Almost Famous Tell Me Again Ad Lib
The year is 1973, a precocious fifteen-year-former journalist is on tour with America's hottest stone ring, and he's about to get the story of his life. Cameron Crowe'due south semi-autobiographical tale of music, fame, growing upwards, and "Tiny Dancer" sing-alongs may have premiered 20 years ago, but the experience of watching Well-nigh Famous remains indelible. The performances are vivid: Patrick Fugit as young scribe William Miller; Baton Crudup as inscrutable rocker Russell Hammond; Kate Hudson in her star-making — and Oscar-nominated — operation as ethereal "band-aid" Penny Lane. Not to mention memorable turns from Frances McDormand, the tardily Philip Seymour Hoffman, Anna Paquin, Jason Lee, Zooey Deschanel, and the rest of the film's starry bandage.
The music industry is very dissimilar now — Hollywood is, too. Only Famous remains as captivating every bit ever. In celebration of its 20th anniversary, Crowe and key cast members hopped back on the metaphorical bout bus to look through never-before-seen photos taken on gear up by famed rock photographer Neal Preston (Queen, Led Zeppelin), and reminisce well-nigh life on the road. Consider this your backstage pass for one of the greatest stone movies ever made.
"[This] was his story, it's his life. He had to get that correct. And he did."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
"They had to take production art for the albums that were going to be props on set," Crudup (pinnacle, with John Fedevich as Ed Vallencourt, Lee as lead vocaliser Jeff Bebe, and Mark Kozelek's Larry Fellows) recalls of this early Stillwater shot. "We didn't quite know what the ring was notwithstanding. We were still in our rehearsal phase, trying to figure out the dynamic betwixt all of united states. Information technology'southward a great behind-the-scenes of how people create a company. That's us trying to figure out what Stillwater was."
Adds Crowe of the promo shot, "By and large they remind me of the Eagles. This is all near Jason Lee's face. And most John Fedevich, silent Ed, knowing there are going to be problems. Russell is torturing Bebe. And I remember he'due south bumping into Bebe's back a little flake only to f--- with him."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
The Stillwater actors went through what became known every bit "Rock School," where they worked with real-life rockers Peter Frampton and Nancy Wilson to convincingly play musicians and solidify the ring as a group. "For a number of weeks, the band apposite to playback," recalls Lee, "and all the while I'm letting my hair grow and it's getting longer and longer."
Eventually, Crowe brought more people in to give them an audition. "Cameron wanted Kate Hudson and the girls to come up in and sentry us perform," adds Lee. "We would do a fix so that everybody could kickoff to get a feel of what the ring was condign. It was so that everything actually started to come up together."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
Jimmy Fallon, another fellow member of the movie'southward all-star supporting cast, played Dennis Promise, who becomes Stillwater's managing director once the ring's profile begins to rise. "Jimmy had a musical presence on [Saturday Dark Live]," Crowe remembers. "I was blown away that nosotros really got him to come in because I was already a fan; he was fantastic. He very carefully cultivated the Irving Azoff bowl cut wait from the early '70s and nosotros were off and running." (Equally for if he ever heard from Mick Jagger about one of Hope'south more memorable lines — when the grapheme declares, "If yous think that Mick Jagger will notwithstanding be out there trying to be a rock star at age 50, you're sadly, sadly mistaken" — Crowe responds, "No, I didn't. I always thought I might, simply I didn't.")
