Cameron Crowe’s mom cornered Frances McDormand on set. After touring with real life bands like Led Zeppelin and the Eagles, Crowe wrote and directed a coming-of-age tale about a boy journo and his adventures following the fictional group Stillwater. “It was disappointing that it took a while to catch on,” Crowe remembered. I want to get back on the bus! The first attempt at a script was titled Ricky Fedora. “Like, ‘Try saying this, try saying this,’ and it was essential. Crowe met with Pitt around the time of his 1989 directorial debut, Say Anything, and spoke with him again after Jerry McGuire, with Pitt inquiring about Crowe’s next film. His girlfriend, Leslie, tells Russell that she’s “creeping her out,” so the band’s manager, Dick (Noah Taylor), asks her to leave. And he left. It was dubbed “The Version You’ve Never Seen” and grossed $8.1 million, while Almost Famous grossed $2.1 million. Listen on Apple Podcasts “Almost Famous” was almost a very different movie. Almost Famous happened at the perfect time.”. 5. “I tortured all of my friends with, ‘What the fuck are we going to do?’ But I think in the back of my brain, I knew that he had never fully fallen in love with the character.” Casting director Gail Levin suspected that Pitt backed out for financial reasons, while Crowe added that Pitt may have been uncomfortable with the age difference between Russell and Penny Lane. Along with cast members, writer-director Cameron Crowe will discuss the film — a semi-autobiographical account of his career as a teenage writer for Rolling Stone — and reflect on its cultural impact and legacy. When the studio refused to call the film Untitled, Jimmy Fallon, who played the role of manager Dennis Hope, provided a list of over 10 alternate titles. Hey all you Golden Gods, get ready to hop back on the bus for another tour of Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous. Instead, he ranted about a billboard he had seen on the way to his audition, which was an American Express ad with Martin Scorsese. It’s gonna be someone else.’”, 4. Fallon had become close with Jason Lee during the filming, and avoided eye contact with him to keep from laughing. “I talked to Frances first about what the conversation was, and she said, ‘Alice, it’s not gonna be you, and it’s not gonna be me. A rerelease of The Exorcist overshadowed the film on opening weekend. Penny Lane was the love of Fedora’s life, albeit in a smaller role. “That’s weird to be directing your life, with your mom on set, and now you’re directing a character based on your mom,” Crowe said. I did my scene by myself.”, 8. “I did a screen test with Kate as Penny Lane, and it wasn’t the mystical kind of Penny Lane that I’d been working on with Sarah Polley,” Crowe said. That just ended up being a total career-making part.”, 3. He said, ‘Well, write me another one.’ I was trying to do that when he died.”, 6. The cast of Almost Famous will commemorate the film’s 20th anniversary with a five-part podcast, set to premiere on July 8th. “If I could tell a story about discovering music,” Crowe says, “the way music can change your life and your family and not necessarily be all about sex and drugs — all the very easily stereotyped aspects of rock — if you can tell a love story about music in that tone, well, that would be the way to tell that story.”. For Almost Famous, he’s reassembled representatives of the cast and crew, including Crowe himself, Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Jason Lee, Patrick Fugit, Zooey Deschanel, Jimmy Fallon, and Peter Frampton. It took two days to shoot the chaotic airplane scene, where Stillwater is flying over Tupelo, Mississippi, in a storm. “I wept,” Crowe laughed. “It was too Austin Powers.” He decided to make it about an American band from Michigan named Stillwater, and changed the story to the perspective of the journalist. “The idea of a foppish British rock star was suddenly a comical thing,” Crowe said. “Ultimately, the life it’ll have won’t be part of a box-office report.”, In This Article: Actors originally selected for the film include: Meryl Streep … Almost Famous, Almost Famous 20th Anniversary, Billy Crudup, Cameron Crowe, Kate Hudson, Rolling Stone. “One of the crew guys came up to me at one point and said, ‘Don’t you think therapy would have been a little cheaper?’”, Crowe warned his mother not to hassle McDormand on set, but it happened anyway. I was able to tell him that the whole thing began with me wanting to write a part for him that he could play. “‘And I just want you to know I’m still going to make this movie. The film was based in Crowe’s hometown of San Diego, where Alice lived. “Not a day goes by I don’t see his face,” he says. Tony Lewis, Singer of The Outfield's "Your Love", Dies at 62. It features the main cast, including Hudson (Penny Lane), Patrick Fugit (William Miller), Billy Crudup (Russell Hammond), Frances McDormand (Elaine Miller), and more, with Crowe sharing his memories of making the film and its impact and legacy. Fallon, known for breaking character during his stint on SNL, found it impossible to get through the scene without bursting into laughter. Pitt read for the role of Russell with Portman and Fugit. '” Hudson, who had turned down two large roles for Almost Famous, reassured the director that she wasn’t going anywhere, and begged him to audition for Penny Lane. In episode one, Hudson speaks about how landing the role of Penny Lane changed her life, saying “I probably don’t go a week without someone telling me what Penny Lane is to them, what Almost Famous is to them.”. “I turned around 10 minutes later and she’s buttonholing Frances right in front of me, and I was freaking out,” he said. You’re right, that’s exactly what I want!'”. Useful Idiots: Zoomin Toobin, How to Pitch Biden to Voters, and Analyzing Polls With Ben Tulchin, Steve Perry: ‘My Heart Bleeds Daily to Be in Front of People And to Sing for Them’, Tekashi 6ix9ine Transforms Into a ‘Supervillain’ in New Teaser for Showtime, ‘Rolling Stone’ Doc, The Best Home Speakers for Room-Filling Sound, Harry Hudson Discusses Journey With Cancer and How ‘Just Living’ Inspired His New Album, How to Watch UFC 254 Online: Live Stream Khabib vs. Gaethje on ESPN+, Arlo Guthrie Retires From Touring: ‘It’s Time to Hang Up the Gone Fishing Sign’, Record Store Day 2020: 10 Great Exclusive Releases From the October Drop, Watch Adrianne Lenker Play ‘Zombie Girl’ in a Cabin. “That’s just in the moment,” Crowe said. Kate Hudson was originally cast as William’s sister, Anita. “Here was somebody that just walks in the room and you’re like, ‘I love her!’ She was that character.” Deschanel was given the role of Anita. “The only sad part of that is I had no part for David Bowie,” he said. A portion of the proceeds will benefit MusiCares’ COVID-19 Artist Relief fund supporting independent musicians. Origins: Almost Famous Turns Twenty will be released in five parts. From 'Borat' to 'Black Box' Here's How to Stream These New Movies Online, Steve Perry: ‘My Heart Bleeds Daily to Be in Front of People And to Sing for Them’, Tekashi 6ix9ine Transforms Into a ‘Supervillain’ in New Teaser for Showtime, ‘Rolling Stone’ Doc, The Best Home Speakers for Room-Filling Sound, Harry Hudson Discusses Journey With Cancer and How ‘Just Living’ Inspired His New Album, How to Watch UFC 254 Online: Live Stream Khabib vs. Gaethje on ESPN+, Arlo Guthrie Retires From Touring: ‘It’s Time to Hang Up the Gone Fishing Sign’, Record Store Day 2020: 10 Great Exclusive Releases From the October Drop, Watch Adrianne Lenker Play ‘Zombie Girl’ in a Cabin. Hosted by James Andrew Miller, all five binge-worthy episodes of Cadence13’s Origins: Almost Famous Turns Twenty provide insight and incredible details about Cameron Crowe’s beloved semi-autobiographical film (available to watch here).