Dear John.....
The director, all 6’4” of him, stood in the middle of his outdoor wedding set, “Ok, everyone, let’s get back to work.” No one moved. We were 2 miles north of Juneau, Alaska on a grassy lawn overlooking Gastineau Channel when a giant pod of whales decided to breach and breach and breach some more. We were slack jawed, rooted in place. On the trip up to the set we’d passed a stand of trees with 27 fully matured bald eagles having a hang. Most of us came from places where people out numbered nature. Not here.
48 hours before I was sitting in Newark Airport with most of the clothes I owned and all of the equipment I owned, waiting for a flight to Seattle, then Juneau to work on a John Sayles film. I was nervous….he was the crown-prince of indie film biz creativity, productivity, independence and most of all integrity. I was hoping I didn’t make a fool of myself. But I was in luck. Between John and Rascal Hexler….oops that was his nickname, I meant Haskell Wexler, everyone counted, everyone was welcome. We were all in this together. John, on occasion, would make me the eyeline for the actors, and Haskel would ask the actors to hold for a second so I could get some great shots. Between sailing off to glacier and seal filled coves, to watching a salmon run so thick it looked like rush hour in Grand Central Station, to taking our crew shot in the oldest bar in Alaska, it was a job like no other. One night David Strathairn cleared out of his house rental on Douglas Island and let all the women on the crew jump into his hot tub. We turned off the lights and watched for the aurora borealis.
After the film was done John and his partner Maggie Renzi had a dinner at Cafe Luxembourg for the crew folks in New York. There were about nine of us at a big round table in the middle of the restaurant. About half way through the meal, Aidan Quinn and Steve Buscemi stopped by to say hello. Months later when I saw Steve on another job he said, “Yeah, we were looking over at that table wondering why John Sayles had eight women with him and we had none.”
