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00:00This is our last film at Deadline Film Contenders 2024.
00:14Look at you all.
00:15You stayed.
00:16Thank you so much.
00:18Hug.
00:19Let's hug.
00:21This film comes from director-writer Shira Piven, who finally got to make what was a
00:27passion project for her mother.
00:29It's called The Performance, and it's based on a New Yorker article written by Pulitzer
00:34Prize winner Arthur Miller.
00:36The Performance tells the story of Harold May, an American Jewish tap dancer.
00:41After struggling in the States, Harold gets the opportunity of a lifetime in pre-World
00:47War II Europe to continually perform for a rapturous audience and make a lot of cash.
00:54One problem.
00:56That audience is the Nazis, and the Fuhrer himself.
01:00Starring as Harold May is Shira Piven's brother, who you know is three-time primetime Emmy
01:05winner from Entourage, Mr. Jeremy Piven.
01:09Let's take a look at this awesome movie.
01:12Are you Harold May?
01:16Yeah.
01:17Is there a problem?
01:20Not yet.
01:23I am Damian Vogler.
01:27Your performance was extraordinary.
01:28Oh, thank you.
01:31May I steal a small moment of your time?
01:33Oh, no.
01:34I'm going to go catch up with my crew.
01:36Harold, give me a moment.
01:37Uh, sure.
01:38Okay.
01:39Yeah.
01:40No, thank you.
01:41Am I in some sort of trouble?
01:45But that will depend.
01:47Are you a communist?
01:48No.
01:49Spy?
01:51Not that I know of.
01:58Not that I know of.
02:01That's good fun, huh, May?
02:04Tell you what.
02:05Tell you what.
02:06Yeah.
02:07Lend me a smoke, and I won't report you.
02:09You got a deal.
02:17I first saw you in Vienna.
02:20I've attended three of your performances, in fact.
02:22And I must say, you are a true artist.
02:30Yeah.
02:31It's a living.
02:32Baking bread is a living.
02:33But I suppose even Johann Sebastian saw himself as one.
02:38Such is the curse of the great man.
02:40Yeah.
02:41I used to dabble as a performer myself, you know.
02:44Really?
02:45Stuttgart opera.
02:46That's fantastic.
02:47What were you, bass?
02:48Tenor?
02:49Yeah, yeah.
02:51That was a living.
02:52But it was still the opera.
02:54Singers, dancers, manse of the stage.
02:58And the Fräuleins love manse of the stage, no?
03:01No.
03:02I mean, yes.
03:03Yeah.
03:04Yes.
03:05Mine.
03:06Yes.
03:11Let's welcome our guests.
03:13The screenwriter of the performance, Joshua Salzberg.
03:19Director and writer of the performance, Shara Piven.
03:22And star and producer, Jeremy Piven.
03:34So Jeremy and Shara, tell us about how mom got the article, and then just the whole passion
03:42for this, the whole family passion for this.
03:46Arthur Miller.
03:49Great American playwright.
03:52Married to Marilyn Monroe at one point.
03:55Death of a Salesman.
03:56Anyway, my mother is a theater artist, director, actress, and loves reading.
04:03And she has stacks of The New Yorker in her apartment.
04:08And so she was, she read this story in The New Yorker years ago.
04:13Maybe, I think it was published in 2002.
04:18And she sent it to Jeremy first.
04:21And she said, this is a role for you.
04:26Yeah.
04:27And I was blown away by it.
04:30And didn't for a moment think, and it was, my mom's not very frivolous.
04:34She runs lines with me to this day and was and is my acting teacher.
04:39Gives notes.
04:40Gives me notes to this day.
04:44My father passed, is no longer with us, and he's still giving me notes.
04:48Which is amazing.
04:51So, you know, actors are very delusional.
04:54That's our superpower.
04:55And I read this role and immediately thought, I would be, it would be incredible to play this.
05:03Arthur Miller is so incredible.
05:05And it also just reveals so perfectly the absurdity of anti-Semitism in this beautiful way.
05:14In this story that's so beautiful.
05:16And I didn't for a moment think, well, I don't tap dance.
05:20I can't play this role.
05:22So we, this was 15 years ago and I've been trying to get the money to produce it ever since.
05:27And it took me 15 years, us 15 years to make this film.
