Behind the Scenes: True Romance (Scott, 1993) with Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette

There are two street innocents who find each other and immediately fall in love. This is definitely not a one-note guy. This is a guy who acts in all sorts of strange, bizarre ways. I like this type of character. This is a guy who's not entirely stable. She loves all the things that I love and we both just end up falling in love with each other. We both have so much in common. I play a guy called Drexel Spivitt, who is a pimp. How can I explain it? He's a white guy who's gone black. That envelope right there is some payoff money. Alabama's moving on to some greener pastures. We're not negotiating. I don't like to barter. That envelope right there is for my peace of mind. My peace of mind is worth that much. Not one penny more. It's him. I'm just trying to lend a girl a helping hand. He comes home to my little trailer in Detroit. Excuse me. Hello, hello, mama. I'm his father. How are you? That's all right. I'm his wife. He's got his new wife with him. He asked me, since I was an ex-cop, if I could find out if the police were chasing him. Where's he come from? Cocoa Leaves. You sick? You know what? Elliot, Elliot, chill out, chill out. Come on, sit down here. Both of you might as well enjoy the ride, all right? I'll tell you, okay? If you've got a problem with one thing, you keep it quiet. I've got two kids who threw a suitcase full of, it could be anything, at the moment it's drugs, but it could be dollar bills, it could be diamonds. They see a means to a better life, a means to furthering their future. He writes very well, and he writes big pieces of dialogue, almost like a play. The scene that I've just played is practically Elizabethan in its complexity. Do you know who I am, Mr. Wooley? I give up. Who are you? The Antichrist. You got me in a vendetta kind of mood. You tell the angels in heaven you've never seen evil so singularly personified as you did in the face of the man who killed you. As long as you're not at the scene of the crime, there's a smoking gun in your hand. You'll get away with it. Clarence, I like you. I always have. Always will. He's just a major Elvis fan, Elvis fanatic. That's my guy. There is violence and there is killing, but the violence is integral to the piece and it's not gratuitous. The nature of the piece is the nature of a story of two kids trying to win through and get from A to B. I've handled it in a way that won't turn an audience off. This is like a live fast, die young, live a good-looking corpse kind of movie. That's really what it is. It's utter insanity. Chey, she's called Chey, believe it or not. So Chey, when Gary does that thing, you want to split. When you're gone, just run Charlie's finger across his arm, yeah? Okay. Good. Okay, cut to rehearsal, guys. Pictures up. 24, Charlie 1. And action. I'm still a mystery to you, but I know exactly where your white ass is coming from. You see, if I ask you if you want some dinner, and you whip your egg roll and start a chow down, I say to myself, this ************'s carrying on like he ain't got a care in the world, and who knows? Maybe he don't. Maybe this fool is such a bad ************. He don't got to worry about nothing. He just sit down. You're my motherfucking Chinese fool. Watch my motherfucking TV. You see? You ain't even sat down yet. Now, that TV over there, since you've been in the room, is a woman with her breasts just hanging out. And you ain't even bothered to look. You've just been clocking me. Now, I know I'm pretty, but I ain't as pretty as a couple of titties. This child be fierce. I'm not eating because I'm not hungry. I'm not sitting because I'm not staying, and I ain't looking at the movie because I already seen it seven years ago. Cut. Scotch. If you want more just for the first part, just to pick up, yeah? And Paul, I want you to get Rhonda out of there soon, before the lights swing. Hey, Jimmy. Hey. Hey, Jimmy. Hi, kids, how are you? Frank, with the blood on Dennis' face. Stand by. Quiet for rehearsal. Jimmy, slide forward a bit. Thank you. Good. Frankie, go to your left a little bit more, can you, man? Find your marks, guys, that's good. And Frankie, you rotate onto Paul's marks once he leaves. Okay, quiet. Rehearsal and action. What is of major importance is that I believe you. Where did they go? On a honeymoon. I'm getting angry asking the same question a second time. Where did they go? They didn't tell me. Now, wait a minute and listen to me. I haven't seen Clarence in three years. Yesterday he shows up with a young girl saying he got married. He told me he needed some quick cash to go on a honeymoon. He asked me if he could borrow $500. I felt like