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Remembering James Dean, with respect




By Jamie Allen
CNN

(CNN) -- Mark Rydell, the Oscar-nominated director of the upcoming TNT production "James Dean," remembers well the days when he used to hang out with Dean in New York.

It was the early 1950s, and they were both up-and-coming actors finding work in theater and television.

One Sunday afternoon, they were walking down Madison Avenue, chatting.

"He was talking to me about bull-fighting, which was one of his passions," recalls Rydell. "And suddenly he whipped off his jacket, leapt into Madison Avenue and did a pass to a bus that must have been traveling 40 miles per hour. It almost flicked his shirt. And he laughed uproariously.

"I remember thinking at that moment that he was not long for this world. Anybody who could do that had such a reckless personality that sooner or later it was going to catch up with him," Rydell said.

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Of course, Rydell was right. After blazing to stardom in Hollywood, starring in three films -- "East of Eden" (1955), "Rebel Without A Cause" (1955), and "Giant" (1956) -- Dean died at 24 when he crashed his Porsche Spyder near Paso Robles, California, in 1955. His brief but brilliant movie career lasted less than two years.

Since then, Dean's legend has been well documented in countless biographies and several portraits on film and television.

But for Rydell, telling his friend's story has been a longtime dream.

"I've always felt badly that Jimmy wasn't treated with the kind of respect that I thought he deserved," said Rydell. "Having known him and known how committed and determined he was as an artist and how tortured he was as a human being, and knowing the agonies of his childhood, I felt that this was a good chance to make an honorable psychological portrait of him."

'Franco is astonishing'

"James Dean," airing Sunday night on TNT (a cable network owned by CNN.com parent company AOL Time Warner), takes a different approach to telling the familiar tale. With a script by Israel Horovitz, Dean's mercurial performances are addressed in a provocative manner, but they're not lamented upon.

It's the James Dean behind the scenes -- the one whose mother died when he was young, the one who never found respect from his estranged father -- that drives this narrative.

Dean is portrayed as a lonely, anguished soul who possesses a unique ability to filter these troubles into his art.

Franco
James Franco plays James Dean in Rydell's film  

James Franco, who starred in NBC's acclaimed, canceled "Freaks and Geeks," plays Dean. While actors like Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio were suggested for the role, Franco seems a perfect fit. Salon TV critic Joyce Millman, for one, raved over his performance in a Thursday review.

"Franco is astonishing ...," Millman wrote. "Every inflection, every move, is right."

Rydell says Franco spent months preparing for the role, and during production he completely cut himself off from his parents and girlfriend in order to experience the isolation that Dean felt.

"So he was really a tortured fellow," Rydell said of Franco. "He felt very lonely during that period. But he felt that it helped him. And it did."

'Reality is not art'

Rydell has a reputation for bringing out the best in his actors. During his career as a director, his films have earned Oscar nods for the likes of Bette Midler ("The Rose," 1979), Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn (who both won Oscars for Rydell's "On Golden Pond," 1981), and Sissy Spacek ("The River," 1984).

Rydell puts Franco in this esteemed company.

"I consider his performance to be a miracle," said Rydell. "I think he's one of the most talented people I've ever met. You know, he's 22 years old. ... He just transformed himself. At times it seemed eerie. It was like cloning or channeling James Dean. There were moments where I thought, 'My God, this is really bizarre.' "

While Rydell had the vessel to portray Dean, he says he wrestled with how to present the actor's story in dramatic form. At the end of the movie, a brief note lets the viewers know that some of what they watched was an "educated guess" rather than iron fact.

"The picture is not a documentary," said Rydell. "It's a drama that has to be crafted. Reality is not art. You have to make choices when you're trying to make something work. And the choices we make I think are accurate. There aren't any lies in it. There are assumptions made that are critical and necessary."

The power of James Dean

Rydell says he "loved every single moment" of the production.

"This was really a privilege to revisit a time in my life that I shared with James Dean," he said.

And he's proud of this work, capturing an all-too-brief moment in Hollywood history when Dean burned brightly.

"It's enough to say he was in the movie business for 16 months and here we are, talking about him 46 years later," said Rydell. "That's a testimonial to the impact that he had, the power of his personality and his talent, which is indisputable."







RELATED SITE:
• TNT: 'James Dean'

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