BOMB 123/Spring 2013
Amos Poe is a screenwriter. He lives and works in N.Y.C.
Tony Spiridakis is a screenwriter, a playwright, and an actor. His first film will be out this spring. It’s called Queen’s Logic. Besides having written it, he also acts in it, along with co-stars John Malkovich, Kevin Bacon, Chloe Webb, Joe Mantegna, Linda Fiorentino, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Waits, and Ken Olin. So far so good. His play, Self Storage, just ran in Los Angeles and he is currently writing a screenplay for Paramount Pictures called Iggy and the Worm. He writes beautiful dialogue, so I’ve cut several sound bytes from his work into the interview. Or as John Huston once said, “First you find the character and then an actor finds the voice.”
Amos Poe When we met, you were just coming back from England, right?
Tony Spiridakis Mm-hmm.
AP And you were acting in Full Metal Jacket?
TS Right.
AP So tell me about your experience with—what’s his name? The bearded guy from the Bronx? Kubrick. First, how did you get the part in Full Metal Jacket?
TS I was there doing Death Wish III, and some guys on the crew told me about these screen tests that they were having to find two parts that were not cast: Lt. Lockhart and Captain January. So I found out where the auditions were and I went and I crashed. I said, “I’m here doing a film, and I heard about this.” And they said, “Wait.” It was at the end of the night; about 11:30. I went in and did a monologue, and they put it on tape. Kubrick doesn’t meet people, so he has them put on tape. The next day Kubrick called my hotel. He said, “I’m sending over two sets of sides for these two parts. You could do either one, or both—whatever you want. We really liked your tape, and I want you to come back and put on tape, again, both these things.” So I did that. They called me back after and said, “Which one do you want to do?” By this time I had become friends with Kubrick’s assistant, I said to him, “Which one do you think I should do?” He said, “Do Capt. January, because it’s a five-page monologue, and it’s a wonderful part and it’ll never get cut.” So I picked Capt. January, and, of course, I got completely cut out of the movie.
AP Why?
TS Because it was the middle third of the film. What wound up happening was, he went from Parris Island right to combat, so the whole middle third was cut.
AP How did that affect you?
TS Oh, man, it devastated me. It was like… it was awful. What was even more awful was that American Film magazine called me, and said, “You know, you have like the second-largest speaking role in the entire film, and we want to do an interview on you.” Stanley had called me two weeks earlier and said there’s a 50-50 chance you won’t be in the film, which I thought was a wonderful to do. So when they called me, I said, “Listen—you can interview me, but I don’t think I’m gonna be in the film.” And they said, “We’ll go ahead and interview you.” Well, that came out June 1st, and the movie came out June 15th. And for the first half of the month, was getting all these calls saying, We can’t wait to see you in Full Metal Jacket. And the movie came out June 15th, and I got a whole new series of calls saying, Where were you?
To Al and Arnold. The only two to climb the line on the Hellgate Bridge.
They all join in—”Arrr-nolldd . . .”
[From Queen’s Logic. Used by permission of the author.]
AP So then what?
TS I was desperately unhappy. I read for John Patrick Shanley’s Five Corners, the part of Sal Annunzio, the guy who sells his fiancee for five bucks, and then I lost that. I remember thinking, that’s it, I gotta write my own Five Corners, I was completely fed up with a life of being dictated to.
AP Understandable. So you got some number two pencils and got to work.
TS Yeah, I tried writing a play about Picasso, but I was just treading water with two tons on my ankles and I got a job as a computer mover at NBC news. I was down and then my best friend in California, left me this incredible stream-of-consciousness message about being from Queens and having to explain his jokes twice in California and feeling like, you know, what it’s all coming to, at 30-years-old and we don’t have shit. And when I heard that message, I sat down and just said, I’m gonna write that, a movie about that.
Without Al noticing, she takes the .38 from its holster
She jumps out in front of Al, aiming the .38 at his head.
Al scampers behind a gravestone.
ANOTHER ANGLE
Grace comes around the gravestone, the gun is still trained on Al.
She fires. He runs across to another gravestone. And again—BANG. He scurries across the cemetery like a duck in a shooting gallery. Several shots ring out.
