DIRECTOR'S JOURNAL
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5

JAIME PRESSLY spits on SEAN YOUNG

7/8/99 -- Shot at Menard State Penitentiary, a maximum security prison. Jaime Pressly spat on Sean Young. That was entertaining (for the movie of course). Jason London has an inspired moment when in one scene he just started singing "Jesus loves me, this I know, 'cause the Bible tells me so" or or something like that. I let the camera roll as he walked about 30 yards into the background singing. His characterization of Brian Ross, ex-football player and lover of Sean's character, is so funny that several times we had to hold our mouths so that we didn't laugh and screw up the take. Sean found a way to look beautiful in prison garb. The boys weren't in at all today. My mom visited the set. She got to see me utter the line of the day... "Cut! I mean Action!" Deeply embaressing to forget what you're supposed to say at the beginning of the shot. I've done this a thousand times -- I'm just over-tired. Tonight, I had a five minute dinner with Emmet Walsh... very cool guy. Tomorrow, William Devane in a trailer... looking forward to it. And now... I'm off for my 3 hours of sleep.

7/7/99 -- Today was the first day we shot William Devane. We did 6 different close-ups of various elements of his costume... that's how much we like him. Jaime Pressly kicked ass... that girl has more comic timing than the borscht belt. Jason also was damn funny... getting his face crushed into cinammon rolls -- it was beautiful. But the day was a back-breaker. 42 set-ups and we were all impressed with ourselves yesterday for getting 27. My mom showed up on the set and got to meet everyone. I said 5 words to her total and I think the gist was: get in the shot or move out of the way. That's more than 5 words... maybe I wasn't so polite. I'm exhausted... going to bed.

7/6/99 -- PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY BEGINS!!!

First Day on Set

6/25/99 -- Today was mostly about Ron Lake (our lawyer/ex-con/ psychopath). Katy (our casting director Katy Wallin) called to tell me that we had some bad news. naturally, her bad acting gave away the fact that it was very good news: we cast our last major role - Ron Lake. The great actor William Devane would be playing Ron. Devane, who was in such classics as Hitchcock's final film Family Plot and Marathon Man - would be uttering the immortal line, "So Lennie, what do you think of your new grandma's ass?" I'm told Devane is amazing - and a swell guy. Certainly his work has been top notch for decades - and he seems to be in top form in Payback. We all broke out the Coronas and celebrated. Sean Young, Jason London, M. Emmet Walsh, Tony Denman, Jacob Tierney and Jaime Pressly. Every day is like Hanukah - except instead of getting underwear and socks - I'm getting the most amazing cast in the free world. Later in the day, Lori came in and glared at me. Apparently we had found Ron's trailer - a beautiful 30 foot Airstream that would be the dream of any LA hipster. The trailer was so majestic that Lori had question what was in my head to write a scene where such a fine dwelling would be completely destroyed by an LTD Crowne Victoria driving through it's underbelly. I had to agree. the reign of destruction within this film is shocking. But it's a moral tale -- and I have to show that crime doesn't pay, right? The rest of the day was spent casting extras -- Tracy is our extras casting person and she's doing a great job.we saw about 300 people today. The locals were photographed and videotaped in every manner possible. I watched the incredible parade of Benton denizens from my room. a bedroom just off the production office where I live/work (saving money on a hotel room -- and saving time on the commute).

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5