After Kevin Costner`s ”Dances With Wolves” proved a critical and commercial success, movie industry wags finally stopped referring to it as
”Kevin`s Gate.”
Skepticism was rampant before the film`s release. Not only was the movie a three-hour epic Western about a Civil War lieutenant`s relationship with a Sioux tribe, it was also directed by an actor.
Such cynicism should have been ignored. The idea of an actor`s directing is hardly novel, and the enthusiastic reception afforded ”Dances With Wolves” may broaden acceptance of the idea. Considering the number of actors working behind the camera, it`s an idea whose time has definitely come.
Jodie Foster, who two years ago won an Academy Award for playing the persecuted rape victim in ”The Accused,” is now directing herself in
”Little Man Tate.” She plays the mother of a gifted 7-year-old boy who has a rapport with a child psychologist played by Dianne Wiest.
Sean Penn is directing ”Indian Runner,” about the relationship between two brothers, a cop and a tormented Vietnam veteran. He recently told Fame magazine that he might relinquish acting entirely to pursue a directing career.
Newspaper columnist Liz Smith reports that Dustin Hoffman, who has battled his own directors, may try directing after starring in the film version of ”Billy Bathgate.”
Several holiday films feature directors who first gained recognition as actors: Rob Reiner`s ”Misery,” Richard Benjamin`s ”Mermaids,” Penny Marshall`s ”Awakenings” and Clint Eastwood`s ”The Rookie.” Coming soon are Dan Aykroyd`s ”Nothing But Trouble” and Dyan Cannon`s ”The End of Innocence.”
One of the most eagerly awaited films of next spring is the screen adaptation of Pat Conroy`s best-selling novel ”The Prince of Tides,”
directed by and starring Barbra Streisand as a psychiatrist who unravels Nick Nolte`s troubled past.
Industry figures from non-acting fields also are turning to directing. Lili Zanuck, who won an Oscar for co-producing ”Driving Miss Daisy,” will direct a highly regarded screenplay, ”Rush,” based on the true story of undercover narcotics agents in Tyler, Texas, who turn to drugs.
Nora Ephron-whose parents, Henry and Phoebe Ephron, were producers and screenwriters during the studio-system days-won acclaim for such screenplays as ”When Harry Met Sally” and ”Silkwood.” She recently signed a contract to direct her screenplay of ”This is My Life,” the story of a combative show business mother-daughter relationship.
The good will generated by Costner`s ”Dances With Wolves” and, to a lesser extent, by Warren Beatty`s ”Dick Tracy,” has a flip side. Making little impression on audiences have been Jack Nicholson`s ”The Two Jakes,”
Leonard Nimoy`s ”Funny About Love,” Eastwood`s ”White Hunter, Black Heart,” Bill Murray`s ”Quick Change,” Alan Alda`s ”Betsy`s Wedding,”
Sondra Locke`s ”Impulse,” Dennis Hopper`s ”The Hot Spot,” screenwriter John Patrick Shanley`s ”Joe Vs. the Volcano” and two films for which no one harbored great expectations: Emilio Estevez`s ”Men at Work” and Prince`s
”Graffiti Bridge.”
Variety, the entertainment industry publication, has taken note of the trend of first-time directors` enjoying unprecedented opportunities and cited the following reasons: (1) Superstar directors are asking as much as $6 million, a fee usually reserved for actors; (2) An increasing number of big-name actors and writers won`t sign a contract unless they have the chance to direct; (3) Hollywood`s young production chiefs, eager to hire those in their own age bracket, have an unspoken policy of ignoring older directors.
In the bottom-line world of Hollywood profits, that reasoning makes sense. More and more, actors-or at least actors` agents-are controlling the industry. A studio could hire a personality to both star in and direct a project without paying substantially more than it would cost to hire him or her as an actor.
It wasn`t always so easy for actors to make the change.
”It was incredibly difficult for me to make the transition,” says
”Misery” director Rob Reiner, who gained fame as ”Meathead,” Archie Bunker`s son-in-law on television`s ”All in the Family.” ”Compounding the difficulty was the fact that I came from television, and at the time there was great snobbism against any kind of actors-but definitely television actors-becoming directors.”
Reiner says his route was made slightly easier because he started with a small film, ”This is Spinal Tap.”
”I could never have started with a big production like `The Princess Bride,` ” he says. ”It would not have been allowed.”
He believes that the continued success of Ron Howard (”Splash,”
”Cocoon,” ”Parenthood”) has ”helped soothe the transition for all of us.”
”Ron had been indelibly linked with the images of Opie and Richie Cunningham,” Reiner says. ”And now he`s one of the most sought-after directors in the business. The industry mood gets better every time an actor- turned-director makes a successful film. But you have to keep the momentum going. People in the movie business have notoriously short memories. When I was trying to get backing for `This is Spinal Tap,` I reminded someone that Elia Kazan had started out as an actor. I got the blankest stare imaginable.” After the cult success of ”This is Spinal Tap,” Reiner was able to broaden his audience with each film, starting with the sensitive college comedy ”The Sure Thing” and culminating with 1989`s smash ”When Harry Met Sally” and the current ”Misery.” However, he says that from the outset of production on ”This is Spinal Tap,” the crews were completely supportive, even knowing that it was his first film.
”The resistance came from the money men, not the crews,” Reiner says.
But can a director trained in other movie fields be entrusted with the responsibility of directing? The answer is encouraging. Woody Allen, Richard Attenborough, Warren Beatty and Robert Redford all won Oscars for directing, not acting.
Frequently, a director`s style reflects his professional origin. John Huston was one of Hollywood`s most acclaimed screenwriters when he started his directing career with 1942`s ”The Maltese Falcon.” Huston could choreograph lengthy stretches of conversation with more liveliness than directors without a writing background. Even his adventure films (”The African Queen,” ”The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”) demonstrate a respect for dialogue that elevates them above their genre.
Screenwriter/director Robert Towne has been less fortunate. His screenplay for ”Chinatown” is considered a classic, and he contributed some of the best individual moments in ”The Godfather.” Yet when he directed his own screenplays of ”Personal Best” and ”Tequila Sunrise,” he showed too much affection for his own words.
If writers-turned-directors love words, actors-turned-directors love close-ups. If they`re also starring in their own films, they love close-ups of themselves. Even the highly respected, adamantly un-Hollywoodish Allen is not immune to this temptation. Ever count the close-ups of Woody Allen in a Woody Allen movie?
Yet actors-turned-directors also have a genuine appreciation of other actors` talents. Barbra Streisand allowed Amy Irving to blossom in ”Yentl”- although, ironically, Mandy Patinkin was not given the opportunity to sing. Redford tapped unexpected resources of Mary Tyler Moore in ”Ordinary People,” which also made a star (or at least a semi-star) of Timothy Hutton. Under Beatty`s direction, Diane Keaton, Glenne Headley, Dyan Cannon, Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson won fresh accolades.
Sometimes an actor, locked into an image, can reveal himself more truthfully by directing. Redford frequently insisted that his own personality was at odds with his WASP handsomeness. ”Ordinary People,” his 1980 Oscar-winning directing debut, showed the cracks beneath the placid surface of a supposedly comfortable WASP family.
Paul Newman, Redford`s predecessor as a heartthrob with acting ability, often professed discomfort with his sex-symbol image. His 1968 directing debut, ”Rachel, Rachel” (which featured his wife, Joanne Woodward), detailed the gradual sexual awakening of a meek schoolteacher.
