John Q

294358
(johnq/johnq)

15 Welcome to this Interactive Television showing of John Q (2002). 60 Aaron Zigman, who wrote the score, also wrote this setting of the "Ave Maria." The singer is Ana Maria Martinez. 105 John Q was Zigman's first scoring credit. He would later work with director Nick Cassavetes on The Notebook (2004). 150 Screenwriter James Kearns previously worked on the TV series Jake and the FatmanA Year in the Life, Wiseguy and Highway to Heaven. 195 This scene was shot during the 2000 presidential elections. They shot one version with the couple watching George W. Bush and another with them watching Al Gore, and later used the voice that became president. 235 John Q came out shortly before Denzel Washington won the Best Actor Oscar® for Training Day (2001). 275 The producers of John Q did a little outsourcing of their own. Most of the film was shot in Canada. 315 John Q was child actor Daniel E. Smith's film debut. 360 Kimberly Elise (Denise Archibald) had a prominent role in director Jonathan Demme's Beloved (1998), starring Oprah Winfrey. 405 Kearns based the game in the truck on a silly game he used to play with his girlfriend to see how quickly they could say the names of familiar things. 435 Washington, Elise and Smith spent time together off the set to create a stronger family feel. 480 Elise taught Washington thumb-wrestling while driving to the film's location in Canada. 525 One of Elise's daughters was an extra in the schoolyard scene. 550 This exterior was shot at a factory in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, that makes turbines for nuclear reactors. 590 David Thornton (Jimmy Palumbo) has been in all three of Nick Cassavetes' features in totally different roles. 635 For this film, he gained weight, wore clothing that was too tight and even grew a beard. 680 The interviewer is in charge of commercials for Radio Shack, for whom director Nick Cassavetes has worked in the past. The director thought he had the right face for the role. 705 Denzel Washington made his feature film debut as George Segal's long lost son in the 1981 comedy Carbon Copy. 750 One of Washington's first big-screen hits was A Soldier's Story (1984), costarring Robert Townsend and David Allen Grier. 785 This was Elise's first day on the film, and she was so in awe of Washington she felt a little uncomfortable leaning back on his lap. 830 Washington got so close to Daniel E. Smith (Michael) during filming he thought of him as his fifth child. 875 The hospital exterior was created at the Ministry of Justice building in Toronto. To make it look right, the crew paved the park in front of the building. 950 Jimmy's wife, Gina, is played by Laura Harring, who hit the big time as mystery woman Gilda in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001), released after John Q finished production. 995 Although Cassavetes was criticized for having Daniel E. Smith speak while intubated, supposedly an impossible feat, he remembers his own daughter doing that when she went in for heart surgery. 1040 Elise didn't need to think of her own daughters to film this scene. She had already developed such a strong bond with Smith that just imagining him being sick was enough. 1085 Anne Heche made the film after her highly publicized break-up with Ellen De Generes and her public breakdown. 1115 Director Nick Cassavetes wanted to direct the film because his daughter had congestive heart failure, just as Michael does in the film. 1265 Washington kept a Polaroid of Smith in his shirt pocket during this scene. That was all he needed to get the emotion he needed. 1325 The dialogue written for Heche's hospital administrator in this scene was based on things Cassavetes had heard while going through his own daughter's surgery. 1380 Organ transplants are among the most costly medical procedures. Although the operation itself costs only $100,000 all the other treatments required can bring the cost to half a million dollars. 1731 Canadian actress Larissa Laskin (Dr. Klein) had worked with Kimberly Elise previously in The Loretta Claiborne Story (2000). 1819 People with no insurance or less than adequate insurance are not likely to be approved for transplant surgery. 1849 Director Nick Cassavetes's mother-in-law (Linda Massad) plays the social services rep in this scene. 1909 That's Stevie Wonder on the soundtrack, performing his song "Justice of the Heart." 2029 The group with the hardest time getting a transplant approved are the working class, those making too little money to afford the treatment but too much for public assistance. 