| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| TitanPa |
Posted - 02/02/2007 : 18:18:34
I was reading an article in entertainment weekly that I thought would make a good topic here. Actors that take paycheck roles. These are roles that A-List actors take to keep the paychecks coming. When this happens it makes you say "What the hell are they doing in that movie?!?!"
They had a list of the top 25. I will mention the top 10
10 - Demi Moore in 'Striptease'
9 - Michael Caine in 'Jaws: The Revenge'
8 - Judi Dench in 'The Chronicles of Riddick'
7 - Orson Welles in 'Transformers: The Movie' (his final role)
6 - Peter O'Toole in 'Club Paradise'
5 - Dennis Hopper in 'Super Mario Bros.'
4 - Tony Curtis in 'The Bad News Bears GO to Japan'
3 - Sir Ben Kingsley in 'BloodRayne'
2 - Richard Burton in 'Exorcist II: THe Heretic'
and the #1 Paycheck role??????
Why De Niro why??????
1 - Robert De Niro in 'The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle'
Anyone else have any others they can think of????
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| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 06/02/2007 : 22:44:06
quote:
Originally posted by ragingfluff
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
quote:
Originally posted by Downtown
There are some people in this world that if they told you, "tomorrow, the sun will rise in the East," you'd still have to see it with your own eyes before you'd believe them.
... it rises in the EAST?!!!! 
No way, dude.
PS: Here's a Bob Evans tale told by Joe Esterhas
"If you want people to think that you're important, have yourself paged by friends at the Polo Lounge or at the pool of the Beverly Hills Hotel. The producer Robert Evans once took a phone call from director Roman Polanski while being interviewed for ABC's 20/20. An ABC staffer picked an extension up and found Evans speaking to dead air. Bob had faked the call from Roman. "
Joe Esterhas speaking about Robert Evans is akin to Pol Pot slagging off Mao
Exactly! I think you're making my point RFluff!
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| ragingfluff |
Posted - 06/02/2007 : 22:15:18
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
quote:
Originally posted by Downtown
There are some people in this world that if they told you, "tomorrow, the sun will rise in the East," you'd still have to see it with your own eyes before you'd believe them.
... it rises in the EAST?!!!!
No way, dude.
PS: Here's a Bob Evans tale told by Joe Esterhas
"If you want people to think that you're important, have yourself paged by friends at the Polo Lounge or at the pool of the Beverly Hills Hotel. The producer Robert Evans once took a phone call from director Roman Polanski while being interviewed for ABC's 20/20. An ABC staffer picked an extension up and found Evans speaking to dead air. Bob had faked the call from Roman. "
Joe Esterhas speaking about Robert Evans is akin to Pol Pot slagging off Mao
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| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 06/02/2007 : 19:22:04
quote:
Originally posted by Downtown
There are some people in this world that if they told you, "tomorrow, the sun will rise in the East," you'd still have to see it with your own eyes before you'd believe them.
... it rises in the EAST?!!!!
No way, dude.
PS: Here's a Bob Evans tale told by Joe Esterhas
"If you want people to think that you're important, have yourself paged by friends at the Polo Lounge or at the pool of the Beverly Hills Hotel. The producer Robert Evans once took a phone call from director Roman Polanski while being interviewed for ABC's 20/20. An ABC staffer picked an extension up and found Evans speaking to dead air. Bob had faked the call from Roman. "
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| Downtown |
Posted - 06/02/2007 : 18:47:49
There are some people in this world that if they told you, "tomorrow, the sun will rise in the East," you'd still have to see it with your own eyes before you'd believe them. |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 06/02/2007 : 17:54:17
quote:
Originally posted by ragingfluff
quote:
Originally posted by Randall
quote:
Originally posted by ragingfluff
Christopher Reeve reported the following anecdote in his autobiography. The idealistic young actor Reeve asked the seasoned veteran Hackman what his 'motivation' was in playing the role of Luthor. Hackman responded, "You mean, besides the million dollars?"
And is this one apocryphal or not?:
Dustin Hoffman shows up on the MARATHON MAN set looking like death warmed over. Olivier asks, "What's wrong?" Hoffman: "I stayed up all night so I would look like hell for this next scene." Oliver: "Dear boy, next time, why don't you try acting?"
