The Last Movie Stars (2022) s01e05 Episode Script

1
The trouble with getting hired
to do something
is I don't know
what the film's about.
Yeah.
You know, is it about
what a stud Paul Newman is?
Is it about how women
get demolished
by a male-driven culture?
Yeah.
loving marriages?
Yes. Is it a movie about
Paul or Joanne or
And it reminds me
of this thing
that you said to me
a while ago
when I was asking
for relationship advice,
which was that
in relationships,
there's always
a third person,
and the third person
is the relationship.
It just creates
this different person
that is
the two people together.
And I wonder if the movie
is about if, you know,
if you can see it
as easier to make
being about one person.
If it's about that person,
the person that was
[Speaks indistinctly]
What?
I think that's what
I should do.
[Laughs]
♪♪
Woman:
"Sometimes a Great Notion."
This was out on the set.
Paul inherited this film.
He was acting in it,
and then they fired
the director,
and he had to take
over direction.
♪♪
♪♪
Clooney:
"'Sometimes a Great Notion'
was a bad, unsettled time.
I was warring with everybody.
I was warring with my agent.
I was warring with Universal.
And I was going through
difficult times with Joanne.
And I had too much pressure
on me.
I was drinking much too hard."
Got a beer?
[Indistinct conversations]
He was drinking so much,
and he was so tired.
Directing and acting.
That he would finish,
look at the rushes,
and then down
six to eight martinis.
♪♪
Hamilton:
"I was here in New York,
and I got a call from Paul
saying that, you know,
'Sometimes a Great Notion'
was totally out of control,
that he'd taken over directing.
And he wondered
if I could come out there
and just give him a hand."
"He was really drinking a lot."
"I asked him how much he drank.
I remember him telling me.
Hmm.
A staggering amount."
George arrives and finds Paul
basically drinking himself
to death.
And George Roy Hill
was a pretty
heavy drinker himself.
Yeah. I mean, that's like
Willie Nelson telling you
you're smoking
too much grass, you know?
You know you're in trouble when
he's worried about you.
Hamilton: "Paul is a very angry
man. He's frustrated.
But anger is just another form
of being alive.
I mean, I think you have
to be angry in order to live.
You can't just lie back
and let things roll over you.
and Paul doesn't.
He is a principled man.
And to be a principled man,
you've got to be angry."
[Chain-saw motor revving]
Hey! You stop
♪♪
Clooney: "A thick skin
had to be selected.
You have to control what you're
going to allow to get to you
and what you're not.
That's probably the reason
I drank as much as I did."
You bastard!
That was my daddy's desk.
Man: "I don't know
if I should say this.
You decide if you want to,
you know, deal with it.
But he had one family
with Joanne
and these little princesses
living
in this incredible mansion
on the other side of town
was this house in the Valley
with, you know, two other girls,
you know, a boy.
I always felt I don't have
any reason to feel this.
I don't have any information.
But I always felt I was
projected into this situation,
that it was
If it was me,
I would be terribly guilty."
Poltermann: "So, Paul,
what made your divorce
from Jackie so brutal?
50% of the American
population is "
Clooney: "Because it didn't have
any class, Stewart."
"How so?"
"It didn't take the parties that
we're gonna be injured aside
and give them comfort
by explanation."
"By telling them
what was happening?"
"Yeah, but in a way
that they would understand it.
But that's because
I didn't get it."
It's not because I wouldn't
have done it had I gotten it."
"How would you
explain it now?"
"Well, I don't know, Stewart.
I couldn't create the scene."
[Men singing drunkenly]
Whoa!
That was
a very good landing.
You do a job, man.
[Laughter]
Linney: "One night,
he just fell out of bed.
I found him on the floor
with his head bleeding.
And I came as close
as I ever had to saying,
'Well, this is it.'"
Sorry, but I was forced
to kick the crap
"I just can't stand it.
I just can't stand it."
Come on up.
I forgot something.
"It was one
of many, many times."
Hank.
Let go of me, Leeland!
Hank, co
Are you all right?
Whee!
Whee, whee.
When I dream,
I'm still a child.
I can run,
I can skate.
Last night, I held hands
with the boy
who sat behind me
in Miss Tristrum's
class.
And I woke up,
and I was so heartbroken.
I'm an old woman.
Oh.