helping him out. I wrote out a check. I went to breakfast, and that's the last time I saw him, so help me God. They didn't think to tell me where they were going, and I never thought to ask. Cut. Jeffrey, you're going to be shooting this, so you make that card sheet. Just make it a wide sheet. Put the apple boxes right between two apple boxes. Put the apple boxes in there then. Chris is shooting on this one. Richie, out of there. We're going to put full loads in it. Now, I want you to draw a face on that. I'm going to let you go. Give me full loads. So where is there going to be blood? I think on your hands. We should put some on your hands. Maybe a little spot in the jacket. Yeah, yeah, the jacket. Give me blood in here, guys. Tommy. Yes, sir. Good. Do it. Good. 38, tango one. Move your feet to your right this way. Oh, this way. That's it. GDS. And the angle? Dangerous. Now, go where we were. I want to have it hidden. Otherwise, we'll miss it. A little higher. There? Go a little closer with the gun if you can, Chris. There. Dennis, you good there? Let me just try it. I'm going to dive. Okay. I'll do a full rehearsal. That was good. I'll do a full rehearsal. That was good. Okay, quiet, guys. Here's a rehearsal. Full rehearsal. Just rehearsal, man. Shh. Action, Chris. I haven't killed anybody since 1984. Bang. Aye. You okay, Dan? Yeah. Great. Go to this comedian's son's apartment. Come back with something that tells me where that asshole went. So I can wipe this ego off my face. Fix this family for good. True Romance is a little bit of a contradiction because there's a darker side to it. I read the script and I love the script because it's very fresh, very different. Quentin Tarantino writes stuff which is very original. You never anticipate what people are going to say, what they're going to do. Everything is a surprise and a surprise in the right way. We've got Dennis, Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman, Bronson Pinchot. Christian and Patricia are the two leads and the script attracted some of the best actors in the world. Tony just wanted to meet me about this part and we met at the Four Seasons Hotel. He tried to tell me the story of what was going on. And he said, look, I'm no good at this. I'm terrible at this. I can't really tell you the story. So I said, well, who's the character? And he said, well, he's a pimp and he's a white guy who thinks he's black. And I said, OK, I'll do it. Alabama is one of my girls and she's kind of gone missing. I'm not too bothered. You know, I've got other girls out there on the street. But I'm there in my crib. The doorbell rings and Clarence comes in and says that he's going to take her away from me. And all I'm going to get is that. Who the **** is that bitch? She's with me. And who are you? I am now in the process of meeting the man who has ruined Alabama's life. And now I'm going to hurt him. Action. Right, got it. Action. Too low. You got right up in his face. Action. Right. I know you know where they are. So tell me. Before I do some damage, you won't walk away from me. My scene has a lot of humor in it. I mean, it's it's a violent, tragic ending. But there's going to be a lot of laughs before the final blowout. Action, Chris. Bang. And then I pull the trigger. Yeah, that's it. Okay, it's loaded. I think they're killing me at this moment. Action. It works out perfectly, see? Yeah. Oh, he's trapped, see? There's a wild ride of a movie. I mean, when these two characters get together, Alabama and Clarence, nothing can really stop them. Once Clarence particularly gets on a mission, I mean, yeah, it's like an adventure. Quentin has brought something fresh and different to script, period. He has a great sense of humor, comedy, but not comedy in a comedic sense, but in a very real sense. Everybody has a turn of humor, but just by nature of the characters that he's drawn. Action. Well, riddle me this, Batman. I mean, if you're all so much in love with each other, what the hell are you doing here? I'm sure you've got better things to do with your time than hanging around upside down on a roller coaster all day. I like this type of character. It's definitely not of the norm, this guy. Bronson Pinchot, who's the aide to the producer, has been bugged by the police. The police break in. The mafia, as we'll call them, the boys from Detroit, also break in. So it becomes a Mexican standoff, and an enormous shootout ensues. Action. Bang! Bang! Bang! Great. That's it, you got it, bingo. Tony knows how to entertain people, certainly, you know. And special effects can be scary, because you don't know if someone's going to get really hurt. No, people are great at their job, and they're very careful. Cut. All my movies have a stamp