Sean Connery, Fear, and a Suzuki (Low-)Esteem

Oh shit! I have visions of a very menacing Sean Connery throwing me out a window if we’re late. I mean come on, this guy had a “license to kill”

When I was doing the Sound Design on Finding Forrester, (credited as Supervising Sound Editor) I had the opportunity to work with one of my boyhood idols, Sean Connery. He was not only the star of the film he was also a producer. 

We all know him as James Bond but I was a huge fan of The Man Who Would Be King, The Wind and The Lion, and so many other films. I’ve been lucky enough to have worked with some great actors over the years but Sean Connery is an icon. 

We’ve heard lots of stories over the years about how hard it can be to work with Sean Connery. He is a stickler for details, is always prepared, and hates wasting time. When he shows up he wants to get to work. I have heard he can be pretty intense if you’re not prepared when you call him to the set, or wherever. Basically the man is a total professional when it comes to his work and I respect that. 

One story I heard was on the first day when the full cast got together for the read through one of the actors was 45 minutes late. The actor finally showed up with an entourage and was taking his time saying hello to everyone and acting like him being later than everyone else was no big deal. Connery sat in his chair looking straight ahead. When the actor finally approached him and said something along the lines of “Good morning Sean, how are you doing?” Connery stared straight ahead and said (very intensely) “I was fine, 45 minutes ago...” And with that the actor told his entourage to go, sat down at the table, and was never late again on this film. 

He may have been in his seventies at the time, but at 6’2” and probably a solid 225 pounds he still looked like he could kick ass. 

On this one particular day, Peter, the ADR editor and I fly down to Berkeley for the day, where the film is being edited, to record ADR with Sean. He is flying in from wherever he was living (Bahamas?) on Sony’s corporate jet to meet with Gus and the other producers and do the ADR. 

We’ve done our home work. Everything was labeled and prepped, we had all of our paperwork filled out for the engineers and marked pages for Sean and the Director. We carried everything on so nothing was out of our sight.

We get to the airport early and naturally our flight is delayed. Not too bad, but enough so that we won’t have the leisurely morning we were planning on after we arrive in Berkeley. The plane lands about an hour late and Peter and I run to the rental car counter to pick up our car. 

There is a huge line at the counter and it’s not moving. At all. In fact it hasn’t moved in quite a while. We find out they’re all out of cars and we will have to wait to get one. Have you ever heard of a major rental car company being out of cars? WTF!

I point out that we have a reservation… Well, so does everyone else and they are all pissed! The people at the desk are telling us it’s going to be at least an hour before we can get a car, if we’re lucky. 

Oh shit! I have visions of a very menacing Sean Connery throwing me out a window if we’re late. I mean come on, this guy had a “license to kill”

There’s no way we can wait that long just to find out if we can get a car. I look over at another rental car counter next to where we’re standing. The woman behind the counter looks at me, puts one hand up to hide her mouth from the others and motions “I have one car left. Do you want it?” 

Like an Olympic high jumper I leap over the rope and head straight to the other counter ready to push anyone out of my way. The woman hooks us up with the only car they have. A Suzuki Esteem. 

Have you ever seen a Suzuki Esteem? It should be called the Low-Esteem because it’s really cheap, no frills, and tiny. Really tiny. Unbelievably tiny. 

It doesn’t matter. We’re on a mission. We’re running out of time and we need to get to the studio! I feel like I’m in one of those movies where if I don’t accomplish a certain task on time a bomb is going to go off somewhere in the city. That line from The Blues Brothers movie runs through my head, “We’re on a mission from God!”

For the record, Peter and I are not big guys. We’re average size but this car is so small that sitting in the front seat our shoulders are bumping into each other as I’m driving this tiny death trap. 

When I pull onto the freeway there is a ton of traffic, moving much faster than we are able to and at this point I realize, I may die trying to get to the recording session but I’m going to do my damnedest to get there on time. I would rather end up in the hospital then have Sean Connery pissed because we’re late. I put my foot to the floor and it makes absolutely no difference in our speed. A kind person allows us to merge. 

Of course traffic immediately slows down and there are tons of delays but we finally make it to the studio. We sprint to the ADR stage and lay out all our cue sheets. Let me just say that Peter was a true professional and everything is extremely organized and laid out perfectly. 

Sweating, I take the slowest elevator ride of my life up to the third floor where the post-production offices are. I walk in the door right on time. Everyone is there. Sean Connery seems very friendly and shakes my hand firmly. I tell him we’re ready and off we go to the ADR stage. 

We lay down a couple of lines of dialogue and then it happens… 

We have an equipment failure. One of the machines is not tracking correctly. They have to call in an engineer to figure out what’s wrong. I look over at Sean. Am we going to witness this legendary temper? 

He just smiles and says something like, “These things happen.” And for the next 30 minutes while the guys in the studio are sweating trying to get stuff fixed, Sean Connery regales us with stories about old Hollywood and classic films he’s worked on, including The Man Who Would Be King, and The Wind and The Lion. He is entertaining and really goddamn funny. 

Once the machines are fixed and running properly we finish up all of his ADR. He tells us a few more wonderful stories, shakes our hands, and tells us what a pleasure it is to work with us. Then he heads back upstairs to continue his meetings. 

I let out a huge sigh of relief. Peter and I slowly drive the Low-Esteem back to the airport and fly home later that day with no delays.

What a day!

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