I won't even dignify that
with a comment.
My God,
you're a spring chicken.
You got your whole life
ahead of you yet.
It'll go by
like a weekend.
There's no time
for anything.
You know, sometimes I stand
in the middle of my room
and I wonder
what I'm doing here
with, uh, with
the scissors in my hand.
The whole morning
goes by,
and all I've done
is take the stockings
out of the drawer.
[Sniffles]
Listen.
They give you
a cupful of time,
you drink it or you spill it
on the floor.
You think time cares
what you do?
That won't have to be me.
Got everything?
Yeah.
Clea:
She got so upset with him
that she put us all in the car
and drove us out to Malibu.
And I mean, basically left him
and said, "I'm done."
Ethan: He shows up at this house
and knocks on the door
and all his kids are inside
and she's there and she says,
"No, this isn't your house.
You don't live here.
We live here."
And he says, "I'm I'm
coming coming home."
And she says,
"Not unless you quit drinking."
And he's like, "Uh, I don't do
well with ultimatums."
[Camera shutter clicks]
Clea: And, um, and he slept
I don't know
if it was, like, overnight
one night or two nights
or four weeks or what it was.
But he was
in the driveway sleeping,
and she would not let him in.
She's like,
"There's no negotiations.
This is not a negotiation.
This is this is it."
And finally, I was forced
to ring the front doorbell.
She answered the door
and I said,
"I have no place to go."
[Chuckles]
And he says
"How about hard alcohol?
Only beer?"
And she says, "Okay,"
and she opens it in.
Melissa:
She was also very difficult.
"I really hate this,"
she complained.
"I hate everything
about the promotion tours.
In fact, the only thing I like
about acting is acting."
She was mercurial.
She was anxiety driven.
She could hold a grudge.
She could be
very dark and moody.
She could be really charming.
She was fiercely loving,
all these things.
She wasn't easy.
Interviewer: I know it's not
Well, it has to be a drama.
But what is the message?
Oh, my God.
Don't ask me.
What's the picture about?
It's about two hours.
[Both laughing]
And he made it work
with her, too.
And I think that was part
of what he was so intrigued by.
Quinn: And, of course,
everyone wanted to know
what it's really like
to live with Paul Newman.
"We never discuss each other.
We never discuss each other's
film," she would say patiently.
Clea:
I mean, they were artists.
And so when they got in a fight,
it was a lot of, like,
yelling and throwing,
both storming off.
You know, it was very, like,
romantic and high-powered.
Quinn:
She begged to be off duty
as soon as
she introduced her film
at the last stop of the day.
It was 6:30
at the American Film Institute.
Then she left at the hotel
where her husband, Paul Newman,
was to join her.
No press allowed.
Sally Quinn, CBS News.
Man #2:
Winner is Joanne Woodward
for "Summer Wishes,
Winter Dreams."
[Cheers and applause]
Interviewer #2: There's
another very important film,
"Summer Wishes,
Winter Dreams."
Woodward: I thought
it was some of my best work,
and I think everybody
in it was wonderful
and it was not a success.
And I said, "Well, you know,
it's all downhill from now
because there are not a lot
of parts at that age
or past,
sort of the leading lady,
unless you're Jane Fonda."
Niven: Joanne, I understand
that a former winner
of the Society's
Best Actor Award
is beside you waiting
to give you yours.
In fact, he'd been beside you
for several years.
Paul Newman,
please expose yourself.
[Cheers and applause]
Good evening, David.
I don't know
whether you know it,
but it's not
it's not all that easy
being the husband of a famous
motion-picture star.
Joanne.
My love.
Clooney: "Joanne and I
seem to have grown.
We've moved towards
a kind of final solution
to this acting question."
She seemed to have no ego, yet
there was a towering ego there,
one moment filled
with the sense of worth,
and the next simply shattered.
So when she would lapse,
I'd understand
and hold her blameless.
And she would understand me
in the end."
Wait a minute.
Hold it.
Boy, you look terrific.
So do you
except you got a little gray
over your ears there.
That's the only
difference.
Everything else works
about the same.
Ethan: Rilke said this, "Once
the realization is accepted
that even between
the closest human beings,
infinite distances continue,
a wonderful living
side by side can grow,
if they succeed in loving
the distance between them
which makes it possible
for each to see the other
whole against the sky."
