And I went
from New York to L. A. and on my way back I stopped in Chicago
and saw a friend of mine doin' improv. And saw a show with, Chris
Farley was in it. Tim Meadows, Mike Myers - all the great.
Vince: Pasquesi
Jon: Pasquesi. A
lot of guys who were great that...
Vince: Andy Dick
was in the Improv Olympic.
Jon: I think he
was.
Vince: I know he
was.
Jon: Yeah, he might have
left already by then to do work out here. But I said this is the best
of everything. This was like, I always loved being in a school play and
somebody goes up on their lines and you have to sort of tread water.
Brian: Right.
Jon: To me there
was an energy to that. And improv was all that.
---Looping---
Rory: Do you like
looping?
Brian: Yeah, I love
looping. I looped my whole part in uhh, Braveheart.
Jon: Really? I'm so
bad at it.
Vince: I can't
stand it.
Brian: I love it. I
love it. I love it. You see it's...
Jon: I'm so
marble-mouthed.
Brian: ...it's like
you can just edge a line in a way that you, cause I love language you
see and I think language is so diminished sometimes in the cinema. How
you say a line. How you make the point. How you hit it through. And I
remember working with Mel, cause Mel Gibson who's consummate, he's an
actor...
Vince: He's a great
actor, Mel Gibson.
Brian: ...and he's
a theater actor first and foremost...
Vince: He's a great
storyteller. He's great at understanding a story.
Brian: ..yeah
fantastic, fantastic. So when we did it he said, "It's an opportunity."
And I said, "You're right."
Jon: What, looping
is?
Brian: To do the
whole thing.
Jon: See I always
feel the other way, I feel like you lose it.
Vince: Well that's
the way you have to look at it. But I don't agree with what you're
saying.
Jon: They drag you
out of bed, they throw you in a car, you go someplace.
Brian: No,
it's an opportunity.
Rory: Yeah, but
Brando mumbles his lines on purpose so that he can go in and loop.
Cole: You have an
opportunity to make your performance actually better if you look at it.
Brian: Exactly,
exactly.
Cole: If you look
at it...
Brian: Cole's point
is right I think.
Cole: ...I mean,
you know...
Rory: But getting
back to the Shakespeare thing, he would...
Vince: It's a
chance to improve upon...
Cole: Yeah, I mean
sometimes you'll watch your performance in ADR and you'll go, "You know
what, let me loop that line. You guys have me looping this line where I
say you know, 'the baby's dead' but before when I said, when I say to
this guy ya know 'shot in the head', it doesn't have the same meaning
as when I say 'the baby's dead' so let me go back and loop this line.
Jon: God bless you
man.
Cole: Cause you can
change your performance, make it better.
Brian: I think he's
right. Cole is absolutely on the money.
Jon: I think that
is the way you should look at it. I just don't. I'm so...
Brian: That's
because you've been doing to much improv.
---Higher Learning---
Jon: Here's a
question i've got for you about Singleton. Because the film obviously
has a very strong point of view that you're the antithesis of...
Cole: Right.
Jon: But a good
director, i've found no matter what your playing and how crazy you are
or how bad you are will talk to you as though you're the lead of the
movie. And here's what you want and you're right in believing what you
want to believe.
Vince: What you're
going after, is to you, the right thing to go after.
Jon: Right. I think
that's always the thing cause you have to have an affection. If you're
playing Hitler or playing ya know, Capone - anybody, you gotta
believe in the values of that character.
Vince: Without a
doubt.
Cole: Of course.
Jon: So when
Singleton dealt with you, was he talking to you and pulling you aside,
being like "Look this is...", you know what he able to see through that.
Cole: As far as the
character I was playing, he didn't know alot about it. He'd just come
from doing, ya know Boys N The Hood and Poetic Justice. Ya know, his
knowledge is really good with ya know, South Compton and what these
young kinda black Americans are going through. He didn't know what was
going on as far as the white supremacists. And the way it was written
originally was white power this, white power that and ya know, in my
opinion...
Vince: Broad?
Cole: Huh?
Vince: Very broad?