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
Hudson's Penny Lane performance is iconic — a descriptor that could likewise apply to the character's famed glaze — just the extra was first cast as Anita, William's older sister (who is played in the film by Deschanel). Afterward Brad Pitt and Sarah Polley dropped out every bit Russell and Penny, Hudson and the role she was destined for came together…eventually. "I turned down 2 pretty big parts at that time to work with Cameron. I didn't care what I was doing, I just wanted to be in a Cameron Crowe picture," she says. "I asked him if I could audition for Penny Lane and he was hesitant, and so finally, he was like, okay, fine. I auditioned once again, and so once again so once again, and finally, Gail [Levin], the casting director, said to Cameron, 'Okay, plenty, we're not auditioning Kate anymore, only hire her!' And he hired me."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
McDormand, every bit William'due south female parent, Elaine (seen here side by side to Michael Angarano, who portrays a young William), stands forth Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach, San Diego. The scene contains some personal Easter eggs for Crowe. "That is the Strand Theater [marquee] where I first saw Carnal Knowledge and Mike Nichols' movies; that'south a dress my mom used to wear when she was that age," says the managing director. "The two women who are looking in the window, that was a record store that I used to become to. They had this large, open window there where they would display the latest neat album that had come in. I think going by one time and Joni Mitchell's Blueish was on a display mount."
As for Angarano, Fugit is still impressed with what the x-year-old actor achieved in such a short period of time on screen. "He had a super thick Staten Isle accent; half of [Michael's] work was trying to just like West Coast his natural way of speaking. He was amazing," recalls Fugit. "When he would come on set, Cameron would have the states all hang out because we're all basically three versions of the same person. Michael was really into watching me and he would pick upwardly on stuff that I was doing, and that's what Cameron wanted."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
Deschanel (here with cinematographer John Toll), is seen filming the moment where Anita leaves home — merely not before giving some departing gifts (records) and words of wisdom ("One day, yous'll be cool") to her younger brother. "I remember that was a very of import line," Deschanel says. "Nosotros did it a lot of times — I don't know, mayhap xl times. Cameron likes to have a lot of options in the editing room. So we did it 40 times and then [afterwards] he said, 'So yeah, you know how I made you do that line like, 40 times? Guess which one I used.' I'm similar, 'The outset one?' And he was like, 'Yep, I'm using the get-go ane.'"
Crowe says that scene replicated a real moment with his sis. "I have this [real] picture of her with her first real serious young man, she's leaving the business firm and is and then anxious to go out she leaves with curlers in her hair," he explains. For the shot itself, he adds, "the camera's fastened to the auto and the auto's going to drive off, and she's going to look back and we were playing music at the time. I recollect we were playing [Simon and Garfunkel'due south] 'America' on set and it was like the wedlock made in sky. Her face, that vocal, and that shot, and that's John Price very casually simply making your dreams come truthful equally the master DP."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
"This is the Hyatt House scene," says Crowe. "Nosotros were shooting a lot of stuff and it was a long script, and so that thing in my paw is just a collection of the scenes nosotros're doing that twenty-four hour period. This is when the kid [William] starts to see what's really going on: 'You were her excuse for coming here.' What Kate'due south doing — because I actually remember that mannerism she had — when she's chewing on a finger while I'm talking to her, is, 'I hear what you're saying, but in the cease, I'm just going to wing it.' That'southward the magic of Kate." (Hudson's take: "That picture show of me and Cameron embodies me and Cameron.")
Their collaboration, Hudson says, was "i of the keen working relationships of my life. It taught me and so much then young, and I retrieve we were a really great team, Cameron and I. I really feel like I got him, and he understood exactly how to direct me and get exactly what he needed. And we really had and so much respect for each other."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
"I think Patrick is but being very William Miller off camera here," says Crowe, of this on-ready suspension with Fugit. "That'southward when you lot know that you're on the right rail, when people slip into their characters and the characters go to relate to each other in the script, and somehow information technology works in life as well." Backside them is Kelly Curtis, Pearl Jam's manager and a longtime friend of Crowe's. (The filmmaker considers Curtis something of a lucky charm: "He was [on the Fast Times at Ridgemont Loftier set] when Sean Penn said, 'You dick.'")
