Hollywood Tales

“Once Jonathan came on board [The Silence of the Lambs] and it was greenlighted and a start date was set, then everything began happening at once. While I was rewriting, we were also talking about everything else in the world, including casting. Jonathan is generous with all his collaborators. He treats writers as a resource, as if they might know something about this material they’ve been living with for a year.

The very first meeting we had he said, ‘Who do you see playing [FBI agent] Clarice?’ I said, ‘Jodie Foster.’ He said, ‘Yeah, she’s a good actress. What about Michelle Pfeiffer?’ I said, ‘Well, she’s really good, too.’ What I was thinking, of course, is that good as she is, she’s all wrong for the part — too pretty, in fact distractingly beautiful, and kind of fragile-looking — but you can’t say that at your first meeting. Jonathan had just done Married to the Mob with her. He always wants to use again the people he just worked with, because he creates such a family feeling. He actually was in negotiations with Michelle Pfeiffer when she dropped out. The upshot is that every time there was a hiccup in the road to getting this movie done — with [Gene] Hackman, with Pfeiffer, whatever — it always led to something better. It’s like that with the rare, charmed moments in your life: Even the accidents are good ones and turn out for the best.”

 — Ted Tally from “Screenwriters on Screenwriting”