Clooney:
"In protecting yourselves
and not ruffling
one another's feathers,
you can become noncombatants."
I never can
get these things off.
Maybe you shouldn't try.
[Cork pops]
"And you can begin to cater.
There's a sense
of catering there sometimes."
"But whatever it is,
it's equal.
I simply delight in her."
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
Linney: "There were times when
Paul and I both had to hang in,
when it felt like
that the marriage
wouldn't last another day."
"We had to step outside
of ourselves
and become aware of three things
that were operating
my ego, his ego and our ego."
"For the relationship
to survive,
we had to put
the his and hers on hold
and just go for the our."
♪♪
Ethan: I think the documentary
should be about the space
between them,
meaning, "I'm centered
and safe in my life
and we can both expand."
The love expands you, right?
♪♪
Announcer: Gentlemen
start your engines.
[Motors revving]
I wore
my Bubba Wallace T-shirt
in honor of Paul today.
I've been trying to learn
about racecar driving,
you know?
Yeah.
Because I just don't know
anything about it.
Yeah, and I don't know
if I even get it.
Interviewer #3:
You're quite serious
about wanting to be
a racing driver.
Pretty hard to start something
like that when you're 47.
Why is dance important?
Somewhere inside myself,
for a brief moment,
I am Margot Fonteyn
or Cynthia Gregory or
I mean, there is something
that you think,
"That's the way
everybody ought to be."
Man #2: Newman worked his way
into ninth
in a credible,
if not satisfying,
first championship effort.
The only good thing
was the bratwurst.
Field: Paul had the things
he loved to do and that was it.
I mean, he wanted to go racing
and get me in his freaking car.
I said, "No."
[Laughs]
but that's what he loved to do.
So he would go and do that.
And Joanne loved her theater.
♪♪
Woodward:
Who are these people?
Fans.
I think they're all fans.
I can't believe how often
I did this.
I mean, I was at every race.
It's what summer was all about.
It was fun.
Everybody had a good time.
When Paul won,
the kids would get to go
on the victory lap
and we used to all pile
in the car.
Like being a part
of a circus family.
Ashmanskas: "The marriage
worked so well
because they have
nothing in common.
I mean, they really don't get
in each other's way.
The wretched couples,
the couples
that share the same desires,
beliefs and hobbies,
that is the couple
that is headed towards Reno."
Is there one mutual interest
between the two of you?
No.
Do we have mutual interests?
[Speaks indistinctly]
Not really.
Man #3: Get the fuck out
of there, will you?!
Behind the net!
Hey, Hanrahan,
she's a dyke!
I know, I know!
Scorsese: One of the secret
sauces to Paul
is his just childish
sense of humor.
[Laughing]
Well, you see it.
You know, that terrific picture,
"Slap Shot."
Him crazy.
[Laughing]
[Organ music playing]
♪♪
Clooney: "I mean,
'Slap Shot' is a magical film.
I don't know
what was magical about it,
just original, sideways.
Don't ever play
"Lady of Spain" again!
Andretti: "Slap Shot," I can
watch that I don't know.
[Laughing]
There was something about it.
That's Paul, right?
You know, you could tell
that he was thoroughly enjoying
that performance
because he could
just let it go.
Reggie: Keep your heads on
the ice out there, will you?
We all know
how to play hockey.
Just play it smart.
That's right.
Get out there and stick 'em!
Fuck 'em! Christ!
Let's go!
Come on!
-Come on.
-Let's go now.
We need this win, you know?
We got a lot of losses.
Yeah,
we got a lot of 'em!
[Indistinct shouting]
That's what we're here for,
guys, to win.
Play heads up out there.
I mean, let's be smart.
Man for man, we're better than
any fucking club in the league
if we just put our minds to it.
[Indistinct shouting]
No one's better than us!
Come on!
Come on, Braden.
Our line's starting.
[Indistinct shouting]
Ethan: There's this movie
called "WUSA."
He was trying
to make a political film,
and he realized the movie's
just too serious.
Right.
And then he made
a better political film
with "Slap Shot."
"Alright,
I'll make people laugh,
and I'll make the same point
about how fucked up we all are.
I'll be funny while I do it."
Who owns the club anyway?
I don't know.
You don't know?
What do you mean?
The corporation owns it.
