headcanon that Dallas and Steve purposely refer to Pony as a 13 year old solely to piss him off:
Steve: “hey dal what month is it?”
Dally: “idk go ask the 13-year old”
Pony: *throws lamp at them*
When people mischaracterize Dally I feel like he’s either watered down to be this secret softie OR he’s made out to be the worst most degenerate most horrible man on earth.
He’s, at his core, a traumatized and self-destructive seventeen year old boy. He’s not a big bad guy but it’s not like he’s a perfect angel victim either. He hurts and degrades people so that he can feel assured in his own strength (safe, in other words. It’s the only way he knows how to live). He has no guidance in his life, he’s surrounded by other hurt teen boys who probably enable him (NOT THAT THAT MAKES THE GANG BAD EITHER).
What I’m trying to say is I don’t think he’s neither good nor bad. He’s done bad things, but that doesn’t make him a bad person. He is good to the people he cares about, but that doesn’t make him a good person.
(I would like to clarify that I use the word “mischaracterize” loosely. This is just my opinion and I don’t mean to say that anyone’s interpretation of a character is wrong or bad. I don’t think there’s necessarily any right or wrong way to view a story or character. At least most of the time) (also all the text is bold bc I’m writing this w/o my glasses and I cannot fucking see)
drawing of my OC named Harry Potter. i created him when i was a very young child and staying at my aunt's house when she asked me if i'd ever read the Harry Potter books before and I said no and my beautiful mind immediately imagined a fun cartoon hippo named Harry Potter who starred in various picture books and i was severely disappointed when she showed me the sorcerer's stone and some lame as fuck nerd was on the cover instead. so when you think about it, mine was actually first.
okay i am reading rob lowe's autobiography and taking notes on anything the outsiders related! this first part is some personal background as well as the casting for the outsiders.
i know some of this is already common knowledge about their audition process but i thought rob had some interesting insights/ways of describing it so thought i would share. 😁 also i am recording every word he says about matt dillon because that's my man
at 15 rob gets a role in a tv sitcom, "a new kind of family” - this is when he first starts being seen as a teen idol, he's only 15 and getting fan mail from men in jail asking to see him shirtless :( and girls chase him around and basically jump him, they steal his shoelaces (?) he writes a lot about how he hates this ear piercing scream of teenage girls
he moves to santa monica and becomes friends with the LA actors crowd, mostly through his high school - he’s friends with the sheens and penns, robert downey jr, emilio estevez
charlie sheen is a freak and sometimes wears a bulletproof vest to school and is a huge conspiracy theorist but we knew he was a weirdo
but the tv show flops and he has trouble landing acting gigs for a while, he feels like a has been at 17, thinks of doing something else with his life, is ready to go into usc
in december 1982, he’s told he can audition for the outsiders - it’s basically his last chance
LA auditions: tom cruise, emilio estevez, tommy howell
every male actor in hollywood between ages of 15 and 30 were being asked to audition
coppola didnt even know the outsiders existed until one middle school liked the book so much that they petitioned it to be made into a movie and he was like okay
rob says s.e. wrote the outsiders set in the 50s? maybe a writing mistake but i think that’s so funny if he actually thought it was in the 50s this whole time
rob sees emilio at the soundstage for the audition among 25 other actors, the audition is nothing like he's seen before, emilio is wearing a ‘ridiculous looking pompadour’ and rob asks him wtf is going on, emilio is like “hey what can i say it’s francis” - his dad genuinely almost died of a heart attack working for coppola on apocalypse now
side note the filming process of apocalypse now is absolutely INSANE - sickness everywhere, a tapeworm coming out of martin’s driver’s mouth at one point, playboy bunnies were just written into the film etc
everyone is leaving the auditions miserable except for this one guy who comes out all happy, telling rob and emilio that francis sent all the actors away except for him - rob describes him as friendly and funny but having a robotic, bloodless, focused intensity (tom cruise btw)
francis keeps switching everyone’s parts and having them read each others parts in front of the other actors
tom reads for sodapop randy darry and dally!