Though he'd already establish success as a director, with Most Famous, Crowe felt similar he was playing a role. "I think we all stepped into our characters," he says. "My grapheme is this distressed guy trying to make a decent movie out of my actual childhood. Completely stressful merely what I got a lot of joy over, and notwithstanding do, is showing Patrick how much fun information technology is to make a movie."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
Hoffman (left) gave i of his most memorable performances as Lester Bangs — impressive, considering he had the flu when he shot his scenes. "He was totally f----ing exhausted, dehydrated, and manifestly very nauseous and had to step abroad basically just to vomit during takes," says Fugit. "He was sort of silently sweating and only crushing the scene after scene." The two actors would chat between takes too, and though Hoffman was cordial to the then-teenaged Fugit, he could also be a little gruff. "He'south like, 'It's not bad that you're hither. I think you're good for the part, actors will work a long time to get a part like this, so you lot improve f----ing perform,'" recalls Fugit. "But in a very caring style."
The scenes with Hoffman equally Bangs also holds a special meaning for Crowe, who met the real-life Bangs while the director was even so a budding announcer for Rolling Stone. "That is what Lester was wearing when I start met him," says Crowe, of the Approximate Who shirt Hoffman has on.
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
In the motion-picture show, William meets Bangs at the same identify (in a higher place) a teenaged Crowe first encountered the famed stone journalist. "In that location's Patrick easing into William, hanging onto the bag for dearest life," says Crowe. "I'm a little nervous because Philip is formidable and he's been listening to Lester on earbuds every time where I'm not talking to him. I went beyond the street and watched the scene. I was listening on the headset equally he's talking to the child, and it sounded like Lester. I got a chill. He is channeling the guy on the exact corner where I met him."
Crowe was so thrilled later on shooting the initial Lester Bangs scene that he decided to call up so-DreamWorks president David Geffen to thank him for allowing the picture show to be fabricated. Recalls Crowe, "I just got him on the phone and said, 'I'm really, really happy we're making this movie, and I just can't believe what brought me to this day where I tin can film Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs.' And David Geffen goes, 'Jerry Maguire was what brought you in that location. I have to go,' and he hung up."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
When Crudup and Crowe first met about Nigh Famous, the thespian says Russell was "a man of mystery." "He didn't say much, and I couldn't get a handle, actually, on what [Crowe] wanted from the character from the script… so I was a little timid at first near how I was going to finer play this guy, since I didn't really know who he was," Crudup remembers. "And Cameron absolutely spent this time saying, 'I don't know who he is either, but maybe we could discover him together. Wouldn't that be cool?'" His portrayal then came through working with the manager and studying during downtime moments like this. (Notes Crowe: "I love that photo because that's Baton. That'southward not Russell. That'due south Billy Crudup at f---ing work.")
The scene they were shooting hither is when Russell asks William to "simply make us look cool," a moment Crowe was patently "fastidious" about. "He wanted to get the ambiguity correct — whether or not Russell is taking advantage of William, or William is giving license to Russell," says Crudup. "If everything that Lester Bangs has taught William is actually truthful, in that moment nosotros're seeing it play out. Nosotros're seeing William fall in honey with these guys, and nosotros're seeing how Russell is comprehending that William is vulnerable in that way. And he'south exploiting information technology, but information technology leaves usa resentful and understanding and hateful and charmed, which is 1 of Cameron's slap-up gifts."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
"I feel like this scene was cut — it might exist in the extended version, but I feel like that was the scene where Kate and I were talking about what Russell and Penny never talked nigh, which was their relationship," says Crudup, "because Russell was married and his wife'southward name was Leslie. And Leslie was the buzzkill word for the two of them, obviously, so Leslie never came up."