05:31And each year that we couldn't find the money, I got better at tap.
05:35Until I was ready to perform it.
05:37So, divine timing.
05:39Yeah, absolutely.
05:43And then, well, I don't want to reveal the ending, but you were also, you went all in.
05:52There's, you went all in.
05:55There wasn't a stuntman at first, until there was.
05:58Yeah, there was a stuntman.
06:00And I was the producer of this film, but I forgot that I was the producer at times.
06:04Which is tragic, but when you've been an actor your whole life,
06:08you know, it's hard to get that perspective.
06:11And Shira came and said to me, you know, you have, you know, this...
06:17You have the rest of your life, and you have one more major tap number.
06:21So, just maybe think about this a minute before you jump in.
06:26And I did put my producer hat on for that moment and thought,
06:30well, we gotta keep it moving.
06:34So, I told my stuntman, who looked just like me,
06:38if I was younger and better looking and stronger,
06:42that, to stand down.
06:45And then I did the stunt myself, and you know, I only know one way to do it,
06:49which is to throw myself in completely.
06:51And I broke eight ribs while I was doing this stunt,
06:55and yeah, and it's in the film.
06:58You know, we got one take, and we did it.
07:01We did it.
07:04Yeah, we were watching at the monitors going,
07:06wow, he's really going for it in this take.
07:09It's his best work.
07:10Yeah, there you go.
07:11And then the camera got close, and we heard the cut,
07:15and we knew something was wrong.
07:17Yeah, I've never said cut in my life.
07:19Tell us about, you had to go to Rebecca Miller to get permission.
07:24Yeah, I went to Rebecca Miller, Arthur Miller's daughter,
07:27who's a very brilliant playwright and, I mean, screenwriter and director.
07:33And in her own right, and I went to her to, you know,
07:36to pitch us and myself to obtain the rights.
07:41And her husband, who's this viciously mediocre actor
07:44named Daniel Day-Lewis,
07:47he was in the background,
07:50cueing her on what questions,
07:52it was the most intimidating phone call I've ever had in my life.
07:56And I don't even know, I don't even know how it happened,
08:01but somehow I got the rights.
08:03And every year they would, you know, kind of go,
08:05really?
08:06You know, people just wanted us, didn't want us to give up,
08:10but after a decade, you know, it feels like, what are you doing?
08:15And for some reason I'm compelled to tell people,
08:19if you've got that project that you've always wanted to do,
08:21don't give up.
08:22Please don't give up.
08:23And Cher, what pulled it forward?
08:28What finally got it across the finish line?
08:31Good question.
08:34Is it across the finish line?
08:37Yeah, across the finish line.
08:40Was there a key producer or financer?
08:42Yeah, Daniel Finkelman came on board,
08:45and he was kind of our angel,
08:48because he just, it was a bit of raw passion like we had.
08:53He just fell in love with the story.
08:55He believed in the movie.
08:57He believed in Jeremy.
08:58The thing about indie films is it will take you down
09:02if you don't keep going,
09:05if you don't keep getting up when you're knocked down.
09:08And it's the nature of the beast,
09:10and it can take years and years.
09:12Josh and I, we worked together on my last film,
09:15Welcome to Me.
09:16Josh was editing, and I knew was not only also a writer,
09:21but that was his true passion.
09:23And I said, let's write this,
09:26let's adapt this Arthur Miller story.
09:28And so we started writing it,
09:31I don't know, eight, nine years ago.
09:33And Daniel Finkelman came on board
09:36three and a half years ago maybe,
09:38and he just believed in it.
09:41And it just kept us going.
09:44Now Josh, the character Damian Fugler,
09:47played by Robert Carlyle, who hires Harold May,
09:52is there some sort of connection that you have?
09:55Yeah, I mean, I don't love the idea that we're saying
09:58I'm connected to the Nazi character in the movie,
10:00but don't make that the headline.
10:02No, I'm not, I'm not.
10:04But I understand there's some sort of...
10:06No, I mean, that's what struck me
10:08about the Arthur Miller short story,
10:10the relationship between Jeremy's character Harold
10:12and Robert Carlyle's character Fugler,
10:14who we saw in that scene.
