Vincent D’Onofrio Hung up on This Legendary Director Over a Huge Movie

Old Hollywood sounds pretty wild. I know so because my wife and I have both heard about it from our parents quite a bit. We’re both performers, and have both heard some version of “you should call Steven Spielberg” from the people who raised us. My mom went out of her way to call me once to ask why I wasn’t on Comic Book Men and to suggest that I send them an email. Not only would that likely not work, but it’s also not like the email would have even gone to the people in the show.

I auditioned for something a few weeks ago, and I had to submit myself for the ability to audtion. It wasn’t like I could just send something in. I had to send something in to send something in. There are many layers between you and the people you want to work for, until you reach a certain point. There are plenty of older stories, however, about people putting themselves out there and showing up to someone’s office despite having no credits and booking a gig. Or, about being so certain that you aren’t important that you assume the person calling you isn’t who they say they are.

That was the case for Vincent D’Onofrio when it came to one of his first film roles: Full Metal Jacket. The actor recently recounted learning that he was in the film on an episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers. D’Onofrio only had a small theater agent at the time, but his friend, Matthew Modine, insisted that Vincent send in materials to audition for the film. He did, and a week or so later, he received a phone call from someone claiming to be Stanley Kubrick, and because they had a Bronx accent, D’Onofrio thought it was one of his friends and hung up.

Eventually, someone called back, got him to stay on the line, and the rest is history. But the whole endeavor sounds pretty wild. The Men In Black actor describes renting a very expensive camera to shoot a self-tape on a stoop. But, clearly, it was worth it. He also explains shadowing Kubrick to a degree when he was on set, and got to see other actors have to go through as many as 60 takes on one scene, something Kubrick was quite known for.

Luckily, all of that brought us D’Onofrio’s incredible career. So, if someone calls you saying that they are Stanley Kubrick, you can safely assume that it is some kind of AI trickery. But if it were forty years ago, you might have wound up in a legendary film. Tomato tomato.