Written by James M. Tate / 3/16/2019 / No comments / british film noir/melodrama , fifties , forties , interview , lawrence tierney , michael madsen , nineties , quentin tarantino , scott brady
MICHAEL MADSEN INTERVIEW & LAWRENCE TIERNEY'S NEPHEW TIM
Michael Madsen as Vic Vega in Reservoir Dogs |
Michael, how was it doing the RESERVOIR DOGS office scene with Lawrence Tierney and Chris Penn?
Lawrence was angry and Chris and I were having fun. Lawrence didn't really like Quentin at that point. We did three wrestling takes. We broke a lot of stuff and kept going out of frame. Lawrence kept yelling at us because he wanted to go home. Finally the third one was the only one usable and that's the one in the movie. If you look at our close ups you can see how sweaty and out of breath we were because they did all three takes really fast. It was a long morning.
Michael Madsen, Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi in Marvin Nash's POV |
It was my idea to drink the soda. Quentin had that pole put in there for me to lean on. Harvey encouraged me to amp it up so I did. Harvey's very good when you throw some real energy at him...
He doesn't like fakey actor bullsh*t. If you don't bring it he has no problem telling you. He was wonderful to work with and later became godfather to my son Max. I first met Harvey on Thelma and Louise but our scene together was cut out of the final film.
David in Michael's POV ala KILL BILL |
He asked me to put him in the trunk of my car so he could see how it felt to be locked up. After he got in I drove around the neighborhood for a little while because I then realized it was a good idea for me also to get into character. I don't think he appreciated it so I had to later remind him it was his idea. He was so good in that scene. Sometimes someone can be so good you don't even see it. He really sold it. He was very brave and that scene bound us together in cinema history.
How about David Carradine (and Quentin once again) in “Kill Bill”?
I had met David before. I made two pictures with David before Kill Bill but we never got to really know each other well until we played brothers for Quentin. He turned out to be one of the most interesting gracious men I ever met. I could not say enough about David so I won't try and obviously working with Quentin again was one of the best moments of my career.
Father Scott Brady born Scott Tierney and son Tim Tierney |
Who began acting, like Scott, in 1940’s Film Noir and whose career, unlike Scott, sporadically hit the skids with drinking bouts, fights, and prison...
In a candid writing style, Tim recollects about his father Scott Brady, known for an eclectic mix of cult classics from HE WALKED BY NIGHT to JOHNNY GUITAR to GREMLINS, and his uncle Lawrence Tierney, famous for DILLINGER, BORN TO KILL and whose career was rejuvenated in Quentin Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS (that of course co-starred the above-interviewee Michael Madsen).
Lawrence Tierney as Joe Cabot in Reservoir Dogs |
It was always fun to see the deference he got from people. I was there when they were trying to get him to agree to do "Armageddon" and he didn't want to do it. It was a one-day job and they were offering him a lot of money, but something put him off about it and he told them no. They had to up his pay substantially beyond their first offer and then get some young production assistant girl to sweet-talk him until he agreed. And after all that, they didn't use his footage.
Did your dad and uncle not get along too well?
Scott and Larry were estranged in later years and
my impression is that they were never very close to begin with. I think
that what caused the falling out from Scott's perspective was an
accumulation of incidents over the years (consider Larry's very public
record of being a difficult person to deal with) combined with both
their parents dying in close succession in the early 60's putting extra
stress on their relationship. Sometime in the mid-60's they had a major
knock-down fight and that was the last time they spoke for years. It
was after this that Larry quit acting and moved back to NYC.
Lawrence Tierney's peace through threats in SILVER BULLET |
I remember the first time I met Larry was in 1983
when I was 13 and he came out for my uncle Ed's funeral. It was the
first time he and my dad had seen each other in about 20 years, and it
was tense.
I was accustomed to other aunts & uncles being glad to see me, but this guy just grunted and growled, so I kept away. The craziest thing he did in his later years was during an off day in the filming of "Reservoir Dogs" when he tried to shoot my cousin (his nephew) Michael and ended up doing some time at a prison camp for it. Tarantino said of it "He was taken from his bail arraignment to the set."
I was accustomed to other aunts & uncles being glad to see me, but this guy just grunted and growled, so I kept away. The craziest thing he did in his later years was during an off day in the filming of "Reservoir Dogs" when he tried to shoot my cousin (his nephew) Michael and ended up doing some time at a prison camp for it. Tarantino said of it "He was taken from his bail arraignment to the set."
