Austin Pendleton, “The Most Famous Actor You’ve Never Heard Of”
If you hear the name Austin Pendelton, it may not ring a bell. But if you’ve ever seen the 1992 movie, My Cousin Vinny, you will undoubtedly remember the public defender character, who spit and stuttered his way into our hearts and our memory. Apparently, we are not alone, but share the love of Austin’s talent with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and many other stars.
Gene Gallerano, and David H. Holmes co-directed a documentary short “Starring Austin Pendleton”, showing at this week’s Oak Cliff Film Festival. They followed Austin over six years as he reflected on his life and craft, while his A-list peers discuss his vast influence and dogged determination, and what it means to be an original in today’s celebrity obsessed world.
AdChat DFW asked the directors about the decision to do the documentary and how they got celebrities to talk about their love of Pendelton.
Co-director Gene Gallerano stated, ” The documentary is essentially about how we define success through the lense and philosophy of the character actor named Austin Pendelton who has been in hundreds of movies. The project started out as an educational movie but it that idea quickly took a back seat after interviewing Philip Seymour Hoffman, Olympia Dukakis, Ethan Hawke and other notables. We realized we had something deeper and decided to go down the path of shooting a documentary and six and half years later, we now have this documentary short. It was incredibly easy to get celebrities to talk about Austin because of their love and respect for him.”
Co-director Holmes added, “The decision to do the short was based on years of studying with Austin, being directed by him in a few plays, and just generally being in awe of his presence, his intellect and his artistry, and being baffled by the fact that no one else had made a film of him yet. In regards to the celebrities, it was very easy actually, as all we had to do was write their PR person and explain who the documentary was going to be about, and that was it. Everyone lent their time and insights to us based more so on their affection and respect for Austin than anything necessarily that we had done as filmmakers. I think that speaks volumes about the man.”
Learn more about the 5th edition of the Oak Cliff Film Festival running June 16-19
Watch Teaser…
Watch My Cousin Vinny Austin Pendelton scene…
