Dallas Film Society’s 2014 The Art Of Film With Marisa Tomei Came Off Thanks To Flexibility

When it comes to special events, flexibility is the key to success. And it got a pretty healthy test for the Dallas Film Society’s The Art of Film.

After four years of guy-types on stage (Robert Duvall, John Lithgow, Val Kilmer and Lee Daniels), it was about time for a pair of high heels to make the grade.

DFS President/CEO Lee Papert and the crew were so proud that they had signed up Aussie Toni Collette. And instead of fighting traffic to get to the historical Hall of State in Fair Park, the Friday, November 21st event was being moved to the Perot Museum with its Hoglund Foundation Theater.

Then less than a month before “the big show,” Toni’s people reported that due to her shooting schedule in another country, she was going to have to curtsy out.

In lightning speed a replacement was found — Marisa Tomei.

Some film fans privately confessed that the change was an upgrade. After all, Marisa’s Oscar win for “My Cousin Vinny” trumped Toni’s Academy Award nomination for “The Sixth Sense”.

Everything was falling into place until the night of the event. One of the falling things was drip-drops of rain. That meant moving the red carpet show-and-swell inside. Easy to do. It just might be better in the lowest level of the Perot. That way guests could mosey to the elevators for a quick ride to the Lyda Hill Gems and Minerals exhibit on the third floor, where the VIP and cocktail receptions were taking place.

Then word was passed among insiders that Marisa had missed her original flight. But no big deal. She had caught the next flight and was on the ground in Dallas en route.

In the meantime, the red carpet was underway with still photographers and videographers playing nicely across the ropes. Only problem — unlike other red carpets events when VIP guests strutted their stuff, this red carpet only had about 10 couples walk the carpet. The rest just made their way behind the herd of photographers to the check-in and to the elevators.

Word eventually passed that Marisa was stuck in traffic congestion due to the Mavericks’ game down the road. The good news was that the 300 guests weren’t bothered. For some it was a first time to check out the Perot. For others (Kara and Randall Goss, Julianne Harris with Sam Johnson, Tanya and Pete Foster, Jack Bunning and Jeff Sauers, Jennifer and Coley Clark, Tara Lewis, Kit Sawers and Janie and David Condon), it was just fun talking films with plenty of adult beverages and pass-around-food.

DFS Artistic Director James Faust recalled having interviewed Marisa when she was at the Angelika for “The Wrestler.”.Proving that he knew his Marisa Tomei filmography, he admitted that his fav Tomei movie was “The Paper”…Melina McKinnon and Michael Cain were celebrating their 10^th wedding anniversary. After Art of Film, they were spending the night at The Joule… After just getting back from AFI tribute in L.A., Steve Stodghill said of his outfit, “I went totally L.A. — black on black on black.”.. Veletta Lill was solo due to husband John’s hand surgery…Gary Cogill reported that he has a Morgan Freeman movie coming out next year, but wasn’t working on a production currently …Gonzalo Bueno and Michael McCray were planning to take Faisal Halum out the next night to celebrate his belated birthday.

At 8:16 p.m., someone spied Marisa arriving behind the sponsor wall. Within seconds she was out front and inviting folks like Co-Chairs Pam and Mark Denesuk, Honorary Co-Chairs Barbara and Steve Durham, Libby Allred, Sheila and Jody Grant and Myrna and Bob Schlegel to join her.

As the line grew and grew for a photo opp with Marisa, it was decided to put a hold on the grip-and-grin so the “conversation” could take place in the theater. The rest of the photos would be taken afterwards.

Once in the theater, DFS Board Chair Don Stokes introduced Lee, who thanked the Denesuks and advised guests that Pam’s cookies were in their goody bags. Then DFS Artistic Director James Faust took over the mic telling the 300 guests that in the past four years more than $600K had been raised from Art of Film. He then introduced film-pert Elvis Mitchell, who has each year traveled to Dallas to conduct the interviews.

When Marisa was introduced, she appeared to have changed from a dress worn upstairs to red slacks and a print blouse with stilettos and her Egyptian eye of Ra tattoo on the top of her right foot.

Elvis kicked off the conversation asking her what it was like working with “titanic” actors. She admitted that she had indeed felt nervous working with Jack Nicholson. However, upon meeting him that first day of shooting, he told her that he was always nervous about filming. That seemed to calm her nerves. Other conversation highlights included:

• She liked Barbara Stanwyck.
• Robert Duvall told her to always name her pets after her characters, so her cat is named “Mabel” (for her Mabel Normand character in the 1992 Chaplin movie).
• When Elvis mentioned that “Danika” was a favorite of his, Marisa responded, “I didn’t think it came together, so glad you said that…I couldn’t follow it myself, personally.”
• About “My Cousin Vinny”: “I still like Vinny, like everybody else does.”

• 

  Recalling her days growing up in Brooklyn, she said she watched a lot of musicals — Gene Kelly, Ann Miller — “I wanted to be musical star.”

• Marisa emphasized the physicality of acting. She told how in one scene of the “Ides of March,” the director told her to lean back instead of forward. It changed the whole feel of the scene. He also told her, “You’re holding the cards!” She laughed, adding that she later found out that he said the same thing to the other actors in the film.
• Actor/directors are her favorites to work with, more than writer/directors, who keep it all in their heads. “I love language, word play.”
• One of her email aliases is Sugarpuss O’Shea, a character portrayed by Barbara Stanwyck in “Ball of Fire.”
• Regarding her appearing in “Seinfeld,” she doesn’t even remember filming the one-day job.

After the conversation, she was presented with the Art of Film Dallas Star Award, more photos were taken and guests headed to the lobby, where the dinosaur with a Christmas stocking cap stood in place.

A couple of ladies in the audience commented, “She’s so cute” and “She’s darling.” Not bad for a gal from Flatbush who was just two weeks shy of turning 50.