![]() ![]() As a Salt Lake City actor, that was what I was doing at the time. I lived in Salt Lake City, and they used to shoot shows like Touched by an Angel out there, or Promised Land - more religious-centric shows. There was a big three-month gap before I heard anything back.Īt what point did you understand the magnitude of what you had gotten into? I think I did three or four scenes on some rickety old VHS machine in a room with zebra-print carpet and a bunch of strangely placed mirrors. And he said, “You got to get on your agents to send you in for it.” And sure enough, I got a call from the to go put myself on tape in their studio. So I asked him about it afterward he was like, “Oh, it’s Cameron Crowe’s new movie.” Admittedly, I was not familiar with Cameron or his work, so my friend had to explain that he was the director of Jerry Maguire and Say Anything. I was waiting for him to be done, and I could hear him doing the scenes, and I was like, Oh, wow, these are really good scenes. I had actually driven my best friend to his audition for the movie - I did a lot of theater and different stuff growing up with him. What do you remember about the first time you heard about Almost Famous? You were so young when you were cast in this movie and essentially unknown. ![]() ET), I called up Fugit to talk about his memories of shooting the film: his crush on Kate Hudson, what it was like to be the object of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s ribbing, and that time Bijou Phillips attempted to “corrupt” him. In advance of Vulture’s Friday Night Movie Club showing of Almost Famous (join me on Twitter June 26 at 7 p.m. In turn, the rest of the movie feels believable and lived-in. His resulting performance is vulnerable and gentle, punctuated by a sort of wide-eyed fear and naïveté that you can’t really fake. The Salt Lake City native and total newcomer was cast in the film at age 16, and his own journey on set mimicked that of William’s - a young, relatively clueless kid thrust into a world he wasn’t prepared for, surrounded by his heroes, trying desperately not to fuck it all up. Though the entire cast is pitch perfect, the main reason the movie resonates so deeply is because of Patrick Fugit. I wasn’t even close to alive during the 1970s, but the film hurt like my own memory, and it incidentally informed a large chunk of my personality as a culture writer who has spent 14 years searching for Penny Lane’s exact coat. I still remember watching Almost Famous when it came out in 2000: I was 12, and I snuck behind my parents’ couch to secretly watch the whole thing there (it was R, and they were as strict as Elaine). That’s where the magic happens, both for William and the film itself, which turns into a kaleidoscopic dive deep into the soul of the 1970s, replete with rock and roll, forbidden love, great drugs, several near-death experiences, parental panic, loss of innocence, and incredible hair. William finds deep solace in the rock records she leaves behind, eventually striking up a friendship with rock critic Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who helps him land a small music-writing gig that evolves into a Rolling Stone story after William befriends a group of “Band Aids” - including the disarming Penny Lane (Kate Hudson) - who take him on the road with the fledgling rock group Stillwater. After his mother, Elaine (Frances McDormand), a college professor who abhors nearly every capitalistic impulse, bans rock music from their house, his sister, Anita (Zooey Deschanel), storms out to become an airline stewardess. ![]() The movie, based on the director’s own teenage experiences, follows Crowe avatar William Miller (Patrick Fugit), a sweet, brilliant 15-year-old who skipped a few grades and doesn’t fit in with his classmates. movies about self-discovery and heartbreak and Elton John sing-alongs. It’s become a nearly meaningless cliché to say, “They don’t make movies like this anymore,” but the fact of the matter is they don’t make movies like this anymore: big-hearted, big-budget, 35-mm. It’s a movie about crashing headlong into the adult world a little too soon, about bumping into its sharp corners and stumbling down its dark alleyways, but also discovering moments of ineffable magic, and emerging a little scarred but mostly thrilled. Few films capture comings-of-age so perfectly with an earnestness that rarely, if ever, crosses over into corniness. ![]() If I were a doctor (of cinema), I would prescribe at least four viewings of Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous to every single teen. Photo: Moviestore Collection/Shutterstock Fugit tells us about his crush on Kate Hudson, Philip Seymour Hoffman ribbing him on set, the legendary cast parties, and Bijou Phillips’s attempts to “corrupt” him. ![]()
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