As we rolled into the production
lot for Dazed in central Austin, Texas, we saw a big white limo pull right up
to our GTO. Out of the limo, just back from the West Coast to seal the Dazed
deal, was the film’s writer and director, Richard Link later. He walked to the
GTO, looked inside, saw the shiny black buckets and stout shifter sticking up
from the console, and said to me, “This GTO will be the star of my movie—it
will be in every scene.”
1 car, shod with a
set of Goodyear Eagle S/T radials, poses on the side of the road. You can see
the wider Formula wheel and the vinyl-top seam
He then said, “Lets make a deal
for your car,” obviously speaking to me. I responded that this was James’ deal,
not mine. Rick, who looked much younger than his age (he was in his early 30s
at the time), shook hands with James. Seizing the moment, James pounced on his
opportunity. As he spoke, he sounded unequivocal. If Rick was using the ’70 GTO
in the movie, they had to use him in the movie, too. Not to be hoodwinked, he
said we wanted that written into the contract.
Rick and I were totally flummoxed
by James’ outspoken attitude. Jerry laughed, but Rick was very gracious and had
his people come up with a written contract that clearly stated the GTO and
James would be in the film.
As a result of this, Rick brought
out an early version of the script and noted that some of the scenes could
damage the GTO during chases and hoodlum mayhem. He thought it best that we
also provide a stunt double as filming was only 29 days away, and a very tight
schedule required a ’70 GTO to be in almost every scene. As I rolled all of
this around in my mind, I thought, so we spent three years putting my first ’70
GTO together and [production] wants another one in 29 days? Yikes!
The No. 1 car,
shod with a set of Goodyear Eagle S/T radials, poses on the side of the road.
You can see the wider Formula wheel and the vinyl-top seam
Austin, Texas’ GTO club took
action and found us a Pepper Green GTO on a used car lot for $1,600. We bought
it and began making it look as much like the No. 1 car as possible, right down
to the black vinyl top and rear spoiler. The GTO club and good friend John
McHenry worked all-nighters until the second GTO was completed. Both GTOs
portraying The Judge were delivered on a transport truck to the production lot
in Austin with hours to spare before the deadline.
In the meantime, Rick and Jerry
heard from other local GTO guys that my GTOs should not be used in the film, as
they were not real Judges. Rick’s comment was, “The camera does not care what
the build sheet says, only that they look the part in charismatic Orbit Orange
instead of boring Pepper Green or Bamboo Cream,” the colors of the cars that
these local GTO experts were offering.
So there you have it. James had
himself written into Dazed and appeared in many scenes. He also discovered how
boring and repetitive it was to make a movie, as the cast and crew toiled night
after night to film three or four minutes of usable footage for the final cut.
I ended up very tired as Dazed requested we bring as many as 10 or 12 cars at a
time to the various shooting locations, which we did. I appeared in some of the
drive-by shots and can be seen (with a wig on) sitting behind the wheel of my
Fontaine Blue ’65 Catalina 2+2 in the Top Notch Drive-In scenes in the film.
The No. 1 car is
in the foreground. Though there were subtle visual differences between the two
GTOs, they portray the same character on screen. If before reading this story
you already figured out that there were two lookalike GTOs used in the filming
of Dazed and Confused, you can congratulate yourself for being a very keen
observer!
Eventually the main scenes were
shot and the fun was over.
There was only one thing left.
Rick decided that my triple-black ’68 GTO needed to be his. Thus, after filming
the insert footage to make it appear that the convenience store fast getaway
scene used a Hurst Dual-Gate shifter (which was in the black ’68 GTO, not the ’70
GTOs ), Rick asked if we would sell him the ’68 GTO. The answer was easy. We
sold it to him for exactly what we had paid for it.
Just as the earlier touchstones
Two Lane Blacktop and American Graffiti inspired Rick to make Dazed, the actors
and actresses were not well known, but in the fullness of time, they became
household names: Ben Affleck, Matthew Mc Conaughey, Parker Posey, Milla
Jovov-ich, Joey Lauren Adams, Rory Cochrane, Marissa Ribisi, Afam Goldberg …
the list goes on and on. Even a little-known gal by the name of Renée Zellweger
was in the movie as an extra—no screen credit was given to her minor role.
In the end, the Dazed movie
experience was a lot of fun and the adventure of a lifetime for James and me. I
even have a screen credit at the end: “Special Thanks To Pat Sullivan.”