Cole: Very broad,
and very like, false. And not that I know alot about white supremacy
but I'm just saying that I knew that you don't have black gang members
saying, "black power, black power". You know what i'm saying? So for me
it was like, look let me go spend some time. I went up to Pelican Bay
and spent four days in prison with the guy who murdered and raped, you
know and just done everything imaginable to blacks, to even whites -
Jews and so on. His name's Scott Moss and I sat there for four days and
I sat there and talked to him and picked his brain. And he was actually
a really educated guy. And the thing is, is that he had the ability to
express something without being scary, just making it very simple. Like
you know, he's talk about an incident where he raped, ya know a white
girl in front of a black guy and "this is why I did it" - and just very
simple. Ya know, "i'll always have the power of a white man and you
don't have that." You know and then he would cut his fingers so that he
would never be able to touch, you know what I mean. Just sick. So it's
like I wanted to make sure that John understood, and he did - he gave
me the freedom to actually play a guy who was an educated white
supremacist. Not a, ya know, kind of a cardboard cut out...
Jon: Sure, sure.
Cole: ...bullshit
you know, bad guy.
Brian: Redneck.
Jon: Which is the
tendency because you want to separate yourself from the role.
It's a much braver choice to say, "Hey this is the logic behind it".
And some of it might be right, even if you don't agree with the whole
package.
Cole: Exactly.
Vince: But also the
reality of it is, alot of the people that if they're playing a
character like that, from that background who are joining the klan and
stuff like that. They have, in their mind, logical obstacles and things
that they think are distracted(?) and why they feel the need to group
up with a group of people and feel like they need to protect themselves
and protect their way of life. And so the end result is they seem evil
and hateful, and they are, but the reason for where it started or why
they felt so threatened or scared to have to be that way is human
based.
Cole: Yeah. I mean
honestly he, I have a German last name, ya know. He didn't know that I
was Jewish and Irish and whatever. But I have a German last name and
this guy actually, and he didn't know I was an actor, he just thought I
was like a reporter or whatever ya know. They didn't tell him I was
doing a film or anything. And this guy actually thought that this is a
guy I can draft.
Brian: Right.
Cole: ...This is a
guy who's not in prison and somebody I can educate on what I believe.
Ya know and when he used to write letters to me, he would sign his name
with the SS symbols on the bottom, ya know which is the German Secret
Service. And this guy, I mean honestly you could put him in a room, we
could sit and eat dinner with him, and you know if he didn't show you
his tattoos and invisible empire and all these things, you would think
he was a really educated, kind, nice guy.
Brian: That's right.
Cole: Who was just
into, ya know, a certain thing.
Jon: Did anybody
respond to the performance that was, that sorta gleaned the wrong
things from it?
Cole: I'm sorry?
Jon: Like weird
fanmail or people who were responding to it. People come up to you on
the street?
Cole: No, no. You
know what, honestly you know what's amazing and i've told you this
(p0ints to Vince) and I've told Rory, I don't know if I've told you
but...
Brian: (to waiter)
I'll have some more of that.
Cole: (to waiter)
Yeah, thank you. I'll take one more as well. (to Jon) Uhh, black
Americans will come up to me more so than white people and have
actually said to me, "You know what, that was an amazing performance
because I personally hated you."
Vince: And it makes
sense in a way, that they're responding to it.
Cole: Yeah. Well,
you affected them and as bizarre as it is, it's also a great compliment.
---Phone Booth---
Cole: (to Rory)
Talk about the Dazed and Confused audition.
Rory: Uhh, I showed
up there. Uhh, I was living in a hotel on Hollywood Boulevard with rats
coming into my room. Not to play the violin for me, but it was a rough
time. (Brian laughs) Uhh and I...
Vince: Didn't you,
when you first got here, move in with some family you met at a phone
booth?
(Jon laughs)
Rory: It might have
been.
Vince: Isn't it
true, no it's true isn't it? That's what Johnny Sanchez says, that he
introduced you to a family and you went and lived with them.
Rory: Noo.
Vince: A Mexican
family. Didn't you live with a Mexican family?
Rory: I did when I
was seventeen, yeah but not for the acting thing.
Vince: So what
happened?
Rory: I was
building doghouses, delivering newspapers. (laughter) I'm not kidding.
Brian: I want to
get back to the rats. Can we get back to the rats?
Vince: I want to
know how you met the family, how'd you meet the family, how'd you meet
this family?
Rory: I met them on
the internet. I was attracted to families with f*cking...
Jon: They didn't
have the internet...
Rory: ...I dunno.
Vince: What
happened? How'd you meet the family?
Jon: Come on babe,
you know what happened. Is this too real for you?
