De Niro honoring his $35,000 deal; Connie Foster as body double; Julia Phillips's book on Cybill Shepherd's lines; Dick Smith's fake Mohawk; gunshot makeup effects; Mohawk on display at the Museum of the Moving Image
After De Niro's profile rose the producers feared they could not afford him, but he honored his original $35,000 deal, which helped get the movie made.
Jodie Foster's sister Connie, about 19, was her body double for scenes such as the last one.
Producer Julia Phillips's book says they were frustrated that Shepherd could not remember her lines in the coffee-and-pie scene.
The most shocking find is that De Niro's Mohawk was not real: Dick Smith made a bald cap with individually placed hairs so other scenes could be filmed after the Mohawk scenes.
Haircuts during a shoot make producers' heads explode; productions ask to be told before an actor cuts their hair.
Smith's gunshot effects are amazing, though a fishing-line pull on the neck wound is visible in slow motion; the blood running down the finger-gun hand is also smartly done.
The Mohawk hairpiece is on display at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria.
