Blogging City Island, part IV

The fourth part of Raymond De Felitta's series on the making of the movie "City Island" appears in Salon today.

In this latest installment, the money starts coming in, the train is leaving the station, and suddenly the actors are hitting the exits:
Why does this happen? Actors, oftentimes, will commit to a role without any real belief that the damn thing will truly happen. Most of the time, after all, movies don't happen. Except then they do. And what seemed like a promising meeting about good material months ago will, upon second look, perhaps appear in a different light and set said actor to posing some introspective questions. Like: Why aren't I getting a better paying gig? Or, where and when does this shoot, and is it going to screw up my vacation plans? Or: I liked this then, but now it stinks. Often it is simply a case of the dance card getting filled up and priorities shifting.
One major part, the leading lady, was still unfilled two weeks before shooting was to commence. If nothing else, you have to read this to find out the demand that comes after this passage:
Another long pause as she no doubt contemplated her still-open options. Then she nodded and said: "Well ... a lot of the time it's much more fun for me to just jump into something without overthinking it too much. There's one thing that I really would need from you."

At this point I'm thinking: ANYTHING!

Salon: Blogging "City Island": The (leading) lady vanishes

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