James Toback is the wild, drinking gambling man of the writing and directing world. Its doubtful there has been any American filmmaker that has put as much of himself into films like The Pick-up Artist, Two Girls and a Guy and Harvard Man.
His latest film, When Will I Be Loved, is coming out on DVD. It stars Neve Campbell as Vera a femme fatale for the 21st century. She picks up men on the street and has sex with them in her room. She also videotapes her sexual romps with a female lover and has sexually frank discussions with her potential employer. As the daughter of wealthy, indulgent parents, Vera seems to be improvising her way through the beginning of her life as an adult.
Buy the DVD of When Will I Be Loved
Daniel Robert Epstein: I know you missed that generation of punk rock and Goth girls, but were you ever interested in them?
James Toback: Im interested in the entire female gender. I mean, heres the thing. They have a vagina; which is in and of itself extremely intriguing and fascinating. They have a vagina and I dont; I have a dick and you dont. Its a fundamental dividing line between six billion people. Its an on-going nightmare for a guy to wonder what itd be like not to have a dick. But one of the reasons is because you like having one. Once you figure out there is never going to be a sufficient an answer to the question, what are women like? You can imagine your way into any kind of male behavior but you cant do that on even a basic level with a woman.
You can say woman can also fight, beat guys at a boxing ring and drop bombs on another country. Of course they can but what they cant do is fuck unless they have a dildo and what a guy cant do is be fucked in his pussy. These are fundamental differences. I'm sitting here now and there are five guys. I know nothing about any of you. Now lets say that there are five women instead that would change the feeling in the room. If you just had Neve Campbell in here it would be five guys sitting here talking to a woman. The difference between those situations is one of the questions this movies raises. This woman is curious, sexual, driven, manipulative, cynical and intellectual. These qualities can be possessed by a guy but it wouldnt be the same. So having a chance to explore a woman embodied by Neve was really exciting because she is among the most intelligent, appealing and intriguing woman Ive ever met. I had always just liked her on the screen but I had not known all that before. I wasnt prepared for how sharp she was or interested she was and how ready she was to kind of stretch herself out for the role. So it achieved what I wanted it to do, exploring the psycho-sexual nature of an appealing young woman.
DRE: With Two Girls and a Guy, did you feel like that was much more well-known territory?
JT: Much more and in fact even though I let Robert Downey Jr. run with it, it was almost a Toback/Downey character. Id say hes playing himself, hed say hes playing me but it was a combination of both. The fact is that we both knew what we were doing and we both knew we were on the same side of the fence.
With Downeys sex scene in Two Girls and a Guy I was very specific with him and Heather Graham. Allow her to jerk you off. Let her start to leave. Grab her as she starts to leave. Excite her and then get her off and then if she wants to leave, let her leave. With her I said, Get him off and try to leave. If he can prevent you from leaving then fine, and if he cant prevent you then just go. If he can excite you, allow yourself to cum, then leave. When it came to Neves sex scene with Joelle Carter, I just said, You guys go into the other room, figure out what you want to do, dont tell me. When you come back, just tell me the area where you want to shoot it. We started rolling the camera and I observed. I could not do what I did with Downey and Heather Graham. I wouldve felt ridiculous.
DRE: The title of the film is called, When Will I Be Loved and it focuses very much on what Neve Campbells character is going through and her responses. But couldnt that also apply to the two male characters?
JT: Theyre asking for it more than she is and theyre more desperate than she is, which is why she prevails. Shes stronger and much tougher than they are. Theyre the ones that are hanging on by their fingernails. But it always bewilders me when people dont give a movie the time to work on them. There has already been remarks about the title, as if it were some simple linear idea. You would think that after you make eleven movies even dumb people would be able to pick up on the fact that as a career move, I dont do things in a simple way and that theres always an irony to it or a flipside.
DRE: You're a writer and a director. Do you find it difficult to get rid of something you wrote when you get to the directing stage?
JT: No, there never is because if something isnt working then Im eager to get rid of it. In fact, as much as I love Karel Reisz, personally and professional and as Im grateful to him for The Gambler, because thats the first script I wrote and he made a terrific movie from it. The one thing I wouldve done back then was not treat my script as the sacra-saint biblical text that he treated it as, because there are moments in that movie that are just dead and flat. I mean dont try to keep forcing it. I never do that.
DRE: How did that experience prepare you for Bugsy?
JT: Bugsy was another movie I wrote and didnt direct. But in that case, Barry Levinson and Warren Beatty, were similarly rebellious and disruptive of the script and I was there literally from morning to late night everyday. I rented a Mustang convertible which became my sanctuary and my rewrite office. I would blast music and rewrite scenes we were going to do two hours later. My memory of making Bugsy was literally of my time spent in that car writing new scenes and rewriting stuff. The movie would have been half of what it was if they just shot the script.
DRE: How much of you is still you and how much of you still tries to live up to the famous reputation?
