Pin It

Almost Famous

6 things nosotros learned from the Almost Famous 20th anniversary podcast

From a potential David Bowie cameo to Brad Pitt near starring as Stillwater guitarist Russell Hammond, we've picked the highlights from Origins: Almost Famous Turns Twenty

In 1972, a young writer called Cameron Crowe rang upwardly the offices of Rolling Stone with a scoop on Bob Dylan. The story went alee, but what the editors didn't realise was that the author was just xv. Crowe would carry on to become the youngest person ever to write a cover feature for the magazine, travelling with the likes of Led Zeppelin and The Who on tour, and later, solidifying his own experiences in what nosotros now recognise equally the hit film, Almost Famous.

20 years on, Crowe's motion picture virtually the misadventures of child prodigy William Miller every bit he accompanies Stillwater, a rock ring, on bout as a journalist, remains a gloriously cool testament to youth and lost innocence, while shining a light on the heady years at the height of sex, drugs, and rock and ringlet in the late 60s.

To gloat the milestone, the original cast and coiffure accept reunited for a special v-role ceremony podcast, hosted by James Andrew Miller. Cadence13's Origins: About Famous Turns Twenty provides fun backside-the-scenes details and anecdotes surrounding Crowe'due south semi-autobiographical motion-picture show, and features the likes of Kate Hudson (Penny Lane), Patrick Fugit (William Miller), Billy Crudup (Russell Hammond), Frances McDormand (Elaine Miller), and more, with Crowe sharing his memories of making the motion-picture show and its impact and legacy.

"If I could tell a story well-nigh discovering music," Crowe says, "the style music tin change your life and your family and not necessarily be all about sex and drugs – all the very easily stereotyped aspects of rock – if you can tell a love story nigh music in that tone, well, that would be the way to tell that story."

Beneath, we've rounded up all the things we've learned from the podcast.

BRAD PITT NEARLY STARRED Every bit RUSSELL HAMMOND

Brad Pitt was originally chosen to play the role of Stillwater'due south pb guitarist, Russell Hammond, but backed out four months later on from what casting director Gail Levin suspects every bit financial reasons. Crowe met Pitt in 1989 after his directorial debut, Say Anything, and spoke again after the breakout striking, Jerry McGuire. According to Crowe, Pitt was enquiring about his side by side motion picture: "He was just starting out, and he just really had something."

Pitt eventually read for the function of Russell alongside Natalie Portman, who was slated to play Penny Lane. "I would go to his house, we would read through information technology," Crowe says. "We geeked out virtually music and everything. He was slowly putting on the Russell Hammond persona."

When Pitt left the project, "I wept," Crowe laughs in the podcast. "I tortured all of my friends with, 'What the fuck are we going to practise?' Just I think in the back of my brain, I knew that he had never fully fallen in love with the grapheme."

"I remember half-dozen or vii months later, he merely walked in the door 1 day at our part, said he was driving by, just wanted to come up in and say that we'd always been on his mind, and good luck. And he left. I loved him for it."

DAVID BOWIE WAS MEANT TO CAMEO

An early on typhoon of the script was centred around the grapheme Ricky Fedora, an English stone star based off of Peter Frampton. Crowe also wrote a role specifically for David Bowie, which he'd modelled on early rock publicist Russ Shaw. Only afterward the release of Austin Powers in 1997, "The idea of a foppish British rock star was all of a sudden a comical affair," Crowe said. "It was too Austin Powers." He inverse the film's angle to make information technology nigh an American ring instead – hence, Stillwater.

"The only sad role of that is I had no part for David Bowie," he said. "So when I concluding saw David Bowie, information technology was at an Well-nigh Famous consequence. I was able to tell him that the whole affair began with me wanting to write a part for him that he could play. He said, 'Well, write me another one'. I was trying to do that when he died."

KATE HUDSON WAS MEANT TO STAR Every bit WILLIAM'Due south SISTER

Before she played the iconic office of free-spirited band groupie Penny Lane, Hudson was meant to play the role of Anita, William's rebellious sis who runs abroad to San Diego to get a stewardess, gifting William all of her albums (including Simon and Garfunkel'due south Bookends) earlier she leaves ("one 24-hour interval you'll be cool"). But when Sarah Polley, who was hired as Penny, left the project, Hudson begged Crowe to audition for the role.

"I did a screen examination with Kate equally Penny Lane, and it wasn't the mystical kind of Penny Lane that I'd been working on with Sarah Polley," Crowe said. "Hither was somebody that simply walks in the room and you're like, 'I love her!' She was that graphic symbol."

Instead, Deschanel was given the role of Anita. "It actually ended upwardly making so much sense considering Kate was so brilliant in the Penny part – she was so perfect for that office," Deschanel said. "That just concluded up being a full career-making role."

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN REFUSED TO READ FOR THE PART OF LESTER BANGS

Arguably one of the best performances in the film is Philip Seymour Hoffman'southward gonzo rock critic Lester Bangs. "We read so many people, and there were then many great Lesters that happened," reflects Crowe. "Merely nobody was really that magical version of the guy that I remember – the guy that changed my life."

According to Levin, Hoffman refused to read for the part, instead choosing to rant about an American Express billboard he'd seen en road to the audience. "It wasn't anything negative," Levin said. "It was just something that he was talking virtually in a very impassioned mode. That's how smart this actor was: He came in and created this sort of improv that was channeling that character and created a faux audition without really auditioning, and that was, to me, astonishing."

HUDSON DID AN ALL-NIGHTER BEFORE THE CENTRAL PARK SCENE

There'due south a scene near the end of the moving picture where Penny meets upwardly with Stillwater in New York, against Russell's wishes. His girlfriend tells him that Penny's "creeping her out", to which the ring'due south manager kicks her out. Returning to her hotel room at the Plaza, she overdoses on quaaludes but is rescued by William. The pair take a stroll through Central Park the post-obit morning, where she finally tells William her real name.

The nighttime earlier filming the scene, Hudson had gone out partying with Jimmy Fallon (who plays Dennis Hope) and Jason Lee (Jeff Bebe). "I thought, 'Well, shit, I'm just going to get right to work,'" Hudson remembered. "'And this is nifty 'cause it's my hangover scene!'" Hudson was warned by a producer to not let Crowe encounter her in her political party become-upwardly, but he did anyway. "Cameron sees me and he looks at me, and I await at him, (we make) middle contact, and he goes, 'Rock & gyre'."

THE FILM WAS NEARLY CALLED UNTITLED

Crowe originally named the film Untitled as a reference to Led Zeppelin's fourth album (it was Crowe's fourth film too). "I liked the idea that there was going to exist a music reference at every turn, and that was like Led Zeppelin had the untitled anthology," he said. Still, the studio refused to go ahead with the name, and Almost Famous was chosen instead.

Listen to Cadence13'due south Origins: Almost Famous Turns Xx here.