"It'southward not hard to fall in honey with Billy Crudup. We didn't have to work on it," says Hudson of her costar. "What I loved about our human relationship in that moving picture is that my personality and Baton's personality are very different. Billy takes information technology very seriously. And I'yard like, yes, but let'southward have fun while we're doing it [laughs] — let'southward have fun while nosotros're taking information technology really seriously. And he kind of made me focus. I was 20 years one-time filming this motion picture, [and] it brought me so much focus and experience because he was 10, xi years older than me. I think I brought him a sense of levity, that I could trip the light fantastic effectually and kind of brand him joke — and Cameron provided that space for us to be able to become to know each other like that."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
Jeff Bebe may take been zeroed in on the perks and perils of music stardom (y'all never want to be i of the out-of-focus guys on a ring T-shirt), merely Lee says his expression here speaks to the "special" free energy of the set. Looking dorsum on information technology now, he says, "I think honestly it's bittersweet because it's one of the most extraordinary experiences I've e'er had. I wonder if the movie were shot now, if in between takes people would exist on their iPhones scrolling through Instagram. We didn't have cell phones, we didn't have Instagram, we didn't have social media. Everybody merely hung out and played guitar, told jokes, and lived the life. We were living the movie, and it was simply such a special, special time."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
Fairuza Balk, who plays the ring-aid Sapphire, has a minor but crucial role in the film, something Crowe had to impress upon the actress before shooting. "She called me over the weekend right as we were starting to picture show," he says. "She had trepidation; she was like, 'Where am I in this ensemble?' I think she was trying to figure out where to drop an ballast and how to play information technology. I said to her, 'Well, you are the soul of this flick,' and she was like, 'What are you talking about I'm the soul of the moving-picture show?' I'1000 like, 'You are the soul of this moving-picture show. You have the speech that is everything that the moving picture is about. You're the merely person that can do it the mode that it needs to exist washed, who will ache with a love of music.' And she's like, 'Okay, All correct."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
William may have spent the pic pining after Penny Lane, but Fugit notes that it was Paquin'due south Polexia who his character should accept had his heart assail. "Cameron would put it similar this," Fugit remembers, "'Polexia is the one that William will end up finding in xv years and take a deep, long relationship with.' So that was e'er an aspect of William'south kind of cluelessness and also Polexia's world-weariness. I go the feeling through Anna's functioning that Polexia was tracking the whole time — like William and I could terminate upward making something happen, only he's not ready yet."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
For the part of a teenaged Zeppelin fanatic, Crowe cast a then-unknown Jay Baruchel, pictured hither in his homemade "Stairway to Heaven" shirt. "Baby Baruchel" recalls Crowe. "He was so young just a complete alive wire. He completely is the spirit of the real guy, Ric Munoz. [Jay] really reminded me of Jimmy Fallon. Whenever they were in the aforementioned identify, I was like, 'Come on, guys. What's our buddy moving-picture show?' They're looking at me that way people wait at you: 'Why exercise you think we look alike? We don't actually look alike. Stop it.'"
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
Hudson and Preston took this photo during a intermission from filming. Note the double-decker — Stillwater's first fashion of tour transportation — in the groundwork. "See the rig? Information technology was and so hot in that motorcoach," says Hudson. "We were in Sacramento, I believe, and oh my God, it was so hot."
According to Preston, the Almost Famous shoot was "like a rock tour for iii months — except for the fact that nosotros had telephone call sheets. Information technology's the same vibe. You first existence insulated and very cloistered from the outside world."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
Lee and Hudson aboard the passenger vehicle, site of one of the flick'southward most memorable moments. "I think the scene that people talk virtually the almost is the 'Tiny Dancer' scene," says Lee. "That was just cute to make because y'all really felt that lowness in the bus after [Russell's acrid trip at the house party]. When the energy starts to rise a little bit and everybody starts singing along, that was actually a bloodshot, emotional scene to shoot."