Who cares.
You get your check, right?
That's the spirit, Reg.
That's it.
Clooney: "'Slap Shot's'
a complicated piece.
It has to do
with our social system,
using the sports world
as a metaphor.
The chiseling,
the team manipulated
by shadowy figures
in the background
who had no hands-on connection,
no allegiance,
no understanding of that team
or the individuals on it."
My accountant tells me
I'm better off folding the team,
taking a tax loss.
I just can't stay away
no more ♪
You mean you could sell us,
but you won't?
I could probably sell you,
but I can't.
It's alright
and it's coming along ♪
We gotta get right back ♪
Ethan: I mean, at its core,
"Slap Shot,"
it's a complete indictment
of macho assholes
written by a woman.
The same woman she won
the Oscar for "Coming Home."
It ends with them
all getting naked, you know,
skating around,
like, in brassieres.
-Right?
-Right.
Clooney: "The striptease
at the end of the picture,
the mendacity of it all had been
so outrageous, so depressing.
Somebody finally had to just
take all their clothes off
and piss on them.
It was an unpremeditated scream
of protest against the system,
manipulation, all the deals,
rituals, and garbage."
[Burlesque music playing]
♪♪
Cavett: Do you have any desire
to be bigger?
And what does it mean
to be bigger
in someone's case
like yours?
Umuh, yes.
Bigger?
Bigger?
I suppose they mean
You know, somewhere along
that, I think I would like
to have been, um,
yes, uh,
able to do bigger roles.
Superstar films.
Yeah.
Woodward: I really like working
on stage best, and I always did.
So it's kind of nice
to have gone back to that.
I had never done Shaw,
so I did "Candida."
And I'd never done Noel Coward,
so I did "Hay Fever."
Loved it.
One of the loveliest things
for me to have done
was I did "Glass Menagerie"
playing Amanda.
And I had played Laura many,
many years before
at the little theater
where I'd started my career
as a kid.
Just a little silver slip
of a moon.
Ashmanskas: When Joanne says
she doesn't think of herself
as a star,
she means that she's not
considered
by a studio bankable.
is taking a nap.
I support the maid, too!
You wake up Maria, Sonny,
I will
We fired Maria!
This is another Maria!
But she is eternally a star
in the sense
that she is a famous actress
and one of the best actresses
and witness.
She's constantly in demand.
Field: Now, I had had almost
an impossible journey
out of situational-comedy
television
because I was in a television
situation comedy in the '60s,
and you just simply
didn't get out of that.
So by the time
"Sybil" came along,
no one wanted me there.
You could feel it in the room.
"What,
are we wasting our time?"
And I will never forget it.
She was sitting on
a kind of armchair.
There was no moment between,
"How do you do?"
We were two actors
that wentwhoosh.
[Crying]
I'm scared.
Sybil?
I hate Sybil.
I hate her.
Who are you?
I can do anything.
I can do anything I want.
And I'll never forget.
At the end of this one scene,
I was on the ground,
and I crawled over
and I was crying.
And I laid my head on her knee,
and she touched the top
of my head very, very slightly.
And I took her
She had a long scarf on.
I took her scarf
and wiped my nose on it.
And I had heard
Stewart told me
Joanne had turned to them
and said,
"If it isn't Sally,
then I'm not Dr. Wilbur."
That's Vanessa,
and she's got all your music
for safekeeping.
And i-it changed my life.
And all of a sudden,
I saw one ant
who was struggling
to pick up this grain of sand
that was far too heavy
for her to lift.
And he struggled
and he struggled.
And pretty soon,
another ant came by
and together,
the two of them
lifted the grain of sand
and started
to carry it away.
Now,
isn't that miraculous,
how much two creatures
can accomplish together
when they care
about each other?
♪♪
Lew: I am required by law
to advise you guys
that my hands
are registered
in the state of California
as lethal weapons.
Do you understand?
Oh, really?
Black belt, huh?
You betcha.
A little "Show me yours."
♪♪
Uh, it's a different
ballgame.
I was just
I was just kidding.
I'm a brown belt, actually.
Where do you want me to sit?
Man #1: That was a very
difficult time for him
"Drowning Pool."
I remember once we were shooting
in New Orleans
and his kids came to visit.