Check out Robert Evans' The Kid Stays In The Picture for a reporting of this incident...
Oh, yeah, Evans, that great proponent of the truth 
He's one of those people said to be implicated by the phrase:
Hello, he lied.
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| ragingfluff |
Posted - 06/02/2007 : 16:53:44
quote:
Originally posted by Randall
quote:
Originally posted by ragingfluff
Christopher Reeve reported the following anecdote in his autobiography. The idealistic young actor Reeve asked the seasoned veteran Hackman what his 'motivation' was in playing the role of Luthor. Hackman responded, "You mean, besides the million dollars?"
And is this one apocryphal or not?:
Dustin Hoffman shows up on the MARATHON MAN set looking like death warmed over. Olivier asks, "What's wrong?" Hoffman: "I stayed up all night so I would look like hell for this next scene." Oliver: "Dear boy, next time, why don't you try acting?"
Check out Robert Evans' The Kid Stays In The Picture for a reporting of this incident...
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| w22dheartlivie |
Posted - 05/02/2007 : 13:27:53
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
And, back on topic:
Didn't Mr Sir do a series of ads for Polaroid on US tv on condition they'd never be shown in the UK?
From the Boston Globe's 14 Nov 2006 obituary of Peter Wensberg, who was head of marketing for Polaroid in the 1970s:
In the early 1970s, when Polaroid Corp. introduced its signature SX-70, a camera that produced an instant color photograph, Peter C. Wensberg headed the team that went to Europe to oversee the making of commercials.
As Polaroid's chief marketing executive, Mr. Wensberg was the perfect messenger to convince Sir Laurence Olivier that he had made the right choice to help sell the cameras on television. There were two stipulations, however, according to Sam Yanes, of Beacon, N.Y., who worked at Polaroid in Cambridge with Mr. Wensberg. "One, that the commercial be filmed in Paris, and the other that it never be shown in England," Yanes said yesterday .
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| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 05/02/2007 : 08:08:28
quote:
Originally posted by Randall
And is this one apocryphal or not?:
Dustin Hoffman shows up on the MARATHON MAN set looking like death warmed over. Olivier asks, "What's wrong?" Hoffman: "I stayed up all night so I would look like hell for this next scene." Oliver: "Dear boy, next time, why don't you try acting?"
Who's Oliver !!!! 
Hey, that story's been around a loooooong time! I doubt it's true, though, according to my pals who knew/worked with "Mr Sir" [as Marilyn was said to call him]. First of all, he was super polite to people [though he did relish being sarcastic behind their backs]; and he didn't address colleagues as 'dear boy.' He called them 'baby.'
It was rumored at the time that he was getting fed up with Hoffman's insistence on doing so many takes, and there's one scene - if I recall correctly - where DH comes in from running and he insisted on REALLY running which was taking even more time [and Mr Sir's own health wasn't that great so he was getting very tired], and he said something which was later transmuted into Randall's quote.
But hey! I wasn't there and you wasn't there and none of us wasn't there either! 
Here's a story in his defense, told to me by the other actor in question: Unlike films, in the theater actors do their own make-up. During the Broadway production of Beckett one of the spear-carriers was in awe of the great man and plucked up enough courage to speak to him. As his opening gambit he said that he admired Olivier's make-up and asked how he did it. Olivier was flattered and took the time to demonstrate various techniques to the young actor. When he was finished he said, "Now. Tell me how you do yours."
And, back on topic:
Didn't Mr Sir do a series of ads for Polaroid on US tv on condition they'd never be shown in the UK?
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| GHcool |
Posted - 05/02/2007 : 05:03:51
Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman, and Paul Giamatti all took paycheck roles in the movie Paycheck.  |
| randall |
Posted - 05/02/2007 : 04:14:53
quote:
Originally posted by ragingfluff
Christopher Reeve reported the following anecdote in his autobiography. The idealistic young actor Reeve asked the seasoned veteran Hackman what his 'motivation' was in playing the role of Luthor. Hackman responded, "You mean, besides the million dollars?"
