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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