"Fate sucks. I swear. "
Matt Dillon as Bob in Drugstore Cowboy
If I had been somewhat clairvoyant while on the set of Drugstore Cowboy, I would have realized that one day I would someday be living in Portland Oregon, in fact, just 1 mile from where we were filming. I most likely would have dismissed the entire notion as too much candy from crafts services. I loved living in Seattle & I had the best agent in town. I had been fortunate enough to have worked in TV (Murder She Wrote, Twin Peaks, Northern Exposure, A Day in the Life) & a whole lot of commercials & voice-overs, but the Gus Van Sant project was my first feature film. I was thrilled to be working with the talented director of Mala Noche, a film I really admired about & that had received an enthusiastic reception at The Seattle Film Festival in 1985.
I was working in a feature film! My scenes were with Matt Dillon! I have now done 12 films, but this one will always be so special. The very soft spoken Gus Van Sant creates an extremely creative atmosphere for working. Many of the actors that have done films with Van Sant have remarked on how great he is to work with & how conducive to creativity the conditions are on the set of his films. He was not big on rehearsing, but he would ask for something completely different with each take. Matt Dillon (who I have worked with twice) was such a nice gentleman. He would stay & read his lines back to me for our reverse shots. Dillon was such a “regular” guy. He would eat lunch, sitting at a big long table, with the rest of the cast, crew & grips & he spent very little time in his trailer. The rest of the cast were fun & friendly: Kelly Lynch, James LeGross & Heather Graham. I did not get to meet William S. Burroughs…my only regret from this experience.
I was invited to the premier of Drugstore Cowboy, but did not attend because I was performing in a play at the time. The film went on to rave reviews & it won Independent Spirit Awards for Best Screenplay for Mr. Van Sant & Daniel Yost, Best Cinematography, Best Actor for Matt Dillon, & Best Supporting Actor for Max Perlich. It won Best Screenplay awards from the LA Film Critics Association, the National Society of Film Critics & the NY Film Critics Circle, & Best Film at the Berlin International Film Festival. At the film’s Seattle premier, the Husband turned to me half way through the viewing & stated- “Oh. My. God. You are in a really GOOD movie!”
Gus Van Sant’s films have ranged from Oscar winning studio fare: Good Will Hunting & Finding Forrester, to very experimental: Gerry & Last Days, Indies: Elephant & Paranoid Park, noble, brave & baffling experiments: the shot by shot re-make of Psycho & Even Cowgirls Get The Blues. He has done 4 films that I love & to which I award an A on The Steve Report Card: Drugstore Cowboy (of course), My Own Private Idaho, To Die For, & Milk.
In 2002, shortly after relocating to Portland after 20 years in Seattle, I was standing with some new Portland friends & some dear former neighbors from Seattle on a street in the Peal District. My friend Susan: “Oh my God… look! That is Gus Van Sant!”. The Husband: “Yeah, he lives in this neighborhood… Stephen knows him”.
Our little group mumbled some: “yeah, sures & uh-huhs”. When Mr. Van Sant walked past us, he looked up, & said in his singular soft manner: “Hello… there… Stephen. I haven’t seen you in a while... strange… your head looks bigger…” & then he went on his way. My friends looked baffled & everyone wanted to know what he meant. I had no idea (what could he have meant?), but I told them that it was an industry term, that good actors had heads that were proportionately too large for their bodies. It was my Gus Van Sant moment.
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