Becoming Richard Pryor (86 page)

394   
“My theory is”:
Zheutlin and Talbot,
Creative Differences
, pp. 191, 197–203;
Cooley High
, directed by Michael Schultz (American Independent Pictures, 1974);
Car Wash
, directed by Michael Schultz (Universal, 1976);
an inner-city version of Robert Altman’s
Nashville
:
Author’s interview with Michael Schultz.

395   
he signed on for the Wertmüller adaptation:
“Universal Acquires Wertmuller Comedy”;
“I hope you can shoot this better”:
Author’s interview with Michael Schultz.

395   
around the beginning of July:
“U Signs Richard Pryor as Actor and Scripter,”
Daily Variety
, July 7, 1976;
relaxed enough to lounge on a long white sofa:
Weston, “Richard Pryor: ‘Every Nigger Is a Star,’” p. 57;
a college student in North Carolina:
Zheutlin and Talbot,
Creative Differences
, p. 147;
an artist in SoHo:
Maureen Orth, “Hollywood’s New Power Elite: The Baby Moguls,”
New West
, June 19, 1978, p 20;
“the focal point”:
Charles DeBenedetti,
An American Ordeal: The Antiwar Movement of the Vietnam Era
(Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1990), p. 338;
a particular reputation for stuffiness:
Charles Schreger, “Killer Shark Gets Lampooned,”
Los Angeles Times
, Apr. 4, 1979, p. G12.

396   
“It is pure junk food”:
Zheutlin and Talbot,
Creative Differences
, pp. 150–51;

396   
unprecedented terms:
Jacobson, “Richard Pryor Is the Blackest Comic of Them All,” p. 58;
an eye-popping three million dollars . . . “We believe it is possible” . . . “Well, I guess”:
Weston, “Richard Pryor: ‘Every Nigger Is a Star,’” p. 57; Will Tusher, “Richard Pryor’s Contractual Way of Life: Pay or Play or Vice Versa,”
Daily Variety
, Aug. 21, 1979, p. 6.

396   
one of Hollywood’s “baby moguls”:
Orth, “Hollywood’s New Power Elite,” pp. 20, 23–24.

397   
“I’m through actively messing with my body”:
Jacobson, “Richard Pryor Is the Blackest Comic of Them All,” p. 58;
“holistic living”:
“John Williams interview with Claude Brown.”

397   
less than two weeks . . . “It’s not my best work”:
Gene Siskel, “Cary Grant’s First Acid Trip—and Other Untold Star Tales,”
Chicago Tribune
, Jan. 5, 1977, p. A1;
Bicentennial Nigger
, Warner Bros. BSK 3114 (1976).

398   
title track:
“Bicentennial Nigger,”
Bicentennial Nigger
.

399   
“Twenty-third century”:
Jacobson, “Richard Pryor Is the Blackest Comic of Them All,” p. 64;
a three-year moratorium:
Snook, “Richard Pryor Thinks Things Are Coming His Way,” p. G2;
“I don’t really want to go”:
Jacobson, “Richard Pryor Is the Blackest Comic of Them All,” p. 64.

399   
A few weeks later:
“Bridges, Julien to Costar in Third World Cinema Pic,”
Hollywood Reporter
, July 1, 1976.

399   
worried about how he could absorb a part:
“Pam Grier interviewed by John Wildman” (video), Walter Reade Theater, New York City, Mar. 16, 2013;
“take care of things”:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 150;
setting off firecrackers:
Author’s interview with Schultz;
“When I was a kid”:
Flatley, “Peoria’s Booty Star Plays a One-Man Film Festival,” p. C4;
he would pull over a chair:
Richard Pryor: A Man and His Madness
, p. 111.

399   
“were creating all kinds of havoc”:
Author’s interview with Schultz.

400   
wanted to thread an element of fantasy:
“Pam Grier interviewed by John Wildman”;
felt the film was rattling off course:
Sue Reilly, “Schultz Directing Wendell Scott Pic,”
Hollywood Reporter
, Aug. 19, 1976, pp. 1, 13; Gregg Kilday, “Substitutions,”
Los Angeles Times
, Aug. 16, 1976;
Weinstein was not drawn to formal experimentation:
Zheutlin and Talbot,
Creative Differences
, pp. 203–4.

400   
“Here’s my star”:
Author’s interview with Michael Schultz;
reshoot 80 percent of it:
Zheutlin and Talbot,
Creative Differences
, pp. 203–4; In
Pryor Convictions
, Pryor recalls that Van Peebles was fired because he wanted there to be more blacks on the crew. In interviews with the author, Schultz and Van Peebles remembered differently, and the press reports of the time all point to “creative differences.” It seems unlikely, too, that Weinstein and Van Peebles would butt heads on this score, as she had been a leading advocate of minority-led casts and crews (
Pryor Convictions
, p. 150; author’s interview with Melvin Van Peebles, Sept. 30, 2010).

