I Blame Dennis Hopper: And Other Stories from a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies

by Illeana Douglas

Overview

From award-winning actress Illeana Douglas comes a memoir about learning to survive in Hollywood while staying true to her quirky vision of the world.

In 1969 Illeana Douglas' parents saw the film Easy Rider and were transformed. Taking Dennis Hopper's words, "That's what it's all about man" to heart, they abandoned their comfortable upper middle class life and gave Illeana a childhood filled with hippies, goats, free spirits, and free love. Illeana writes, "Since it was all out of my control, I began to think of my life as a movie, with a Dennis Hopper-like father at the center of it."

I Blame Dennis Hopper is a testament to the power of art and the tenacity of passion. It is a rollicking, funny, at times tender exploration of the way movies can change our lives. With crackling humor and a full heart, Douglas describes how a good Liza Minnelli impression helped her land her first gig and how Rudy Valley taught her the meaning of being a show biz trouper. From her first experience being on set with her grandfather and mentor-two-time Academy Award-winning actor Melvyn Douglas-to the moment she was discovered by Martin Scorsese for her blood-curdling scream and cast in her first film, to starring in movies alongside Robert DeNiro, Nicole Kidman, and Ethan Hawke, to becoming an award winning writer, director and producer in her own right, I Blame Dennis Hopper is an irresistible love letter to movies and filmmaking. Writing from the perspective of the ultimate show business fan, Douglas packs each page with hilarious anecdotes, bizarre coincidences, and fateful meetings that seem, well, right out of a plot of a movie.

I Blame Dennis Hopper is the story of one woman's experience in show business, but it is also a genuine reminder of why we all love the movies: for the glitz, the glamor, the sweat, passion, humor, and escape they offer us all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250055620
Publisher:	Flatiron Books
Publication date:	10/25/2016
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Celebrated actress, comedienne, writer, producer, director, Illeana Douglas has starred in films like Goodfellas, Cape Fear, To Die For, Picture Perfect, Ghost World, as well as TV shows from Six Feet Under to Welcome to Sweden. She was an Internet pioneer with Easy To Assemble; millions have watched the web series she created and starred in from 2008 to 2013. As part of the Turner Classic Movies family she hosted Second Looks, and has done film introductions and memorable interviews with some of Hollywood's greatest. She's probably watching a movie right now.

Editorial Reviews

An Entertainment Weekly Best Pop-Culture Book of 2015!

"In this sublime series of essays, Douglas revels in her dual roles as both participant and observer, never losing her awe of the actors and directors she has met along the way.Funny, candid, juicy, gossipy, Douglas’ insider look at the film industry charms with its “pinch me, I’m dreaming” sweetness while imparting hard-won and valuable lessons about following one’s true calling."

-Booklist, Starred Review

"In other words, she's got seriously good stories to tell in these chatty, heartfelt essays" - Kim Hubbard,People Magazine

"It’s Douglas’ head-over-heels madness for the movies that illuminates the text like a projector bulb through a filmstrip, from her parents’ decision to run a hippie commune after being bewitched by Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider, to Douglas’ own obsession with actors like Lee Marvin and Richard Dreyfuss, to her sometimes “delusional” confidence that she was born to be a star. Douglas recounts her life and work with a perfect mix of self-deprecation and glowing pride. Reading it feels like listening to the magnetic storyteller herself—and it’s enough to make you fall in love too. A–" - Entertainment Weekly

"Humorous, delightful, and wholly entertaining. Douglas delves into all the wonderfully serendipitous tales that got her to the place she as a child always wanted to be, all while charming the hell out of us." - Elle Magazine

“Illeana Douglas takes you through her years in Hollywood and beyond the same way she experienced them - by happy, hilarious accident. The revelations fly off the pages of this book are cringe-inducing, gut-busting and terrifying, usually all at once.” —Patton Oswalt, New York Times bestselling author of ZOMBIE, SPACESHIP, WASTELAND