"It was equally much of a moment for us as people and as a cast, what it is to exist a circus together when you're making a motion picture," Hudson shares. Every bit she tells it, that scene's apex came together as they were shooting. "[Penny's line] 'You are home' wasn't fifty-fifty written, and I can't recollect if that was an ad lib of mine or if Cameron threw that out to me, but it wasn't a line [in the script]. I think Cameron threw out 'I desire to become abode' to William, and I just said 'you are home' [laughs]."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
In 2020,Almost Famouscould read similar music journalism fan-fiction — an unseasoned author on a freewheeling assignment that becomes aRolling Stonecover story. But Crowe did write for the publication as a teen, and he wanted to go the world of the magazine right. The managing director cast Terry Chen as Ben Fong-Torres (both pictured higher up), Rainn Wilson as RS co-founder David Felton, and Eion Bailey as editor-in-principal Jann Wenner. "It was actually great to bring Ben and David to the gear up," says Crowe, of the recreated Rolling Stone offices. "Ben knows how to command the state of affairs. When he walked in, he became the music editor of Rolling Stone. He was telling me what was correct, what was wrong, what I can cut, what would feel improve here. He and Terry actually hit it off. What's peachy was Ben said to me, 'I never used to wear shirts like that.' And, I'm like, 'You lot wore form-fitting, semi-paisley shirts.' He was similar, 'I never did.' Nosotros showed him a flick of [him in] one from our research and he'south like, 'Okay, maybe on that one.'"
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
The film got some existent-world rock star communication from Peter Frampton, who served equally technical adviser and taught Crudup to play guitar. Preston was able to capture Frampton during a break between takes of shooting a concert scene at the Hollywood Palladium. "Nosotros accept a moment setting upwards where Frampton is merely going to f—ing let it rip and bear witness united states of america that yes, this very generous, gentlemanly, helpful guy is really also Peter f—ing Frampton. This is him merely ripping some incredible guitar function."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
Stillwater concerts gave the actors a real taste of rock stardom — especially that Palladium performance, filmed in front of a swarm of screaming fans/extras. "We filmed continuously, I call up three or iv songs in a row where in between each song, the mics were hot. I would say, 'Thank yous and then much. This next song is, apathetic, blah, blah, blah, blah.' And so playback would play then we'd go into the adjacent song," says Lee. "Information technology was literally similar filming a mini concert. The oversupply was loud, and we but went through it. It was astonishing that we pulled that off and the cameras were moving effectually and covering it all." (A fiddling Stillwater Easter egg: The song the band would sing to hype themselves up before going onstage was ad-libbed by Lee during one of their early rehearsals. Crowe decided to work information technology into the movie.)
Adds Crudup, "Hearing the first chords of the song that we're playing, the lights go up and information technology's 1,500 people at the Palladium … they let out a scream and — I mean, instantly, you know why rock stars become crazy. Because you are filled with a kind of mania that is directed right into your center and your brain that is different anything. Even in the pretend environment where I'm playing somebody else, I still felt the extraordinary and ane-of-a-kind experience of having a moment as a rock star. It gives me chills thinking about information technology."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
"This was a big scene that we shot part of in the exterior in Santa Monica [standing in for San Diego], and then part of in a studio in Manhattan Beach," Deschanel says of this moment with Crowe. "It was the reunion of the female parent and daughter that was kind of an unlikely reunion, that'due south meant to exist the globe'south most bad-mannered hug. That was a very important moment for Cameron." Every bit for the fashion Crowe'southward framing her face, Deschanel says, "he'due south either telling me he's going to do a closeup or nosotros were mugging for the withal photographer and he's pretending to be a manager framing my face." (From the director himself: "I was merely jumping upwards and down on that very porch when I saw that we'd gotten information technology, considering those are the moments that are of import and they're out of real life, too.")
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
William's exploits with Stillwater strength him to miss his high-school graduation — much to the dismay of his female parent, who silently seethes in the crowd when her son fails to materialize. Crowe wanted to give the scene some real-world gravitas — and, once again, a little nod to his ain life — and then he filmed the sequence at his own high school and recruited one of his get-to actresses: his mother, Alice Marie Crowe (seen higher up, in the pink lid), who has appeared in several of the director'south films and also served as the inspiration for McDormand's Elaine. (Another Easter egg: Standing next to Alice is actor Charles Walker, who played the principal inSay Annihilation.)
