There are quite a few exceptional filmmakers in the industry that have some attributes that differentiate their directorial styles from one another, and make them stand out from the rest. Among them, Francis Ford Coppola has the uncanny characteristic of asking some very strange requests from his stars to make the perfect shot look even better.
In fact, the director has such a deep thought process that many people may not even understand what he’s trying to accomplish. Matt Damon experienced this firsthand when he was shooting The Rainmaker together with Coppola, and out of nowhere, he asked him to put rocks in his shoes and act like he was walking normally without the hint that he was uncomfortable inside.
Francis Ford Coppola Asked Matt Damon To Walk Normally With Rocks In His Shoes
When you are hailed as arguably the biggest and most legendary filmmaker of all time, people realize that the perspective that you look at a shot or a scene from is completely different from almost everyone around you. Thus, Francis Ford Coppola‘s decisions and demands from his stars seem so peculiar and bizarre to everyone else but him.
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And in this signature fashion of his, he once asked Matt Damon to put rocks in his shoes and walk normally while shooting a scene for their film The Rainmaker. In an episode of Hot Ones on YouTube, host Sean Evans asked the Saving Private Ryan star about this particular incident on set and what it was like to work with The Godfather director.
Since the scene was a very impactful one that required his character to look calm and composed on the outside, but nervous on the inside, Coppola demanded him to put those rocks in his shoes to bring out that emotion. He said:
“I was walking into a meeting, and then the setup, it’s a long conference table. These formidable people with this incredibly formidable guy in the middle of them, right? Francis put rocks in my shoes and then just told me to walk normally. You just want to be uncomfortable and try to act as comfortable as you can because you don’t want them to see how uncomfortable you are.”
When you really think about it, this was an amazing and creative way by the director to bring out the potential of his star into the shot with deadly accuracy, something that truly highlights his genius.
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What Was The Rainmaker About?
Adapted from the 1995 novel of the same name by revered author John Grisham and helmed by an icon of the film industry like Coppola, The Rainmaker is by far one of the best Crime/Thriller films of all time.
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The film tells the tale of a young attorney named Rudy Baylor, who is struggling after he has graduated from Law School. Thus, he joins up with a shady lawyer to work with him until he can find something better. But soon, he finds himself in the center of a legal case that has an individual life hanging in the balance, and a corrupt corporation that needs to pay for it.
The Rainmaker, streaming on Paramount+.
