Caviezel fondly recalls Jimmy Stewart
The day actor Jim Caviezel got his first big break, a role in the 1998 movie “The Thin Red Line,” he dropped a note off at the home of Oscar-winning actor Jimmy Stewart.
“It was my last contact with him, as he passed away on our first day of filming. Sean Penn was in the movie with me, and we were both really touched and talked about the truly great life he had lived.”
Mr. Caviezel, best known for the blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ” but also a CBS draw with the series “Person of Interest,” will receive the Harvey Award from the Jimmy Stewart Museum on Aug. 29. Tickets, $150, are on sale for the event at the Chestnut Ridge Resort in Blairsville. A cocktail reception will open the event at 6 p.m., with the dinner and award ceremony to follow.
The 46-year-old first met Indiana, Pa., native Stewart after being hired as a waiter for a catered party Jerry Weintraub was hosting for President George H.W. Bush. He and others had been warned “that we were not, under any circumstances, to socialize with the guests. Everyone from Warren Beatty to John Travolta and James Caan was at the party, and I was trying my best not to be gawking at anyone.”
Then, he looked across the room and saw Jimmy Stewart, star of his favorite movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and his wife, Gloria.
“Moreover, I was a big fan of Jimmy’s because I knew that at the peak of his career, he had been drafted but was rejected for service because he was underweight. He was determined to serve his country so he worked to put on the extra weight and got his commission after Pearl Harbor.”
He recalls thinking, “I am OK with losing this job if I get to meet Jimmy,” and so he did. “I promptly got the evil eye from my employer, and when Jimmy caught it, he waved to the guy that I was OK, and we had our first meeting. He also had me bring him a Scotch and soda.”
Mr. Caviezel, familiar with the Stewarts’ home from Star Tours, began to send or drop off a card from time to time, with a bottle of Scotch included on one occasion. “I was invited in on one of those visits and reminded him of our meeting at the Weintraubs, which he pretended to remember. He was very generous to share stories from his flying years and from his work in the theater and film business.”
Two tidbits always stuck with him, starting with Mr. Stewart’s assertion that his father didn’t accept the idea of him being an actor. That was one of the reasons why he kept his hardware store in Indiana, Pa. as a fallback for his son. The other evergreen advice: “Never treat your audience as customers, always as partners.”
To buy tickets, go to the museum’s site at www.jimmy.org or call the museum at 724-349-6112. Full table and corporate discounts are also available. Last year’s event honored Carol Burnett with the Harvey Award.
‘Meltdown’ mania
A release party for the locally made movie “Meltdown” will be Sunday at the Spirit Lodge, 242 51st St. in Lawrenceville.
Jake Mulliken wrote, directed and acted alongside more than 60 others in what he calls a zombie sci-fi comedy that is a mix of “Clerks,” “Shaun of the Dead” and “Road Warrior.” When a zombie outbreak plagues Pittsburgh, people flee to Somerset in the lowbudget project done in the style of a 1980s horror film.
The event will start at 7 p.m. and the movie will screen at 10 p.m. on the first floor of the Spirit Lodge, and immediately after, the band Barbara Perfect (with members Jeff Engbarth, Adam Crayne and Erica Lennert) will perform at the after-party.
Admission of $5 will include a drink voucher, film and after-party, and there will be vendors available from 7 to 10 p.m. offering food, wine, more music, and zombie and horror goodies.
“The Meltdown” begins before the outbreak and jumps two years after the four leads escape to show how characters as well as creatures called the “Howlers” have evolved. Set to be a trilogy, the project began as a $1,200 short that evolved into this first feature shot in June 2014.
Mr. Mulliken reports the film was picked up by Gravitas Ventures, which plans a video-on-demand release this fall on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu and major cable providers. A DVD will be available in early 2016.
Play it again
“Crow’s Egg,” winner of the RAGS People’s Choice Award for the just concluded Silk Screen Film Festival, will return for another showing at 2:30 p.m. Aug. 8 at the Regent Square Theater. Light snacks and drinks will be provided. Tickets are $12 and will be available at the theater box office. The movie, in Tamil with English subtitles, is the story of two impoverished boys just outside the slums of Chennai who long to try a bite of pizza at a new shop. The National Film Awards in India honored the movie for best children’s film and best child artist.