The premise was simple – mingle actors who have portrayed real people in film with real people who have been portrayed by actors on screen. In Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF) fashion, the players would then gather poolside at a posh Los Angeles hotel for a panel discussion to be moderated by an Academy Award-nominated director. There you have Reel Life LA.

As with each of my experiences at the Festival, a buzz filled the air. Wait staff sauntered around the crystal blue waters of a curvaceous pool taking bar orders from patrons lounging on patio furniture. It was decadent LA for a small town New England girl.

Circumstances being what they were, the “real people” were unable to attend, both activist Erin Brockovich and publisher Larry Flynt canceling for health reasons.  Ultimately, the panel was condensed to two actors, moderated by Taylor Hackford, director of the popular films Ray and Dolores Clairborne.

The actors in attendance were the legendary Martin Landau whose turn as Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood won him the Academy Award.  At 78-years-old, his career had spanned more than 150 film and television appearances.  Thirty-three year old Larenz Tate, star of FX’s Rescue Me, jested that he needed to “be on my A game” sitting next to an actor as reputed as Landau. Tate’s real-life portrayals were those of Frankie Lymon in Why Do Fool’s Fall in Love? and Quincy Jones in Ray.

Foxxy Inspiration

So how does an actor find inspiration when he must literally fill someone else’s shoes?  Does meeting with the person pose artistic limitations or heighten the performance? Hackford dove in recalling an interaction with Jamie Foxx.  He had introduced him to Ray Charles by way of dueling pianos and was stunned, if not frustrated, that Jamie did not take initiative to have further meetings with his character namesake.

HACKFORD: Jamie said something to me that was impressive, unbelievable, he says, “You know, Taylor, the Ray Charles that I’m going to go meet is seventy years old.  He is completely in control of his life.  He has attained everything.  And he is completely not the guy that I am going to be playing.  I’m playing a guy eighteen years old, who hasn’t made his chops, who doesn’t know where he’s going to be.”  He was absolutely right.  He didn’t want to get the measurements and movements of an old man.  So he had to go into that character and find that character himself, and he did it beautifully.

The Quincy Effect

FEKE: I have two questions. One, when you meet someone you are going to play, their family members, friends, what do you ask of them? What is your approach to learning more about that person? And second, how does the director influence what they want to shoot with your vision of what that character is going to be?

I couldn’t have been more delighted with the responses that charted the remainder of the evening.

TATE: With regards to meeting with Quincy (Jones), you don’t have to ask a lot of questions of Quincy. He just talks, and I just sat and listened to him.  In regards to what a director wants versus your interpretation and your approach, with Taylor, he comes to the table knowing that he made the right choice by hiring you. There are never bad choices.  It’s just what works or doesn’t work and having somebody like Taylor guide you and make sure that as long as Jamie (Foxx) and I are clicking and that anything we are doing is real and organic.

The Legend Speaks

Martin Landau wove a tale, even if tangentially, that drew the audience in like the clichéd moth to a flame.

LANDAU: Cathy Woods decided to visit us one day without anyone knowing it.  It was a day when we were shooting outside on Hollywood Boulevard, and Johnny Depp was wearing a blonde female wig, dress, high heels, and an angora sweater.  She introduced herself to the assistant director and word got out that she was there, and Johnny said, “Oh, God. How is she going to react?”  With a little trepidation, he said this to me.  As she walked up to Johnny in drag, he said, “How do you do?  It’s nice to meet you.”  And she said, “Just like Ed.”  (Audience laughs.)  And when I later did a speech on the street as Legosi, she came up and said, “you captured him”.  She was very pleased with what was going on.

Then came the playfulness of a male diva.

LANDAU: As to the other question, directors create a playground for actors.  As you said and several other people I’ve known over the years said, casting is 90% of directing.  Cast the right person and let them fly.  I have not been directed in twenty-five or thirty years … I figure if they don’t like it, they’ll tell me, and they don’t say a word to me.  So I hit my mark, say the words, and go home.

I couldn’t help but reflect on my LAFF experience.  Who knew I could heighten my love of film in three short days? That I would get to meet the legendary Martin Landau! It was hard to believe I would be on a flight back to Connecticut within twelve hours having made contacts that were making me a journalist in my own right.