| Mission Impossible: Interview Tom Cruise |
[May. 3rd, 2006|11:27 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | The Big Apple | ] |
| [ | My Mood Right Now... |
| |  Mission Accomplished!!! | ] |
| [ | What I'm Listening To... |
| | Musical FanFare | ] |
Wed 5-3-6
Woke up this morning and took a little stroll down to Times Square around 10am. I had to meet the local camera and audio crew at noon in the lobby of the hotel so I had some time. Heading out there were 3 places I wanted to find, the Toys R Us, Planet Hollywood & MTV Store. I walked the block from my hotel to Times Square and there were all 3 right in front of me. The 1st thing I did was to grab a New York pretzel...oh man was it ever good. The bread was tasty, the salt...salty...just top notch! I checked the times for Planet Hollywood...11am-midnight, I'd have to remember to come by for a late dinner later. I forgot my MTV ID in the hotel so I'd return later to get some things...checked out the worlds largest Toys R Us and picked up for Sergio, the last "Superman Returns" Ken doll which I hear is a rare find on the toy market.
Went back to the hotel where I met up with John & Brandon my crew for the day. We planned things out and set up equippment in the hotel room, then hit the streets, taxis and subways of New York in search of a list of shots I was assigned to bring back for not just ICONS, but also FILTER, one of our sister shows. From Times Square, Wall Street, various theaters, foot/vehicle traffic and a few other locales. I got a call that there was a Producer screening at the MTV building at 2:30pm for Producers who wanted to view MI:3 before going to the Red Carpet. Only problem is there'd be no way I could time seeing this film, getting back to the hotel, then heading out by 4:30pm to get to the Ziegfield Theater for the world premiere, so I didnt go. At one point in Times Square we hear all these sirens and this fire truck races down 42nd street with Tom Cruise standing in it surrounded by fireman and a camera crew, he was smiling and waving and looked all cool in his leather jacket and sunglasses. He was doing an entire day of introducing premieres and getting to each one by boat, helicopter, motorcycle, sports car, etc. Around 3:45 we had all the shots we needed and I broke off from the crew for about 45 minutes to go get some lunch, on the list...2 slices of New York pizza! Mmmmmm...tasty!!!
Met back at the Milford...it felt earlier like a few drops of rain fell and I was worried about being rained out at the Red Carpet. I also was a little nervous...having done a slew of Red Carpet interviews over the years, I know how hit & miss the chances of actually getting celebs to talk to you can be. But Michale said before I left; "Dont think of this as a Do or Die assignment, just do the best you can, if you come back w/ nothing, we've only lost $4000 and we'll try and get them all at the LA premiere Thursday nite, but you won't not have a job to come back to if you return w/ nothing" That made me feel better, but I still deep inside knew that if anyone could pull it off, could be agressive enough, it was me and Michael HAD sent the right person for this job!
We arrived at five, checked in and took our place on the carpet...of course we were almost all the way at the end, sandwiched inbetween 2 foreign press TV and Print networks. It sucks being the little guys.
BUT...it wasnt long before all the hundreds of fans starting cheering when the Mission Impossible theme music started blaring on the speakers and a black SUV pulled up. A minute later there was Tom Cruise jumping out and on top of it, along w/ Lawrence Fishburne, waving and jumping around. The next 15 minutes or so were a bit slow as Tom just walked the crowd and signed autographs and took pictures w/ tons of fans. For that moment I wish I was the fan and not the Producer (sigh), but thinking how many photo ops I've gotten because I WAS the Producer and not a fan clearly out-weighs the other.