10:16There's a kinship and a friendship,
10:18and Fugler, he's this cultural attache,
10:21he rationalizes that he's not in the military,
10:24he's not in politics, he's not that guy,
10:27and yet he's close to it all.
10:29And he really wants to be close to artists, to performers.
10:32Kind of like a producer in that way.
10:35And I want to work in this town,
10:37so I won't make too many connections there.
10:39But that connection that they had,
10:42and this friendship that in any other circumstance
10:45would have been a friendship,
10:47and yet in this circumstance
10:49it puts them on opposite sides
10:51of what will be a war that's coming.
10:53And that's really what I saw
10:55in Arthur Miller's work,
10:57was his ability to turn this guy
10:59not into a monster, but a human
11:01that does monstrous things.
11:03You know something, Sharon and Josh,
11:05the intensity of this film,
11:09it's like we're always sitting at the edge of our seats
11:14wondering, okay,
11:16is Harold going to get discovered?
11:19About who he really is.
11:21Can you talk about that?
11:23Was that a piece you found in the editing room?
11:25Was that always on the page?
11:29It's been really interesting
11:31screening the movie lately
11:33because people talk about that.
11:35And they talk about this feeling
11:37in their stomach when they watch it.
11:39And for me,
11:41it reminds me,
11:43I think we talked about this
11:45last time, that the thing
11:47that came to mind was
11:49I studied for one year in New York
11:51with Uta Hagen when I was acting
11:53in my 20s.
11:55What I remember from her
11:57as a teacher, the great acting teacher
11:59Uta Hagen, what I remember
12:01is the idea of stakes.
12:03That was maybe her main note
12:05that she would give
12:07to every single scene
12:09is what are the stakes
12:11and how did you get to those stakes?
12:13For me, it was
12:15important to
12:17seed that in the writing.
12:19And also
12:21because this period is just
12:23morally, we go back
12:25to it over and over again in storytelling
12:27because it gives us these
12:29clear moral imperatives.
12:31It's very clear
12:33and I feel
12:35like things now are so
12:37ambiguous and so
12:39tricky. And when we go back
12:41to that period,
12:43for me it helps to see
12:45today through that lens.
12:47The way that we otherize
12:49people.
12:51And the stakes
12:53in Harold's case
12:55because we know what was coming
12:57it was easy to just always
12:59make sure they were the highest possible stakes
13:01and I think the pace came from there.
13:03And also our fantastic lead editor
13:05Jessica Hernandez
13:07has this kinetic energy to her
13:09editing and
13:11I loved working with her
13:13and chose her
13:15because of her editing style.
13:17And the show numbers, the choreographer
13:21Jared Grimes
13:23is astounding
13:25and he recently was doing Funny Girl
13:27on Broadway as a performer
13:29nominated for Tony and he not only
13:31is a first rate
13:33tap choreographer but he understands
13:35that particular period as well.
13:37How does it
13:39feel to have finally completed
13:41this film?
13:43Wow.
13:45It happened maybe
13:47just the other day. So you're saying
13:49where is the finish line?
13:51It's
13:53you know, it'll sound
13:55very grandiose but it's a miracle.
13:57This whole thing is a miracle. Getting an indie film
13:59that is a period piece when everyone
14:01says no you can't do it.
14:03To get it made
14:06and
14:08to have it be something
14:10that I'm so proud
14:12of, it's
14:14heavy. And you talk about stakes
14:16like I'm playing opposite
14:18did you guys even know that was Robert Carlyle
14:20up there in that scene?
14:22He disappears into this role
14:24so brilliantly
14:26and he's so
14:28charming, charismatic
14:30whimsical
14:32and terrifying
14:34ultimately
14:36and to play
14:38opposite that and he's in a real Nazi
14:40uniform. These are words
14:42Bratislava Slovakia filming
14:44and with all the stakes, everything
14:46that they wrote, his performance
14:48everything is so real.
14:50The stakes were just
14:52there at every moment
14:54and if I couldn't step
14:56up and be present and play off that
14:58I need to go into roofing
15:00and immediately
15:02The chemistry was
15:04kind of phenomenal. Josh and I
15:06both remember
15:08actually tearing up at the monitor
15:10the day
15:12that Robert Carlyle
15:14the two of them had that particular scene
15:16because it took so long to cast that role
15:18and to get to that moment
15:20and then the two of them together, I watched
15:22Jeremy, everything sort of fell
15:24away and they both kind of
15:26the relationship
15:28like
15:30coming from theater, I want to rehearse it
15:32and they just stepped into that moment
15:34and
15:36the chemistry between them
15:38was really
15:40so palpable and
15:42human.