"My mom really craved [McDormand'southward] performance, although she ever used to say, 'I never went barefoot in the house. You know that,'" says Crowe, adding, "She's one of my greatest editors ever and a wonderful teacher. We used to walk that track field [at the school] and talk about ideas, because we were large moving-picture show fans. We'd talk a lot of details of Virtually Famous." When Crowe finally finished the film and was left with a four-hour cut, he turned to her once more. "I was a little lost," he says. "She came to the part and I put her in a room and she watched all four hours, and when it was done, she said, 'Your best movie is in here so get to work.' And, I did."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
"This was the original terminate of the picture," says Crowe of this family breakfast scene, where Elaine (McDormand, left) surprises her kids past playing a Neil Immature song, "On the Mode Home." ("A bootleg version, very skillful," notes the director.) Simply at that place's more to the sequence than an alternate ending. "Ane of the secrets of About Famous is that information technology's so much about the male parent who's not at that place," says Crowe. "I thought that would be in there if yous knew what to look for." Adds Fugit: "I love filming that scene because information technology was informative virtually Cameron and his family in a fashion that had non occurred to me upward until that betoken," he says. "What actually resonated with me, there is purposefully a chair left open at the table for William'due south father. I didn't read even really remember virtually it until Cameron pointed it out. Cameron's like, 'Yous see your mom and your sister [played by Deschanel, center] synergizing again, just there'southward something missing. I want you, at that betoken, to look over at the empty chair and...yous realize your dad is non here. That'south the energy missing from the family.' It'south f---ing distressing. I recollect when he told me that, I was kind of diddled away."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
"This is my favorite shot," says Crowe, of this Preston photo of Penny Lane's boots. "It's Kate feeling free and going there with this character."
The photograph was taken during the scene where Penny overdoses on quaaludes and William comes in to salve her — but non before stealing a kiss. Hudson calls the scene "beautifully innocent and sad." Yet while William'south intentions may be heartfelt, Fugit notes the moment'southward creepy undertones. "She's overdosing, she might die, and William is gonna f---ing osculation her while she's passed out," he says. Still , he recognizes what Crowe was trying to practice. "How do you change the behavioral nature of that to something that is still unsettling but very sweet? How is it that William is going to limited his love for this adult female? He has been basically proverb in subtext with his optics, with his smiles, with his concrete discomfort around Penny Lane. The only reason it'due south safe to express himself [here] is considering she'south probably non gonna recollect it. He'due south for sure being a scoundrel."
Crowe ended up changing the scene when he adapted the motion picture as a musical. "I call up the shelf life on what nosotros were trying to do in the movie with that scene has expired," he says. "What I'm most proud of is that we were able to rejigger that scene [for the stage] then that it was truthful to their characters."
Credit: Neal Preston/Paramount
"Every time I think of Almost Famous, it's just accented dearest around it for me," Hudson says, looking back on the flick two decades later. "The feel of information technology was just similar no other, nosotros really did become a family and Cameron was inspiring – I still recall things that he said."
"Very rarely do movies just concur upwardly, and when your kids watch it they have the same experience that y'all had when y'all watched information technology for the first time. And I'thousand seeing that when I show my son this movie, information technology evokes the same feeling that I had or that my female parent had when she saw it, or my brother. Information technology really does hold up — I think because you see this globe through a 15-year-old's optics, that it allowed the honey of music and this fourth dimension, that innocence, to really... I recollect it brings people hope. I think when they see it, they're hopeful for life. And it's just Cameron. When Cameron hits it, nobody's better. When he hits his sweet spot, in that location's nobody like him. [This] was his story, it's his life. He had to get that right. And he did."
A version of this story appears in the September 2022 issue of Entertainment Weekly. Don't forget to subscribe for more sectional interviews and photos, only in EW.
Source: https://ew.com/movies/almost-famous-20th-anniversary-photos/
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