As the coming-of-age rock tale turns 20, the cast and crew remember how a star’s badly aimed jump and other near-misses became a standout scene.
The writer-director Cameron Crowe was already a beloved voice in cinema for high school tales like “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and “Say Anything.” Then came “Almost Famous” (2000). Also a coming-of-age story, it gave audiences a backstage pass to the 1970s rock ’n’ roll scene and in the process became a classic.
Loosely based on Crowe’s teenage years as a music journalist covering the Allman Brothers Band and Led Zeppelin, “Almost Famous” is the story of the 15-year-old aspiring scribe William Miller (Patrick Fugit), who gets the opportunity of a lifetime when Rolling Stone magazine sends him from his home in San Diego on tour with Stillwater, fictitious rockers on the verge of fame. As they travel, William forges relationships with the guitarist, Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), and a “Band Aid,” or groupie, Penny Lane (Kate Hudson).
“Almost Famous” was released on Sept. 13, 2000, and gave Hudson and Fugit their big breaks, and Crowe an Oscar for original screenplay. As it nears its 20th anniversary, the movie has been the subject of a stage adaptation (headed to Broadway but delayed because of the pandemic) and a podcast. It’s beloved in part for standout scenes like one riffing on 1970s rock-star hubris: during a tour stop in Topeka, Kan., Russell crashes a party and ends up on the roof of a house tripping on acid, ready to jump into a murky pool. Before he does, he has a few final words: “I am a golden god!” Also, “I’m on drugs!”
I talked to the film’s cast and crew — including Crudup, Fugit, Crowe, the editor Joe Hutshing, the production designer Clay Griffith, and the costume designer Betsy Heimann — about how that scene came to be.
Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant was the inspiration, and not just for the quote.
CAMERON CROWE There was a famous moment where [Plant] was on the balcony of the Continental Hyatt House, [the Sunset Strip hotel known as] the Riot House. I think there’s even a photo of the moment, and he’s holding his hands out, and he said, “I am a golden god!” It’s Zeppelin lore.
BILLY CRUDUP The reason Robert Plant said it was because he had long, golden hair. Because my hair is brown, I wasn’t making that connection at all. I was just imagining that Russell was thinking of himself as some sort of tribal idol.
CROWE When I was writing it, I was thinking, I love the playful relationship Plant had with his own image. Sometimes he would wear a Robert Plant fan T-shirt that someone had thrown onstage. He just had a wonderful sense of humor about his position as a big-time rock star. Wearing that shirt was saying that he understands the fan experience. In effect he’s one of them. Russell being with fans was doing a version of the same thing. “We understand each other, and I can even collaborate with you about my deepest feeling from your roof!”
CRUDUP Cameron, from his perspective as somebody who had spent time around these [famous] people, wanted to articulate their utter humanness, even with somebody like Russell. What it took was an acid trip for him to expose this childlike experience of being a rock god.
CROWE Russell goes to the fan’s home in search of “what’s real.” This was originally one of the discarded titles for the movie, “Something Real.” Before Russell is pulled back into the hermetically sealed world of Stillwater, I just wanted to make sure that we celebrated the fans there because “Almost Famous” is so much about us as fans of music. To me, the sequence with Billy on the roof, in the pool, that whole joke lives in a little bit of a love letter to the fans, which is what I always wanted it to be.
The film’s Topeka party sequence became an actual party.
CRUDUP We spent, I think, two days or three days in that house with all of the background artists who were playing the partygoers. To have everybody gathered around was quite a joyful experience.
CROWE Mary-Louise Parker [Crudup’s partner for a time] showed up, Nancy Wilson [the Heart rocker who contributed music to the film and Crowe’s wife at the time] showed up, and it really became like a Topeka party.
CLAY GRIFFITH We cast the extras more by their look. We had a bunch of extras one day in San Diego, and they all looked too contemporary. I’m not sure how to say what a 1970s look is, but it definitely was [very] 1990s. So, we went to local places, I can’t remember if it was bars or restaurants, starting to pick people out and asking if they wanted to be in this movie.
FUGIT [That house] was the first time I was around a lot of people closer to my age.
CROWE The people that lived there became part of the party, too. But it was filled with these extras. It was heavenly because, as it happened a few times, life became the movie, which became life, which became the movie. Patrick was that age and entranced with Kate Hudson, just like the character.
FUGIT She came from Hollywood royalty and [her mother, Goldie Hawn, and stepfather, Kurt Russell] would come to set. That was crazy to me because I had grown up watching a lot of their movies. Also Kate is beautiful and talented. It made an impression on 16-year-old me. I crushed on her for two months. As we got more and more into filming, she became much like an older sister.
by Ilana Kaplan, NY Times | Read more:
Image: Almost Famous/DreamWorks Pictures
The writer-director Cameron Crowe was already a beloved voice in cinema for high school tales like “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and “Say Anything.” Then came “Almost Famous” (2000). Also a coming-of-age story, it gave audiences a backstage pass to the 1970s rock ’n’ roll scene and in the process became a classic.