Lawrence Tierney on Seinfeld |
And finally, it is important to understand that Larry never truly calmed down later in life, he just slowed down. For example, Larry had some friends who liked to talk about the old days when they would tear the town apart before they all settled down – but the thing was that these guys were middle-aged and talking about their crazy days in the 1980s, when they were in their 20's and hanging out with a guy in his 60's! Larry had probably gone through several crops of such youngsters in his life.
I recall my dad being around the house a lot, since much of an actor's life is spent being in between jobs. Scott was a nut for Notre Dame football and was very active in the ND "subway alumni" community and knew a lot of people involved in the team. In fact, back in the 50's he used to throw a party for the team at his place in the Hollywood Hills each year when they would come out to play USC. Besides that, he also read a lot and loved doing the NY Times crossword puzzles. For him at that point in his life, acting was just his job and he rarely talked about it or about his past as a star. He liked to refer to himself as an "ex-celebrity" and would sometimes rant about all the "Hollywood phonies" he had no further use for.
Scott Brady |
When
Scott did talk about his old days, it was often frank stories about
mistakes he had made in his career or life with an intended lesson for
my brother and me. For instance, he once recounted how he didn't keep
good track of his money and ended up getting fleeced by the IRS over
back taxes. Several times he talked about all the wild parties he threw
at his house, and the crowd of no-goods he attracted who were always
ready to enjoy themselves on his dime.
Scott Brady as Dancin' Kid in Johnny Guitar |
His
most dramatic early-days story was about a time when he was in a bar
and two guys started giving him a hard time about not being so tough in
real life as he was on screen. He finished his drink and left, but
they came out after him. "I could tell that one of them was following
directly behind me, so I took exactly two steps into street and then
turned & swung. I caught him right on the jaw: Bing! A perfect shot!
The guy fell back and hit his head right on the curb, and I turned
white – I thought I had killed him. Now his buddy is telling me they
were only joking and I'm imagining my career is over and I'm going to
jail. It turned out the guy was okay, but I was scared to death."
Before I get into Scott & Larry I want to make mention of their lesser-known younger brother Ed. He acted in some American films in the early 50's (including "The Hoodlum" with Larry in 1951) and then moved to Germany for several years where he became fluent and acted in several German films. He returned to the USA by the early 60's and did some TV work playing German characters in American war-shows, but gave up acting for more steady work as a building contractor (one of the apartments he built was the scene of the notorious Wonderland murders!). Ed became a ranked grand-master in chess, and got his own boys into it as well as my brother and me, as he and Scott generally stayed close and we saw his family a lot.
Scott Brady in a lobby card for DOLLARS aka $ |
Of course by this time he was older and often played bad guys who would lose in the end, but along the way we enjoyed it when he had the good guys on the run. For instance, he guest-starred in an episode of "Welcome Back Kotter" where he played a tough coach who didn't like Travolta's character (Barbarino) and ends up slapping him in a confrontation – I remember my brother and I cheering at the TV when he did that. "Dad slapped Travolta! Yes!"
Lawrence Tierney takes aim in the Film Noir era |
I
had a lot of questions about things now that I was older but Larry
initially wanted nothing to do with me: it was as if he was a window
into the past, but with the curtains closed. Later, as he became more
open he also grew too erratic to have a normal conversation with: the
window had the curtains open but was becoming opaque. Upon his death the
window became bricked-over, replaced by his unspeaking portrait. So, I
got to know him well in certain ways but at the same time don't feel
that I got to know him well at all. He could be very guarded about
himself and also moody about what he wanted to talk about or do on any
given occasion. I never did find out much about my dad or even Larry's
own history other than a handful of random stories.
Lawrence Tierney in Reservoir Dogs, 1991 |
He was chivalrous towards women, and had a strong sense of dignity (he was once hired to recite Bukowski, and declared the material "vulgar" and walked off the job). Several times he admonished my brother and me not to repeat the kind of mistakes he made when he was younger.
In closing, I will leave you with this short poem Larry once told me:
"The finest things a man can do are to LIE, STEAL, SWEAR, and DRINK:
**LIE for the one that you love.
**STEAL away from bad company.
**SWEAR by your country.
**...and when you DRINK, drink with me!"
**LIE for the one that you love.
**STEAL away from bad company.
**SWEAR by your country.
**...and when you DRINK, drink with me!"
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