2119 Some patients have to literally bankrupt themselves to qualify for state assistance. This is called "spending down." 2209 Some patients try to raise the funds themselves through second mortgages, donations, etc. There are even organizations that help people organize fundraising activities to help pay for transplants. 2239 Elise had to reshoot this telephone scene because the first time her costume didn't match with the previously established outfit. Cassavetes was afraid to tell her, but the retake turned out even better. 2611 Writer James Kearns got the idea for John Q from a story in the Los Angeles Times about a wealthy man who said he had only survived transplant surgery because he was rich. 2698 Producer Mark Burg met Nick Cassavetes through their friend Charlie Sheen (Burg also produces Two and a Half Men) who told him that the director's daughter was scheduled for heart surgery. 2743 According to Cassavetes, Denzel Washington doesn't like to talk about a scene or his ideas for it. He just goes out and does it better than anybody could expect. 2803 Denzel Washington wanted to make sure his character didn't look like an expert at taking hostages. That's why he fumbled with the gun. 2893 This isn't Washington's first hospital stay. For six years, he played Dr. Philip Chandler on the primetime drama series St. Elsewhere. 2961 Doogie Howser, M.D., a half-hour dramedy starring Neil Patrick Harris as a child prodigy who becomes a doctor in his teens, aired on ABC from 1989-1993. 3043 The pregnant woman, Troy Beyer, is producer Daniel Burg's ex-wife. 3133 The intern, Maguire, is played by Kevin Connolly, who also worked with director Nick Cassavetes in The Notebook (2004). 3193 Before turning to acting, actor James Woods wanted to be an eye surgeon. 3577 Producer Mark Burg wanted the hostage negotiator played by someone who could go toe-to-toe with Denzel Washington as an equal. That's why they needed somebody of Robert Duvall's caliber. 3667 The production crew shot tests for the hospital scenes with colored walls to mirror the color-coded walls in most modern hospitals, but Cassavetes didn't like them so they chose a monochromatic color scheme instead. 3757 Cassavetes decided to capture the feeling of a black and white film in the hospital scenes, with only the people and their clothes providing color. 3817 Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey played police negotiators in the 1998 drama The Negotiator. 3907 Eddie Griffin (Lester) is a stand-up comedian and a member of the R&B/funk group Eclectic Divinity. 3997 Jimmie Finnerty took off 40 pounds of muscle to play Reggie the nurse. 4042 The medications needed by transplant patients can cost thousands of dollars per month. Some insurance companies don't cover this. 4421 Shawn Hatosy (Mitch) has had prominent roles in the comedy In & Out (1997) and the futuristic adventure The Postman (1997). 4491 Both Ray Liotta and Anne Heche got their starts on the daytime drama Another World, though they were not on at the same time. 4581 Liotta took his own trip to the hospital recently with an acclaimed guest appearance on ER. 4626 After his work in John Q, Kevin Connolly (Maguire) re-teamed with Denzel Washington for the star's directorial debut, Antwone Fisher (2002). 4686 Connolly currently appears as Eric on the HBO series Entourage. 4761 Robert Duvall won an Oscar® playing an alcoholic country singer in Tender Mercies (1983). 4851 Washington was always the first choice to star in John Q (with Tom Hanks as the producer's fallback). Producer Mark Burg says he encompasses the integrity of America. 4931 To capture that last kick safely, Shawn Hatosy (Mitch) was heavily padded, and Heather Wahlquist (Junie Bird) aimed her kicks at the side of his leg. 5016 During its theatrical release, John Q met with a surprisingly vocal response from audiences, who cheered the characters and gasped loudly at surprising plot turns. 5076 Heche hated having to play the film's villain. Off-camera she was frequently in tears because the story moved her so much. 5433 Shawn Hatosy (Mitch) played Irish playwright Brendan Behan in Borstal Boy (2000), an Irish film about the famed writer's days as a juvenile delinquent. 5520 Kimberly Elise auditioned with the scene in which she faces off against Robert Duvall and Anne Heche's characters. 5610 During a publicity appearance on Oprah, Denzel Washington called Elise one of the two or three best actresses he had ever worked with. 5655 David Thornton (Jimmy Palumbo) improvised his television interview, which was shot directly on video. 5700 The photo of Washington, Elise and Michael E. Smith was taken when they drove through Niagara Falls together on their way to the film's Canadian locations. 