You know, listen,
you're gonna have to decide
whether it's useful or not
to use this, but
Because I think it's terribly
personal what I'm about to say,
and I'm not sure I should.
But, you know, I remember
his son came to visit
and his two daughters.
And we had the streets
roped off,
and we had the police there.
Everybody in the world was out
to get a glimpse of Paul Newman,
the giant superstar.
And I don't know
what caused the argument,
but he had an argument
with his son
and his son, in very loud terms
so that people could hear,
started putting Paul down.
And I was amazed.
I was just
I was destroyed.
I mean, I don't think
I want to tell you what he said.
It was so personal and private
that I just
I don't think that I should.
I don't think I would like
to remind Paul of it
because it was so disturbed.
♪♪
Woodward: Scott sky diving.
Strange.
♪♪
I never understood the desire
to do this.
♪♪
Kazan: "I mean,
I've had a lot of people
say to me now, you know,
'What could you have done?'
And there's still
a large part of me
that feels I could actually
have done something.
And I think that Paul,
for whatever reason of his own,
wanted him to be
a macho little boy,
an unafraid little boy,
a boy who could drive cars,
ride horses,
all which Scott did
and all of which Scott
supposedly was crazy to do,
but I got to tell you
that there was a large part
of me that wonders.
Just as I have always wondered
about Paul's desire
to drive cars."
Woodward: There's Paul's car,
which was a disaster
and broke down and crashed
and did everything except win.
Kazan: "To me, it's like a big
man playing a little boy.
That's the way it is."
Announcer #2: gain this
experience very rapidly.
The more experience
he gets on the track,
the better he's gonna do.
Poltermann:
"And Scott got in trouble
at Valley Forge.
You were so shaken that you
couldn't drive down there.
It was the only time
I've ever seen you
unable to drive."
Clooney:
"He had a girl in his room.
That's what it was.
It came hot on the heels
of a wreck
that he'd had in Connecticut.
He wrecked a car
after making promises
and going back to school
and he brought chaos again."
"I remember at the end
of your talk,
after you came
to some sort of an agreement
with the headmaster
and Scott hugged you
and you said
that you felt forgiven.
It was such a strange reversal
that you needed forgiveness,
and he was
the one at fault."
"Yeah."
Hamilton: "I developed a real
affection for Scott
on the film 'Waldo Pepper.'
He was not particularly
well-liked by anybody else."
What are they doing?
"He was alternately brash
and reticent,
and there were times
when he went a little crazy.
And Paul tried everything he
could to straighten him out.
I felt sorry for Scott."
We put her up
on the wing
Yeah, and she'll fake
being afraid.
Right.
And the wind will
blew her clothes off.
Yes!
"He always made a special place
for Scott in his mind."
Jesus Christ!
It's one of our men.
Oh, God.
[Camera shutter clicking]
"But you don't do anybody any
good by feeling sorry for them."
Poltermann:
"Do you remember anything
about Scott's therapy?"
Kazan: "I remember
that his doctor
tried to point out to me
that what I had really
better focus my attention on
was Scott's relationship
with his father.
He asked Paul if he would
be willing to come out
and, um, sit with us.
The doctor had a small,
round-like coffee table,
and Paul never met this man
before in his life.
He took off his shoes, put his
stocking feet up on the table,
and sat back like this."
"The doctor was furious,
and he told me afterwards
that Mr. Newman's attitude
made it perfectly clear to him
that he was not interested
in getting involved
in Scott's therapy in any kind
of constructive way."
♪♪
"Oh, God. [Sighs]
I vowed I would never do this.
[Chuckles, sniffles]
Get angry over this lack
of coming to grips with Scott."
"I feel very guilty
that I didn't come to grips
with Scott."
♪♪
♪♪
Clooney: "When Jackie says
that therapist judged
that I didn't care about Scott
because I put my feet
on his desk, I asked him,
'Why did I fly to California?
Why did I come to his office
if I didn't care?'
Putting my feet up
relaxes my tension
or helps mask my anxiety.
Does that mean
I'm any less interested
in what the hell
he has to tell me?
How dare he say I don't care?
He was looking at things through
the lens of his own information.
I am one of those people
who don't know things.
My body, my mind
just doesn't get them.
There's a lot I don't know
about myself.
I know that I could have done
better with all my children.
I could have been worse.