ANOTHER ANGLE
Grace sneaks up behind him and puts the gun to his side. He freezes.
Al shakes his head desperately.
Al closes his eyes tightly, ready to die.
Al peeks up at her. Opens both eyes.
[From Queen’s Logic. Used by permission of the author.]
TS After I wrote the first draft, I did a reading in Circle in the Square. I put together a bunch of New York actors—I wanted to do it as a low-budget film, try to get a limited partnership, and oversee the project to keep control of it. So I did a reading and realized I needed more rewrites. Then I had about two or three possibilities that fell through for one reason or another, until a friend of mine, Jim Thompson, started lending me money and supporting the project. He wanted to be a producer himself. He said, “Look, just come to L.A., and we’ll try to get it done in Hollywood.” So I moved out there, thanks to him, and stayed on his couch and kept rewriting. Eventually, I think we ran out of money. He couldn’t stay on, and I wound up getting my own apartment and getting a job as a waiter.
AP Really?
TS Yeah. You know, it kinda died down, and I just kept rewriting it. Then another producer became interested, and I did another rewrite. And then we did a reading, and I realized that I didn’t like the way he was taking it. So I said, Okay, let’s just stop, and I’ve gotta go back to the drawing board. And then another friend of mine, Dane Lutsky—she’s a wonderful art director—helped me tremendously. And I did another major rewrite. I kept rewriting.
AP Were you still going out on auditions?
TS Yeah, but that died down. I mean, I didn’t have the energy. I basically waited tables.
AP When did the break happen, when you got to meet the people who actually produced it?
TS It was the fall of 1988: I had been attached to a director…
AP Who’s that?
TS David Burton Morris. It was a fucked-up thing, because we were good friends, and he really helped me a lot. And we had no luck for about, I don’t know, six months or something.
AP David was the co-writer initially?
TS No.
AP Who was the co-writer?
TS Joe Savino. He dropped out because it had changed so much. We hadn’t talked to each other—when I moved out to Los Angeles, I just kept writing, you know. And finally, when I saw that the thing was gonna’ start to become—it was becoming a film—I sent him a copy of the script and said, “You can stay co-author, or you can take ‘Story By’ credit and split that with me, and I’ll take the ‘Screenplay By’ credit.” In the final versions—he hadn’t done any of the writing, and he realized that it had changed way more than he wanted it to, and so he decided to just take story credit. When he saw that the movie got made, he turned around and…
AP He got pissed off.
TS He got pissed off, you know.
AP Has that been resolved, legally?
TS Legally, it’s resolved. I’m sure emotionally, unfortunately, it’s not resolved. I feel bad about that, but he made the choice to take money upfront. In other words, it’s either what’s in the envelope or what’s behind door number one. He went with the envelope, and two months later the movie got made.
AP Really?
TS Yeah. So, sorry.
(Beat)
[From Queen’s Logic. Used by permission of the author.]
TS It all happened at once. It went from nobody wanted it, and then all of a sudden these five people wanted it. And it was very frustrating, because a lot of them were good people. And it was the first time that I had to deal with people wanting it. And, of course, my attitude was I’d love to do it with all of you. And, of course, that got me into trouble, because I think they all thought they were being…
AP Manipulated.
TS Yeah.
AP Who directed it?
TS Steve Rash.
AP And so then you started production like when?
TS That’s when this thing with David Burton Morris happened, where they didn’t want David. And I had stayed with David up until then.
AP Was that rough?
TS Yeah, it was really rough. That was like, Welcome to the big time. Bend over.
AP The grown-ups.
TS Yeah. And I lost quite a few friends in the process of making a movie about friendships.
AP It’s ironic.
TS The wicked irony, you know? It’s like, fuck.
AP Have you seen the film?
TS Yes. Twice.
AP What do you think?
TS I think it’s 0.K. (laughter).
AP That’s pretty good.
TS You know? I’m trying to dismiss my judgment, I pray to God they find the rhythm of Queens.
AP Who’s doing the music?
TS I don’t know.
AP Who’s distributing it?
TS I don’t know.
AP Alright.
TS This is my movie—I don’t know.
