Edmond (Stuart Gordon, 2006)

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Gordon adapts Mamet. Here's a nice profile from The New York Times:

William H. Macy Takes a Walk on the Dark Side in 'Edmond'
By NEIL AMDUR
Published: June 11, 2006

FOR 20 years, Lionel Mark Smith yearned to see David Mamet's provocative play "Edmond" as a film. At a birthday party for Mr. Mamet three years ago, when talk again surfaced about casting for "Edmond," Mr. Smith, a veteran actor, suggested a lead. What about William H. Macy?

"I saw the Doody Man a couple of weeks ago," Mr. Mamet recalled saying, referring to Mr. Macy, whose affectionate nickname in the so-called Mamet Mafia is Howdy Doody. "He's beginning to look more like a human and less like a puppet."

To millions of television and film fans who have admired his diverse roles in "Fargo," "Boogie Nights," "The Cooler," "Door to Door" and "Thank You for Smoking," Mr. Macy has always seemed more an actor's actor than a movie star. In "Seabiscuit," he almost stole the movie from the horse, with his comedic turn as the racetrack announcer Tick Tock McGlaughlin.

"People love him," Mr. Mamet said. "You walk down the street with him, and people come up to him and they're smiling."

Mr. Mamet described Mr. Macy, a longtime friend, as a "deep thinker," and likened his studious approach to his craft to that of the pitcher Sandy Koufax. Mr. Macy is "a great, great actor," Mr. Mamet said. "Whatever you put him in, he's always telling the truth." The quality that Mr. Mamet calls Mr. Macy's "ungrateful honesty" will take on a decidedly darker tone, however, with his portrayal of Edmond Burke, the seemingly bland businessman who leaves his wife and embarks on a violent spree, raging against blacks, gays and women.

The challenge was not lost on Mr. Macy, 56, who first studied under Mr. Mamet at Goddard College in Vermont three decades ago after flirting with a career in veterinary medicine. During an interview at the Sarasota Film Festival, where "Edmond" was screened in April, he said, "I've done more Mamet than anybody." (That list of films and plays includes "American Buffalo," "State and Main," "Wag the Dog," "Oleanna" and "Homicide.") Of "Edmond," he said, "I had to do it, it had to be me," and his wife, Felicity Huffman, who took her own critically acclaimed walk on the wild side with "Transamerica" last year, agreed. She said she told Mr. Macy: "You've got to do it. It's the part of a lifetime."

Stuart Gordon, the film's director, who saw the original stage production of "Edmond" in Chicago in 1982 and says he considers it Mr. Mamet's "strongest work," said Mr. Macy was the first person to be cast. "It was the shortest conversation I've ever had with Bill," he said.

"Edmond" did not fare as well as some of Mr. Mamet's more familiar dramas, like the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Glengarry Glen Ross." (Walter Kerr reviewing a 1982 Provincetown Playhouse production of "Edmond," wrote in The New York Times, "Its stretch toward the mythic is unwarranted, pompous.")

More recently, however, it has become a favorite in acting classes, and it even brought Kenneth Branagh back to the National Theater in London in 2003. In its theme of "every fear hides a wish," Mr. Macy sees the "triathlon" of Mamet dramas. "There's something to push everybody's button," he said.

"I believe David through technique opened his subconscious and let it fly," Mr. Macy added. "It speaks to our racial fears and rage in a way that's true. It's sort of the same territory that 'Crash' explored. This is the unabridged version."

Mr. Mamet wrote the screenplay for "Edmond" and even added some notes for Mr. Gordon on how it should be shot. "I loved 'Crash,' " Mr. Mamet said of the Academy Award winner for best film during a recent phone interview from his office in Los Angeles. "I just adored it. A very important movie. The dark secret of America has always been and always will be race. It's a secret hard to be rational about because it's so much a part of our lives."

Audience members who questioned Mr. Macy after the screening in Sarasota also seemed slightly stunned by the film, which makes a considerable tour de force at 82 minutes. Mr. Macy is in every scene and undergoes an emotional and physical transformation after encountering a fortuneteller (Frances Bay) who turns tarot cards and tells him, "You are not where you belong."