5790 Director Nick Cassavetes described this fight between Robert Duvall and Ray Liotta as The Godfather (1972) vs. Goodfellas (1990). 5865 Robert Duvall also played police officers in Badge 373 and The Outfit (both 1973), True Confessions (1981) and The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper (also 1981). 5910 Paul Johansson (Tuck Lampley) is a former pro basketball player from Canada. 6000 Kimberly Elise reteamed with Denzel Washington for the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate. 6090 Cassavetes is the son of actors John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands. As a child, he worked with his parents on his father's films Husbands (1970) and Woman Under the Influence (1974). 6429 Director Nick Cassavetes's first film, Unhook the Stars (1996), was made for his mother, actress Gena Rowlands. His second, She's So Lovely (1997), was made from his late father's script. This film, his third, was made for his daughter. 6519 He recently scored a hit with the romance The Notebook (2004). 6609 He is currently working on the big-screen adaptation of the classic superhero comic Iron Man. 6654 The sniper is played by director Nick Cassavetes's brother, Frank. 6719 The crowd's responses to Washington are similar to the crowd scenes in Dog Day Afternoon (1975), starring Al Pacino. 6764 Robert Duvall's favorite Chinese dish really is Peking duck. He had Chinese food for lunch every day of his six weeks on the film. 6849 Although the film is set in Chicago during the summer, exteriors at the hospital were shot during a Toronto cold spell. The crew had to spray perspiration on the actors. 6894 The film's tagline: "Give a father no options, and you leave him no choice." 6969 Robert Duvall made his film debut as Boo Radley in the classic To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). 7059 Eddie Griffin (Lester) only did the film because he wanted to work with Denzel Washington. 7109 Griffin starred in the blaxploitation satire Undercover Brother (2002). 7149 Washington won his first Oscar® for Glory (Best Supporting Actor, 1989). 7239 James Woods has won Oscar nominations for Salvador (Best Actor, 1986) and Ghosts of Mississippi (Best Supporting Actor, 1996). 7299 The surgical team should be wearing protective glasses for this scene. 7349 Junie Bird is played by Heather Dahlquist, director Nick Cassavetes's fiancee. 7404 "See you in the funny papers," is the last thing director Nick Cassavetes's father, John Cassavetes, said to him. 7698 Denzel Washington worked with Ethan Suplee (Guard) in Remember the Titans (2000). 7768 Director Nick Cassavetes shot Washington's farewell to his son three times and used the least emotional version. The other two were simply too upsetting. 7858 Cassavetes was set to cast another young actor when he saw Daniel E. Smith read with Washington. Washington said they saw a light in him that didn't exist in the other actors. 7943 James Finnerty (Reggie) works with director Nick Cassavetes once again in his 2005 feature, Alpha Dogs/ 8013 ER recently did a story in which a man committed suicide to donate a kidney to his dying daughter. 8103 Editor Dede Allen has cut some of the greatest films in history, including The Hustler (1961) and Bonnie and Clyde (1967). 8148 Paul Johansson(Tuck Lampley) currently appears as Dan Scott on the primetime soap opera One Tree Hill. 8238 Next up for Robert Duvall is the Will Ferrell comedy Kicking & Screaming (2005), in which he plays the star's domineering father. 8554 Effects technicians made a head and body cast of Daniel E. Smith for use in the surgery scene. 8597 They also had to create a fake beating heart. They were greatly helped by the use of new silicon products that look and feel like human flesh. 8657 Although the Larry King and Jay Leno shots were scripted, the other media clips were culled from actual television programs. 8702 The production team only had one day to shoot in the courtroom, a Sunday, making this the film's longest shooting day. It didn't help when they arrived, and director Nick Cassavetes decided to add a shot in the hallway. 8747 Daniel E. Smith's mother and Kimberly Elise's father played members of the jury. 8837 John Q was the top film at the box office during its opening weekend and broke the record for box-office grosses during the Presidents' Day weekend. 8927 Patti LaBelle performs "The Voice Inside My Heart" over the closing credits. The song was cowritten by Cassavetes. 8972 Thank you for joining us for this Interactive Television showing of John Q (2002)