Rory: It was hard,
put that down. (?)
Jon: You want to
talk about politics again?
Rory: No, I don't.
(laughter)
Cole: Want to talk
about Connie Chung in 1989?
Vince: What
happened? How did you meet this family? I'm serious.
Rory: I was out
here, and I was seventeen and I was with a friend of mine and he said I
could stay at his house...
Brian: (in
background) What about the rats? You were telling a story about
the rats.
Vince: Okay.
Rory: Okay. And I
couldn't stay at his house!
Vince: That f*ckin
asshole.
Rory: I know it. So
I was supposed to go home but I didn't want my dreams to be shattered
in California...
Vince: Right.
Rory: ...cause I
had nowhere to stay. So then this one guy who didn't speak any English,
we get to talking, whatever...
Vince: Where'd you
meet him?
Cole: You get to
talkin', but he doesn't speak any English?
Vince: Where'd you
meet him?
Rory: Nothing funny
went on though, right. (laughter)
Cole: You get to
talkin', but he doesn't speak any English, now suddenly you can speak
Spanish?
Vince: Where'd you
meet him, where did you meet him?
Rory: At a phone
booth!!
Vince: That's
right, at a phone booth. Why is it like pulling teeth? (Jon
laughs) So you met him at a phone booth?
Rory: Cause this
has nothing to do with independent film.
Vince: Yes it does.
It's independent of everything, this story. So what happened.
(Jon, Cole and Brian laughing)
Rory: It is, I know
it is, it totally is.
Vince: Where do you
think it comes from, independent film? Now what happened, how did you
meet him? Was he on the phone, were you on the phone?
Rory: What was he
wearing?
Jon: You wanna talk
about politics now, don't ya?
Vince: Did he
compliment your slacks? I don't understand how this happens. You don't
the know the guy, he doesn't speak English and you end up living with
him.
Rory: My friend
speaks Spanish, he talked to him.
Vince: Johnny
Sanchez.
Rory: Uh hmmm.
Cole: You wanna
talk about politics now?
Vince: Okay and he
says, "My friends got nowhere to live, can he come live with you?"...
Cole: Wise guy.
Vince: ...Is that
right?
Rory: More or less.
Vince: And the guys
says yeah, si.
Rory: No. The guy
says I don't trust this kid, i'm gonna make him work the trucks for a
little while before he comes and lives with me.
Vince: So where'd
you live while you were working the trucks?
Rory: So, I'd sleep
in his truck. And then I slept....
Vince: Okay.
Brian: Is that what
working the trucks is, you have to sleep in them?
Rory: (big sigh)
Listen, I paid my dues!!
(laughter)
Vince: So what
happened? What happened, what happened?
Rory: I built
doghouses in the back yard. I delivered newspapers with these Mexican
people. They were nice people.
Vince: Of course.
Jon: How many dogs
did they have?
Vince: That's
great. But i'm saying, when did you move out? Did you ever see 'em
again?
Jon: They sent him
a copy of the cover of High Times when he was posing with the bong.
Vince: You were on
the cover of High Times, did you send that to 'em? Thanks for letting
me live here. See ya around campus. Signed, RC Cola.
(laughter)
Rory: You're from
Santa Barbara, you're from the suburbs. Yeah.
Vince: Oh wow.
Rory: You wanna
talk about that? You wanna talk about how we played lacrosse and shit
and how hard that was? (laughter) Oh f*ck it, I was devastated. Yeah.
Vince: I never
played lacrosse. I never played lacrosse. But i'm, look I didn't have,
I didn't have this...
Cole: All you gotta
do is get him angry, i'm tellin ya.
Vince: ...I didn't
have the same extreme journey and that's why i'm fascinated by how you
ended up living with a family that didn't speak English.
Rory: I know. Let's
talk about it again and again and again and again.
Vince: Let's talk
about it just once.
Rory: We talked
about it. You just told the f*ckin' story.
(laughter)
Vince: And what was
nighttime like, what was nighttime like? Let's talk about that. Let's
talk about your character. And what happened?
Rory: It was hard.
Vince: And what
happened? And what happened?
Rory: (makes his
voice sound more effeminate) It was really hard Vince. It was hard.
(laughter)
Brian: Vince, will
you give the guy a break for God's sake?
Vince: Brian, i'm
trying to have a conversation here.
Brian: I know you
are trying to have a conversation but it sounds like the third degree
here.
