No, this isn’t about a specific movie or a specific anything, really. I agonized over where to put this post and, not coming up with a good candidate, I just made a new thread. But I did think this tidbit was worth sharing, and maybe it will take us someplace interesting. I came across this interview with Ronny Cox over at The A.V. Club. If you don’t recognize the name, Cox has been in a ton of movies, you’d know his face. And in fact, this interview is about two specific movies he was in, Deliverance and RoboCop. And at a certain point in the interview, he’s asked how he got along with his castmates in Deliverance:
AVC:How did you get on with Ned, Burt, and Jon?
RC: Ned and I, we were best friends then and would remain best friends until his death. Ned was maybe my closest friend in the film business. Burt was the most helpful guy because he knew that Ned and I knew nothing about filmmaking. He was a prankster and stuff like that, but he was just the greatest guy in the world. Jon Voight’s an idiot. So, what can I tell you?
I found that exchange priceless. I don’t know too much about Jon Voight, and Mr Cox doesn’t expand on that tidbit, they just move on. But it always amuses me when people deviate from the script, or at least the expectations of a fairly standard interview. Michael Caine mentioning the lovely house that his appearance in Jaws 4 bought him, stuff like that. Maybe you’ve heard a good story, might be worth throwing on the pile? Oh, and here’s the entire interview for your perusal:
A little googling indicates you may be right. I was going to argue that the question read to me that he was being asked how he got along with his castmates during the making of the film and so any crazy stuff Voight may have gotten up to shouldn’t pertain. But then what he says is ‘Jon Voight’s an idiot’, not ‘Jon Voight was an idiot’, so maybe that’s all that’s going on there.
Do you miss the low-budget days of Dark Star and Halloween?
No. I don’t miss working. Working is hard because you have to get up in the morning. I just did a music video for the single from our new album Christine. I had to work all night and, my God, I forgot how rough that is. Stay up all night? Wow.
Robert Rodriguez is set to remake Escape From New York and there’s another Halloween project coming in 2018. How do you feel about people remaking your films?
I love it, if they are going to pay me money. If they pay me, it’s wonderful. If they don’t pay me, I don’t care. I think it’s unfair if they don’t pay me. I think everyone should pay me. Why not? I’m an old guy now and I need money. Send me money.
If you look down in the comments to the avclub piece, you will find this, so it might be a bit more than culture war stuff. Being on that side of the “culture war” seems to be a good predictor of bad behaviour in general.
