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Tom DiCillo Recalls Johnny Suede
Tom DiCillo directs Brad Pitt on the set of Johnny Suede (1991). Photo: Ann Stratton
I just found out my first film, Johnny Suede, has been released on DVD by Anchor Bay. The reason I just found out about it now could be part of a longer essay that perhaps I’ll undertake one morning after dropping acid and snorting a quart of scotch.
The DVD includes my commentary. It could have included a lot more but… see the paragraph above and add a bucket of crack.
The film stars Brad Pitt, Catherine Keener, Nick Cave and Samuel L. Jackson in a small part. I just remembered that Sam came in and auditioned for me.
Other memories are sneaking up now, like zombies outside the Kwikee Mart. I spent four months trying to find the right actor to play Johnny. I must have auditioned at least 300 guys. Most came in thinking the part was some moronic version of The Fonz from “Happy Days.” In August of 1989, after exhausting all the possibilities in New York City, the casting director, Marcia Shulman, and I went out to L.A. to sift through the talent pickings there.
The production at that point had no money. The producers arranged for Marcia and me to stay at the Highland Gardens Motel, famed mainly for the fact that Janis Joplin had died there. There was a swimming pool. No one swam in it. It was filled with greenish-black sludge.
The motel let us use a ”suite” to cast in. The auditions were held in the kitchenette with Marcia and I sitting a foot away in the dining nook. One afternoon I looked out the window and saw a tall woman dressed in a short, black skirt, black nylons and leopard-skin ankle boots. As she paced by the contaminated pool she carefully wielded a matching leopard-skin umbrella to keep the sun off of her. It took me a moment to realize it was Tina Louise--Ginger from “Gilligan’s Island.” She was there to read for Johnny’s girlfriend’s mother. I cast her the moment she walked into the “suite”.
Later that day Marcia flipped me a head-shot and informed me the next actor didn’t have much on his resume. In fact he only had two things listed: A small Canadian TV series and a film he’d just finished shooting—something called Thelma & Louise.
The day before, Marcia and I had been eating lunch in a burger joint on La Cienaga. We saw some kid a few booths away who looked somewhat interesting. We brought him in for a reading, thinking, “Hey, maybe this is one of those stars-discovered-in-a-greasy-burger-joint kind of stories.” He was awful. Still, he was very depressed when we didn’t cast him.
I took another look at the photo Marcia had handed me and said, “What the fuck, bring him in.” The actor’s name was Brad Pitt and I was certain of two things the moment he walked in: 1. He was Johnny. 2. He was going to be a star.
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by Vivian Stamps on 2/08/08 at 9:24 pm
Brad was wonderful as Johnny Suede. Smile! How is that for loyalty? I love him because I see someone beautiful inside and out.
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