Oct 22, 2008

Maverick Laughs

Just saw Speed-the-Plow--it's actually enjoyable with a real actress, the estimable Elisabeth Moss, as Karen--and Raul Esparza paused ostentatiously for the topical laugh that inevitable came after Fox's line, "Everyone says, 'Hi, I'm a maverick.' " Later, Jeremy Piven's Gould apes him, "We all say we're mavericks, but no one is a maverick. We're all part of a collective." (I'm quoting from memory, but this is the gist.) A colleague thinks there have been changes to the script, but I don't have a copy around. Something tells me Mamet wouldn't slot in such a cheaply topical reference--please tell me if I'm wrong.

3 comments:

isaac butler said...

mamet wouldn't slot in such a cheap anti-republican line at the last minute. he's pretty openly a whore, artistically speaking, but he's now a reactionary right wing whore.

Rob Weinert-Kendt said...

But tell me how you really feel, Isaac. Seriously, are you making a reference to the play's repeated, almost obsessive use of "whore"? And yes, I hated that dimwit Voice essay, too.

Anonymous said...

It's in the original version of the play--three times.

I don't think this has aged as well as Glengarry Glen Ross, by a long shot, maybe because Mamet is just more comfortable when he's writing for men than when he's writing for the ladies. Or his weird idea of what ladies say, anyway. Mamet's rage at the relentless commerce of the movie biz now seems kind of quaint.

But Raul was having tons of fun, you could tell. And the audience loved him.