Just two guys
Talking with director James Toback
Yeah, yeah, filmmaker James Toback, whose Two Girls and a Guy opens this
week, is a pathetic little putz among cosmic studs, huffing to keep it up with
his emperors-of-sex LA pals Warren Beatty and ex-footballer Jim Brown. And one
earlier time that I met him he, true to his dim reputation, spent a Cambridge
lunch hustling his collegiate waitress at the Casablanca. So maybe the reason
he hadn't made a feature in eight years is that he's a woeful filmmaker? It
takes chutzpah to shape a case for Toback's truly coconuts-and-beyond kitsch
duo Love and Money (1980) and Exposed (1983), or their opposite,
the disappointingly tame The Pick-Up Artist (1987).
But with Toback, there's a tremendous upside. He's written fine screenplays,
for The Gambler (1974) and for Bugsy (1991), the latter script
getting an Oscar nomination; and he directed an evocative, philosophical
documentary, The Big Bang (1990). As for his sexually unnerving, Harvey
Keitel-starring Fingers (1977), Toback gets credit in my book for
jump-starting both The Bad Lieutenant and Reservoir Dogs.
Tarantino is on record as a major Toback fan; he reveres the much-trashed
Exposed.
Besides, interviewing Toback, which I did at last fall's Toronto International
Film Festival, is enormous fun. He's so smart, so quick, so hilariously
outrageous! And anti-PC wild! You're not going to believe the things he says
about Two Girls and a Guy. You won't be reading this steamy stuff in the
Boston Globe!
Should we start with the movie's rim job, or the masturbatory foreplay into
the rim job? The participants are Robert Downey Jr., as a self-loving mama's
boy, and Boogie Nights' Heather Graham as one of his two overlapping
girlfriends. His other squeeze, played by Natasha Gregson Wagner, stands
nearby, outside a door, and feels their vibes. Inside,
they . . .
This is how, on the record, Toback described it: "It's the most audacious,
original sex scene. Heather's intention is to jerk him off and leave. He
restrains her, gets her off. He's a very oral character, so he licks her ass,
gets her very excited, turns her around, licks her pussy very well, makes her
cum. He's on his knees, spent. She says 'You think this changes anything?' and
leaves."
Is there a point, I queried.
"Psychology is revealed through sex," Toback answered. "These are three
sexually driven, romantically obsessed beings, and when's the last time anyone
has made a movie which shows character through sexual behavior? I'm working in
a territory nobody is working in."
Well, there was, 25 years ago, The Last Tango in Paris.
"I saw Last Tango again a couple of months ago, and it was interesting
how you don't have a movie except for the sex scenes. There are some nice
moments with Brando, as a quasi-homosexual without the courage of his
convictions, but the film's flat."
And Two Girls and a Guy?
"I think the rest of my movie holds up on its own. First, there's a verbally
charged, crisp, comic explanation of sexual duplicity. Second, there are the
sex scenes. Third, there's the aftermath, about Robert's mother. It's a hard
movie to describe. I generally label it an unromantic comedy."
Back to the big, dirty sex episode, which according to the New York
Times caused 14 trips to the stubborn MPAA before the board conceded an "R"
rating.
"Robert and I came up with the licking ass together. What gave me the idea of
his using his mouth was that I flashed back to Robert in The Pick-Up
Artist. As he was practicing for a scene in make-up, I heard his wild,
undulating laughter. He said, `I just realized I have this huge mouth. It's
really large!' So I had this picture of Robert's mouth, a present, which
led me to take him, in Two Girls and a Guy, in an oral direction.
"I brought the idea of the scene to Heather, and she said, `What?' I
thought I was losing it as a director. But then she took to it rather quickly
and said yes. She's the daughter of a retired FBI agent and has a ferocious
independent energy and fury. I doubt there's any other young actor and actress
who could do the scene with the confidence and lack of inhibition of these
people."
Why didn't Natasha Gregson Wagner just join in? Come on, James! A threesome!
"That was Natasha's decision. I told her she could do what she wants. She very
clearly wanted to stay outside. And I like my cuts to her as much as to what's
inside! Natasha's character could be a closet lesbian. My Harvard girlfriend
had a marriage and kids, now she's officially gay, a law professor in Florida.
It's a journey, and Natasha's character might be early in that realm."
Meanwhile, in there with Heather and Robert . . .
"I closed the door, and it went on for 45 minutes while we adjusted lenses and
angles. Let's just say that they did not need any encouragement. The editing
was a great deal of fun."
A final question: was Heather Graham's orgasm in this scene a Harry Meets
Sally one? Or was it real?
"I wouldn't be surprised," said Toback. "If not, it's the best job of faking
ever on screen."