How I came to play the lead role of Claude in the musical HAIR (part 5, conclusion)
How I came to play the lead role of Claude in the musical HAIR (part 4)
How I came to play the lead role of Claude in the musical HAIR (part 3)
How I came to play the lead role of Claude in the musical HAIR (part 2)
How I came to play the lead role of Claude in the musical HAIR (part 1)
Quentin Tarantino
Sometimes Hollywood is a very small town.
For over 15 years, I worked as the voice performance coach at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, preparing presenters for the ceremony. The show aired the day before the Academy Awards and many of the same stars would be at both awards shows.
The Film Independent Spirit Awards were broadcast from Santa Monica, California, in a very big tent on the beach. It was fun for the stars because drinks and food were served at their tables during the show and it sometimes got very loose, crazy and fun. The stars got to blow off some steam before the much more serious and tuxedo/gown event, The Academy Awards, the next day.
(BOB CORFF & BROADCAST TELEPROMPTER OPERATOR BACKSTAGE)
On this particular show, Quentin Tarantino was a presenter and I brought him backstage to the teleprompter to go over his lines for the presentation. All the actors and directors I worked with had different styles of preparing before going on stage, and I was used to that. But Quentin had a style I’d never seen before: he started rewriting his lines!
I contacted the writers and they came right over (the writers usually don’t like things to surprise them on a live show!). Quentin is a genius so he started rewriting large sections of the text. It was good! The writers could see that and said, “Okay, Quentin. You can do that.”
The writers left and Quentin started writing faster and making even bigger changes to his script. Now he was on a roll and he kept on writing and rewriting. And then he started to direct his performance, and redirect his performance! I had never seen anything quite like this. It was like a miracle of creative electrical energy. And I got to witness it. So amazing!
Around ten years later, in 2019, I started getting calls saying, “You’re in Quentin‘s new movie.” And I’d say, “No, I’m not. What are you talking about?” But for the next few days I kept getting calls saying the same thing. I knew I wasn’t in a Quentin Tarantino movie; I would have certainly noticed that!
Then a good friend called and said, “You are on the the soundtrack of ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,’ ‘Don’t Chase Me Around,’ track 25, and you’re singing in the film where Brad Pitt has the fight at the Manson Ranch with the follower with the crazy laugh that slits his tire.”
The song ends on Brad’s last punch. And it was true. All I can say is thank you Quentin for finding a song I recorded 40 years before. Hollywood sometimes is a small and convoluted town.
Thank you, Quentin.
With much appreciation.