And is this one apocryphal or not?:
Dustin Hoffman shows up on the MARATHON MAN set looking like death warmed over. Olivier asks, "What's wrong?" Hoffman: "I stayed up all night so I would look like hell for this next scene." Oliver: "Dear boy, next time, why don't you try acting?" |
| ragingfluff |
Posted - 04/02/2007 : 19:18:32
Christopher Reeve reported the following anecdote in his autobiography. The idealistic young actor Reeve asked the seasoned veteran Hackman what his 'motivation' was in playing the role of Luthor. Hackman responded, "You mean, besides the million dollars?"
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| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 03/02/2007 : 22:01:59
quote:
Originally posted by ragingfluff
Hey, Gene Hackman was the best thing in Superman; but what other more "serious", less paying work did he turn down to do it?
Hiya RFluff!
Just to set the acting record a bit straighter ...
Please remember that actors, even stars, aren't always in control of the timing of filming. Mostly they're not. So, let's consider a scenario where Hackman [just an example] was signed up to do a film which was supposed to start shooting in six months [which is when he'll finish the one he's currently working on with a month off for a bit of a holiday], and then another after that which starts in ten months. Then the first film gets cancelled. What's he supposed to do -- sit and twiddle his thumbs? Or take a quick in and out part which will pay him a fortune?
There are other factors, too. Sometimes a powerful agent will pressure a producer that if s/he lets his/her client take the lead in a film they also have to take a percentage of their other clients, too.
There's also the personal favor factor where a producer or more likely director or writer who happens to be a friend of a certain actor asks them to do the part.
It may seem to those not in the biz that actors, even stars, have more power than they actually do. Sometimes, though, if a star is in huge demand, they'll be - shall we say - persuaded to take a role if they can get something they particularly want -- like to film near a magnificent golf course just at the time when they can participate in some tournament. Or, that if they take a role in this film, they'll get the studio backing to greenlight the film they really want to act in/or direct.
Nothing in the movie biz is straightforward. One thing's for certain - the real story ain't gonna be discovered. Not for years. Or decades. Or ever.
Hope this helps.
Cheers.
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| ragingfluff |
Posted - 03/02/2007 : 21:38:57
[quote]Originally posted by redPen
I have to half-disagree with one of the fluff's films listed here.
I thought Brando's self-parody in The Freshman was highly entertaining. I'm sure purists (which likely includes Sir Fluff) are upset that he poked fun at his own classic role in The Godfather, but on its own, The Freshman is a real kick. Even Bruno Kirby, himself a Godfather Part II alum, appears in it, though not self-mockingly so.
The fact that Brando's character is repeatedly "almost referred to" as looking just like the character in The Godfather makes this film a tongue-in-cheek classic.
But again, I understand that this film upset many. I merely wanted to post a retort. Long live democracy!
I don't advertise my knighthood much...the proles get upset
I disagree with the premise of the disagreement (hah!)
Just because a role is a "paycheck" role does not mean I consider the performance to be bad.  Brando was brilliant in The Freshman (I don't argue that) - Hey, Gene Hackman was the best thing in Superman; but what other more "serious", less paying work did he turn down to do it?
Another paycheck whore I forgot to mention is Mel Gibson in Bird on a Wire (he was saving up for Braveheart, I suppose)
And do please check out www.japander.com You'd be surprised who'd jump at the chance at a million dollars to shill ginseng tonic, shitty Japanese beer, English lessons or shampoo
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| randall |
Posted - 03/02/2007 : 18:39:07
quote:
Originally posted by GHcool
I thought Christopher Walken hit rock bottom as a mouse poop-tasting exterminator in Mouse Hunt. But then he was in Gigli.
Two Christophers, Walken and Lee, have repeatedly said that they like to work constantly and thus take stinkers alongside the better roles. Their resumes certainly bear this out. |
| w22dheartlivie |
Posted - 03/02/2007 : 12:27:59
quote:
Originally posted by ragingfluff
Olivier in Marathon Man
Olivier and Gregory Peck in the Boys From Brazil
Demi Moore in Charlies Angels 2
I don't agree with the two Olivier choices. He was quite brilliant in Marathon Man, and The Boys From Brazil was an interesting film. I don't think Demi Moore took the Charlie's Angel role nearly as much for the paycheck as for the opportunity it offered to jump start her career. |
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