Breakaway movie 19799/12/2023 ![]() He’s trying to be Italian because he wants a family. And I said: “I’m half Italian, and I don’t want to be in ‘Saturday Night Live.’” I told them the reason Dave wants to be Italian is because he wants a family. So anyway, then the Peter and the writer Steve came back to my hotel room to talk to me. And then Fellini hired me to be in the movie. Pigs, chickens, a parade down the street of weird people, had to all go back to one spot because of me. I actually shut the picture down for awhile. I stumbled onto the filming on the street and walked right into the middle of the shot. See, I’m half-Italian and I lived in Italy for a little while and even appeared in a Fellini movie - You stumbled on that by accident, right? ![]() I said: “I can’t do this part, I don’t know who this guy is, he seems like a cartoon to me, why would those other guys be my friend? The only thing missing is a trick-or-treat bag missing from my arm.” You have to do this.” I got out of the car and ran to the director, Peter Yates, who is British, and he embraced me and I burst into tears. And she said, “Are you kidding? This is a giant movie. I had spent a sleepless night and called my agent asking to be out of the movie. I got up the next morning and went to the set. I couldn’t understand why they hired me and what they wanted out of me when they changed me so radically. I couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror. Then they sent me out to shoot, and I’d never tried out the accent before in front of anybody because I missed the rehearsal, and I felt really uncomfortable. And they made my hair dark brown, and put it up in a pompadour. And when I got they dressed me up in skin-tight black pants, and a polyester shirt unbuttoned to my chest. I left another film I was working on to play this part. I’d play these eclectic weirdo guy roles, as I was trying to figure out how to be a hippie and an actor at the same time. I had a bit of a career before this as a supporting guy, I was actually in a Fellini film. Well, it’s the best! (laughter) How old were you when you played Dave? There’s so much I want to ask you, but I thought we could start by you telling me why you think Dave wants so badly to be Italian? (laughter) It’s such a beautiful, beautiful, human film, and you were spectacular in it. I don’t think anyone ever stood up before, except maybe to leave early. Have you watched this movie in an audience before? This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. He discussed how he believes movies have lost their humanity over time, and why “Breaking Away” has touched so many. At the Virginia Film Festival, it was greeted by a standing ovation and tears.Ĭhristopher, who has appeared as a character actor in more than a dozen movies, including “Django Unchained,” “It,” and “Chariots of Fire,” spoke with the PBS NewsHour after the screening. In the years since, the film’s popularity has faded, but it remains a feel-good cult classic. It also featured two other actors who became big names in Hollywood: Dennis Quaid and Daniel Stern. The American Film Institute ranked “Breaking Away” as one of the most inspiring films of all time. Christopher - who himself is half-Italian but grew up in the United States - won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer. “Breaking Away” took home an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, the Golden Globe for Best Film, and received many other nominations. Thankfully, he convinced the director he knew better how to play the role. And they made my hair dark brown, and put it up in a pompadour,” Christopher told an audience last month at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville, Virginia, at a 40th anniversary screening of the movie. “They dressed me up in skin-tight black pants, and a polyester shirt unbuttoned to my chest. The story builds to a bike race, with this group of friends competing against more affluent Indiana University students in the same town.īut “Dave” was almost a bad Italian-American stereotype, says Dennis Christopher, the actor who brought the character to life. Idolizing Italy’s cycling team, he pretends to be Italian - he teaches himself the language, belts out Italian songs at home, much to his father’s annoyance), and woos a girl while posing as an exchange student. The film centers on Dave, the Italophile, and his working-class friends, known as “cutters,” a word used to describe laborers who, for generations, have cut limestone in the local quarries. In 1979, critics and audiences alike were surprised when the film “Breaking Away,” with its ostensibly goofy set-up - a young townie from Bloomington, Indiana, becomes obsessed with Italian cycling, and even passing as Italian himself - became one of the most lauded and beloved films of the year.
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