401   
“This is an opportunity”:
“Pam Grier interviewed by John Wildman.”

401   
“Pam Grier, you’re just a farmer”:
Pam Grier,
Foxy: My Life in Three Acts
(New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2010), p. 160.

401   
“He was beautiful”:
Maynard, “Richard Pryor, King of the Scene-Stealers,” p. 11;
“was different from how I would do it”:
Jean-Claude Bouis, “Richard Pryor Returns from a Busy ‘Vacation,’”
Toledo Blade
, Sept. 18, 1977, p. G1; Jerry Wayne Williamson,
Hillbillyland: What the Mountains Did to the Movies and What the Movies Did to the Mountains
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), pp. 142–43; Gold, “Richard Pryor Finds a Lot Not to Laugh About,” p. 12.

401   
filtered into his performance:
Greased Lightning
, directed by Michael Schultz (Universal, 1977).

402   
wrapped in September:
Reilly, “Schultz Directing Wendell Scott Pic,” pp. 1, 13.

403   
“the soap opera style of moviemaking”:
Zheutlin and Talbot,
Creative Differences
, pp. 203–4.

403   
“I want to make certain”:
Sue Reilly, “Director Won’t Castrate Pryor’s Humor,”
Hollywood Reporter
, July 30, 1976;
“the whole idea”:
Benson, “Richard Pryor, Who Is Co-Starring,” p. 57;
too prolix:
Author’s interview with Carl Gottlieb, Aug. 25, 2010;
simply not funny:
Author’s interview with Michael Schultz. For his part, Cecil Brown has written an account of his experience on
Which Way Is Up?
, arguing that the failure to realize his vision for the film speaks to Hollywood’s inability to represent the black experience in its complexity. See Brown, “Blues for Blacks in Hollywood,”
Mother Jones
, Jan. 1981, pp. 20–28, 59.

403   
ten-day vacation:
Author’s interview with Carl Gottlieb, Aug. 25, 2010.

Chapter 21: A Man of Parts

404   
Self-improvement was the order of the day . . . “I heard that
War and Peace
”:
Grier,
Foxy
, p. 162; Gipson, “The Serious Side of Richard Pryor,” p. B;
Cyrano de Bergerac
:
“Richard Pryor Seeks $250,000 for Breach of ‘Cyrano’ Movie Contract,”
Jet
, Oct. 27, 1977, p. 56;
Arsenic and Old Lace
. . .
Animal Farm
:
Maynard, “Richard Pryor, King of the Scene-Stealers,” p. 11.

405   
broke into a high singsong voice:
Author’s interview with Carl Gottlieb, Aug. 25, 2010.

405   
a ripe Italian parable:
Biskind, “Lina Wertmuller,” pp. 10–13; Grace Russo Bullaro,
Man in Disorder: The Cinema of Lina Wertmüller in the 1970s
(Leicester, UK: Troubadour, 2007), pp. xv–xvi, 1–27;
“enormous story gaps”:
Benson, “Richard Pryor, Who Is Co-Starring,” p. 56.

406   
Michael Schultz had already established:
Zheutlin and Talbot,
Creative Differences
, p. 205.

406   
Carl ran a tape recorder . . . “It was a very healthy collaboration”:
Author’s interview with Carl Gottlieb. The name “Leroy Jones” invokes the real-life Leroi Jones, who renamed himself Amiri Baraka after devoting himself to the black struggle; it is the name of a character who has not come to full consciousness.

406   
Their creative idyll was interrupted:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 150; author’s interview with Carl Gottlieb.

407   
revised script:
“
Which Way Is Up?
Revised Final Draft Screenplay by Carl Gottlieb,” dated Jan. 10, 1977 (in author’s possession) (hereafter “
Which Way Is Up?
final draft screenplay”); Zheutlin and Talbot,
Creative Differences
, p. 207.

407   
“Hollywood extras with their sunglasses”:
Benson, “Richard Pryor, Who Is Co-Starring,” p. 56;
“I don’t want to do a phony representation”:
Zheutlin and Talbot,
Creative Differences
, pp. 205–6; Louis Torres, “Farm Workers in Sharp Focus,”
Los Angeles Times
, Oct. 28, 1977;
“the old farts”:
Benson, “Richard Pryor, Who Is Co-Starring,” p. 56;
the child of Mexican migrant workers:
The Man Who Shot
Chinatown
: The Life and Work of John A. Alonzo
, directed by Axel Schill (Montagnola Productions, 2007).

408   
Schultz took another creative risk:
Author’s interview with Carl Gottlieb; author’s interview with Michael Schultz;
“Pop, I’m in the paper!”:
Which Way Is Up
? It’s worth noting that, while filming
Which Way Is Up?
, Pryor’s ad libs consistently made Rufus more cutting and cruel (see “
Which Way Is Up?
final draft screenplay,” pp. 5, 15, 18).

