More William Kennedy (legends of cinema gossip!)

It’s really fun talking about the movies with William Kennedy. Couldn’t fit it in the piece, however, since this was the part of the interview where I talked a lot about articles and ephemera from Riding the Yellow Trolley Car, a greatest-hits journalism compilation that plays, in its own way, as a fascinating autobiography of a writer.

William Kennedy: “Ingmar Bergman thought Citizen Kane was stupid - he hated the way people were made up, that hairline, that bald wig on Welles. Bergman was a man of faces.

He said we could come see the rehearsals on King Lear. He had just finished Franny and Alexander and I saw a 5 hour cut with a wicked hangover.

Said hangover was the result of Aquavit.”

“He showed up the first day I was in Cuba, in 1987. I was in the house of [Gabriel] García Márquez. It was after lunch, I was sitting in the rocking chair, and Gabriel—Gabo—said to me, “Would you mind moving to another chair? The Comandante is coming and he likes the rocker.” Fidel came in, in his field jacket and his cap. He was very bulky in the chest and was probably wearing a bulletproof vest.”

— I talked to William Kennedy for The Paris Review, and it was really fun. Had to cut out sections where he talked about Hunter S. Thompson and The Rum Diary, Ingmar Bergman, and watching Meryl Streep perform “He’s Me Pal” in Ironweed. Good times!