I could have put them
all in closets
and kicked the shit out of them
or performed incest on them
or beat them up.
But I didn't do
any of those things."
"I could have been
more consistent.
I could have been
more understanding.
I could have been more patient.
I could have stopped work
or never gone on location."
"I could have done things that
might have made them different."
"How different it would have
made them, I don't know."
"It just would have had to have
been a different person."
♪♪
"I was heartened recently
when Stephanie remembered
that when she came
to visit us one summer,
I would come down
when they were in bed and say,
'Oh. What's this?
A bag of potatoes?'
Roll them up in blankets
and carry them around,
slung over my shoulder.
They played with delight."
"I don't even remember
doing those nice things."
"All I remember is
telling ghost stories."
♪♪
Melissa:
I'm thinking of a photograph
that's in their apartment
in New York,
the gallery wall
of photographs jammed in,
and my dad did it all himself
with a hammer and nail.
One of them is this picture
of my parents
on the Aspetuck River
in a yellow raft."
"I'm probably not imagining
that my dad has a beer.
Pushing off and floating down
the Aspetuck together
when they just needed
to get away.
It was just those moments
which I think, you know,
are the really the fabric
that held them together."
Fairest voice,
softest hair,
eyes the color
of the starlit night.
Most beautiful woman
in all of creation.
That's who that is.
[Gobbling]
Paul: I don't want to get
academic about this,
but we have a tendency
in this country
to make legends out
of a great many characters.
Roy Bean is something
of an example of that.
I mean, we make They
become fairy tales, really.
The ancient Greeks
worshipped at the feet
of Aphrodite.
They loved mortal women
as well.
The same goes for me.
Cavett: How about
the "Time" review?
Paul: Of what?
Of "Judge Roy Bean."
They haven't told you about it?
[Laughter]
It was a very good review
for the bear,
and a rather poor,
shabby review for myself.
Hey, you, bear!
Hey, bear!
[Growls]
I'll have your hand
as well!
I know!
I know! I know!
Paul:
That is kind of interesting
because it really shows
a complete ignorance
about acting.
I mean, there is no
Cavett: What? You're better
than the bear?
No.
If you if you're worth
your salt as an actor,
you stand back gracefully
and give the bear the scene.
[Laughter]
Interviewer #4: Who do you think
is the best-adjusted star?
Someone who is not
a prisoner of fame.
Do you know what I mean?
I think
my father's real good.
You think he's really
good at it?
Yeah.
In what sense?
I really do.
He's very down to earth.
He seems to separate
his professional life
from his personal life
fairly well
and maintain some level
of sanity in the middle.
Yeah. Do you think
he's proud of you?
He loves me.
Yes, I think
he is proud of me.
Interviewer #5:
You know, when your life
is so much playing roles,
it seems like the idea
of being a movie star
is almost like
another role to play.
Do you ever feel that?
I feel that,
but I don't play it.
That's
that's a real drag.
Ashmanskas: "In this business,
the division of a star
is somebody like Newman.
He says he'll do a picture,
and you can get $20 million
to make a picture.
That's a star.
But then at the same time,
so is Liberace."
This is it.
This is the big one.
This is
"The Towering Inferno."
This is the picture,
ladies and gentlemen,
that we here
at 20th Century Fox believe
will be the biggest grosser
of next year.
Bigger, we think and hope, even
than "The Poseidon Adventure."
Man #4: How many fuse terminals
did you check?
[Laughing]
How many fuse terminals
did you check?
How many do I have to?
What was it that actually
attracted you to this part
in "Towering Inferno"?
Can you talk about that?
There's this interview with Paul
where he's
They're asking why he's doing
"Towering Inferno," right?
It's like, "Look,
it's all anybody wants
to make right now."
It's gonna be frightening.
It's original
in that it deals with, uh
The adventure is is cloaked
in an original envelope,
which is the height
and fire.
And you feel him and I see it
in some of his weirder movies
longing
to do something original.
[Bugle playing reveille]
♪♪
Narrator: Robert Altman and
Paul Newman are making a film
about the selling
of an American legend.
Together, they are re-creating
the greatest Wild West
extravaganza ever staged.
Man #5: "He kept saying that
he was playing himself.
He was Buffalo Bill."
That's my star.
He belongs to all of us.
Our star.
America's.
