tions with psychology studies and
"miraculously" landed the role of
Sonny in the national touring compa-
ny of Grease.
By 1982, he was cast as Dr. Wayne
Fiscus on NBC's St. Elsewhere, but was
devastated when the producers gave
him the boot several days into produc-
tion and replaced him with Howie
Mandel. A decade later, he ran into
one of the producers after his Oscar
nomination. "I gave him a big hug
and thanked him for firing me,"
Paymer says, beaming. "I said, 'You
got me out of TV!'"
While shooting his big break-role as
ice cream guru Ira Shalowitz in City
Slickers, Paymer had no idea that star
Billy Crystal was writing his next film,
Mr. Saturday Night, with him in
mind.
"It's a good thing I didn't, or I
would have been nervous," admits wry,
soft-spoken Paymer, who now keeps
his nomination certificate in an
obscure corner of his guesthouse.
Several years later, Paymer worried
he blew his chance to work with
David Mamet when the birth of his
eldest daughter forced him to decline
a role in Mamet's Jewish-themed play,
The Old Neighborhood. But then the
writer/director came calling with State
and Main, and Paymer was anxious.
"I was insecure because Mamet has
his own actors, and I didn't know how
I'd fit in with the whole gang," admits
Paymer, who studied several of
Mamet's acting books and meticulous-
ly practiced the author's signature,
rapid-fire dialogue.
"And because David's language is so
tough and bullying in many of his
plays, I assumed maybe he'd be like

that. But he was totally the opposite.
He's a love, like a big teddy bear. He
was an actor once, and he does any-
thing to make an actor feel accepted."
On the set, life imitated art as the
Hollywood company descended on
the town of Manchester-by-the-Sea,
Mass., and the actors were ensconced
in a crummy Sheraton hotel with bad
food and only four economy cars for
eight people.
"You'd go to the front desk, the keys
would be‘ gone and you'd go, 'Does
Macy have the car? Does Baldwin?"'
Paymer recalls. "We'd get that feeling
of being stuck in a small town, which
just added to the film's realism."
In his private life, Paymer attends
Reform High Holiday services and is
planning to enroll his 6-year-old,
Emily, in Hebrew school. In his pro-
fessional life, he avoids stereotypically
Jewish roles.
"I get offered a lot of attorneys
named Epstein or Kleinman," he says.
"I get a lot of nebbishes with glasses."
Next up, he'll appear with Macy in
the film Focus, based on Arthur
Miller's early novel about anti-
Semitism in New York during World
War II.
His character, Finkelstein, is Jewish;
Macy's character isn't, though his
neighbors think he is.
"It's great to work with Bill again,"
Paymer reveals. "We've got the short-
hand down to make a scene work.
We're like an old married couple." ❑

David Mamet's State and Main,
rated R, opens today at the
Maple Theatre and the
Birmingham Theatre.

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selectively appropriates Jewish culture.
The running gag in State and Main is
the arbitrary popularity of matzah.
"Did my matzahs comer asks
director Walt Price insistently.
Throughout the film, matzah appears
to symbolize the superficiality of the
Hollywood in--crowd. When Joe
White innocently refers to the ques-
tionable treat as "crackers," we are
meant to know that he is nova part of
this culture of appropriation.
State and Main is a Capra-esque
exploration of faith and love, failure
and second chances. The film is warm
and whimsical, but — much like
Capra's finest pictures --- explores the
darker sides of human passion and_
ambition.

IMM

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Jessica Parker and Julia Stiles.
The satire and stereotyping take on a
disturbing quality, however, when it
comes to the Jewish backers of The Old
Mill. Producer Marty Rossen (David
Paymer) and "studio honcho" Howie
Gold (Jonathan Katz) are caricatures
unrelentingly associated with money,
bribery and trickery. The anti-Semitism
is made explicit when Waterford's
opportunistic golden-boy MacKenzie
exclaims, "Why you cheap little Heeb!"
It's uncomfortable. But given
Mamet's overall brilliance one has to
wonder whether this discomfort is
intentional, forcing us to acknowledge
the more frightening aspects of
Smalltown, USA.
The film exposes with apparent
ridicule the ways in which Hollywood

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77

