{"id":145912,"date":"2019-04-09T12:13:38","date_gmt":"2019-04-09T16:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=145912"},"modified":"2023-06-22T10:25:42","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T14:25:42","slug":"r-i-p-seymour-cassel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=145912","title":{"rendered":"R.I.P. Seymour Cassel"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nSeymour Cassel has died. A John Cassavetes regular, an essential member of that merry band of actor misfits, who followed their own sense of truth with an improvisatory and free-flowing jazz-riff style so impossible to replicate (even though so many directors have tried). His career was very much tied to Cassavetes. He also acted as producer on some of Cassavetes’ films. He appeared in Shadows<\/i>, Cassavetes’ first film, a warning shot to the Hollywood studio system in 1959. It would be 10 years before Cassavetes’ Faces<\/i> in 1968, which really ushered in the independent film movement in America. Made for almost nothing, it ended up being a huge hit, with multiple Oscar nominations (including a nomination for Cassel, who takes over the final third of the film). <\/p>\n

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The first Cassavetes film I saw was Minnie & Moskowitz<\/i>, not as well-known as Faces<\/i> or Woman Under the Influence<\/i> or even Husbands<\/i>. It’s Cassavetes’ version of a rom-com, starring Gena Rowlands as Minnie and Seymour Cassel, ponytailed and handlebar-mustachioed, as the exuberant volatile car park attendant Moskowitz. This film kills me. Maybe because it’s the first one I saw, it was my gateway drug. But it gets at loneliness, and what loneliness can do … you can’t separate yourself from loneliness, you can’t avoid how it warps your personality and your natural responses. It’s such a moving film, but it’s also so funny. I love Cassel as a romantic lead. <\/p>\n

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\nA whole new generation got to know Seymour Cassel through his presence in Wes Anderson’s films. This always made me so happy. It was a tribute. Not just to Cassel, but to those of us out there who knew him from Cassavetes’ films. When Seymour Cassel showed up in anything, it was like running into an old friend, an old friend you wished you saw more often. He brought with him that sense of familiarity. His distinct voice, his face, the way his mouth moved, the pathos and humor, the honesty. <\/p>\n

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\nWhen you’re a kid, the heroes you choose come so automatically it doesn’t feel like a choice. They’re just people who inspire you, who seem like they “have something,” a key to the secret of life, something. But when you look back, it’s extremely illuminating to see the people you were drawn to before you knew what life was all about. In those choices you can see the seeds of who you would become. And the group of people in John Cassavetes’ repertory company – Gena Rowlands, Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara, Seymour Cassel – these people were my heroes as a teenager, just as I was starting to get serious about acting. Going into acting with the Cassavetes example before you as the Be-All End-All of artistic life is highly recommended. Because what’s important is to make work that interests you, and to make work with your friends. That’s it. Don’t worry about the other stuff. Don’t try to fit in. Trying to fit in is such a worthless activity. Maybe it’s not worthless if you work in an office, maybe then it’s good to try to play well with others, but if you’re an artist, for God’s sake? No. Do not allow the WORLD’S values to be YOUR values. Who do you want to be? What kind of art do you want to make? What kind of LIFE do you want to have? The Cassavetes people knew the answers to these questions, and their careers – eclectic, passionate, full of stops-starts, but also so full of exhilarating confidence it makes all other work seem pale in comparison – show that they proceeded with a sense of purpose and camaraderie and freedom. They were the coolest fucking people in town. <\/p>\n

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The only one left now is Gena. <\/p>\n

Rest in peace, Seymour Cassel. <\/p>\n

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Seymour Cassel has died. A John Cassavetes regular, an essential member of that merry band of actor misfits, who followed their own sense of truth with an improvisatory and free-flowing jazz-riff style so impossible to replicate (even though so many … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,23],"tags":[1251,195,550,2293,2697,2334],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145912"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=145912"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187254,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145912\/revisions\/187254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=145912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=145912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=145912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}