Rush to the Top

Zanuck is simply not worried that Rush may be too downbeat to soothe holiday moviegoers. "We're in this kind of Capraesque mood, though I don't see any new Capras out there, so that's making things a little tough. Today, the big question is: 'How is the audience going to feel when they leave the theater?' People kept shaking their heads and saying to me 'drugs/ 'depression,' and 'Why can't you make one of those feel-good movies like Daisy?'--which, of course, nobody wanted to make because it was gentle and about an old woman. We've gotten into a really bad way if we can only make movies where you have to leave the theater feeling good. Not too long ago, we had movies like Bonnie and Clyde and Midnight Cowboy, that entertained you, moved you. Those movies shouldn't have to come from some underground filmmaker. All through development and shooting, I was most attracted to the ambiguities in the story. I don't want audiences to feel manipulated--something that, as a filmgoer, I'm very bored with. I'm tired of somebody working from the assumption that I'm so stupid that, when I pay my $7 for a ticket, I need to have these buttons pushed. Is my movie politically correct? Probably not."

As the waiter discreetly lays down the check, Zanuck gazes sidelong at a studiously trendy young thing in whimsical headgear and whispers, "Do you suppose she got dressed this morning believing that hat would give her, oh, a kind of Meg Ryanish vibe?" For an instant, I wonder whether she's merely being dishy. Nothing of the sort. "Obviously, some thought went into her choosing that hat," she says, inching toward her theme. Then: "In a way, it's like making a movie. I think I'm doing some terribly original things when, in fact..." She trails off with a shrug and a grin, then says, "There's nothing that I don't like about directing." What, nothing? "Okay, there are some things happening now that I don't like. When I'm shooting, I'm the audience, the only one who has to be satisfied. I never shot a scene and thought: 'Who will like this besides me?' Now that I'm turning over the film, I have to let seep into my consciousness these other people--the audience--and it's tough. But, this is show business, not a private home movie I'm making."

Since Rush, Zanuck has put less time into Rich in Love, The Zanuck Company's next movie, than in getting ICM cracking on pitching her for jobs outside of the family enterprise. "People say, 'Wouldn't it be hard for Dick if you directed for somebody else?'" she muses. "In some ways he's actually anxious for me to do it, because it validates his decision about me. I told Paul Newman on the set of The Verdict in 1981 that I was going to direct some day. I felt the clock of life ticking very loudly and very fast. When I was 21, I was a passenger in a car and, the next thing I knew, I was thrown 18 feet out of it. That kicked something in. But I also always had the feeling that I never wanted to sit on a porch in my old age reminiscing about 'I should have,' 'I could have.' I don't know if I'm going to be directing in five years. I don't want to know. What I do know is that I don't ever want to get satisfied with anything to a point where I say: 'I want to do this until I die.'"

Stephen Rebello interviewed James Toback for our October issue.

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