408   
for the first time in its history:
Hill and Weingrad,
Saturday Night
, p. 13;
“I’m just going to say”:
“What’s Cooking?,”
People
, Dec. 27, 1976, p. 110.

409   
“a harmless little comedy”:
Benson, “Richard Pryor, Who Is Co-Starring,” p. 52.

410   
“In the master [take]”:
Author’s interview with Carl Gottlieb;
“us[ing] sweaters to stifle their laughter”:
Benson, “Richard Pryor, Who Is Co-Starring,” pp. 57–58;
“My hardest job”:
Author’s interview with Michael Schultz;
“can do the same scene”:
“A New Black Superstar.”

411   
When Richard was done with it:
Which Way Is Up?
, directed by Michael Schultz (Universal, 1977) (hereafter
Which Way Is Up?
).

411   
“gobble[] up his triple parts”:
David Ansen, “Pryorities,”
Newsweek
, Nov. 14, 1977.

412   
“a total heel”:
Lynn Minton, “Which Way Is Up?,”
McCall’s
, Jan. 1978, p. 53.

412   
wrapped in early March . . . “I’m going to save them”:
Lee Grant, “Richard Pryor Thanks His Crew,”
Los Angeles Times
, Mar. 5, 1977, p. B6;
two-page ad:
Daily Variety
, Mar. 1, 1977, pp. 10–11.

412   
his own TV special:
The Richard Pryor Special?
, directed by John Moffitt, aired May 5, 1977 (NBC, 1977). All other references are to this program.

412   
fully in command . . . “Every time a writer”:
Author’s interview with Rocco Urbisci, Aug. 30, 2010; author’s interview with John Moffitt, Aug. 20, 2010.

413   
Mooney suggested adding Maya Angelou:
Mooney,
Black Is the New White
, p. 177;
“The comedy turns into a touching essay”:
John O’Connor, “TV: Pryor and Chase Take Their Pot Shots,”
New York Times
, May 5, 1977, p. C27.

415   
“John, I’m not changing anything” . . . “It’s not about your ego”:
Author’s interview with Urbisci.

415   
series of hour-long programs:
“Lindbergh Talks with Sevareid,”
Los Angeles Times
, May 19, 1977, p. G20;
two million dollars to remain exclusively:
“Pryor Surprises Manager with $52,000 Rolls,”
Jet
, May 26, 1977, p. 57;
red leather interior:
Author’s interview with Michael Ashburne, May 7, 2011.

416   
for Mother’s Day:
“Pryor Proves You Can Always Go Home Again,”
Jet
, June 2, 1977, pp. 22–23.

416   
“I adore [Pam Grier]”:
Gipson, “The Serious Side of Richard Pryor,” p. B;
continue to figure . . . in magazines:
Bob Lucas, “Pam and Richard: Movie Love Turns into Real Thing,”
Jet
, June 2, 1977, pp. 58–61; “People Are Talking About . . . ,”
Jet
, Sept. 29, 1977, p. 28;
“What about women’s rights?”:
Ace Burgess, “Richard Pryor: An Explosive, Angry Interview,”
Gallery
, Jan. 1977, p. 124;
After Pam beat him in tennis:
Orth, “The Perils of Richard Pryor,” p. 61;
“I was put off”:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 151.

416   
“I don’t feel safe living here yet”:
Grier,
Foxy
, pp. 163–67.

417   
accompanied by Deboragh McGuire:
Haskins,
Richard Pryor
, pp. 130–31;
supported for years by a wealthy, older white man:
Pryor Convictions
, p. 139.

417   
“She was afraid of me”:
Haskins,
Richard Pryor
, p. 131.

417   
grown up in a hardcare midwestern fundamentalist household:
Biskind,
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
, pp. 286–93; Karen Koshner, “Writer Pursues Different Direction,”
Syracuse Herald-Journal
, Sept. 6, 1977, p. 24.

418   
the most . . . lurid scenes in 1970s cinema:
Charles Higham, “When I Do It, It’s Not Gore, Says Writer Paul Schrader,”
New York Times
, Feb. 5, 1978, p. D15. On Schrader, see Paul Schrader,
Schrader on Schrader
, ed. Kevin Jackson (London: Faber and Faber, 2004); George Kouvaros,
Paul Schrader
(Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2008).

418   
in the summer of 1976:
Gary Crowdus and Dan Georgakas, “Blue Collar: An Interview with Paul Schrader,”
Cineaste
(Winter 1977/1978): 36;
He idolized Robert De Niro:
Author’s interview with Patricia Heitman, Sept. 11, 2011;
put Richard’s comedy albums on heavy rotation:
“
Blue Collar
Production Notes,” Jan. 6, 1978, pp. 2–3,
Blue Collar
file, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA;
Schrader felt it was inconceivable:
“Entretien avec Paul Schrader,”
Positif
(Dec. 1978), p. 22.