Well my assignment besides getting as many questions as I could to JJ Abrams, was to ask others on the Red Carpet about JJ and his directorial debut. I ended up talking to Keri Russel, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, James Lipton, Ken Burns, Jeff Garlin, a slew of the cast of MI:3 and finally JJ Abrams was brought over to us. I admit I was a little nervous, this was the moment I'd been sent out to New York for, if I screwed this up, they'd never send me out again! JJ approached, I introduced myself and said I was from ICONS and that we were doing a show on him. He shook his head in disbelief and said "yeah...I know". Quite funny because we have been talking to ALL his friends and associates for this one episode. So then I knew my time was tight and I rambled off the following questions;
1) So you know we've been talking to all these people and they've said you're an ICON, how does it make you feel to hear that? (He said it was strange and awkward and undeserved)
2) You're doing the next Star Trek movie, now all the odd numbered Treks have done poor at the box office, THIS one is #11, how will you beak that trend? (JJ said it was too early to talk about Star Trek just yet, but they definitely werent calling it #11)
3) People say you like to do magic, can you do a little for us? (I handed him a quarter and he did some slight of hand)
4) Finally...you've made Time Magazines 100 Most Influencial People issue, how'd you pull that off?
(He said he didnt understand it, you had the Pope, Oprah Winfrey and a Jewish Director, go figure)
He said thank you and was whisked away by his PR person...we got a few more people before the night was over and then Tom Cruise walked the carpet doing interviews. He looked exhausted. It was 8pm, everyone was in the theater now and Tom just came out from introducing the movie. They grouped the media into groups of about 6 so he could just go to each pod, answer a couple questions and then take off. Unfortunately I couldnt get a question about JJ out to him, but I was standing right next to him as he adressed surrounding media and answered their questions. As he finished and walked away, the rain came down...I said thank you to my crew, cut off a 4 foot foam core MI3 display banner off the railing and jumped into a cab. If I was Tom Cruise, my Mission would have been Accomplished!!! I called my friend Beth and headed down 20 blocks to meet up with her.
Beth had recently gotten married, the last time I saw her Rebekah and I had breakfast w/ her in New York. I found her standing outside her office somewhere around 70th street, we then jumped into another cab and to some school where she had to meet w/ a client who was also managing a Volleyball team in the gym of a school elsewhere in town. It was funny because we were jumping in and out of cabs and here I am w/ this almost 5 foot stiff board w/ 3 posters of Tom Cruise on it. How was I going to get this back to LA on the plane!??! Hell, right now I didnt care, it was a damn cool souvenier to have. Finally we decided to get a bite to eat and I convinced her to go w/ me to Planet Hollywood. Oh man was the food great, I'd missed the atmosphere, but missed even more the Cap'n Crunch Chicken and the Spinach Dip. SOOOOOOO good! I filled Beth in on the whole wedding show stuff, we talked about a documentary she wanted to Produce about an illegal Israeli immigrant friend of hers, and then we left and headed a couple blocks down to meet her new husband Amnon.
We walked into a Subway and here was this Israeli guy who was her husband. It was strange because for as long as Beth and I have known each other, it always seemed her taste in men were that of American white guys, I mean she dated me and we had always talked about the "what if" we got married. So seeing her now w/ this guy who had an accent and was so far from the typical looking white dude, was odd. But I know she is very happy with him and that makes me happy. I think all the time she spent in Israel might have turned her attention to perhaps a culture and society where maybe the Israeli man is a catch to American women, I'm not sure? Regardless, a very nice guy and we spent a good 1/2 hour talking about the wedding and their wedding and much more. It was late and I had reports to send back to the office, so I said goodbye and headed back to the hotel.
Gave Michael Danahy a call and informed him of all the great interviews I had done, he was so happy and told me that since I did such a great job there, to prepare to get back tomorrow afternoon and cover the LA Premiere of Mission Impossible at Graumans Chinese Theatre. Man...it just doesnt stop. I got back to the hotel, packed, sent out some emails and got to bed by 2:30am...Mission Completed for now. |
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bizczarstuff's journal
high
lonely
creative
disappointed
Touched...
Catching Up is Hard to Do...
Sleepy...
Taking A Trip...
determined
What a Messy Day!!!