"He kept saying, 'I'm not
playing Buffalo Bill.
I'm playing Redford,
I'm playing McQueen,
I'm playing Newman.
I'm playing movie stars because
that's what Buffalo Bill is.'"
♪♪
Paul: I just looked upon him
as the first movie star
and went from there.
There's nothing the matter
with laughing at your heroes.
And the reason
that I'm enjoying this,
probably more than
any other reason,
is that it really murders me
and Redford and Gable
and Tracy and McQueen
because there's simply no way
that a human being can sustain
what has become legendary
about him over the years.
Man #5: "It's about the
beginning of celebrity,
of show business
and who makes it out?
The agents, the writers,
the PR people, the producers."
Buffalo Bill: You was just
in Europe, wasn't you?
Give my regards
to the queen?
Yes, they're still talking
about you, Bill.
Can't wait
for your return.
Bill, this will be
our biggest year.
We're gonna gross
over $2 million.
Did I ever tell you
that I hold the record
for continuous riding
of Pony Express,
322 miles
in 18 days?
"He was determined to strip
any sense of admiration
out of the man,
the frightened man
inside the shell of a star,
a man who had tremendous scorn
for himself."
Can he ride
that horse right?
But if he ain't
How come all of you
took him for a king?
♪♪
Considine:
Whatever was happening,
at a certain time every night,
I noticed Paul excused himself
and disappeared,
and I finally asked him,
"Where do you go?"
And where he went was back
to his room every single night,
and he'd call Joanne
and he would talk on the phone
for, like, an hour to Joanne.
I said,
"You do that every day?"
He said,
"Every day without fail."
[Singing operatic aria]
♪♪
Linney: "Dear love,
what a terrible invention
of the telephone.
At least for me.
Tonight I felt
as though I were intruding
and that you really
didn't want to talk.
I loathe
my extrasensory perception.
I miss you.
I don't know who you are.
But I miss you anyway.
I just wish you were happy
and that you could say
what you feel,
not just what you think.
Me."
Clooney: "My love,
I'm on board the plane
to Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
I stopped off
to the P.J. Clarke's
for a hamburger
before embarking,
and I must say
I was filled with nostalgia.
I remember sitting
on the curbside singing songs
at 2:00 in the morning.
The Third Avenue "L"
still in operation.
Your apartment on 51st Street
and 11th Street.
Dancing backstage at 'Picnic.'
No one can deny that these
moments exist in time and space,
and for all we know,
may be recorded
at electric energy for eternity
at 180 million miles per second.
"We have access to all kinds
of facsimiles.
Tomorrow, next week, next year.
When we get scratchy,
get going with bad
solitary dialogs,
we ought to remember
that we had the option
to choose good
solitary dialogs also.
The years
bear witness to that."
"Funny thoughts at 22,000 feet.
Kisses. Paul."
♪♪
"P.S.
Got news this morning.
Scott went on another bad,
destructive bender.
Is he gonna survive or not?"
"One wonders."
Now, ladies and gentlemen,
here he is,
a chip off the old engine block
of his racing-champion father
Paul Newman,
the young actor Scott Newman.
[Cheers and applause]
♪♪
♪♪
[Engine revving,
tires screeching]
Announcer: Scott Newman
has successfully
jumped his sports car
over three automobiles.
♪♪
♪♪
Man #6: The geometric shape
of the universe
reflects the scheme of life.
You've been taught
that they are the same.
You've been taught
that the universe is bounded
by five sides
and that life
has but five stages.
Premium the pain of birth.
of the second some.
Clooney: "Someday the force
of it's gonna hit me.
All of it.
It still hasn't."
"I don't know what
will trigger it,
but it's still not resolved."
"I did everything I could
to avoid recognizing
that this had happened.
I got a call very early
in the morning
and went to some kind
of a brunch.
Didn't say anything to anybody."
"The whole thing had been
blunted by all those phone calls
over the last six
or seven years,
every one of which seemed to say
it's just around the corner.
Something terrible
was gonna happen.
There's been a crash.
He's missing.
Nobody can find him.
Calls from his doctors,
from Susan.
It just seemed like there
was nothing
that was ever gonna stop
that locomotive.
You kept waiting
for the final call."
"But when you finally got it,
you almost didn't believe it."
