The Q&A began immediately after the film ended at 10:30 PM and lasted just over 30 minutes. The Q&A was announced just before the screening began and, from the reaction of people seated behind me in the theater, this was a surprise to most. Although the screening room was not completely full, after the film ended I saw people in the upper rows move to rows near the front after they heard that Vincent and Jonathan would be in the house tonight. Of course, I had arrived at 8 PM to get a good seat. I ended up in the middle of the second row and filmed the Q&A between the wide gap in the first row with an excellent, unobstructed view of Vincent and Jonathan. To keep the camcorder steady, I placed it inside the cup holder next to my seat and steered it left to right at times to film Vincent or Jonathan and mostly kept it stationary to view them both onscreen. No shaky hands this time!
Vincent D'Onofrio and director Jonathan Hensleigh answered questions from the audience about the making of the film "Kill The Irishman". They arrived and sat in chairs placed directly in front of the movie screen, and the Q&A began while the credits were rolling! The Q&A was supposed to run only 20 minutes but ran over to about 31 minutes. Jonathan explained that the film was shot in Detroit instead of Cleveland because the studio was offered a 40% tax rebate by the state of Michigan to offset the production costs, which helped to get the film made within budget. He also talked about the 39 vintage cars used in the film, adding that "Vincent had the best one." Jonathan had to own up to a flub pointed out by an audience member and admitted that he mistakenly identified Fat Tony Salerno's club as being located in Brooklyn, when it was actually in East Harlem. The same guy also asked Vincent about a scene where John Nardi commits a violent act and asks "Are you from Brooklyn?" Vincent replies that he is from Brooklyn, but "this isn't from Brooklyn." Hmm. What's that about?
Vincent heaped praise on his fellow actors in the film, including Ray Stevenson, who he described as having that "leading man" thing, Val Kilmer, his previous co-star in "The Salton Sea" and Christopher Walken, who has been a friend for years and "a really good guy." Vincent remarked that he had worked with other "leading man" types over the years and said "It's nice when they're not assholes." Jonathan spoke about a "mini-blazing row" wth a producer where he defended Vincent's decision to portray John Nardi as "an accountant" type, not a typical shark-skin suit wearing gangster. I really like this quote from Jonathan Hensleigh-"This is Vincent D'Onofrio. He knows what the fuck he's doing. Leave it alone." So there!
Vincent spoke more indepth about how he created the character of John Nardi, since he had little research available on Nardi, unlike when he portrayed Abbie Hoffman and Robert E. Howard. Vincent also related a story about working on "Men In Black" and how he thought he would get fired from that film because of his creation of Edgar the Bug's movements, which conflicted with the concept devised by Steven Spielberg, which involved puppets! Luckily, director Barry Sonnenfeld stuck up for Vincent and the studio ended up using CGI effects to transform Edgar into the giant bug, instead of those silly puppets. Whew!
After the Q&A ended, Vincent and Jonathan posed for photos on their way out, and also signed some movie posters, but we were told that the posters were for the studio, not us. Darn! I approached Vincent after the poster signing to ask for a photo with me, but a new bodyguard blocked me and said that Vincent had a meeting. We all got in the elevator and went down to the lobby, where I was finally able to ask Vincent to pose with me, and he agreed. "OK, real quick." he said as I got my camera ready to snap the photo. He leaned in closer to me so we could see ourselves on the fold-out screen of my camcorder(You got it, he said) and I snapped the photo. Yay! I said thank you and good night to Vincent as he and Jonathan stepped outside into the below freezing chill and he also said good night. He and Jonathan waited outside several minutes before getting into a black SUV and leaving for parts unknown. Wonder if they really had a meeting or were just going to have a drink. Could have been a case of Saturday night fever. You never know, eh?
Thanks for the pictures and the report about the screening night.
ReplyDeleteVincent sounds so awesome when you talk about him and the things he does and says. Just makes a person want to really get to know him, doesn't it?? Lucky you. I just love the guy!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! Me, too!
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