Joe Brody
01-19-2006, 10:12 PM
From the 'The Talk of Town' section of the current issue of the New Yorker:
For actresses of a certain age, Los Angeles can be less hospitable than New York. "There are only two TV roles I can play now," [Julie] White said. "Mommy McNoble or Mommy McCrazy." Not long ago, one of her agents told her that she'd landed a role in 'War of the Worlds.' "I asked, 'What am I?,' and he said 'I don't know. No one's allowed to see the script. But you're the Women in Scene 34 with Tom Cruise, in a Steven Spielberg film. You should do it, you should do it, you should do it!' So I get this FedEx and it contains one page with my one line to Tom Cruise: 'Hey, what's going on?'" She laughed. "I'd be in the shower, practicing: "Hey, what's going on? Hey . . . .what's going on?'
"Then the assistant director calls and says 'Scene 34 has been cut. But Steven Spielberg really wants to put you in scene 35! It's an unscripted moment where you and Tom are just going to improvise!' So I go sit in the trailer for eight and a half hours, no talking to Steven or Tom, none of that, and then they cover me with this weird crap. [...] And then I get put at the end of a street with five hundred extras behind me and Tom Cruise across the way looking handsome as all getout, and the a.d. says "When I say "Action!," everybody run!' And we did. And that was my improvisation with Tom Cruise. After I'd done it a couple of times, running from the aliens, covered in people dust, I went and sat on a curb and just cried my heart out."
For actresses of a certain age, Los Angeles can be less hospitable than New York. "There are only two TV roles I can play now," [Julie] White said. "Mommy McNoble or Mommy McCrazy." Not long ago, one of her agents told her that she'd landed a role in 'War of the Worlds.' "I asked, 'What am I?,' and he said 'I don't know. No one's allowed to see the script. But you're the Women in Scene 34 with Tom Cruise, in a Steven Spielberg film. You should do it, you should do it, you should do it!' So I get this FedEx and it contains one page with my one line to Tom Cruise: 'Hey, what's going on?'" She laughed. "I'd be in the shower, practicing: "Hey, what's going on? Hey . . . .what's going on?'
"Then the assistant director calls and says 'Scene 34 has been cut. But Steven Spielberg really wants to put you in scene 35! It's an unscripted moment where you and Tom are just going to improvise!' So I go sit in the trailer for eight and a half hours, no talking to Steven or Tom, none of that, and then they cover me with this weird crap. [...] And then I get put at the end of a street with five hundred extras behind me and Tom Cruise across the way looking handsome as all getout, and the a.d. says "When I say "Action!," everybody run!' And we did. And that was my improvisation with Tom Cruise. After I'd done it a couple of times, running from the aliens, covered in people dust, I went and sat on a curb and just cried my heart out."