Almost Famous
Short description
Almost Famous is set in 1973 and follows William Miller, a fifteen-year-old who dreams of writing about rock music. His reviews catch the attention of Rolling Stone magazine, which sends him on tour with Stillwater, a band on the rise. His mother opposes the trip, but William goes anyway, and once on the road he has to earn the trust of musicians who are wary of a journalist in their midst. As he travels with the band and their followers, he gradually stops being a detached observer and becomes part of the life around him. The story draws on director Cameron Crowe's own experiences as a young music journalist.
Crowe wrote and directed the film, his fourth feature after Say Anything..., Singles and Jerry Maguire. Patrick Fugit plays William, with Billy Crudup as guitarist Russell Hammond, Kate Hudson as Penny Lane, Frances McDormand as William's mother Elaine, Jason Lee as Jeff Bebe and Zooey Deschanel as his sister Anita. The production cost about 60 million USD and took roughly 47 million USD worldwide, a modest return for a studio release.
Audiences rate it highly: 7.9 out of 10 on IMDb from around 314,000 votes, and 7.5 out of 10 on TMDB from far fewer. Critics are more enthusiastic still, at 8.4 out of 10 from 229 reviews, so the professional response runs ahead of the audience scores. Roughly 116 cast members and 90 crew are credited.
What's left behind the scenes
- Jason Lee, who played Jeff Bebe, said he based his character on Paul Rodgers, the frontman of Free and Bad Company, while trying not to turn the character into a parody.
- The original screenplay by Cameron Crowe was 172 pages long.
- The full version of the film has a runtime of 162 minutes.
- The hand writing in a notebook during the opening credits belongs to Cameron Crowe himself.
- Willie Miller flips through old records in the film; all of them belonged to the director – he collected them in his youth.
- Billy Crudup was taught to play the guitar by rock musician Peter Frampton. Frampton also worked on the film as a musical consultant and even made a cameo appearance on screen. He has a long-standing friendship with the director – when he was 18, Crowe wrote an article about his album “Frampton Comes Alive!”
- In one scene, Penny Lane asks Willie if he's ready to leave with her for Morocco, and Willie replies, “Yes… ask me again.” Crowe revealed that the additional phrase “ask me again” wasn’t in the script. Actor Patrick Fugit simply asked Kate Hudson to repeat her line. However, the phrase worked well – Crowe left it in the final version of the film.
- The entire filming process took 92 days.
- Philip Seymour Hoffman was only able to spend four days on set, as he was ill with the flu for the rest of the time.
- Crowe wrote all the songs for the band Stillwater himself, in collaboration with his wife Nancy Wilson.
- The roles of Russell and Penny were originally intended for Brad Pitt and Sarah Polley. Polley left the film, becoming involved in a low-budget Canadian project, and Pitt once told the director that “I’m no longer going to appear in this.” As a result, Russell was played by Billy Crudup, and Penny by Kate Hudson, whom Crowe had initially planned to cast as Willy’s sister; the role of the sister thus went to Zooey Deschanel.
- At the moment when the characters think they are about to crash in a plane, Russell begins to sing Peggy Sue. This is a nod to Buddy Holly, who died in a plane crash during his musical tour. But in addition, the near-miss plane crash is a biographical fact from Crowe’s own life, as he was involved in a similar incident while traveling with The Who.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