"Edmond" is scheduled to open in New York and Chicago on July 14. Following last year's run of controversial but well-received independent films ("Crash," "Brokeback Mountain," "Capote," "Transamerica"), Mr. Macy asked: "Is this the time that we can tell these stories about prejudice and racial rage? I think the answer is yes. We can be a little more honest and candid because we've come so far. We've had to get to this point where we can talk freely about this, where people use words to hurt. That's why 'Crash' was so successful, because we've gotten to the point where we can call things by their right names."

The "Edmond" cast also includes Julia Stiles, Joe Mantegna, Rebecca Pidgeon and Lionel Mark Smith, all of whom are accorded intense moments. (Mr. Smith was in the stage production in New York and Provincetown, in the same role as a pimp, 24 years ago.) With a budget "under $2 million," and financing from 12 production companies with 27 producers, Mr. Gordon said, the film was shot in 16 days and 30 locations in Los Angeles, leaving no margin for mistakes. "It's the most difficult job I've had as an actor," Mr. Macy said.

His next two films will be decidedly lighter. Production is under way for "Wild Hogs," in which he will join John Travolta, Tim Allen and Martin Lawrence as motorcyclists in midlife crisis. During the Sarasota festival, he also appeared at a private party with his writing partner, Steven Schachter (they collaborated on the popular Emmy Award-winning "Door to Door"), to raise money for their domestic comedy "The Deal," which also stars Lisa Kudrow and is scheduled to begin production later this year. About a third of the film's $8.25 million budget is expected from Sarasota residents who have become more than casual regional film enthusiasts.

"People are starting to understand it's a business like any other," said Keri Nakamoto, a producer of "The Deal," who is also a board member of the film festival. "It's a calculated risk, but if you understand the calculation, the integrity and the type of film, these are calculations that can make money."

"Has any major studio picked up 'Edmond'?" someone asked Mr. Macy after the screening.

Mr. Macy broke into one of his all-too-familiar half-smiles. "Oh, grow up," he said.

[Antoine Doinel]

This will be making its Canadian premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal in July.

[toiletduck!]

July 14th in Chicago you say???

So there.

-Toilet Dcuk

[tavernier]

July 14th in Chicago you say???

So there.

-Toilet Dcuk

There's a preview screening tonight in Manhattan.

[Kirkinson]

July 14th in Chicago you say???

So there.

-Toilet Dcuk

The article is a couple weeks off. It's actually July 28th for us. At the Gene Siskel Film Center. And Macy's going to be there opening day (for the 8:00 show). I am so there as well.

I like the trailer.

[toiletduck!]

The article is a couple weeks off. It's actually July 28th for us. At the Gene Siskel Film Center. And Macy's going to be there opening day (for the 8:00 show). I am so there as well.

Many thanks!

-Toilet Dcuk

[mikebowes]

This showed at the Independent Film Festival of Boston (IFFB) in May - it was without a doubt the darkest film I've ever seen. Mamet's work is very inclusive of low-lifes, schemers, etc. The character of Edmond is a very closely observed psychopath. A frightening and intriguing film - would definitely recommend.

[portnoy]

This is a really tough movie - we had a lot of walkouts when I saw it at Telluride last year. Viciously violent, relentlessly grim, with some almost satirically hyperstylized 'noir' inflections. Macy's great, and the entire film is his performance, basically.

Lots of people will hate this movie, and while I can't say I like it, it's pretty remarkable.

[toiletduck!]

This is a really tough movie - we had a lot of walkouts when I saw it at Telluride last year. Viciously violent, relentlessly grim, with some almost satirically hyperstylized 'noir' inflections. Macy's great, and the entire film is his performance, basically.

Lots of people will hate this movie, and while I can't say I like it, it's pretty remarkable.

I realize it's not the same story by far (in fact, almost a reversal of sorts), but that description put me in mind of BAD LIEUTENANT, another one-man tour de force that I adore. Is the comparison valid in any way, shape, or form?

