The new and improved Louis Gossett Jr. is just warming up to the topic of diet and dropping weight when the door to his hotel room opens.
”We`re in trouble now,” he warns.
”Hey babe, you look great! That`s a great-looking suit,” James Woods says as he marches across the room and settles into an armchair, his voice just this side of a used-car salesman. ”You look like a Republican in that suit.”
Which is as good a place as any for Woods to launch into a brief speedrap on GOP politics, abortion, the election and voter registration before coming up for air.
There are, in this brief encounter, echoes of ”Diggstown,” the film about boxing and con-artistry.
The similarity between real and screen life is a question that Woods, whose mouth and mind operate in random-access mode, chooses to sidestep.
”Ask Lou about that one,” Woods laughs.
Woods plays Gabriel Caine, a freshly minted parolee who wastes no time resuming his life of hustling. His destination is Diggstown, a Georgia backwater town where amateur boxing nights and gambling go hand-in-glove.
His intended sucker is John Gillon, Diggstown`s most prominent citizen and reigning hairball, played to villainous perfection by Bruce Dern. With the help of his apprentice, Fitz (Oliver Platt), Caine lures Gillon into a titanic wager: that Caine`s man can whip any 10 Diggstown men in one 24-hour period.
Gossett, of course, is Caine`s ringer: ”Honey” Roy Palmer, amateur heavyweight legend and Caine`s former partner in con. Honey is at first loath to join the scam, but after only minimal cajoling agrees to head to Diggstown to perform in the $500,000 shakedown.
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Only a cloistered Carmelite nun would have to guess where ”Diggstown”
ends up. This stew of raw meat and saccharine has been been called a combination of ”Rocky” and ”The Sting.” For the record, it`s extra-heavy on the ”Rocky.”
But there`s no better formulaic crowd-pleaser than the one you`re in, so Gossett and Woods say they are proud and happy with ”Diggstown.”
”We`ve seen it with audiences,” Woods says. ”It`s like your dream come true. You sit there and people are on their feet cheering.”
Gossett draws a parallel to ”An Officer and a Gentleman,” the 1982 sleeper that carried him to an Oscar as best supporting actor for his portrayal of the merciless Sgt. Emil Foley.
”The formula was kind of corny, but the audience really needed to feel that way,” says Gossett, who shed more than 30 pounds to get himself into fighting trim for the current role. ”And in `Diggstown,` the audience needs to feel that way.”
To the argument that the film`s syrupy fantasy is the last thing people need during such tough times, Woods and Gossett protest.
”It`s not so much we`re giving them escapist entertainment,” Woods counters. ”We`re giving them a `movie` movie. It`s giving them a little bit of hope. We`re not going to change the world.”
Adds Gossett: ”These are times when the audience needs to see somebody, despite all odds, make it.”
Fifteen years after appearing together in Joseph Wambaugh`s ”The Choirboys,” the actors` common respect led them to ”Diggstown.” Gossett says he suggested Woods for the part, which Woods accepted upon hearing of Gossett`s involvement.
After a first reading together, Gossett and Woods went to director Michael Ritchie and persuaded him to prune the original script of various subplots, Woods says.
”We all knew what the power of the story was,” he says.
Much of the dialogue that ended up onscreen, the two say, was worked out during improvisational sessions among cast members.
”The biggest problem when you know it`s going to be an improvisational picture,” Woods says, ”is that you have to have actors who are not only good at improvisation, but who know when to let go and let it be the other guy`s moment.”
Gossett beams when Woods, now deep into a riff on acting, compares his friend to Buster Keaton. Indeed Gossett`s facial calisthenics complement the rambunctious verbosity of Woods` Caine. Equally skilled was Dern, who as the consummate bad guy heading for a fall, gives Caine ”the space” to establish himself.
Consummate professionals, Gossett and Woods say they have little time these days for the static created by big-headed stars behind the scenes. Making a movie, from start to finish, can take a year, Woods points out.
”Life`s just too short to spend it with someone who`s going to give you an ulcer.”