JT: Oh, Im trying to escape from myself into oblivion. Sooner or later I will succeed, not probably when I want to the most, but Im ready.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
His latest film, When Will I Be Loved, is coming out on DVD. It stars Neve Campbell as Vera a femme fatale for the 21st century. She picks up men on the street and has sex with them in her room. She also videotapes her sexual romps with a female lover and has sexually frank discussions with her potential employer. As the daughter of wealthy, indulgent parents, Vera seems to be improvising her way through the beginning of her life as an adult.
Buy the DVD of When Will I Be Loved
Daniel Robert Epstein: I know you missed that generation of punk rock and Goth girls, but were you ever interested in them?
James Toback: Im interested in the entire female gender. I mean, heres the thing. They have a vagina; which is in and of itself extremely intriguing and fascinating. They have a vagina and I dont; I have a dick and you dont. Its a fundamental dividing line between six billion people. Its an on-going nightmare for a guy to wonder what itd be like not to have a dick. But one of the reasons is because you like having one. Once you figure out there is never going to be a sufficient an answer to the question, what are women like? You can imagine your way into any kind of male behavior but you cant do that on even a basic level with a woman.
You can say woman can also fight, beat guys at a boxing ring and drop bombs on another country. Of course they can but what they cant do is fuck unless they have a dildo and what a guy cant do is be fucked in his pussy. These are fundamental differences. I'm sitting here now and there are five guys. I know nothing about any of you. Now lets say that there are five women instead that would change the feeling in the room. If you just had Neve Campbell in here it would be five guys sitting here talking to a woman. The difference between those situations is one of the questions this movies raises. This woman is curious, sexual, driven, manipulative, cynical and intellectual. These qualities can be possessed by a guy but it wouldnt be the same. So having a chance to explore a woman embodied by Neve was really exciting because she is among the most intelligent, appealing and intriguing woman Ive ever met. I had always just liked her on the screen but I had not known all that before. I wasnt prepared for how sharp she was or interested she was and how ready she was to kind of stretch herself out for the role. So it achieved what I wanted it to do, exploring the psycho-sexual nature of an appealing young woman.
DRE: With Two Girls and a Guy, did you feel like that was much more well-known territory?
JT: Much more and in fact even though I let Robert Downey Jr. run with it, it was almost a Toback/Downey character. Id say hes playing himself, hed say hes playing me but it was a combination of both. The fact is that we both knew what we were doing and we both knew we were on the same side of the fence.
With Downeys sex scene in Two Girls and a Guy I was very specific with him and Heather Graham. Allow her to jerk you off. Let her start to leave. Grab her as she starts to leave. Excite her and then get her off and then if she wants to leave, let her leave. With her I said, Get him off and try to leave. If he can prevent you from leaving then fine, and if he cant prevent you then just go. If he can excite you, allow yourself to cum, then leave. When it came to Neves sex scene with Joelle Carter, I just said, You guys go into the other room, figure out what you want to do, dont tell me. When you come back, just tell me the area where you want to shoot it. We started rolling the camera and I observed. I could not do what I did with Downey and Heather Graham. I wouldve felt ridiculous.
DRE: The title of the film is called, When Will I Be Loved and it focuses very much on what Neve Campbells character is going through and her responses. But couldnt that also apply to the two male characters?
JT: Theyre asking for it more than she is and theyre more desperate than she is, which is why she prevails. Shes stronger and much tougher than they are. Theyre the ones that are hanging on by their fingernails. But it always bewilders me when people dont give a movie the time to work on them. There has already been remarks about the title, as if it were some simple linear idea. You would think that after you make eleven movies even dumb people would be able to pick up on the fact that as a career move, I dont do things in a simple way and that theres always an irony to it or a flipside.
DRE: You're a writer and a director. Do you find it difficult to get rid of something you wrote when you get to the directing stage?
JT: No, there never is because if something isnt working then Im eager to get rid of it. In fact, as much as I love Karel Reisz, personally and professional and as Im grateful to him for The Gambler, because thats the first script I wrote and he made a terrific movie from it. The one thing I wouldve done back then was not treat my script as the sacra-saint biblical text that he treated it as, because there are moments in that movie that are just dead and flat. I mean dont try to keep forcing it. I never do that.
DRE: How did that experience prepare you for Bugsy?
JT: Bugsy was another movie I wrote and didnt direct. But in that case, Barry Levinson and Warren Beatty, were similarly rebellious and disruptive of the script and I was there literally from morning to late night everyday. I rented a Mustang convertible which became my sanctuary and my rewrite office. I would blast music and rewrite scenes we were going to do two hours later. My memory of making Bugsy was literally of my time spent in that car writing new scenes and rewriting stuff. The movie would have been half of what it was if they just shot the script.
DRE: How much of you is still you and how much of you still tries to live up to the famous reputation?
JT: Oh, Im trying to escape from myself into oblivion. Sooner or later I will succeed, not probably when I want to the most, but Im ready.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
xtx said:
This guy is fascinating, and a hell of a writer- and I've been pretty impressed with his directing as well
Are you serious? Have you seen Harvard Man? What an embarrassing, sophomoric train-wreck of a movie.