Recently, I wrote up The Wild Bunch for TCM's Essentials. It was an enjoyable task as I got to read loads of biographies, autobiographies and all manner of background information on the film itself, a personal favorite. This story comes from Bloody Sam: The Life and Films of Sam Peckinpah by Marshall Fine as it was originally related to Fine by L.Q. Jones. Enjoy.As Peckinpah entered preproduction on The Wild Bunch, he called in L. Q. Jones, whom he cast as a bounty hunter, for a chat about something else. But he turned the conversation to his own personal devils.
Jones was astonished when Peckinpah asked him, "What's the matter? What is it I do?" He seemed sincerely interested in probing the personality problems that seemed inevitably to trip him. So Jones gave it to him with both barrels.
"Sam, you're a horse's ass, you're stupid and you pick on small people," Jones said. "You don't think and you don't consider other people."
Peckinpah nodded in eager agreement, as though a light bulb had just illuminated his brain. "You're right," he said. "Well, keep an eye on me and if you catch me doing that, point it out to me."
As they were talking, the phone rang on Peckinpah's desk. Picking it up, Peckinpah said, "Why, you unconscious[sic] cunt," and reeled off angry obscenities at whoever was on the line for five minutes before hanging up. Then be turned back to Jones as though nothing had happened and continued, "I'm serious. I want you to keep an eye on me," oblivious to what he had just done on the telephone.*
*unconscious should be unconscionable
6 comments:
....I think its a lost cause..Sam,you are what you are...
L.Q. is full of great anecdotes on the Peckinpah experience!
Reading the bios, I was interested to find out just how many actors totally gave it to Peckinpah head on. He's got such a reputation (which comes from his tantrums and tirades on set) but whenever an actor gave it to him straight, he totally took it. Holden, Borgnine, Ryan, Jones, Martin... all of them, at one point or another, told him where to stick it and it didn't seem to hurt their relationship one bit.
A great Peckinpah book that I could barely put down is Paul Seydor's "Peckinpah: The Westerns -- A Reconsideration." Seydor really goes deep on analyzing the films and painting the picture of his troubled productions.
Adam, one of the books I used was Sam Peckinpah: Savage Poet of American Cinema which features essays taken from other books. The one on The Wild Bunch screenplay was taken from Seydor's book. Seydor's writing was my primary source for the section dealing with the origins of the screenplay. I'd definitely like to read his whole book, though.
That's our Peckinpah!
Sincerely, though, that's hilarious.
I love that L.Q. had no compunction against telling Peckinpah he was a horse's ass. That's why L.Q. Jones is awesome.
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