Read Online Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind by Gavin Edwards - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Gavin Edwards
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number went well enough that the show hired River to be the “Kid News Roving Correspondent,” joining the team alongside variety-show veteran Leslie Uggams.
On the NBC miniseries Celebrity, he played Jeffie, the son of movie star Mack Crawford (played by Joseph Bottoms) and spent an inordinate amount of screen time building a sand castle on the beach. His big scene came when Jeffie discovered that his dad was gay—by finding him in bed with another man.
Next was an ABC Afterschool Special, “Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia.” River played Brian Ellsworth, a bright junior high kid doing poorly in school because neither he nor his family realizes he suffers from dyslexia. Although the script mainly called for River to look frustrated (and for some reason, to run in slow motion through a flock of pigeons), he began to display actual acting talent, convincingly portraying a class clown who was frantically masking his own insecurities. And if he was sometimes wooden—well, the adult cast wasn’t any better.
In retrospect, the most charming aspect of “Backwards” is the appearance of ten-year-old Leaf as River’s on-screen little brother. Leaf looked young enough to be convincing as a kid just learning to read—and the brothers were utterly at ease together, whether they were roughhousing or reading cereal boxes. Leaf gazed at River adoringly, while River regarded Leaf protectively as he threw him up in the air and told him bedtime stories. It was the only time they acted together.
River appeared in the pilot for It’s Your Move, a sitcom starring Jason Bateman as a teenage scam artist; River played a minion helping out with the annual term-paper sale.
On Hotel —an Aaron Spelling show that was like The Love Boat, except at the landlocked location of a luxury hotel—River played a preppy gymnast whose sportscaster father (Robert Reed) turns out to be bisexual. The repetition of the plot from Celebrity suggests that either forty percent of prime-time programming in 1984 was about closeted gay husbands or that River had found an unusual niche as an actor.
Next up: the miniseries Robert Kennedy and His Times. If it wasn’t critically acclaimed, at least it was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling. A slew of top child actors played RFK’s children, including River, Shannen Doherty, and Jason Bateman again.
River turned fourteen. His teenage years were rolling by in a procession of sound stages; he never attended a conventional high school. In September 1984, when he might have been entering his freshman year, he instead flew to Oklahoma City to film the television movie Surviving, about teen suicide. Director Waris Hussein said, “River was very much part of the Hollywood auditioning scene at the time, but he stood out from the others.”
Molly Ringwald (after Sixteen Candles but before The Breakfast Club ) and Zach Galligan played the star-crossed lovers who kill themselves; River was cast as Galligan’s younger brother, with Ellen Burstyn and Len Cariou playing his parents, too shattered by the death of their older son to see how it’s affecting their other children. River won the obscure but nonfictional “Young Artist Award” for his raw performance in Surviving —there wasn’t much nuance in his acting yet, but he was learning the trick of slipping into somebody else’s skin.
16
UNMAPPED TERRITORY
While on location in Oklahoma City, River got a hall pass: the shooting schedule of Surviving was rearranged so he could fly back to L.A. for an audition. Director Joe Dante, fresh off the success of Gremlins, was putting together another family-friendly sci-fi action comedy. This one, called Explorers, was about three suburban kids who make first contact with an alien race, using the information they receive in dreams to build their own spaceship.
“I got a thrill just from reading the script,” said River, who landed the part. He declared his first feature film to be
On the NBC miniseries Celebrity, he played Jeffie, the son of movie star Mack Crawford (played by Joseph Bottoms) and spent an inordinate amount of screen time building a sand castle on the beach. His big scene came when Jeffie discovered that his dad was gay—by finding him in bed with another man.
Next was an ABC Afterschool Special, “Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia.” River played Brian Ellsworth, a bright junior high kid doing poorly in school because neither he nor his family realizes he suffers from dyslexia. Although the script mainly called for River to look frustrated (and for some reason, to run in slow motion through a flock of pigeons), he began to display actual acting talent, convincingly portraying a class clown who was frantically masking his own insecurities. And if he was sometimes wooden—well, the adult cast wasn’t any better.
In retrospect, the most charming aspect of “Backwards” is the appearance of ten-year-old Leaf as River’s on-screen little brother. Leaf looked young enough to be convincing as a kid just learning to read—and the brothers were utterly at ease together, whether they were roughhousing or reading cereal boxes. Leaf gazed at River adoringly, while River regarded Leaf protectively as he threw him up in the air and told him bedtime stories. It was the only time they acted together.
River appeared in the pilot for It’s Your Move, a sitcom starring Jason Bateman as a teenage scam artist; River played a minion helping out with the annual term-paper sale.
On Hotel —an Aaron Spelling show that was like The Love Boat, except at the landlocked location of a luxury hotel—River played a preppy gymnast whose sportscaster father (Robert Reed) turns out to be bisexual. The repetition of the plot from Celebrity suggests that either forty percent of prime-time programming in 1984 was about closeted gay husbands or that River had found an unusual niche as an actor.
Next up: the miniseries Robert Kennedy and His Times. If it wasn’t critically acclaimed, at least it was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling. A slew of top child actors played RFK’s children, including River, Shannen Doherty, and Jason Bateman again.
River turned fourteen. His teenage years were rolling by in a procession of sound stages; he never attended a conventional high school. In September 1984, when he might have been entering his freshman year, he instead flew to Oklahoma City to film the television movie Surviving, about teen suicide. Director Waris Hussein said, “River was very much part of the Hollywood auditioning scene at the time, but he stood out from the others.”
Molly Ringwald (after Sixteen Candles but before The Breakfast Club ) and Zach Galligan played the star-crossed lovers who kill themselves; River was cast as Galligan’s younger brother, with Ellen Burstyn and Len Cariou playing his parents, too shattered by the death of their older son to see how it’s affecting their other children. River won the obscure but nonfictional “Young Artist Award” for his raw performance in Surviving —there wasn’t much nuance in his acting yet, but he was learning the trick of slipping into somebody else’s skin.
16
UNMAPPED TERRITORY
While on location in Oklahoma City, River got a hall pass: the shooting schedule of Surviving was rearranged so he could fly back to L.A. for an audition. Director Joe Dante, fresh off the success of Gremlins, was putting together another family-friendly sci-fi action comedy. This one, called Explorers, was about three suburban kids who make first contact with an alien race, using the information they receive in dreams to build their own spaceship.
“I got a thrill just from reading the script,” said River, who landed the part. He declared his first feature film to be
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