♪♪
"I had many times
gotten down on my knees
and asked for Scott's
forgiveness for that part of me
which provided the impetus
for his destruction."
"I want to embrace
the responsibility for that."
And you can't unload your skis
when you can't dance,
when you can't
hit a tennis ball
or read the signals
about your son
until the condition
is beyond reversing it.
And if you didn't get it,
then you are someone
who doesn't get it.
The only thing you can do
is say, 'Forgive me.'"
"And the energy up there that
represents that kid will say,
'What am I supposed to do
with that?'
and give you the finger."
♪♪
♪♪
Linner: "Paul went straight
to the mortuary.
He said it was a totally
complete experience.
He said he just really had
to go there and be with Scott.
And he said,
'I suddenly knew him
and I was able to weep
and look at him and love him.'"
♪♪
♪♪
"I kept trying to get myself
to go see Scott
in the mortuary.
The night
before I was going to go,
I dreamed one of the most vivid
dreams I'd ever had in my life.
Clea and Emily, who were
little girls in the dream
and not the ages
they were at the time,
they were going with me
to the mortuary to see Scott.
We went up some stairs into
a room where Scott was lying,
and he sat up
and sort of threw his legs
over the edge of the coffin.
He was sitting on the side
and we talked."
♪♪
"It was very warm, very loving.
And after we've been talking for
a good while, he began to glow.
And he realized he was glowing.
And he said,
'I think you better go now.'"
And I said, 'But Susan and Lissy
want a lock of your hair.'
And he said, 'Alright.'
His hair turned into leaves.
And I remember cutting it
and thinking, 'How strange.
Now, how am I gonna
put this in a locket?'"
♪♪
♪♪
"I really, really believe
and still do
that that was a clear
visitation."
♪♪
Fire in a nameless town ♪
Hamilton: "When I heard the
terrible tragedy with Scott,
I went to his dressing room,
his trailer.
And we embraced.
I said, 'Paul,
I don't know how to
I don't know
what one says to a person.
I mean, I can conceive
of anything in the world
but losing a child.
I just don't know what to say.'"
He just said, 'Okay, sport.'
♪♪
Man #7: I don't have a great
memory about some things,
and I can't tell you exactly
what he talked about,
but it was the first personal
conversation I'd ever had.
It wasn't a deep conversation.
It was really just
a conversation
about how tough it is
to be the son of someone
who's an achiever.
You know, he said,
'I don't think I'd want to be
my own son.'"
"And this racing thing
that he's done, I mean,
to start at his age'
♪♪
♪♪
"You see, I think people who do
these things must see living
as very, very dangerous.
It's a dangerous thing to get up
in the morning and live.
It's very dangerous and
you can't do much about that.
But you can get into
a semi-dangerous situation
that's controllable."
Announcer #4: This last year,
Paul's fascination with racing
has been such that
he's competed in more events
than he ever has before.
Some people think he's spending
more time
with his racing career now
than with his movie career.
Woodward:
I was worried about it.
I really was
seriously concerned.
His whole career
looked as though
it was gonna go down the drain
because all he wanted
to do was race.
Man #7: "Life is a minefield.
You can be hurt very badly,
and you can be killed
emotionally in a way.
Or I think that's
what people fear.
I know I do.
You cannot make life controlled.
You cannot control it.
You cannot master life.
You can't master
the technique of life."
♪♪
Woodward:
He's not a lot of spins.
And there's been
a couple of times
when we didn't come around.
I'm sitting, waiting,
and saying,
"What happened?
Where did he go?"
[Announcer speaking
indistinctly]
Man #7 "If I do the wrong thing
here, I'm gonna crash.
And if I learn how to do it
right, we're not gonna crash."
"Then it's gonna be beautiful.
We're gonna fly away."
♪♪
Just drive the race
and try to stay alive.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
Unwind ♪
Your watch ♪
Shut your eyes a minute ♪
'Cause your heart ♪
Killed mine ♪
But now I close
the distance ♪
Wild hunger,
strikes into me ♪
Rise up with a crash ♪
♪♪
Last night, our kiss ♪
Kept haunting me,
kept me hoping ♪
Still with a thousand miles ♪
My heart was always open ♪
Wild hunger,
strikes into me ♪
Rise up with a crash ♪
Wild hunger, wild hunger ♪
No more ♪