William H. Macy Talks PTA, PSH and 'Boogie Nights'
Talking with @derekjlawrence, @WilliamHMacy answers all our questions about Boogie Nights https://t.co/tasuajvuWa
- Vulture (@vulture) October 6, 2022
Vulture did an in-depth interview with William H. Macy about the making of Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights, and it's an excellent read. I pulled some tidbits out for the post, but I encourage you to read the whole thing if you are a fan of the film, in which Macy plays Little Bill, an assistant director in the porn industry.
- Macy met with Paul Thomas Anderson after Macy's Oscar-nominated turn in Fargo, prepared to pitch why he'd be a good fit for the role, but at the meeting, he realized he was being courted for it by PTA: "It was the first time I’d ever experienced that, and, I’ll be honest with you, it was a lovely feeling".
- Describes PTA as smart, well-spoken, and confident, with an "indefatigable" knowledge of films. They had an argument about Magnolia because Macy (along with many other people) told him that the script was too long, but Macy respected his vision and said the shoot was a pleasure, despite the depressing nature of the film, since PTA knew exactly what he wanted.
- Was perplexed by MPAA rules about violence vs nudity in films: "... the MPAA board would allow these ultraviolent graphic things to be seen by kids, and then they would make a big deal out of a woman’s breasts.... We had to reshoot a scene with Nina Hartley (who plays his wife, a porn star) because they said she can screw, or she can talk, but she can’t do them both at once. So we had to reshoot a close-up of Nina so that you didn’t see what she was doing, and you could cut back and forth. Jiminy Christmas."
- Talks about how the [opening shot of the film] was an "ambitious undertaking" that took most of the day just to rehearse, which made the suits nervous. But by the end of the day, they'd shot five pages, which is a good day.
Click to view- Talks about Philip Seymour Hoffman: "He was the best of us; he was never bad. And I don’t know if it’s just looking back, but I now see that he was in pain. I think the weight of living was heavier on Phil than it is on other people... I don’t think there’s anything he couldn’t do."
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