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Summer, 1995
First professional movie work
I did my first real work as background in the Universal film version of
I'm Not Rappaport,
which was originally scheduled to be released November 1995.
Eventually it was to be widely released January 24, 1997, but it never was: the film's limited release kept the feature trapped in obscurity in very few theatres.
Interestingly enough, the cinematographer for
Rappaport
was
Adam Holender,
who was cinematographer for
A Price Below Rubies,
on which I also worked.
For I'm Not Rappaport,
I was part of the re-enactment of the actual 1907 NYC Garment District Union Strike Vote Meeting
(the film's opening scene, though while filming it was set up to be a flashback sequence).
At one point co-star
Walter Matthau
did his lines about ten feet away from me
(Matthau's bits for the scene are not used, surprisingly).
For the flashback aspect, he stands next to the young boy version of himself as the audience takes the "old Hebrew oath," which he retakes as part of his memory.
Matthua also had no issue being sandwiched between two very pretty young women, making hilariously comically crass remarks loud enough for all in earshot to hear.
At one point between takes, an AD came up to him to instruct him how to keep his arm up when he turns to look at his boyhood self atop his father's shoulders.
The AD was quick and to the point, and rushed off without so much as an acknowledgement from the film's star.
Matthau glanced over his shoulder, realizing the guy was already gone as he loudly quipped to his close-by audience, "Why don'tcha just stick a broomstick up my ass and swivel me...?"
Our calltime had been 3am, we were wrapped at 10pm.
Seventeed hours.
With massive meal penalties even pre-SAG I think my compansation for my private labour was a little over $500.
THroughout the day I could hear others grumbling about "how long" it was taking.
In my mind I was all Shut up...!
You're in a movie: months from now you're gonna pay some teen eight bucks to see yourself on th'big screen...!
About six or so years later on viewing it on Encore on cable, I found myself very visible as the scene opens the film.
I am seen as a little blur in the background as the girl walks down the aisle but there I am as I/we begin to stand to take the oath: a very clear shot of me taking up the right side of the screen
(the clip of which would be shown at least twice in the feature documentary Strictly Background).
As it was, in the completed film instead of being a flashback, the scene stands alone and Matthau is not in the sequence.
The other Rappaport co-star
(not there for that scene that day),
is
Ossie Davis.
Several weeks earlier I had met his son
Guy Davis,
my brother Alan's company
AMS Video having been hired to video tape Guy Davis's powerful one-man stage show
In Bed With The Blues: The Adventures of Fishy Waters
that he was touring at the time.
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