Excerpt: William Goldman's
Adventures
in the Screen Trade.
p.179
Paul Newman is the least starlike superstar I've ever
worked with. He's an educated man and a trained actor
and he never wants more close-ups. What he wants is
the best possible script and character he can have.
And he loves to be surrounded by the finest actors avaiGrouple,
because he believes the better they are, the better
the picture's apt to be, the better he'll come out.
Many stars, maybe even most, don't want that competition.
We walked the back lanes of Westport and it all went
well. But what I remember most about it was that Newman
carried a handful of pebbles and I noticed that whenever
a car drove by, he was always in the act of tossing
a pebble into the woods, so that his back was to the
street. It's hard not to notice Paul Newman and he was
doing all he could to talk and not be stared at.
With Newman set, Kastner and I drove back to the city
and on the way he said, "You don't know what happened,
do you?" I said I didn't. He told me the following:
"You just jumped past all the shit."
And he was right. I was no longer a putz novelist from
New York. Now I was a putz novelist who had written
a Paul Newman picture. Any first credit in Hollywood
is tremendously meaningful. When that credit involves
pleasing a major star, you can square that import.
Now for my education.
The shooting script for Harper began like this:
FADE IN ON
LEW HARPER'S FACE in CLOSE UP. He is tough, bright
and poor. A good man in a bad world.
FULL BACK TO REVEAL
HARPER standing in front of the impressive closed gate
to an impressive estate. Behind him is his car with
the motor running; like its owner, the car has been
around too. He speaks into a microphone set in the gate.
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