But it’s hard to get invested in film these days. I stumbled onto the filming on the street and walked right into the middle of the shot. So anyway, then the Peter [Yates, the director] and the writer Steve [Teisch] came back to my hotel room to talk to me. They put gold chains around my neck. I did this movie 40 years ago, and it wasn’t very remunerative, but I’ve been greeted with goodwill from all kinds of people that this movie affected ever since and I don’t even know them. We used to have intuition, we used to have instinct, we used to have a moral code, even if it was just personal. I left home when I was 17. And that’s so hard — to find that. Lesson not learned: Europe unprepared as 2nd virus wave hits, Watch Join our Member Subscription and stay up to date on the latest entertainment news. I couldn’t understand why they hired me and what they wanted out of me when they changed me so radically. They’ve been doing so ever since. It’s just amazing to have that introduction to the world. Please check your inbox to confirm. I know it seems silly in retrospect, but we did stop a war. I don’t have to get out of drag to prove to her I’m a real person. The film centers on Dave, the Italophile, and his working-class friends, known as “cutters,” a word used to describe laborers who, for generations, have cut limestone in the local quarries. And I think it’s important we all don’t. I don’t think I really understood the class struggle in this movie when we shot it and it was made. I just don’t get it. It was a year of consensus. Why the media is still struggling with how to cover Trump, Read But I still love the work that I get to do when I do it. With Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley. You can curse it or you can let it into your life and find out what’s really going on behind it. My bad start was kind of like an education. I put myself through a year of college and then I thought, what the hell am I doing, I can’t afford this. I had a bit of a career before this as a supporting guy, I was actually in a [Federico] Fellini film. In 1979, critics and audiences alike were surprised when the film “Breaking Away,” with its ostensibly goofy set-up — a young townie from Bloomington, Indiana, becomes obsessed with Italian cycling, and even passing as Italian himself — became one of the most lauded and beloved films of the year. Christopher, who has appeared as a character actor in more than a dozen movies, including “Django Unchained,” “It,” and “Chariots of Fire,” spoke with the PBS NewsHour after the screening. And they made my hair dark brown, and put it up in a pompadour,” Christopher told an audience last month at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville, Virginia, at a 40th anniversary screening of the movie. I got up the next morning and went to the set. Christopher — who himself is half-Italian but grew up in the United States — won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer. You saw how reserved those people were in the film — his father and mother don’t even embrace when they see each other. I don’t see movies anymore that are just centered on people, and the so-called small problems that we all have. But there is this lesson in it about class struggle, and you never see stories like that anymore. Breaking Away copped an unexpected five Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Score Adaptation. I mean, I’m poor a lot. Sometimes that seriousness weighs you down a little bit. I had a middle-class career as an actor. Pigs, chickens, a parade down the street of weird people, had to all go back to one spot because of me. (laughter). I had spent a sleepless night and called my agent asking to be out of the movie. The cycling film was nominated for four Oscars and won Best … (applause) And we did make people think about things they didn’t think about before. Every character in the film has a beginning and an end — an arc. Dennis Christopher as Dave, Jackie Earle Haley as Moocher, Daniel Stern as Cyril and Dennis Quaid as Mike in the 1979 film Breaking Away. You know, there were two films that broke the mold at the time, and it was us and “My Bodyguard.” It’s a great movie if you get a chance to see it. I’d play these eclectic weirdo guy roles, as I was trying to figure out how to be a hippie and an actor at the same time. But it just doesn’t seem like there’s a mingling between entertainment and learning anymore. Oakland, Portland sue over use of federal agents at protests, Power cut to thousands in California to prevent wildfires, ‘Jagged Little Pill’ leads Tony Awards nominations with 15, C-SPAN suspends Steve Scully after he admits to lie about hack, Drought more likely than blizzards this winter, forecasters say, E.U. Who gets to do a job for three months and it follows you the rest of your life? Nowadays they just stuff characters in the movies, they say one line, they upset the cart, and then they leave and you never see that character again. I couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror. So it wasn’t a total waste of time. There’s a