‘Let’s Have a Shit, Shave, and Shower and Back at It.’

Screenwriter Brian Koppelman, on working with Sean Connery:

We do what we can and then get the call. He’s coming at 9AM the next morning. So we do what you’d have done — we get a sliced fruit platter and put it out with some paper plates.

9AM on the damn button, a knock at the door. And there he is, wearing a hat similar to the one from The Untouchables. “I’m Sean. Throw a Sir on that and watch me walk out the door.”

“Yes, sir, I mean Mr. Connery, I mean … would you like some fruit? A slice of pineapple maybe?”

A smile comes to his face. He sees what this means to us. “I’d love some fruit. That’s kind of you.” He sits down and we go to work. He has incredibly smart notes on every page. These are not notes from our draft. They are from the prior draft. He’s telling us the movie he wants.

Should we get the studio or director on the speaker phone? “No. Youse’ll tell em what we’re gonna do.”

We spend the day working. He then says one of our favorite lines ever. “That’s about half the thing. Let’s have a shit, shave and shower and back at it.”

Be on time, be gracious, be prepared, do the work. That’s a recipe for success. And Koppelman’s story only gets better from there.

Here’s a another great Connery story, for good measure.

★ Monday, 2 November 2020