High life | 11 October 2012

‘Your future is in Hollywood. I can make you the next Bela Lugosi,’ said James Toback, looking me straight in the eye. Jimmy Toback is a hell of a fellow. An obsessive with an encyclopedic knowledge of sport and other data, he directed such great films as The Gambler, Fingers (it made Harvey Keitel into a star), wrote the screenplay for Bugsy, and has just wrapped Seduced and Abandoned, starring Taki and Alec Baldwin, not necessarily in that order. S&A is going to Sundance and our hopes are high. Jimmy says that I came out fine, ‘the only man in Cannes among the movie crowd with some dignity’. A bit like calling someone an intellectual because his bookcase is bigger than his TV.

Jimmy was a tennis player before he became a film director. He came up against Arthur Ashe at a junior tournament and broke Arthur’s serve right away and held his own.