Moviemaker Magazine Publishes A Lost Interview With John Cassavetes

In celebration of one of film history’s most important independent moviemakers, MovieMaker Magazine has unearthed one of the last interviews ever conducted with the late John Cassavetes. The release of the interview, which can be found in both the Winter issue of MovieMaker and online at MovieMaker.com, coincides with 20th anniversary of the legendary indie iconoclast’s passing.

In 1985, on the brink of the release of his final directorial effort, Big Trouble, an often press-shy Cassavetes (already afflicted with the liver disease that ultimately took his life four years later) talked candidly with award-winning film critic Joe Leydon about life, death and making movies. “I have to say: He was in the mood to talk,” notes Leydon, “And I seriously doubt he held anything back.”

After completing the piece, though, Leydon’s article was met with apathy from editors who found Cassavetes to be “yesterday’s news.” Leydon consigned the manuscript to his archives.

“I really felt that Cassavetes had been very generous in sharing time with me just when he knew that time maybe wasn’t something he had a lot left to share,” says Leydon. “Because of that, I really felt like, in some way, I’d let him down-or didn’t hold up my share of the bargain-by not getting the interview out to a bigger readership. Really: I’m actually very grateful that MovieMaker is giving the piece long-overdue exposure.”

The interview finds Cassavetes at a time in his life when he was at a creative crossroads, struggling with the art of indies and the money to be made in more commercial fare.

“I guess I’m colored by the fact that, when you’re making films, me and all the other people working on it work like it’s the last time, the last film, like there is no other film,” the auteur explains in one of many telling quotes. “It’s the last time, and we might as well live, because we don’t have much of an alternative.”

“You still can see John Cassavetes’ influence everywhere,” marvels Leydon as he looks back on the two decades since the moviemaker’s death, “from the mature efforts of grand masters like Jim Jarmusch to the promising work of up-and-comers like Andrew Bujalski. His influence can only grow and endure. A man can die, but his films forever remain in the present tense.”

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