rob reads for sodapop and randy
emilio reads for sodapop and darry
the auditions have this insane setup of a table with a small light and 4 chairs in the middle of a dark room, everyone who’s not in the scene is circling around watching- he describes it like a boxing match
he says tom looks like he wants to bash his brains in and steal his role from him
1st lineup: dennis quaid as darryl, scot bayo as sodapop, tommy howell as ponyboy
tommy is so lowkey he doesn’t seem like he’s trying, but also seems very real and authentic, he looks like a baby
tommy is stonefaced and cool the entire time he’s watching others, they can’t believe he’s only 15
mickey rourke comes in and rob says he looks dirty and homeless lol francis worships him
2nd lineup: rob and tommy play their respective roles with john laughlin as darry
robs entire career lowkey rests on the soda crying monologue, he’s only able to cry because he sees tommy’s eyes water for him (aw)
francis gets mad at some of the actors for pronouncing soc as sock LOLLLL
the role of sodapop is most coveted after ponyboy, it’s supposed to be huge, romantic, with the big breakdown scene at the end - he will bring this back later i assume with how he was upset about it being cut
NYC auditions: matt dillon, ralph macchio
they fly to new york for the next round of auditions
on the flight together rob tommy emilio and tom are ‘working a cute stewardess for alcohol’ lol and become friends - this is like the LA squad
the new york actors make up the other group which is kinda fighting for roles against this LA group, they’re tough, intense, serious
the actors stay at the plaza hotel and they’re told they need to share rooms
as soon as tom hears this he calls his agent and rob literally does an impression of him “uh paul? they’re making us share 😠” he is certain this is not right and wants this fixed asap, he’s already a diva
the boys go out to times square and get super drunk
next morning is what rob calls the east coast vs. west coast acting brawl (screentest time)
rob’s impressions of the other actors below:
matt dillon
matt is already a huge teen idol, he’s pretty intimidated by him
he’s reading the part of dallas - “and by reading i mean reading, he’s holding the entire script with his eyes locked on the text” - idk what he means by this i thought this is what they’re supposed to do.. whatever
after a while he puts it down and is paraphrasing completely, adlibbing, making up dialogue while the other actors try to keep up with him
he can’t tell if francis told him to freestyle it or not - if so, he’s got the part locked in and if he didn’t, then matt dillon has “dangling, clanking, scary big elephant balls”
ralph macchio
he recognizes ralph because they were competing for a part in ‘eight is enough’
describes him as a tiny kid, bro is 21
he says it’s clear he’s the front runner for johnny
ralph says him and matt have only been reading for their respective parts and have been doing so for days (together btw) (it’s clear the dally-johnny dynamic is very important to francis)
this is very interesting to me!!! how everyone else was so in between parts and matt and ralph were just. locked in from the start. and paired.
tom comes in and is asked to do sodapop, he is nailing the breakdown and rob’s like ‘i’m done that’s it’ - he is a force to be reckoned with
then tom stops in the middle of the scene!! and says “this just isn’t working for me i’m sorry”, francis lets him try again but it doesn’t hit so that’s how he loses the role basically
rob does the scene and crushes it
that’s all for chapter 9, no one is casted yet. the only greaser not mentioned at auditions at this point is patrick, i assume he will get to that + diane lane + others in the next part though, and it’ll also cover the dynamic between the cast once they already get the roles
pt 2 coming soon hopefully some more juicy stuff 😋
Pony...
“Do I look like a farm boy to you?”
yes Pony. You’re wearing a flannel shirt and jeans, you’re chewing on a piece of grass and already have a slightly farm-ish accent. As opposed to Johnny, whose hair is very obviously slicked back, wearing a dark shirt and jean jacket, and has a pretty obvious scar on his face.
so, yes Pony. YOU DO LOOK LIKE A FCKING FARM BOY
thank you for coming to my ted talk.
i was gonna write it out but i need you to listen to rob lowe's impression of matt. he is insane i need him
dark brown hair and bangs combo in film
Here’s my Sylvia btw I’ve drawn her a handful of times but this is my first time posting her lol
Also it’s up to you if she’s tall or if Dal’s just short
Omg wow that man on your pfp is the sweetest looking!!
that man is matt dillon hes my baby daddy
there's no such thing as heaven
and I'm the last girl on earth †
two souls are sometimes created together and in love before they're born.
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