-Toilet Dcuk

[Antoine Doinel]

Saw this tonight at the Fantasia Film Festival, introduced by the director. Most of the press surrounding the movie focuses on the screenplay's racial and violent content, but I would have to disagree with an earlier poster who said this is a film about a closely observed psychopath.

If anything, this is yes, a dark work, but one wholly interested in how men define their masculinity - whether sexually, violently, financially or otherwise. This isn't a psychopath, but a character so emasculated by everything in his life that he tries, for one night, to become - to feel - like a man. The "schemers" and "lowlifes" are merely catalysts for Macy's character but not the focus of Mamet's stunningly sharp screenplay. Written in the '80s, it thematically not only adresses masculinity but simply how we communicate in society that values capitalism over personal relationships.

The film itself is very good but misses being great due to merely competent direction. Gordon's need for gore is distracting and even some dramatic scenes (particularly the sequence involving Macy and Suvari) are handled with a disappointingly amateur touch. Even the makeup - particularly in the final act of the film - elicited laughter from audience, and it's unfortunate, becuase that final act brings the screenplay and its themes to an astonishing close. I would've loved to see how the same material would've been handled by Mamet himself.

[Antoine Doinel]

William H. Macy is happy to play despicable
The nice-guy actor's decidedly not-nice role in 'Edmond' is one he's been waiting for all his life

By Lynda Gorov, Globe Correspondent | August 27, 2006

LOS ANGELES —Don't worry. William H. Macy had the same reaction. The first time he saw the play ‘‘Edmond'' he sat back in his seat, almost sickened, certainly stunned. He and his fellow theatergoers met the ending with absolute silence.

Macy has wanted to play the main character ever since.

‘‘I, like everyone else, was shocked to see that story and that language and those emotions onstage,'' Macy recalled. ‘‘I almost had an urge to say, ‘You can't say that.' But the reason the play's stuck around is it wasn't just being salacious. It's true.''

The Macy who says this is nothing like the Macy in the movie version of David Mamet's ‘‘Edmond,'' a tight, almost painful 88 minutes or so of racist chatter, violent bloodshed, and out-of-control energy. In real life Macy's not morose. He's not sucking down anger. And he's clearly no loser, although he's often cast as one.

In fact the shaggy-haired fellow who shows up on his own (no Hollywood handlers in sight) for a lunch of turkey burgers and iced tea verges on happy-go-lucky. Why wouldn't he be? At 56, he's a working actor with every sort of role on his resume and plenty more scheduled. He's married to ``Desperate Housewives" hottie Felicity Huffman, with whom he has two young daughters. And he finally got to film ``Edmond," which opens Friday.

Now Macy is out stumping hard for ``Edmond." Beyond his having been one of the film's producers, it's clear he cares deeply about it. (``Thank you for supporting `Edmond,' " he says in all earnestness after introducing himself.) It's also clear that he knows the movie is no easy sell.

``Edmond" is the story of a middle-class man who abruptly walks out on his wife after a fortune teller informs him he's not where he should be. Soon he encounters a stranger (Joe Mantegna) in a bar who spews the N-word with abandon, then descends into a hell mostly of his own making. That would include a mugging, a murder, and other undesirable outcomes.

``It's short, you know; can you believe where you've been in less than two hours?" Macy said. ``It boggles the mind. . . . Mamet's the best we've got, if you ask me."

Macy and Mamet go way back, to Goddard College in Vermont, where Mamet was a teacher and Macy a student. It was, as Macy recalls, ``a hippie school," with few rules and even less formality -- except in Mamet's class. He expected promptness, proper dress, and a reverence for the theater -- traits that Macy embraces to this day. Later, the two launched a theater company in Chicago, Mamet's hometown. ``Edmond" director Stuart Gordon was part of the gang, although this is the first time he's worked with Macy since those early, heady days of experimental theater.

``It was one of those things where I was talking to David and we both said, `What about Bill for the part?' " Gordon said. ``It's amazing to me he never played Edmond onstage because it almost seems like it was written for him. When I asked him, it was the shortest conversation of my life. He said, `I've been waiting all my life to play this part.' "

The part of Edmond, like the movie, has an old-fashioned feel to it, what Macy calls ``an otherworldly quality." That's in part because the play is now almost a quarter-century old and the movie is a faithful adaptation. Updating was kept to a minimum.

