Miller's Crossing
It's Prohibition era 1930s as gang wars tear apart the city of gang lord Leo and his lieutenant
Tom Reagan. Tom is upset when Leo declines underling Johnny Caspar's request to kill the crooked
Bernie. Despite Tom's objections, Leo thinks he made the right decision because Bernie is
Verna's brother and Verna is Leo's girl. Unfortunately, Caspar seems to be growing in power and
just when Leo needs Tom's help most Tom admits he's been fooling around with Verna. Tom is
thrown out of Leo's mob and with nothing else to do he decides to join Caspar. But Tom is also
talking to Bernie and Verna, and Caspar's ruthless henchman Eddie Dane starts to get suspicious |
|
Gabriel Byrne
Marcia Gay Harden
John Turturro
Jon Polito
J.E. Freeman |
... Tom Reagan
... Verna
... Bernie Bernbaum
... Johnny Caspar
... Eddie Dane |
Marcia was invited to an audition by casting director Donna Isaacson who had seen her in
a performance for NYU's "Comedy of Errors". According to the New York Times, Marcia spent
several weeks with the script before she went in, read several Dashiell Hammett stories,
rented films such as "Public Enemy," and nailed her audition. She beat out Julia Roberts,
Demi Moore, and Jennifer Jason Leigh to play the star-making part of Verna, the
poker-faced, chain-smoking love interest to rival gang members Albert Finney and Gabriel
Byrne. "God bless the Coens that they give unknowns opportunities," Harden said. "They're
not dictated to by studios about needing to hire this actor because they're going to
bring in this much money and put this many butts in the seats. They hire who they want,
and they make the kind of movies they want, and it's really to the great benefit of
people like Frances McDormand, Holly Hunter, and me - all of whom were somewhat
discovered in the Coen Brothers' films." And in another interview with the New York Times,
published in November 1992, Marcia recalled her big break with "Miller's Crossing":
"For a long time, I worked as a waitress for a company in New York that caters weddings
and bar mitzvahs. Then my first big film, 'Miller's Crossing,' came out. There were ads
all over town. I remember pointing one out to a cab driver. We were driving by a bus stop
with my face on it, and I shouted to him: 'See that! That's me! That's my face! I just
want you to know that.' And he said: 'I guess I'll have to go see that film, young lady.
Isn't it nice that you're doing something!' Of course, the film had been shot a year
earlier, and what I was really doing was catering a wedding for 'Lifestyles of the Rich
and Famous' at the Bronx Zoo."
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