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Features
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The Wisdom of Lumet
More energetic than many of the filmmakers half his age, Lifetime honoree Sidney Lumet chats backstage about the notion of a chauvinistic Hollywood and his newest leading man, Vin Diesel.
Monday, February 28, 2005
By Todd Gilchrist
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Steve Granitz/Wireimage.com
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A winner after all these years
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In the midst last night’s Million Dollar Baby march, the Academy bestowed director Sidney Lumet with an honorary Oscar for more than 50 years of consistently impressive work. Nominated five times but never a winner – proving that Martin Scorsese may simply turn out to be the latest in a long line of overlooked geniuses - Lumet remains one of Hollywood’s most distinguished filmmakers, having helmed such classics as 12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico and Network. On Sunday night, he enjoyed a well-deserved celebration of his films, and had plenty to say backstage about the past, present and future of his career.
At age 80, Lumet remains a remarkable energetic and prescient force as he first addressed the contention that Hollywood is – and always has been – a old boys’ club. “I think it really has to do with the nature of drama,” he said. “I mean, you start right off the bat with cop stories, jury stories, gangster stories, and you're lucky if you've got a women's part at all.”
“I think one of the interesting things to me is how rarely the women stars become as financeable as the male stars,” he added, suggesting a bottom line not necessarily linked to either characters or the availability of celluloid. “I think you find, generally, that maybe there are six to ten male stars that can get any picture financed [when] they want to. And I would guess that there are maybe three or, at the most, four women who can do that.”
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Michael Caufield/Wireimage.com
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Lifetime trophy presenter Pacino
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The Philadelphia native acknowledged that his filmography is colored with more great roles for men than women, but suggested - without trying to take personal credit for it – that those who worked with him in the past often seemed to benefit from his directorial hand. “I was always known as a man's director because of all the cop movies that I did,” he stated. “And when I began - this is literally true - you could be excused from jury duty just by the fact that you were a woman.”
“So I became known because of the cop movies and the jury movies and so on, as a director for men,” he continues. “And it turned out not to be true, because I think, like, five female actors that I've worked with have been nominated, [and] three of them have won (Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight for Network; Ingrid Bergman, Murder on the Orient Express]. But I really can't answer your question; I don't know that it's any worse in movies than it is in any other segment of American society.”
The filmmaker’s next picture, the tentatively titled Jackie Dee (although it is currently listed on IMDB as Find Me Guilty), is scheduled for release this fall, and returns him to the estimable tradition of the courtroom drama. What’s perhaps most surprising about the production is its star: Vin Diesel, who’s currently attempting a career makeover with the family-friendly adventure The Pacifier.
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Steve Granitz/Wireimage.com
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Lumet's latest 'character actor'
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Lumet asserted that Diesel’s pedigree as a man of action is but a facade that obscures his true talents as a thespian. “He's one of the best actors I've ever worked with,” he insisted. “Vin got his break as a muscled car racer. [The Fast and the Furious] did, 50 million, 60 million, and he's been relegated to that. People think that's what he is.”
“It's an interesting thing that develops about how we get blinded by the way people become stars,” the filmmaker mused. “Being an actor, as you may have gathered, is a rather desperate occupation, and you try to make it work for you, whichever way you can. And making it work for you means becoming financeable.”
“He's a glorious actor,” Lumet continued. “He's beautifully prepared technically; knows what he's doing. A character actor, believe it or not, as opposed to a leading man.”
Then, dialing back his praise just a little bit, Lumet pleaded with a roomful of journalists to wait until the film opens. “I'm not going to oversell it, but hopefully, in September, you're going to see what he is. And I think you're going to be wonderfully surprised. Gratifyingly surprised.”
Lumet, like this year’s two biggest contenders for the 2004 director Oscar, has seen many seasons come and go in Hollywood. But he claims there’s no particular wisdom that can be gained when it comes to knowing whether a picture is a winner or not from the first moment it’s undertaken.
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Walt Disney Pictures
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A winner in Lumet's Book
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“I don't know, and I'll tell you something else; I don't think anybody else does,” he maintained. “And anybody who says they do is faking. As far as I know, the only man who was consistently able to make pictures that made money was Walt Disney. I'm not exaggerating. And even he ran into a bad time where the studio almost collapsed, which is the reason he went into television for a long while.”
“But I don't think there's a person in the business who could say to you, this picture will make money when it's finished when they see it after it's all completed, much less trying to pick it in advance,” he added. “I think it's unfathomable.”
With acclaimed projects resonating in his past and promising ones hovering once more on the horizon, Lumet has for many years been eyewitness to some of the most remarkable stories ever told. But when it comes to his own life, he says he isn’t sure what the most memorable moments would be.
“You know, like everyone's life, it's been so varied,” he recalled. “There were just too many. I wish I could be more specific than that, but there's too much richness, too much pleasure to really try to pin it down to one. I'm sorry to be vague, but I'm being as honest with you as I can.”
Then, after a pause, he added: “Probably the ones that I never photograph.”
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