AP When’s it coming out?
TS I don’t know.
EXT. ASTORIA PARK—LATER THAT DAY
Monte stands by his Monte Carlo, in a crushed velvet tux, holding a bouquet of flowers. He looks at his watch and looks around for signs of the wedding. The park is empty.
“I’ll Take Manhattan” continues and OVER we hear Vinny and Dennis still talking.
ANOTHER ANGLE IN THE PARK
Carmine, also dressed in a crushed velvet tux, waves to Monte as he makes his way into the park.
A long moment of silence.
AP Then what happened?
TS During the summer I had two ideas I started developing in my head. And I had written the first three pages of something that started in a flashback and went into real time about two guys. It developed into Iggy and the Worm. And then what happened was, when I got back, everybody wanted to meet me and say, “Well, what do you want to do next?” And I said, “Iggy and the Worm.”
AP So you play the worm? Or Iggy?
TS No, I play the saintly D.A.
AP The D.A.?
TS The D.A. His sister is kidnapped by a Mafioso gone bad, a psychotic Mafioso.
AP That sounds good. How many brothers do you have?
TS Two older brothers, John and Harry.
AP And you have a sister?
TS Nope.
AP ‘Cause you write a lot of male stuff.
TS No.
AP No?
TS Uh-uh. No, I think that the women’s stuff in Queen’s Logic is some of the better stuff.
AP Yeah?
TS Yeah, I do. I like it a lot. I mean, looking at Iggy, I would say you’re right. I would say you’re right. But…
AP I’m not saying that it’s purely that. But some of what you write seems to be more realistic, maybe because you grew up with two older brothers. You got to watch them interact.
TS Maybe. My brothers were nothing like the guys that I write about. The guys that I write about are more from my friendships with the Italians in Queens than my family.
AP You grew up in an Italian neighborhood?
TS It’s mostly Greek now, but it used to be 50-50, Italian and Greek—Astoria.
AP Were your parents first-generation?
TS My Dad was born here, but before he was a year old he was back in Greece. And he didn’t come to America until he was like 17 or 18. So, yeah, and my Mom was born in Astoria. I’m really second-generation, technically, but I feel like first-generation, ‘cause my Dad was very… very Greek.
AP Does he still speak it?
TS Yeah, he speaks it. He speaks both, but he’s got a very thick accent.
AP Did your parents speak Greek together?
TS Yeah.
AP At home?
TS Yeah.
AP So you speak it.
TS Yeah.
AP So what about the play? When did you start on the play?
TS Right about…
AP What’s it called again?
TS Self Storage. I co-wrote that with Shem Bitterman. I had auditioned for Shem for another play of his and worked with him. We went for a drink one night and he said, “You know, I’m also an actor turned writer.” And I said, “Great.” He said, “You know, I read Queen’s Logic and I really liked it, and I love the fact that you wrote a part for yourself. As an actor, you tried to get yourself back on track. How would you like to do that with me?” And I said, “Fine.” So we basically wrote two parts for ourselves. That’s how it started. We felt that we both loved this book by Knut Hamsun called Hunger, and that…
AP By who?
TS Knut Hamsun?
AP Knut Hamsun?
TS Hamsun. He’s a wonderful writer. He was like the father of the short sentence.
AP I didn’t know the short sentence had a father.
TS He was like a Nazi sympathizer.
AP No wonder we haven’t heard of Knut.
TS (laughter) Not the kind of guy you want to have over to dinner.
AP Right. So what is Self Storage?
TS It became—it’s a black comedy about two guys who come to Hollywood with $10,000 and in two weeks become homeless people and have to live in a self-storage bin. And they meet another homeless person on the street who turns out to be a serial killer, the Westwood Strangler. And instead of turning him in, they kinda option his life story and get a deal on it by keeping him hidden in the self-storage bin.
AP No kiddin’?
Arnie spills in, dressed as Santa, carrying a sack of office supplies and a bottle of champagne.
He grabs his chest. Tiger and Max sit him down.
(He pulls out a bottle of champagne)
[From Self Storage, written by Tony Spiridakis and Shem Bitterman.]
(Interview)