Franco doubles up for ‘The Deuce’
NEW YORK You don’t have to look far to find a New Yorker who beefs about what 42nd Street has become.
That stretch between Eighth Avenue and Broadway just off Times Square: It’s now a frothy family friendly cauldron of theatres, eateries and other tourist draws that many natives denounce as “Disneyfied.”
By any description, it’s a stunning transformation from the urban slag of peep shows, gin mills and massage parlours known as “the Deuce” back in 1971 — the time and place in which a magnificent new HBO drama series, “The Deuce,” is immersed. (Its eight-episode season premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastern.)
For devotees of “The Wire” and “Treme,” nothing more need be said about “The Deuce” than it was cocreated by David Simon and George Pelecanos, who can lay claim to those extraordinary dramas.
Pelecanos’ shorthand for his new series: “The rise and fall of Times Square.”
More specifically, this first season tracks the rise of the flesh trade from what was then called “smut” and what jokester Johnny Carson dubbed “strolling hostesses” to today’s billion-dollar industry whose wares are just a cellphone call away. From its first scenes, “The Deuce” gets under your skin.
As on “The Wire” (set in Baltimore) and “Treme” (New Orleans), this new series populates its chosen world with a rich spectrum of characters that range from pimps and prostitutes and drug dealers to mobsters and dirty cops and even a New York University dropout-turned-barmaid.
But among the series’ splendid ensemble, the greater among equals are Maggie Gyllenhaal as a defiantly entrepreneurial hooker who sees adult films as her ticket to success and James Franco, who tackles twin roles as identical twins: Vincent, an oddly high-minded bar owner who fronts for the mob, and Frankie, a rascally, trouble-courting cad.
The denizens of the Deuce trace intertwined narratives that unspool in matter-of-fact yet lyrical fashion, all set against an exactingly re-created Big Apple of nearly a half-century ago.
Perhaps no one is more knocked out by this production-design wizardry than Franco.
On top of that were his dual roles, which include scenes where, with cinematic fluency, he interacts with himself in the same frame. It’s no small trick.
“I go in usually as Vincent first,” explains Franco in a soft, confiding tone as he leans in to his interviewer, “just because of the way the makeup and the hair worked, even though I would have rather done Frankie first, since he’s the more extroverted one. And then I’d do Frankie. And each time, the actor playing opposite me” — a placeholder in the two-shot — “would remember what I did with the other brother from when we rehearsed, so he could do it himself.”
Vincent and Frankie are based on real-life twins, with the bar that “Vincent” actually ran in the early ’70s a well-known hangout for all types of people.
Future seasons of “The Deuce” will follow the porn boom, the sexual revolution and, all too soon, the scourge of AIDS. By the mid-'80s, the ease and economy of video production would spell the end of back-room porn films. Then the porn industry moved out West. By the 1990s, on the eve of Time Square’s cloying renaissance, 42nd Street had been left to rot.
With that much story left to tell, Franco is itching to get a green light for Season 2.
In fact, Vallee and his Montreal team are already working on another HBO series, “Sharp Objects.”
“I don’t know how Jean-Marc keeps it up,” said Montreal-based Fernandes, who’s been working with Vallee since 2008.
“They'll do like 120 days straight, and brutal days, I mean like 7 a.m. calls till 10 at night. So they’re real troopers out there.”
“Big Little Lies” has Vallee’s signature stamp with a soulful soundtrack and powerful visuals as it depicts a murder mystery in a tony California community. The cast includes Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern and Zoe Kravitz.
Vallee was initially only supposed to direct the first few episodes, but “after a week or two (HBO) realized his way of shooting is so special that he had to do the whole thing,” said Belanger, who has known Vallee since 1991.
Vallee prefers to do his editing at home in Montreal and likes to have a French-speaking crew on his projects so he can express himself in his default language, said Fernandes.
But his loyalty to his Montreal team runs deeper than logistics and familiarity.
Gignac said when Vallee got a bonus after the success of “Dallas Buyers Club,” he lavished his Montreal team with gifts, cheques and a big feast at his home.