I’d come from the theater and was used to having three weeks of rehearsal, but this was all pulled together very fast. For example, John Hughes gave me this new phone call that he had written for me to memorize and shoot the next day. I’m not a quick study, so I put these cheat sheets on set so I could peek at them during the call, which, of course, they ended up cutting.
I had a scene in the kitchen with my mom where I cried. There was one phone call in the bedroom with me being worried. That phone call, I think it was a bit contentious, if I recall. Those scenes were done with someone else reading the lines. I only worked with Steve for two, maybe three days at the most — just when he arrived home and then for the Thanksgiving dinner, which, again, was mostly cut.
‘A lot of people have talked to me about that final scene — even Kevin Kline’
That final scene was played like, “Thank God, it wasn’t a woman keeping him away. It’s this wonderful man.” A lot of people read into that scene, and a lot of people have talked to me about it. Kevin Kline even talked to me about it. He told me, “I love that scene where you come down the stairs. It’s so beautiful.”
There’s something that really resonates with people about that scene, I get a lot of compliments about it. If there is something enigmatic about my expression, maybe people read into it and project their own feelings onto it.
‘I didn’t know about the cuts until the premiere’
It was hard when I realized so much of my role and storyline had been cut because I thought that I must have been terrible, or that they didn’t like what I did. And I didn’t know about the cuts until the premiere — no one ever tells you these things. But someone reassured me that the film just ran way too long. And, of course, who are you going to cut? Obviously the story is about the two guys.
Either way, I’m very proud to have been a part of Planes, Trains & Automobiles, and I’m happy that it still resonates. After all, it’s a sweet film with a beautiful message: You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, and everyone has a story, which you often don’t have any idea about; so you have to have empathy for everyone who crosses your path.