15:44It was all on the page and so
15:46you live for to be able to
15:48perform those words and those stakes
15:50and then to play opposite
15:52an actor like that, that's something
15:54devoutly to be wished for, definitely
15:56and people are like, isn't it weird being
15:58directed by your sister? It's like, no
16:00not at all, it feels
16:02completely natural.
16:04I mean that, I know you guys
16:06there are a lot of people like, I couldn't take direction from
16:08my sibling, I would kill them
16:10but there was never that
16:12you know
16:14It's because we grew up in the theater
16:16with our parents and directing and acting
16:18with our parents, which is very weird
16:20so it felt natural
16:22for us. Yeah, we were on shorthand
16:24I only had to break
16:26up a few fights on set
16:28Shira has a mean right hook
16:30It's the first
16:32sister director, brother
16:34actor, the opposite
16:36of the Coppolas, Francis
16:38and Talia, but I would say
16:40you're the first sister
16:42filmmaker and brother actor
16:44Not the Gyllenhaals
16:46The Gyllenhaals, oh my god, okay
16:48that's my bad
16:50but
16:52are there more stories
16:54that the two of you have?
16:56Endless
16:58we were just talking about one
17:00there's so many different
17:02at these events, which are so fun and great
17:04to be around this community
17:06and you run into these artists
17:08and John Baptista, right
17:10you run into these, yeah, what a genius
17:12and you see that guy and you just immediately
17:14go like, how do I work with him
17:16let's start pitching
17:18some ideas of this dude
17:20and Jared Grimes
17:22our choreographer and our brilliant tap dancer
17:24who was my tap teacher
17:26we start just pitching
17:28ideas immediately
17:30and I'll let them talk about
17:32ideas, but there's
17:34that's what's so great, like once
17:36this is my first time producing
17:38I'm 200 years old, 80 movies
17:40into the game, and this is
17:42my first time producing
17:44I could literally do a Ted Talk
17:46or a documentary or a book on what not
17:48to do, if you guys ever want to know
17:50what not to do, but I've learned
17:52so much from this process
17:54that I can't wait to do it again
17:56But it's ultimately
17:58all in the story, going back to
18:00Arthur Miller, and
18:02he wrote this, you know
18:04here you have a Nazi and a Jew
18:06in front of you, and
18:10you know, we sort of
18:12gave the story away
18:14in the beginning, but
18:16what happens after we
18:18we see Harold and his troupe dancing
18:20in front of
18:22a Nazi audience
18:24there's another half
18:26of the film to go
18:28and that's, in a way
18:30there's a lot of fun to be had
18:32in that, and
18:34pain to be had in the rest of the film
18:36but Arthur Miller created this
18:38wonderful story, and I think
18:40we built on that relationship
18:42but ultimately it has to be a metaphor
18:44you see a Nazi and a Jew
18:46standing in front of you, and you see
18:48a Nazi and a Jew
18:50but because it's a film, and because we're
18:52human beings, we
18:54we can
18:56we feel the metaphor
18:58it could be any oppressor
19:00and oppressed, and
19:02if we only see this as a Jewish story
19:04which it resonates
19:06with Jewish audiences deeply
19:08but it's a larger story
19:10and I feel like there are lessons from
19:12this era that, as I said, we keep going back
19:14to, that we have to
19:16that we have to begin to see in a
19:18new light, that we have to see
19:20in a larger sense. Yeah, I think
19:22this film, at its core, there's
19:24so many different things to be taken from it
19:26that we can all relate to
19:30one of them is
19:32how much of yourself will you compromise
19:34in this life to be successful
19:36you know, and
19:38in Harold Mady's case
19:40my character, he's willing to risk
19:42at all, and hide his
19:44identity to become successful
19:46and can art override hate
19:48you know, there's a lot of different themes
19:50that I think we can all relate
19:52to in a film like this
19:54The performance
19:56Shara Piven, Josh Salzberg
19:58Jeremy Piven