- Title: USA: ROBERT DE NIRO RELEASES HIS LATEST FILM "FLAWLESS"
- Date: 27th November 1999
- Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 13, 1999) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) ROBERT DENIRO SAYING We went to the Rusk Institute and that specializes in rehabilitation of people with strokes and stuff, and learned about it cause I didn't know that much about it, you know, from the beginningand it's, you know, I put weights on my, after what I learned from the.... JOEL SCHUMACHER SAYING He designed a shoe with a lead sole so his foot would be inflexible, prosthetics for his mouth. ROBERT DENIRO SAYING Cause that, you know, when you have a stroke say, a limb is not working or, you know, it becomes dead weight, not only dead weight, you don't feel it and it's starts pulling out the sockets, you know, and the feeling of the dead weight is one thing, not being able to feel it is something I could only imagine. (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) PHILLIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN SAYING OF GETTING HIS VOICE RIGHT, That was all practice, practice, practice baby, oh yeah, my God! That was, I mean, my throat hurt, yeah! But I knew, I knew, knew, knew, knew, knew, knew that it was right. I knew it was right to do that. I knew it was right to have my voice that way, because of these videotapes I watched. These guys were so, I mean, amazing how feminine they sounded. You know, and they weren't born that way, you know, they weren't 12 years old sounding like that. Because the way they moved, I mean, everything, it was just like they were just genius. So, I was like, yeah, but for these guys it's part of their life, you know, that's what I had to realize, the frustration of trying to sound correct was part of it, too."
- Embargoed: 12th December 1999 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES AND FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA4C9E8IKXY32TKW2QZ3DLYSCA2
- Story Text: After a long career playing de-ranged taxi cab drivers, psychotic stalkers and violent gangsters, Robert DeNiro takes on what is perhaps one of his most unusual projects in the new film "Flawless," playing a stroke victim who takes singing lessons from a flamboyant drag queen.
As one half of what could arguable be called the odd couple of the year, DeNiro plays a retired security guard and decorated New York City hero cop named Walt Koontz, who suffers a stroke which leaves him with partial paralysis.
Refusing to leave his dingy Lower East Side apartment building for therapy, Walt very reluctantly agrees to a rehabilitative program that includes singing lessons with a street-tough drag queen named Rusty who lives down the hall.
The other half of the equation is played by up and coming actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who previously impressed critics and audiences alike in such off-beat and independent films as "Boogie Nights" and "Happiness" and some big studio blockbusters like "Patch Adams" and "Twister."
Both actors conducted a lot of research and preparation for their roles.DeNiro visited the Rusk Institute in New York City, which specializes in the rehabilitation of stroke victims.He spent many weeks observing and speaking with stroke patients, their doctors and therapists and then he designed a lead shoe and weights for his arms which helped him accurately portray someone physically limited by partial paralysis.
Hoffman's homework included watching hours of videotapes of real-life drag performers and perfecting the body movements and distinctive vocal style that would becomes Rusty's.This was all followed by extensive costuming sessions, where he was fitted for Rusty's outrageous and flamboyant wardrobe.
"Flawless" was written and directed by Joel Schumacher, who previously helmed such films as "Batman and Robin,"
"Batman Forever," "The Client," "A Time to Kill" and the recent Nicolas Cage thriller "Eight Millimeter." This is the first time he has directed a film from a screenplay he has also written.
He says he came up with the idea for the film watching a friend of his recover from a stroke in this exact fashion: by taking sining lessons in order to improve his slurred speech.
Of course, in the real-life case, the stroke victim's teacher was a kindly older woman, not a foul-talking drag queen.
"Flawless" opens in theaters throughout the United States on Wednesday, November 24. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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