As Macy put it, ``Stuart told David to update it, so he said OK and gave me a cellphone and raised the price of a hooker 50 bucks. And that was that." Even a reference to Edmond's having an athletic physique -- which Macy, who bares almost all, somewhat surprisingly does -- was in the original. (``For some reason I've got to get naked in everything I do," Macy said, laughing. ``I don't know what's going on, and it only happened after I was 50.")

Macy, who looks far younger in person with his mod red glasses and gently faded jeans, also can't explain why he's so often cast as a mope, except to say that actors have far less control over their careers than the audience might imagine. ``The reality is you get to pick and choose, but within a narrow scope," he said. ``It's rarely me or [Tom] Cruise. `What do you think? Hmmm? Macy or Cruise, Macy or Cruise?' "

That said, he has done action pictures (``Air Force One," the third ``Jurassic Park") and has the action figures to prove it. Then again, he's done a bit of everything and then some. There's television (``E.R.," the made-for-TV movie ``Door to Door," which he co-wrote, and the upcoming ``Curious George" cartoon, which he narrates, to name a few). There are major features (``Seabiscuit," ``Magnolia," and ``Fargo," which gained him an Academy Award nomination for his role as -- what else? -- an unlucky car salesman). That's not to ignore the offbeat or oddball roles; his 100-plus credits include plenty of those. But he swears there are some flat-out romantic comedies coming up.

``I've always worked hard, I'm a hard worker, I like to work," Macy said. ``Conversely, I don't do too well on my own. I'll create something if there's nothing going on. It's the way Mamet taught us: You can sit around waiting for the phone to ring or you can create your own fun. . . . Plus, I don't get the big bucks. There are a lot of roles, but some of them I worked for only a day or two."

Regardless of the role, Macy inevitably brings a sense of decency to it, said ``Edmond" director Gordon. That was especially important in the case of Edmond, who repeatedly risks alienating the audience with his ferocious behavior.

``The character does so many despicable things," Gordon said. ``Bill manages to maintain a humanity with all of his characters, and this was important here. Bill seems like your average guy and someone the audience can relate to in a significant way."

``Edmond" asks moviegoers to do that without offering up much information about Edmond himself. His back story is beyond spare; it's nonexistent. That's a trademark of Mamet's writing, and it's one that Macy applauds. He's such a Mamet acolyte that he divides movie history into pre- and post-Mamet. Even screenwriters who dislike Mamet have been influenced by him, Macy says.

``I think it's genius what he put in and what he left out," Macy said. ``The guy's leaving his wife in the first scene and everyone knows why. . . . She's a beautiful woman standing in her underwear and he says, `You don't interest me. I can't live this way anymore.' And everybody knows what that means on their own level. That's all the information that's necessary to set him up for the rest of the story."

For his part, Macy felt no need to fill in the gaps. He says he long ago gave up making fake identities for his characters or creating families and friends for them that didn't exist in the script. Partly out of audaciousness, partly out of laziness, he says he decided over a period of years that his talent alone was enough to bring to a role.

``It didn't help me act at all just because I did that extra homework," Macy said. ``You can't bring it onstage, not really. . . . It occurred to me finally that the actor's job is in the nanosecond -- not in the big picture but in the smallest moment where you break it down. That's all you need to do, pay attention to that one moment."

And how Macy loves that moment. Although he's branched out into producing, has written numerous teleplays, and is slated to make his big-time directorial debut next year with the movie ``Keep Coming Back," starring Salma Hayek, he says he still lives for that one moment on a movie set, when all eyes turn toward him and he gets to act, even when it's in a role as difficult as Edmond.

``That moment when everyone gets quiet and it's the actor's turn, I just love it," he said. ``I love to live in imaginary circumstances. It feels calmer and braver and safer there than anywhere else. . . . I love acting. I'm a lucky guy."