“I've talked to Illeana Douglas about her life. Her family roots are crazy, groovy, harsh and a bit glamorous. I'm thrilled she's wrangled that into prose form. She's quirky, hilarious and deep. I love her. I've always loved her. Haven't we all?” —Marc Maron, Comedian and bestselling author of Attempting Normal

“Illeana Douglas is an incredibly talented, smart and funny storyteller. This book is compelling to read from start to finish. She either knows or has worked with so many significant names in film, that in researching, she broke my IMDB.” —Bob Saget, actor and author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Dirty Daddy

“Illeana asked me for a quote, so I suggested about a hundred dollars....Illeana is not only a child of the movies, but also a grandchild. She writes beautifully and movingly about how she came to be who she is.” —Eric Idle, Founding member of Monty Python and Tony Award winning writer of Spamalot

“Illeana has done what no other movie memoir has ever achieved; she takes us on a journey through the personal, the chaotic, the droll, the ecstatic, the hilarious, the surreal and moving life in moving pictures, hers, and ours. As beautiful as it is exhilarating, I Blame Dennis Hopper not only gives us a rich texture of the life of an American girl coming of age in a wild time, but the most perfect look I've ever read of life on the set through a filmmakers eye. Gorgeous.” —Allison Anders, Award-winning director of Grace of My Heart and Gas Food Lodging

“I Blame Dennis Hopper is genius. I couldn't put it down. It was like having a great companion. Illeana completely captures the enchantment of film in a charming and hilarious way. More than that, it reminded me of my own passion for movies and of acting. Very, very inspirational.” —Jeff Goldblum

“Illeana is far beyond just an actress, she's a student of all things cinema. This book is funny, poignant, and at moments, surprising. This is definitely one of those times where you should read the book before you see the movie. (See what I did there?)” —Adam Carolla, New York Times bestselling author of Not Taco Bell Material and President Me

“I devoured this book as if it were a giant box of popcorn! It isn't easy to put your thoughts, hopes, dreams, and disappointments into words, but Illeana Douglas has done it with equal parts candor and humor. Best of all, she details the special relationship she had with her grandfather, the great Melvyn Douglas-including the time she got to visit him on the set of Being There. I thoroughly enjoyed this disarming memoir.” —Leonard Maltin, film critic and bestselling author

“Illeana has always been known as the thinking man's sex symbol. This book makes it clear why.” —James Woods

From the Publisher

11/09/2015
Actress and director Douglas's memoir is an enjoyable down a star-studded memory lane, buoyed by her easy charm and genuine love of all things cinematic. Growing up in Connecticut with parents who took Easy Rider's approach to 1960s counterculture a little too literally—her father started his own commune—Douglas always knew she wanted a life in the movies. The granddaughter of two-time Oscar-winner Melvyn Douglas once took a young Illeana to the set of Being There and introduced to one of her idols, Peter Sellers, thus cementing her Hollywood dream. Douglas worked her way up from waitressing at a dinner theater to acting school in New York, and thence to working for famed publicist Peggy Siegal. This led to a chance encounter with Martin Scorsese, who would direct her in several of his pictures, including in a particularly memorable scene of his Cape Fear remake in which Robert de Niro's Max Cady gnaws off her face; Douglas and Scorsese were also in a romantic relationship for a decade. Douglas recounts, with equal parts humor and heart, her experiences on films such as Goodfellas, Alive (for which the cast virtually recreated a plane crash high in the Canadian Rockies), and To Die For. She also mentions several friendships, both brief and long-term, with luminaries like Roddy McDowell and Marlon Brando. Douglas nimbly avoids the celebrity tell-all pitfall of unrelieved namedropping by imbuing her debut with an earnest, undeniable passion for movies and the people who make them. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Illeana has done what no other movie memoir has ever achieved; she takes us on a journey through the personal, the chaotic, the droll, the ecstatic, the hilarious, the surreal and moving life in moving pictures, hers, and ours. As beautiful as it is exhilarating, I Blame Dennis Hopper not only gives us a rich texture of the life of an American girl coming of age in a wild time, but the most perfect look I've ever read of life on the set through a filmmakers eye. Gorgeous.

