Being There
Short description
Chance, a gardener who has spent his entire life tending the grounds of a Washington, D.C. townhouse, knows the outside world only through television. When the elderly owner dies, he is turned out onto the street with no experience of how to live among people. Chance soon encounters Eve Rand, whose car strikes him, and she brings him to her home to recover. There her husband, the ailing businessman Benjamin Rand, takes his odd remarks as wisdom, and so does the President of the United States when Chance happens to sit in on a conversation. His simple statements about gardens are mistaken for political insight, and Washington society begins to treat him as a sage.
Hal Ashby directed this 1979 comedy-drama, his fifth feature after Coming Home, working from a screenplay by Robert C. Jones and Jerzy Kosiński. Peter Sellers plays Chance, with Shirley MacLaine as Eve and Melvyn Douglas as Benjamin; the cast also includes Jack Warden, Richard Dysart and Richard Basehart, among twenty-two credited performers. The film earned about 30 million dollars worldwide.
On IMDb it holds 7.9/10 from roughly 83,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.6/10 from about 1,165 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 8.8/10 from 64 reviews, higher than the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on Jerzy Kosinski's novel "The Gardener" (Being There, 1971).
- Peter Sellers was nominated for an «Oscar» for his role in this film.
- It took Peter Sellers (1925-1980) almost 9 years to agree to make this film at the urging of the film studios, as his career was already over in the 1970s and no one in Hollywood wanted to associate with him. The only exception was the now-defunct Lorimar Pictures (an American television production company and a subsidiary of Warner Bros.).
- At the 76th minute of the film, director Hal Ashby makes a cameo appearance – he is signing papers in the background.
- Preparing for the role, Peter Sellers repeatedly recorded his lines in a variety of styles and tones. In the end, he chose a cold and emotionless style.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
