Hard Core Roadshow - Extracts - Part 37
13 November 1995, Day 18, Cache Creek
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We shoot the scene at the fruit stand where Joe picks out fruit for an angry Pipe. Then a final scene, completely ad-libbed, with the guys sitting on a picnic table at the side of the highway. Here each of the guys introduces himself to the camera, and Joe lays out the pecking order within the band. Not surprisingly, this mirrors exactly the reality of the four actors' relationship. Joe and Billy are numbers one and two, though Joe allows that these are interchangeable positions. Pipe is number three and John four. Pipe would be four, but for the fact that John is usually living in a world of his own and not necessarily bucking for more respect or status within the group as Pipe does. This is also true of the actors themselves outside the filming.
With the scene finished it's time for Pyper to go. He has to get to the airport and a flight for L.A., where he begins work on a big-budget pilot for Paramount tomorrow. There are tears in his eyes as he says good-bye to Hugh, Callum, and Bernie, to Bruce, to me. Feels like we're losing a family member. He gets into Anne's car, then he's gone.
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Snow and sleet all day. Spend part of the time watching the filming, part of the time wandering around the town (reading sabotage in the faces of everyone I see*), part of the time drinking tea in the tour bus. Late in that day, Bruce decides to put me in a scene. Ah, my cameo at last. I am to be a body double for the departed Pyper. I will sit in the foreground, in John's fringed buckskin jacket, writing in my (John's) diary. Pipe looks at me with suspicion in the background and asks what the hell I'm writing anyway. Nothing., I say. Road stories. My off camera dialogue will eventually be overdubbed by Pyper. All that is visible of me is my hand as it writes. Appropriate, no?
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A final scene with Callum. Bruce has him lean back in the goat van and simply answer more questions in character. When this is done Bruce summons Hugh and Bernie to the van for what they think is yet another scene. They arrive grumbling. Here we all are: Bruce, Callum, Hugh, Bernie, Christine, Rachel, Danny Novak, Joe Schliessler, me. Bruce nods to Rachel. Rachel grins and says the magic words, "That's a wrap."
And that's that. We scream our heads off, throw our arms around each other. Bruce calls for cheers for each cast and crew member. As we climb from the van, Bruce grabs my coat, pulls me close, gives me a big bear hug. We congratulate each other. Hard to believe this is it, it's over. Production has been sort of an epic journey. And yet, with this eighteen-day main unit schedule, it's a mere hiccup between the summer of '94, when I began writing, and the fall of '96, when the film will most likely be released.
*This refers to an incident earlier that day. After the film crew thrashed a hotel room in Cache Creek the night before, someone sabotaged the goat van by removing all the lug nuts from its rear wheels, causing both wheels to fly off during a drive and just barely not causing further damage.
All parts (and pictures) here.