Dianne Wiest as Helen Sinclair in BULLETS OVER BROADWAY

DIANE WIEST

DIANE WIEST as Helen Sinclair in BULLETS OVER BROADWAY

I was going to wait to take care of supporting players another time, another day. But I couldn’t wait on this one. It’s one of those roles that boarders on being a lead, like Donald Sutherland in ORDINARY PEOPLE (who missed out on nomination because it was an in-between status role) but because she’s an ego less actress – always fitting back into the ensemble – without robbing any of the players of their moments. She not only got the nomination but took home her second OSCAR. This is a leading ‘Lady’ in the best sense of the word. The generous and warmth of Dianne Wiest, in a tiger of a role: Helen Sinclair. Wiest, vain, always in full make-up, summoning a deep, bassoon like voice that she's never used in a film before, Wiest plays the self-infatuated Helen like a second-class Norma Desmond –(“I’m still a star…”) pumped up with delusions, but savvy enough to get whatever she wants from her naive playwright "Bullets Over Broadway" is a bright, energetic, sometimes side-splitting comedy with vital matters on its mind, precisely the kind of sharp-edged farce Woody has always done best.

I’m including lots of lines form the film – in case you ever meet my friends or me – you can be up to speed.

Helen Sinclair a demanding grande dame on and off stage who is just a teensy bit over the hill. Just a teensy bit. She is (by her own description) "some vain Broadway legend." But it's also true, in the words of her manager (Harvey Fierstein), that in recent years she's "been better known as an adulteress and a drunk, and I say that with all due respect." Helen happily drops the names of "Max" Anderson and "Eugene" O'Neill at every opportunity, but she's ready to take a chance on a newcomer. She's also ready to make him rewrite his play so that it becomes more flattering to her. You would think with that incredible opening sequence, a very clever intro of a big Sunset Blvd esk type ego – with the throwing the script down first and then super needy star descending the staircase. It’s so important to the character to chew up the scenery but as I said before she’s a gifted and generous actress, She knows when to play it huge but she lets Harvery has his moments without robbing jokes from him. It’s a sign of true talent. She fills every moment with her barely see able – thin - squinty eyes with a bible of subtext in her moments when she’s contemplating her next big role. A extreme puff of smoke- “I should billed above the title” displaying it in front of her on the marquee, hysterical! Harvery quickly, “ It is without question…”

Nobody beats Helen Sinclair when it comes to making an entrance either, "Please forgive me!" she booms, sweeping in late for the first read thru. "My pedicurist had a stroke. She fell forward onto the orange stick and plunged it into my toe, and it required bandaging." Gazing around the empty theater, Helen feels the urge to offer grandiose greetings – underneath it all I am the star here folks – don’t fuck with me ("Mrs. Alving! Uncle Vanya. There's Cordelia! Here's Ophelia").

"My taste is superb," Helen corrects him. "My eyes are exquisite."

Her signature line “Don’t Speak” actually didn’t happen right away. In fact, the outside flower scene – the only scene that doesn’t really jive with the rest. The first scene they shot. Taking another week off to do pre-production. She wasn’t entirely happy with…either was Woody – Only because she was not happy they postponed the film shoot. She keep lowering her voice deeper and deeper and then the character clicked. She found it!

Every other scene she’s in – you watch with bigger eyes – your ears open up. She commands more attention than the other actors – It’s no just the role. She’s got a lot going on…Another scene I always haves actor study is the bar scene with she order herself a couple martini’s – When she’s knowingly trying to cast her spell to change his play more to her liking. She never strays off her super-objective to 'change that script'. She seduces, teases, compliments. Every arsenal in her book still acting coquettish and demure. Both needing a complement for herself and seducing to get what she wants. There’s an honesty and sweetness even when she is being manipulative and uncaring. It’s hysterical to watch her face and nothing else. Timing like this can’t be learned or achieved over years of practice – it’s something an actor knows innately. She honed her skills years in the theatre and off Broadway and off off Broadway and on Broadway. And then she met Woody Allen. Her three minute audition / meeting left her stunned and thinking – He must have liked the other girl she went in with she thought. Not a chance.

Woody Allen has stated many times that from the moment he met her – without seeing a stitch of his acting he just knew ‘she lit up the room’. “She’s one of the great actresses in America, comedy, tragedy – I’m not just saying that as a generalization, she is truly a great actress”. Three other actresses came into the audience room at the same time, they took a Polaroid, shook hands, and he couldn’t take his eyes off Dianne Wiest. He just knew. She thought it was an obvious rejection that ‘he liked one of the other girls’ He didn’t. He only had eyes for Dianne…Wiest.