Loosely based on Crowe’s teenage years as a music journalist covering the Allman Brothers Band and Led Zeppelin, “Almost Famous” is the story of the 15-year-old aspiring scribe William Miller (Patrick Fugit), who gets the opportunity of a lifetime when Rolling Stone magazine sends him from his home in San Diego on tour with Stillwater, fictitious rockers on the verge of fame. As they travel, William forges relationships with the guitarist, Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup), and a “Band Aid,” or groupie, Penny Lane (Kate Hudson).
“Almost Famous” was released on Sept. 13, 2000, and gave Hudson and Fugit their big breaks, and Crowe an Oscar for original screenplay. As it nears its 20th anniversary, the movie has been the subject of a stage adaptation (headed to Broadway but delayed because of the pandemic) and a podcast. It’s beloved in part for standout scenes like one riffing on 1970s rock-star hubris: during a tour stop in Topeka, Kan., Russell crashes a party and ends up on the roof of a house tripping on acid, ready to jump into a murky pool. Before he does, he has a few final words: “I am a golden god!” Also, “I’m on drugs!”I talked to the film’s cast and crew — including Crudup, Fugit, Crowe, the editor Joe Hutshing, the production designer Clay Griffith, and the costume designer Betsy Heimann — about how that scene came to be.
Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant was the inspiration, and not just for the quote.
CAMERON CROWE There was a famous moment where [Plant] was on the balcony of the Continental Hyatt House, [the Sunset Strip hotel known as] the Riot House. I think there’s even a photo of the moment, and he’s holding his hands out, and he said, “I am a golden god!” It’s Zeppelin lore.
BILLY CRUDUP The reason Robert Plant said it was because he had long, golden hair. Because my hair is brown, I wasn’t making that connection at all. I was just imagining that Russell was thinking of himself as some sort of tribal idol.
CROWE When I was writing it, I was thinking, I love the playful relationship Plant had with his own image. Sometimes he would wear a Robert Plant fan T-shirt that someone had thrown onstage. He just had a wonderful sense of humor about his position as a big-time rock star. Wearing that shirt was saying that he understands the fan experience. In effect he’s one of them. Russell being with fans was doing a version of the same thing. “We understand each other, and I can even collaborate with you about my deepest feeling from your roof!”
CRUDUP Cameron, from his perspective as somebody who had spent time around these [famous] people, wanted to articulate their utter humanness, even with somebody like Russell. What it took was an acid trip for him to expose this childlike experience of being a rock god.
CROWE Russell goes to the fan’s home in search of “what’s real.” This was originally one of the discarded titles for the movie, “Something Real.” Before Russell is pulled back into the hermetically sealed world of Stillwater, I just wanted to make sure that we celebrated the fans there because “Almost Famous” is so much about us as fans of music. To me, the sequence with Billy on the roof, in the pool, that whole joke lives in a little bit of a love letter to the fans, which is what I always wanted it to be.
The film’s Topeka party sequence became an actual party.
CRUDUP We spent, I think, two days or three days in that house with all of the background artists who were playing the partygoers. To have everybody gathered around was quite a joyful experience.
CROWE Mary-Louise Parker [Crudup’s partner for a time] showed up, Nancy Wilson [the Heart rocker who contributed music to the film and Crowe’s wife at the time] showed up, and it really became like a Topeka party.
CLAY GRIFFITH We cast the extras more by their look. We had a bunch of extras one day in San Diego, and they all looked too contemporary. I’m not sure how to say what a 1970s look is, but it definitely was [very] 1990s. So, we went to local places, I can’t remember if it was bars or restaurants, starting to pick people out and asking if they wanted to be in this movie.
FUGIT [That house] was the first time I was around a lot of people closer to my age.
CROWE The people that lived there became part of the party, too. But it was filled with these extras. It was heavenly because, as it happened a few times, life became the movie, which became life, which became the movie. Patrick was that age and entranced with Kate Hudson, just like the character.
FUGIT She came from Hollywood royalty and [her mother, Goldie Hawn, and stepfather, Kurt Russell] would come to set. That was crazy to me because I had grown up watching a lot of their movies. Also Kate is beautiful and talented. It made an impression on 16-year-old me. I crushed on her for two months. As we got more and more into filming, she became much like an older sister.
by Ilana Kaplan, NY Times | Read more:
Image: Almost Famous/DreamWorks Pictures
[ed. I loved this movie (and a later one - Singles - about the Seattle music scene). See also: FILM: BACK TO THE 70's; The Extraordinary Adolescence of Cameron Crowe (NYT).]
