DEADLINE: You’ve always populated your films with music industry people. Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chains is the Kinko’s guy. Jann Wenner is the head of the sports agency. But the big surprise was Eagles front man Glenn Frey, who played the Cardinals owner sparring with Maguire over Rod Tidwell’s contract extension. Frey was among many iconic musicians who passed away in 2016, but it feels like he was a more formative influence for you than perhaps anyone else, going back to when you were the teenage Rolling Stone reporter we met in Almost Famous.
CROWE: I always felt Glenn was an incredibly special guy. I never had an older brother, and he was probably closest to that. Meeting him when I was 15, and hearing his tale of coming out from Detroit, and how he wanted to stay a fan, but yet build this band into something. He would give me tips on girlfriends that were rejecting me, stuff like that. Some of that landed in
Fast Times. You know, ‘she can’t smell your qualifications, move on.’ That was Glenn. So I always knew Glenn was this big personality. As we were trying to find somebody for that part, I just started to fixate on him. Glenn is a big sports guy and would always talk sports in such a flowing, fun way. I had met Jim Irsay, who was working with the Colts, and he reminded me a little bit of Glenn, too. So we brought Glenn in, and immediately, he really took to the part. It was fun for me because it tied the Rolling Stone experience as a journalist on the beat with The Eagles to this directing thing I was now attempting.
DEADLINE: Why was that important?
CROWE: It was during
Jerry Maguire that I really started to feel a rhythm of directing, like, this is my style, I want to build on this. That happened in the kitchen scene with Dorothy, and Ray, and Jerry coming to take her out on a date. We were playing
Secret Garden. Renee, in the Audrey Hepburn dress, was looking at him hug Ray, and I just felt like, oh, I just want to do this forever. But Glenn was like a wonderful kind of holding hands with the past. Glenn was so successful that he was a big dog in his world, and Cruise, obviously, was a big dog in his acting world. The two of them together bumped against each other in a really fun way. So when Glenn would say, ‘you’re reaching, Jerry,’ and would really beat up on Jerry, Tom would take me aside and say, ‘this guy’s really hammering me. How much is he worth? I mean, he’s like a big time guy, right? I said, yeah, but this is new to him. Then, Glenn would pull me aside and say, ‘Tom is such a serious dude. How much is he worth?’ I felt like these guys are born to be sparring partners in the movie. Another thing about Glenn is his nose for the hook. I said, you should do some music for us. I mentioned this acoustic song he wrote that I knew he had never recorded. He said, ‘no, no, no, no, no. I got a better idea for you.’ A couple days later, he called me into his trailer, and he played me this eight-minute funk track called
Show Me the Money, and that was the first time where I felt like, wow, people are really responding to this phrase, show me the money, and Glenn went right for it. So I just loved him in the part, I loved the way he holds his ground and begrudgingly gives a little love to Jerry at the end. But for me, the best part is when Jerry is on the ropes and begging, and Glenn just smoothly slaps him down. ‘You’re reaching, Jerry.’ It’s very Glenn. He had done something for Michael Mann, and he had the acting bug already.
DEADLINE: Miami Vice,
right?
CROWE: That’s right,
Miami Vice. The idea was to populate the movie with people that you wouldn’t expect to see with Tom, so it would take the kind of big star-ness off of the casting of Tom and bring up the character side. If you’re seeing him with Jerry Cantrell, you’re not going to see that in
Mission:Impossible, or with the nanny, Chad. All these people allowed you to believe that Jerry Maguire was a living, breathing guy who just happened to be played by Tom.
DEADLINE: So who was worth more in the mid-’90s, Glenn Frey or Tom Cruise?
CROWE: [Laughs]. Tie.
Re: Jerry Maguire
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