Actor Jeremy Piven and his sister, director Shira Piven, have their own movie Performance It was not only a long-term labor of love that took 15 years, but also the fulfillment of a family legacy.
Appearing together on a panel for Performance At Deadline's Contenders Los Angeles event on Saturday, the siblings revealed that the project originated as an idea for their mother, Joyce Heller Piven, after she read a short story by legendary playwright Arthur Miller about a Jewish American tap dancer who is tapped to perform in Germany on the eve of World War II.
“My mother is a theater artist, director, and actress. She loves to read and has a lot of books The New Yorker “In her apartment,” Shira explained. “I read this story in… The New Yorker Years ago…and she sent it to Jeremy first, and she said, 'This is a role for you.'
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“It blew my mind,” Jeremy recalls. “My mother is not so petty. She runs lines with me to this day and is my acting teacher – and gives me notes to this day.
Jeremy continued: “Actors are so delusional – that's our superpower – and I read this role and immediately thought it would be incredible to play this.” “Arthur Miller is so incredible, and he also so perfectly exposes the absurdity of anti-Semitism in such a beautiful way, in this so beautiful story.
“And I didn't think for a moment: 'Well, I don't dance, I can't play this role,'” the actor said. “I've been trying to get the money to produce it ever since, and it took me 15 years to make this movie. And every year we couldn't find the money, I got better at the flick until I was ready to perform it, so the timing was perfect.”
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Jeremy approached the Miller estate for permission to pursue the film project. “I went to Rebecca Miller, Arthur Miller’s daughter, who is a very wonderful playwright, screenwriter and director in her own right,” he recalls. “And I went up to her to pitch us and myself for the rights. And her husband, a wickedly unassuming actor named Daniel Day-Lewis, was in the background, lining her up with questions.
“It was the scariest phone call I've ever made, and I don't even know how it happened, but somehow I got the rights,” Jeremy admitted. He had to re-acquire the rights annually when it looked like he and his sister might never find the financing for a film. “After a decade, it's like: What do you do?” [But] I have to tell people: If you have this project you've always wanted to do, don't give up. Please don't give up.”
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When the financing was finally raised 15 years later, and Piven had time to learn how to tap dance, he was prepared to put his all into his performance, including a risky scene that tested his commitment.
“I asked my actor — who looked just like me if I were younger, better looking and stronger — to step down, and then I did the job myself,” he explained. “And I only know one way to do it, and that's to throw myself all over. And I broke eight ribs doing that move. And yeah, and it's in the movie. We got one take, and we did it. We did it.”
Related to: Film Contenders: Los Angeles – Full coverage by Deadline
Check back on Monday for a video of the painting.
Presenting Sponsor of This Year's Contenders Film: Los Angeles isUnited Business. The shepherds are eye glasses,Final Draft + ScreenCraftAnd the partners areFour Seasons Maui,11 crows andRobina Benson Design House.
