Wendall -- every other Thursday
This is the unlikely story of how I wound up being part of the
“Special Features” on the 35th anniversary DVD re-release of what many call the
“brat pack” western—Young Guns.
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Imagine my surprise when my name turned up in a review of this re-release!
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It was the 1980s. I’d been in Los Angeles about a year when I got a job as an assistant
to Penny Perry, the legendary former head of casting for 20th Century Fox. By
that time she’d cast a long list of films, including Ordinary People, All of
Me, Cocoon, The Star Chamber, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, The Jerk,
and The NeverEnding Story, among others.
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The late Gregory Hines was the loveliest.
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I worked with her on two films: Tap, where I got to meet
Gregory Hines and the Nicholas Brothers, and where the auditions took place in
a dance studio (sigh!), and then on the film that every actor between the ages
of 17 and 35 wanted to audition for—Young Guns.
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A drawing of Billy the Kid in the New Mexico History Museum
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On my first day working on this retelling of the Billy the
Kid story, I arrived at the casting office to find hundreds of headshots of
every heartthrob of the 80s littered across the floor of two whole rooms. It was
enough to give anyone a nosebleed.
At that time, the film’s producers had an offer out to Sean
Penn to play Billy, but it turned out he was in jail, so they moved to Emilio
Estevez, who accepted. Most of the other “young guns” in the film were cast the
old-fashioned way, through in-person meetings and auditions.
So, I embarked on this strange job where I would organize
the headshots and discuss them with Penny, then set up the appointments. When
the actors arrived, Penny, the director—Christopher Cain— and I would sit in a
room and either Penny or I would read the “sides” with the actors.
Neither Penny nor I had any dramatic skills, so I really
felt for the performers, having to emote with us. Actors from Rob Lowe to Matthew
Broderick, to Eric Stoltz, to Judd Nelson came and went, and eventually we had
Billy the Kid's gang and the other parts cast, with actors including Charlie
Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Dermot Mulroney, Casey Siemaszko, Geoffrey Blake, Terence
Stamp, Jack Palance, and Brian Keith.
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Scan of a Polaroid taken to check costumes
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I, of course, was most excited about Terence Stamp. Here he is in the film.
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At this point, Chris Cain asked Penny if he could steal me
to be his assistant on the movie. She kindly agreed ,and so I headed off to New Mexico,
driving one of the Ford Aerostar production vans, to spend the next five snowy months
living (with my half-feral cat) in a hotel in Santa Fe.
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| It was the Sheraton when we were there. Now it's "The Lodge" |
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Chris Cain kindly arranged for me to have my own director's chair!
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It was really difficult to explain the job to my parents,
since it involved such a strange mixture of duties. It ranged from taking notes during
the initial location scouting with Chris, producer Joe Roth, writer John Fusco,
and cinematographer Dean Semler, to keeping everyone abreast of script changes, to
fielding and prioritizing questions for Chris from the crew, to
ferrying him back and forth to the set, and, whenever I had a minute, to reading
all the scripts his agent was sending for his next possible project.
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The production chose the small town of Los Cerrillos, NM for much of the shoot.
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It also occasionally involved a bit of “actor
wrangling.” Emilio was famous for occasionally getting a bit too enthusiastic
with his on-set pranks, and Charlie Sheen once accidentally double-booked his
female visitors and wound up on the balcony of my room, begging me to hide him
for a few minutes. I also assisted when Tom Cruise visited the set, arranging for the Costume and Make-up Departments to disguise him, so he could
be an extra in one of the shoot-out scenes.
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| Sometimes, I had to locate Kiefer Sutherland... |
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With the exception of one of the leads, all of the cast
and crew lived together in the same hotel. Many of the actors, even ones who’ve worked
nonstop since— still remember that film set and the experience as a singular
one. With the star power in the cast, there could have been conflicts and egos,
but instead, there was an unusual sense of equality and camaraderie.
It might be hard for some of you
to imagine what it was like in 1988, when the internet and cell phone cameras
were not around, and no one was trying to get selfies with the actors or to upload something scandalous to TMZ. And because Santa Fe was a small place
with a population used to film shoots, the actors were also able to be out and
about, and be themselves, in a way that would be impossible now.
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Pizza Night
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I was lucky enough to go out to dinner often with the cast and with other crew members. There were also games and pizzas, and everyone wound up in the hotel bar at the end of the night, occasionally playing music. Hence the embarrassing pictures below. Ah, the 80s...
I was on the set
for every single day and night of shooting, and the atmosphere was just as
collegial there, with lots of laughs and spirited discussions, often while we were waiting for the "non-period" airplane con trails to dissipate.
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Lou, John Fusco, and Emilio, hanging out
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A gift from the production, still on our wall.
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The upshot of all this was that I came home with Kiefer's coat, a movie poster, a lifelong passion for Santa Fe, and a handful
of close friends, many that I still love and see today. Just last year, I participated in a Young
Guns reunion fundraiser with Lou, Dermot, Geoffrey, and John. Lou, who is now also a director and novelist, contributed a blurb for Cheap Trills, and has
been actively supportive of the Cyd Redondo books.
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LDP, generous then, generous now.
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When Lionsgate decided to include a documentary
for the reissue, several of the actors suggested they bring me in to
tell some of those behind the scenes stories. I balked at the idea at first, and certainly never dreamed they would actually use any of my interview but, hilariously, they did.
There’s a running bit in Young Guns about “Pals,” about how
sharing an experience makes people stick together over time.
I’m grateful I still have a few of my pals, all these years
later.
If you’d like to see the trailer for the 4K Young Guns
re-release, you can watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OAF9_lUryk