story about how the father and mother grow closer together through this eccentric child. I was a character actor then, and I still am. And I said: “I’m half Italian, and I don’t want to be in ‘Saturday Night Live.’” I told them the reason Dave wants to be Italian is because he wants a family. It’s that Midwestern reserve kind of thing, at least that’s how it was 40 years ago. I’ve seen a lot of people transition and pass away. It’s been a wonderful ride. I’m just not going to give up on anything. © 1996 - 2020 NewsHour Productions LLC. Oct 15 I’ve heard so many stories about a woman who opened a bike shop to get out of an abusive relationship, men who left the corporate world to start cycling, people who found teaching, whatever it is, it’s changed a lot of people’s lives and made them take stock of what they’re doing. I’m smarter now and can see facets I couldn’t see before. Thank you. 5 Nominations, 1 Win. Breaking Away is smartly edited, though it was one of two Best Picture nominees that weren't up for Best Film Editing (The Black Stallion and The Rose replaced it and Norma Rae). But I think when you’re young and exuberant, it’s good to be weighed down a little bit. Oct 15 Following an apprenticeship in the English theater, Yates (born July 24, … “Breaking Away” took home an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, the Golden Globe for Best Film, and received many other nominations. Pauline Kael embraced it. But I’m not going to give up. Well, I’m trying to think when I stopped being a waiter (laughter). Oct 15 Yeah for sure. Actress in a Supporting Role - Barbara Barrie in "Breaking Away" Directing - Peter Yates. I left another film I was working on to play this part. Giger, Carlo Rambaldi, Brian Johnson, Nick Allder, Denys Ayling, Peter Ellenshaw, Art Cruickshank, Eustace Lycett, Danny Lee, Harrison Ellenshaw, Joe Hale, William A. Fraker, A. D. Flowers, Gregory Jein, Douglas Trumbull, John Dykstra, Richard Yuricich, Robert Swarthe, Dave Stewart, Grant McCune, Francis Veber, Edouard Molinaro, Marcello Danon, Jean Poiret. Winners & Nominees. A small-town boy obsessed with the Italian cycling team vies for the affections of a college girl. Bad things are really a form of evolution — or of surrender. So Steve asked me: “Well, what about the big reveal when you tell [your girlfriend in the film], Catarina, that you’re not Italian?” I said: “I can do that. And she said, “Are you kidding? Yeah, totally. I had done two pictures for Robert Altman before this, had worked for Fellini in Rome. And the critics embraced it, too. I miss that intimacy in pictures nowadays. Well, I was lucky enough to get a job that I love to do. © 2019 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Kermit the Frog performs the nominated song from The Muppet Movie, Presenters Harold Russell, left, and Farah Fawcett with, Visual Effects winners from second from left: Denys Ayling, Carlo Rambaldi, and Brian Johnson, Actor in a Leading Role - Peter Sellers in "Being There", Visual Effects - Peter Ellenshaw, Art Cruickshank, Eustace Lycett, Danny Lee, Harrison Ellenshaw, Joe Hale, Actor in a Supporting Role - Mickey Rooney in "The Black Stallion", Short Film (Live Action) - Roman Kroitor and Stefan Wodoslawsky, Producers, Music (Original Song Score and Its Adaptation -or- Adaptation Score) - Adaptation Score by Patrick Williams, Actress in a Supporting Role - Barbara Barrie in "Breaking Away", Art Direction: Philip Rosenberg, Tony Walton; Set Decoration: Edward Stewart, Gary Brink, Art Direction: Michael Seymour, Les Dilley, Roger Christian; Set Decoration: Ian Whittaker, Art Direction: Dean Tavoularis, Angelo Graham; Set Decoration: George R. Nelson, Art Direction: George Jenkins; Set Decoration: Arthur Jeph Parker, Art Direction: Harold Michelson, Joe Jennings, Leon Harris, John Vallone; Set Decoration: Linda DeScenna, Steve Singer and Tom Priestley, Producers, Glenn Silber and Barry Alexander Brown, Producers, Donald A. Connolly and James R. Messenger, Producers, Richard Marks, Walter Murch, Gerald B. Greenberg, Lisa Fruchtman, Song Score by Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher; Adaptation Score by Paul Williams, It Goes Like It Goes in "Norma Rae" Music by David Shire; Lyric by Norman Gimbel, I'll Never Say 'Goodbye' in "The Promise" Music by David Shire; Lyric by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman, It's Easy To Say in "10" Music by Henry Mancini; Lyric by Robert Wells, The Rainbow Connection in "The Muppet Movie" Music and Lyric by Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher, Through The Eyes Of Love in "Ice Castles" Music by Marvin Hamlisch; Lyric by Carole Bayer Sager, Francis Coppola, Producer; Fred Roos, Gray Frederickson and Tom Sternberg, Co-Producers, Roman Kroitor and Stefan Wodoslawsky, Producers, Harry Mathias, Jay Zukerman and Larry Hankin, Producers, Walter Murch, Mark Berger, Richard Beggs, Nat Boxer, Arthur Piantadosi, Les Fresholtz, Michael Minkler, Al Overton, William McCaughey, Aaron Rochin, Michael J. Kohut, Jack Solomon, Robert Knudson, Robert J.