Vince: I'm trying
to have a conversation here.
Cole: He wants to
know how you got in there.
Brian: How did you
get in this?
Vince: I'm sorry
we're not talking about Scotland anymore...
Brian: No, no, i'm
asking him, I want to know how...
Vince: ...i'm sorry
and how America sucks. Ya know, i'm sorry we got off that topic...
Brian: I never said
America sucks, I said the opposite.
Vince: ... No, I
know you didn't. You said enough so the people in Scotland would think
you're a great guy, (laughter) but the American studios wouldn't be
scared of you. I gotcha.
Brian: I'm trying
to find out where he grew up...
Vince: With the
rats? He grew up dancing and dancing. He used to dance his ass
off. (everyone laughs, including Rory) You wanted the truth on Rory
Cochrane? If he could make the money that he makes acting to dance,
he'd be a ballerina. That's the truth.
(laughter)
Brian: Something
happened between the main course and the entree. Something happened.
Vince: Seriously,
his first love is dancing. You said you look as everything as a great
ballet.
Cole: Oh my
goodness.
Jon: He woke up.
Waiter: Gentlemen,
did we save room for tiramisu?
(Ohhhh's all around)
Brian: Umm, i'd
like some cheese.
Waiter: Cheese?
Brian: I'm a
diabetic.
Waiter: I'll see
what I can do for ya.
Brian: ...some cheese and
some fruit.
Cole: We don't want
you to pass out on us buddy.
Brian: Yeah,
exactly.
Cole: Great
conversation.
Jon: (in
background) Yeah, dig up some cheese and fruit.
Vince: What do you
have?
Waiter: We have
tiramisu...
Vince: Do you have
anything Spanish to remind Rory of his tender years in Hollywood? As a
dessert?
Rory: Those people
were good people.
---Spencer Tracy---
Brian: What do you
think about somebody like Tracy? Tracy, who is my idol.
Vince: Terrific
actor, Spencer Tracy.
Brian: Who is one
of the - THE great screen actor, for my money. You know, this is my
opinion.
Vince: You're in
popular company.
Brian: But you
know, he with such an ambivalent attitude towards acting that he would
go on a drunk for four days and he would end up sitting in his own shit
in a bathroom. (Cole laughs) Because he didn't know if it was a proper
job. And I keep wanting to say let me go back in time and let me tell
Spencer Tracy now, "It's not a bad job Spence. It's actually a good job
because we do something not a lot of people do, we alleviate. We are,
you know we kind of ritually, what people can't do, we do for them.
Just think of that, think of what you do. Think of what you benifit
people in that way." But nobody was around to tell poor Spence in
those days. Meanwhile, he was just knockin' it back and saying, "I'm a
Catholic, and i'm living with Katherine Hepburn, I have a deaf son,
What am I gonna do?" and I'm gonna have a drunk. You know, it's just
terribly tragic.
Cole: It's a
different time, yeah, it's a different time.
Brian: But he would
have never appeared now, that wouldn't have happened, ya know.
Cole: Yeah, and he
would have never been on the cover of a magazine ya know.
Brian: And I think,
I think that's what affects and that's why, as Rory was saying, it's so
important to take it from life. But it's harder to take it from life
for their generation because there's so much media around you, the
media all around...
Vince: In fact they
have more stimulation from media than they do from their own lives.
Brian: Exactly,
exactly.
Vince: In fact
their lives are supplied through media alot of times.
Brian: That's right
and that's the problem.
Vince: And then you
have like the whole movement with reality shows.
Brian: And that's
why America is so misconceived. America is conceived through it's
media, it's not conceived through it's reality. It's conceived through
what it's seen to be rather than actually what it is.
Vince: Well look at
how many shows are successful or viable products based completely on
the music industry or the film industry. You have so many shows that
just cover actors. Or cover what's going on in the film industry.
Jon: This is one of
'em.
Brian: Exactly.
---End Credits---
Vince: And that's
one of the things with acting is people watching. Just going and not
being noticed and watching people interact, watch them talk to each
other - not even participating sometimes ya know. And that's one thing
you struggle with is as you get more recognizable is that's a harder
thing to accomplish. I mean I still go and I do it wherever I go and I
enjoy it.
The transcript on this page is
from the IFC show, Dinner For Five. All
copyrights
belong to
Fairview Entertainment and Independent Film Channel. No copyright
infringement
intended.
