Sleepers - Flicks (2026)

What time, Mrs. Salinas, did you have lunch? Jackson, your honor. What Mrs. Salinas did on the day of the murder has nothing to do with what she saw on the night of the murder. How much she had to drink, does your honor? Overruled. Barry Levinson is one of America's best directors. He won the Oscar for Rain Man. And he also did Diners, Wag the Dog, Bugsy, Good Morning Vietnam, and a number of others. They're releasing Sleepers on 4K DVD and digital. So I talked to him about casting. You know, the process, in a sense, it's always the same from one movie to another. You have these various characters on a page and you're going to have to bring them to life. Who can handle this? There's no short answer except you say, you know, De Niro could be great. He was a street kid. He was, you know, smart, compassionate, great actor, would be terrific for this role. And then you start to say, what about, because that's someone you know. You know, that's an actor that you're familiar with. In a way, that would be the easiest. You know De Niro could handle it. Yeah. And then the question is the others. It's like, well, what do you think about so-and-so? You know, well, he did this or that, or she did this. Is that in the ballpark? And then you'll meet. And in many cases, if they're not really well known, then you'll read them and see if they, they just throw a pop in the room and you go, yeah, yeah. You know, and that's going to work. But do you really know until you've begun to work with them? Because some of the scenes are so intense. Does there come a time when you go, okay, actually, that's what I was hoping for? Yeah. Or sometimes they'll start and it's not quite working. Yeah. And then you have to sit down and try to have a discussion. And you're not going to say, here, do the line this way. Because that becomes manufactured. What you want to do is create and have the discussions about what the intent is and how do we want to approach it. Well, I just want to close out with this. In there, that little statue that you hold for Rain Man, you've got Tom Cruise to underplay perfectly, which may be the best underplaying he's ever done in a film. We would discuss a scene and say, why don't we do this? This idea. So I would throw out an idea like, he has to go back to Cincinnati to get the underwear and we're not going back to Cincinnati. And that particular scene, which is just an idea, let's see what happens if we work this. And Tom was right on the money. Barry, please keep working. And thank you so much. Oh, thank you. Flicks with Patrick Stoner explores the craft and culture of films and streaming series that enhance our communities for television stations and websites around the country.