Movie mogul’s behind-the-scenes stories from 50 years in Hollywood
ing Raging Bull With Lee Marvin on the set of 1967 movie Point Blank
uld become one of the biggest film chises in history. But Winkler still a tiny budget for that first film. e says: “Rocky and Adrian’s first date written to be played at an ice skating . We didn’t have the money for ice es, let alone skaters...We came up h the solution: since the scene was during Thanksgiving, why not have nk empty, and Rocky gives a couple ollars to the janitor to let them skate he empty rink. It was magic.” e got more imaginative when finding as for the fight scene. Winkler writes: filled the rows with people from sted-living facilities. We were able to p the old folks attentive by auctioning TVs every hour and by having ntiful snacks. We had to bus them k by late afternoon for their meds.” STAR-SPOTTER With Robert De Niro on the set of The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight Actors at war
Things got physical between Carl Weathers and Dolph Lundgren – that’s Apollo Creed and Ivan Drago to Rocky fans – while filming 1985’s fourth film. With Leonardo DiCaprio & Scorsese at the 2014 Golden Globes Winkler says: “Dolph threw Carl across the ring. Carl was furious, walked out and said he wasn’t coming back. Dolph apologised and Carl came back but never really forgave his fellow actor.” An eye for detail Martin Scorsese ensures his movies are nothing short of perfect. That was certainly the case for his 1980 classic Raging Bull, which tells the story of boxer Jake LaMotta.
Winkler says: “We had one scene left to mix. It was in the nightclub and the co-author of LaMotta’s book, Peter Savage, playing an anonymous FAN-FREE ZONE Elvis Presley in Double Trouble, in 1967 customer, asks for a drink, a Cutty Sark. After raising the background sounds Marty said he couldn’t hear the words ‘Cutty Sark’. I replied that all of us were stone deaf at this point and would never be able to hear it clearly. We were going to wrap. Marty said, ‘In that case, Raging Bull is no longer a Marty Scorsese picture, and I want my name off ’... That’s Marty’s commitment to his work.” Real Wolf of Wall Street The 2013 The Wolf of Wall Street had enough controversy, without a cameo from a pre-politics Donald Trump.
Winkler says: “While shooting outside Trump Towers on Fifth Avenue, we were greeted by the future president, who hinted that he wouldn’t mind a part but it couldn’t be a walk-on.” IRWIN WINKLER ON NATALIE’S DEMAND
Drunken antics
Actor Lee Marvin wreaked havoc on the set on Point Blank in 1967, driving director John Boorman to distraction.
Winkler explains: “Marvin, who got very drunk when we arrived in San Francisco, disappeared with singer Ella Fitzgerald. Boorman destroyed his own hotel room and we took the fragments of furniture out of the hotel in our suitcases in the middle of the night.
“Finally, a contrite Marvin showed up, no worse for his spree.”
■ A Life in Movies: Stories from 50 years in Hollywood, Irwin Winkler (Abrams Press, £18.99)
She said the bracelet had to be real diamonds