Everyone knows the story: Big lug
with big heart proves to himself and the world that he's not a bum, while
turning ugly duckling into swan.
Rocky, with Sylvester
Stallone as the lug and Talia Shire as the ugly duckling, Adrian, should have
been awful, but it wasn't. That it wasn't is a tribute to the script (by
Stallone), which actually has a lot of funny lines (when Adrian says she's never
been in a man's apartment, Rocky says, "They're all the same") and
deftly satirizes American self-promotion (Rocky's boxing opponent, Apollo Creed,
arrives for their match dressed as George Washington).
It also works because the
audience roots for these losers, a testimony to the performances of Stallone and
Shire, who push the pathos, but not too hard. Subsequent Rockys
(there were four more) tried to find ways to re-create the original's underdog
appeal, but that's hard to do when you're not a bum anymore. A package of all
five Rockys will be released Dec. 14.
Shire, born Talia Rose Coppola,
made her name playing two characters -- Adrian and Connie, the Corleone sister
in the Godfather series (there were three of those, in which she
morphs from princess to Lady Macbeth). Shire is something of a sequel -- and
sequel generator -- herself. She is the daughter of composer Carmine Coppola,
the sister of novelist August and director Francis, aunt of writer-director
Sofia and actor Nicolas Cage, and the mother of actor Jason Schwartzman.
Though her career has been
defined by two roles, she's also acted in many other films (most recently I
Heart Huckabees) and been a producer and director. We spoke with Shire
by phone..
Q: I saw you dancing with Brando
in a clip from The Godfather. Was there any particular scene you
shot with him that you remember well?
A: A lot of us actors would go
sometimes, when we weren't in a scene, (and watch him) because we wanted to see
him work. He was quite amazing. You've heard stories about his lines (being
posted) around the set. Really it was not because he couldn't remember them. He
wanted to keep things fresh, as if things would occur to him. So very often he
choreographed where the placement of the lines would be discovered. And he used
ear wax in his ears to create active listening.
Q: Well, let's compare him to
Stallone.
A: There was a burning passion in
Brando. And you have in Sylvester -- people don't realize the passion involved
because when he made Rocky, you have to remember the context. Young
actor, pregnant wife, no money. And finally just had to write himself a role
that would frame him correctly. He made that role for himself the way a great
tailor would make a suit.
Q: You say he tailored that part
for himself, so he had to re-tailor it as the years went on and he changed.
A: I think he included the events
that were taking place in his extraordinary celebrity. In most boxing movies,
boxing was always about corruption. You never had a boxing movie that was going
to be a spiritual one, about somebody going the limit, facing himself. So he was
always going to keep exploring those things about how a person stays balanced in
the middle of all sorts of seductions.
Q: So he had the arc of his life
to draw from. What did you have to draw from?
A: What resonated for me was the
idea of being in someone's corner but truly as an equal partner. The identity of
the woman is not lost. That meant a lot to me, because for me and for many other
women that was what we were trying to achieve. Women's liberation certainly was
my generation.
Q: Was it validating for you to
be in that success versus the success of the Godfather films?
A: Beyond belief. And it was very
necessary, even though for the Godfather I was rejected from ever
auditioning, and a month later was allowed to audition and did it under the name
Shire. I think I was picked by (Paramount chief Robert) Evans, and I don't think
Francis was very happy about it. He was right. I should have asked him because
of all of the political issues. And now as an older performer and someone who
has directed, I know you can't have a relative on the set when your own job
could be over or at stake.
Q: I've read that one of his
principal objections was that you were too pretty.
A: He did say that. I just wanted
the chance to audition because that's one of the things I don't do well. The
only time I ever auditioned well was Rocky. For the first time in my
auditioning life, and not since then, did an audition have in it a kind of
completeness.
Q: I've read there's some talk of
another Rocky.
A: I have a feeling when I'm 80
years old I'm going to get a phone call: There's going to be another Rocky. We often talked: Could it be about politics? Could he become
a candidate of some sort? That's sort of getting in the ring with people lately.
Q: So would you be Laura Bush or
Teresa Heinz Kerry?
A: I would be Adrian Balboa.
