Sean Connery wasn’t too happy with how The Rock was going in its early stages – until something happened four weeks into shooting.
Remarkably, we’re up to the 30th birthday of arguably Michael Bay’s best film as director, The Rock. Starring Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris, it was Bay’s second feature film (following Bad Boys), and paved the way for movies such as Armageddon and Pearl Harbor that’d immediately follow.
The Rock though was also a big deal for Sean Connery, giving him his first sizeable box office hit since 1990’s The Hunt For Red October.
Not that Disney, the company that backed it, was awash with confidence with all of its personnel. Michael Bay at this stage was in his early 30s, but also, so was his director of photography. John Schwatzman.
Furthermore, Schwartzman – who’d worked on lots of videos with Michael Bay – only had two full length feature films to his name at that stage, neither of which filled Disney with much confidence. Two good movies, 1993’s Benny & Joon and 1994’s Airheads, but still.
Bay nonetheless vouched for him, and in the latest episode of the brilliant Team Deakins podcast, Schwartzman told some of his stories of working on the film. Not least the moment when Sean Connery started massaging his shoulders.
The scenario was a special sizzle reel screening that Disney had asked to be put together.
It was in response to grumbles Connery was having four weeks into filming. He wasn’t happy with how things were, and so The Rock’s producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, had arranged for the sizzle reel screening. In the room were Bay, Schwartzman, Bruckheimer and Connery.
“20 minutes into the screening,” Schwartzman recalled, “I feel these hands on my shoulders, and it’s Sean Connery massaging my shoulders.”
Connery was happy. Not necessarily with the film and how things were being done, just that he saw in which direction it was going. “I know that the one thing Sean was not happy about was Michael’s style,” reported Schwartzman. “But Sean certainly appreciates getting rich, and he can see the dollar signs.”
Hence, the massage!
It’s an excellent conversation, and you can catch the parts where they talk about The Rock around 26 minutes into the episode, which you can find below.
And Connery, of course, was right. The film would gross over $300m worldwide, and reignite his box office spark…