Award-winning director of Grace of My Heart and Ga Allison Anders

Illeana asked me for a quote, so I suggested about a hundred dollars....Illeana is not only a child of the movies, but also a grandchild. She writes beautifully and movingly about how she came to be who she is.

Founding member of Monty Python and Tony Award win Eric Idle

Illeana Douglas is an incredibly talented, smart and funny storyteller. This book is compelling to read from start to finish. She either knows or has worked with so many significant names in film, that in researching, she broke my IMDB.

actor and author of the New York Times bestselling Bob Saget

I've talked to Illeana Douglas about her life. Her family roots are crazy, groovy, harsh and a bit glamorous. I'm thrilled she's wrangled that into prose form. She's quirky, hilarious and deep. I love her. I've always loved her. Haven't we all?

Comedian and bestselling author of Attempting Norm Marc Maron

10/01/2015
Gushy excitement alternates with sentimentality, self-celebration, and stand-up comedy rhythms in this movie-wrapped memoir by actress and occasional web series producer/director Douglas, who proudly and emotionally recounts her life as the granddaughter of acclaimed actor Melvyn Douglas. The title is derived from the powerful influence of director Dennis Hopper's 1969 film Easy Rider on the author's father, who blew away his bourgeois adequacy, abandoned responsibility, and started one of those legendary 1960s communes, causing in his young daughter a poverty-stricken sense of self. The narrative is chronologically jumbled. Stories range from her early adolescent reminiscences of drive-in movies to much later behind-the-scenes experiences with film personalities. These encounters range from some with grand on-screen images to those with real-life, mostly senior movie stars, directors, publicists, and other industry characters, several with close connections and many name-dropped from a distance. Entertaining flashes of insight and infatuation reveal Douglas's former paramour Martin Scorsese and actors including Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Richard Dreyfuss, Ethan Hawke, and Roddy McDowall. VERDICT For those who enjoy whimsical insights into movie personalities and productions, and an easygoing memoir style.—Ann Fey, SUNY Rockland Community Coll., Suffern

Library Journal

2015-08-15
Actress, producer, and director Douglas celebrates her love of movies in a cheerful debut memoir. The granddaughter of actor Melvyn Douglas, the author grew up in a hippie commune started by her father, who rejected a suburban, middle-class version of the American dream after he saw Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider. His daughter yearned to escape from her parents' self-imposed poverty and become a movie star. "We look up to movie stars," she writes. "We believe in them, because they are larger than life, and it makes us believe in ourselves when no one else does." Channeling Liza Minnelli, Douglas was accepted into the Hartford Stage Youth Theatre, which set her on a path to acting schools in New York. Her career was marked by "dreams and magic signs that foretell where you're going" and helped smooth the inevitable rough spots. On the way to success, the author recounts meetings with many movie idols who encouraged her: Lee Marvin ("my childhood sweetheart," she confesses), who kissed her and wished her luck; Peter Sellers, who told her to learn to ride a unicycle "because it's hard and not everyone can do it"; and Richard Dreyfuss, with whom she was obsessed. "He was the first actor I studied," she writes, "and tried to be like, like a painter copying a master until he has a technique of his own." Other luminaries who make appearances include the generous and understanding Roddy McDowall; Robert De Niro, with whom Douglas acted in Cape Fear; "kind and adorable" Gene Wilder; and Martin Scorsese, who was her boyfriend for a while. She also describes an emotional meeting with Marlon Brando and recalls her success at producing Easy to Assemble, a satirical series made with IKEA's cooperation. The author's warm portraits and disarming honesty infuse the memoir with an endearing sweetness and charm.

Kirkus Reviews