Time Warner On Demand

Sorry it took me so long to write back, but I wanted to talk to my partner and the actress, Allison Sarofim, who plays Beth, the woman he roughs up in the bathroom to find out where Billy is. First, you should know that Dave is both a consummate professional and at the same time he was THE practical joker on set. So funny that one of the film's most nefarious characters was, in real life, the funniest. Our first day of shooting with his was literally "trial by fire." Which means we'd rigged a giant gas line out of view behind Troy's profile and shot a get stream of fire in Dave's face. He was quite right to be concerned that we wouldn't torch his face, one false move, and it would would have been Dave "bacon-face" Mattthews. But like I said, he did his own stunts because he wanted his face in the shot.

We'd run takes with him over and over, sometimes asking him for a "deranged" version, so he could try out his own interpretation. These were often the takes we used. He had an enormous amount of respect for Sissy (who doesn't?), but I'll tell you this: he earned that respect right back from her. Often we'd do a take where the camera was on her, and due to our limited budget, we wouldn't be able to have a camera on Dave at the same time, so the minute we'd say Cut! Sissy would stop and say, Hey, guys, is there anyway we can get Dave doing that (meaning some great little character flourish) again. She was very impressed with him.

I'll also say Dave spoke to everyone the same, no matter your station. He spoke to the stars and to us the same way he'd speak to the youngest PA--with respect. And he was always prepared, and sometimes a bit method. For instance, to do the scene where he wakes up in a motel room after an all-night bender, he'd stayed up all night the night before writing a song about heroin. He was so focused and brought such an original, deranged take to what could have been a stock villain. You saw him go from scary-ass dealer, to pathetic middle man in fear for his life.

I regret not including more of said scenes where he roughs up Allison Sarofim. Their scenes were magic. He busted into her apartment, seduced her into serving up some drinks, then yanked her and dragged her by the hair, kicking and screaming, all the way to the bathroom before he shoved her face in the glass mirror. Neither used padding, they both wanted it all to look as authentic as possible. And it did. I would consider it an honor to work with them both again. Best, Perry co-director, co-writer