Read Online Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behind by Gavin Edwards - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Gavin Edwards
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“a movie kid’s dream.” River was cast as Wolfgang Muller, the nerdy brainiac inventor of the trio. The regular-kid hero was played by Ethan Hawke, also making his film debut, while Jason Presson was the tough kid. The movie shot in Petaluma, California, just north of San Francisco, and on the Skywalker Ranch, George Lucas’s production facility. The cast stayed in a motel outside of San Francisco. A few days into the shoot, Hawke realized that River wasn’t your average teenager: “I saw him practicing his character’s walk in the parking lot,” Hawke said. “Uncommon behavior for a thirteen-year-old.”
Over the previous couple of years, River had phased out his bowl haircut, but for Wolfgang, it was back in all its symmetrical glory. Plus, he had to wear a particularly bookish pair of glasses—which he removed as soon as he got off camera, or if a pretty girl walked by. River had been many things in his life, but never a dork. “River had to do the most acting of all the kids, since he was playing against type,” Dante said.
“Although River liked to be cool and act cool, there was a geek inside him that would come out and embarrass him,” Dante added. “He did not enjoy watching himself in that part—I think that he saw a lot of things about himself that he wished he didn’t have. There were childish things that he was trying to change.”
By law, the teen actors could work only four hours a day, so the three of them had lots of off-duty time together, and soon became fast friends. “It was the longest shoot I’ve ever had,” Hawke said a decade later. “Six months with River Phoenix. Man, it was intense.”
River and Hawke both pretended to be more mature than they actually were—and both strived to attract the interest of their beautiful costar, Amanda Peterson, a contest that Hawke won. “We competed for the attention of girls like crazy,” Hawke said. “In fact, we competed over everything. We bragged and boasted continually about sex. The truth is, we were both virgins. I guess it’s touching to look back on two teenage boys struggling with hormones.” (River actually hit puberty on the Explorers set.)
Dante added that “getting laid was a major goal” in River’s life. “It was one of the things that was most important to him.” (Neither Dante nor Hawke seems to have known of the Children of God’s sexual practices.)
On the set, through his headphones, Dante could hear River and Hawke talking between takes. “River had a very doctrinaire set of ideas that he had been taught by his parents,” Dante remembered. “Ethan, who was a far more worldly boy, would often challenge River—and I don’t think he was used to that. He was suddenly confronted with a whole lifetime of thinking one way and finding out that it wasn’t the way the mainstream of the world thought. It was probably the first time that River had spent time with people who weren’t necessarily agreeing with everything that he had heard at home. It was a great experience for him and very mind-expanding.”
Although Hawke liked River, he thought his defining quality was “naïve pretentiousness.” Hawke said, “To me, education helps you see that your weirdness is not unique. I doubt, though, that River, at age fourteen, had read a book. He thought his ideas on life and the environment were original. Because he’d never been to school, he had no social skills, and lacked a sense of what was appropriate conversation. And he had this peculiar way of anecdotalizing his past, living his life in the third person. You had the sense he was making his own mythology. I suppose we all do that, but River went to the extreme.”
River’s lack of formal education frequently tripped him up on the set. He would mispronounce words or names that would be familiar to most other teenagers, betraying his lack of familiarity with them: past presidents; famous actors, writers, and singers; major historical events. “River
Over the previous couple of years, River had phased out his bowl haircut, but for Wolfgang, it was back in all its symmetrical glory. Plus, he had to wear a particularly bookish pair of glasses—which he removed as soon as he got off camera, or if a pretty girl walked by. River had been many things in his life, but never a dork. “River had to do the most acting of all the kids, since he was playing against type,” Dante said.
“Although River liked to be cool and act cool, there was a geek inside him that would come out and embarrass him,” Dante added. “He did not enjoy watching himself in that part—I think that he saw a lot of things about himself that he wished he didn’t have. There were childish things that he was trying to change.”
By law, the teen actors could work only four hours a day, so the three of them had lots of off-duty time together, and soon became fast friends. “It was the longest shoot I’ve ever had,” Hawke said a decade later. “Six months with River Phoenix. Man, it was intense.”
River and Hawke both pretended to be more mature than they actually were—and both strived to attract the interest of their beautiful costar, Amanda Peterson, a contest that Hawke won. “We competed for the attention of girls like crazy,” Hawke said. “In fact, we competed over everything. We bragged and boasted continually about sex. The truth is, we were both virgins. I guess it’s touching to look back on two teenage boys struggling with hormones.” (River actually hit puberty on the Explorers set.)
Dante added that “getting laid was a major goal” in River’s life. “It was one of the things that was most important to him.” (Neither Dante nor Hawke seems to have known of the Children of God’s sexual practices.)
On the set, through his headphones, Dante could hear River and Hawke talking between takes. “River had a very doctrinaire set of ideas that he had been taught by his parents,” Dante remembered. “Ethan, who was a far more worldly boy, would often challenge River—and I don’t think he was used to that. He was suddenly confronted with a whole lifetime of thinking one way and finding out that it wasn’t the way the mainstream of the world thought. It was probably the first time that River had spent time with people who weren’t necessarily agreeing with everything that he had heard at home. It was a great experience for him and very mind-expanding.”
Although Hawke liked River, he thought his defining quality was “naïve pretentiousness.” Hawke said, “To me, education helps you see that your weirdness is not unique. I doubt, though, that River, at age fourteen, had read a book. He thought his ideas on life and the environment were original. Because he’d never been to school, he had no social skills, and lacked a sense of what was appropriate conversation. And he had this peculiar way of anecdotalizing his past, living his life in the third person. You had the sense he was making his own mythology. I suppose we all do that, but River went to the extreme.”
River’s lack of formal education frequently tripped him up on the set. He would mispronounce words or names that would be familiar to most other teenagers, betraying his lack of familiarity with them: past presidents; famous actors, writers, and singers; major historical events. “River
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