and a particular look, but I think this is going to have a little bit of a different look and a different feel. I think this is a little more functioning more from the gut. I can imagine how painful this must be for you. But Clarence and that girlfriend of his brought this all on themselves. I implore you not to go down that road with them. You can always take comfort in the fact that you never had a choice. Guys, we need to clear the way out of this area here. Roll sound. Rolling! Let's get that, Craig A. Action! Where do I get it? Well, I grow it on my windowsill. See, lights, lights really good up there. I'm up high enough so nobody can see it from the street. Works out perfectly. You know what? No, really, where do you get it? Well, I'll tell you where it comes from, all right? Cocoa Roots. They take the leaves and mash them down. Ellie, Ellie, Ellie, come on, come on, sit down. Both of you might as well enjoy the ride, all right? I'll tell you, okay? You've got to promise me one thing and keep it fun. Dick didn't insure me, you're good people. I just tell you, you know your business. Okay, okay, okay. Cut. That's it. Good. Once again, right away, guys. She loved me. Insure me. Woo! I probably should have got it. Oh, sorry. Your turn. Christian's double running. It's good for high heels. Oh, is it is? Yeah. This is Jeff's, bro. It's Jeff's. You need to enjoy this. You know what I love is that nobody's taking care of me in this scene. I mean, nobody's, like, cleaning me off. They didn't take the sweater off. No, it's bran muffin and coffee. Look. The harness was right here and here and you hit it right in the... Jeff Ritz got him there. Oh, Lord. Put some coming out of his nose. He's the pig and you're watching your weight because you just got married. You're watching your weight so he's pigging. What have you got on now, 180? 180. Quiet. Background action. Yeah. Action. Do I look like a beautiful blonde with big tits and an ass tastes like Frank Vanilla ice cream? No. All right, then. Why are you telling me all this bullshit, huh? You want to f*** me? Say where? Look. I mean... Look. Just get this straight, okay? Lee is not into taking risks, okay? He is not into taking risks. He has a couple of guys he deals with. I've been dealing with them for years. They're safe, they're reliable, and they're dependable. Riddle me this, Batman. If you're all so much in love with each other, what the hell are you doing here, huh? I mean, I'm sure you've got better things to do with your time than hanging around upside down on some roller coaster all day. Your guy is interested because with that much ---- at his fingertips, he can play Joe f***ing Hollywood till the wheels come off. I mean, he can sell it, he can snort it, he can play Santa Claus with it as far as I'm concerned. At the price he's paying, he's going to be able to afford to just throw it around. You know? He will be everybody's best friend. I'm not putting him down. Here's money. You know? I mean, he can do whatever the hell he wants. Don't expect me and my friends to hang around forever waiting for you guys to grow some guts. All right? Cut. It works. I got one. Oh, A, B, and C coming. Cut. Reset. Okay. Michael Panamanian. And action. Hi, hi. It's, uh, it's Al. Yeah. Well, uh, I'm, I'm here with that party that you wanted me to get together with. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about? He's in my acting class. About a year. Yeah. He's good. Yeah. What? They, they grew up together. Uh-huh. Okay, but Wednesday you've got, you've got, uh, dinner at your mother's. Okay. Panamanian. Okay. Bye. Stand up or down. It's up to you. Hey, Joel. Joel. Yeah. Hurry. Back, pan. Shh. All right, guys. Right? Yeah. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Bang, bang, bang. Yeah. Do we have any more props in the uniform? Action. Bang, bang, bang, bang. Tony, Tony, Tony, Tony. Camera mark. I've gone far after rehearsal once, but it's bang, bang, bang. Okay, here we go. Let's do it, guys. One rehearsal. Stand by. Here we go. Rolling. Okay. Pictures up, guys. Still one projector. Let's do one take with him, one without him. Action, Tom. And cut. Good. Now, guys, I'm going to tell you, this sofa in front of you has got big charges in it. It's going off. That's them shooting back at you, yeah? So you should be ducking and diving, yeah? Let's do rehearsal. Roll sound, please. Rolling. A and B, camera. Camera mark. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. And here we go. Stand by. Let's do it. Go. Action. What happened to Flowers? Didn't go? Didn't go. You got the units, boys? All right, Michael, you're okay. What happened, Michael? He's all right. He's acting. Okay. Cars, give me playback. You okay?