His ‘Bobby’ is really for keeps
Emilio Estevez‘s life has been repeatedly touched by Robert Kennedy. So there’s symmetry in the fact that Estevez’s rebirth in Hollywood should come with the saga “Bobby.”
Written and directed by Estevez, who also co-stars with a huge all-star ensemble, the film (opening today) tells the fictionalized stories of 22 people gathered at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel for an appearance by Kennedy after he won the California primary in 1968 – the night he was assassinated.
That night, Estevez’s father, Martin Sheen – who later played both Robert and John F. Kennedy in TV projects, long before his turn as a fictional president in “The West Wing” – celebrated Kennedy’s win. The next morning, he was awakened in horror by 6-year-old Emilio, who told him Kennedy had been shot.
The next year, Estevez and his father visited the Ambassador Hotel, where “I remember holding his hand and him talking about, ‘This is it. This is the place where the music died,’ ” says Estevez, 44.
His one personal encounter with Kennedy came a year before the assassination, at a rally in New York City.
“My dad took me with him, and I was on his shoulders, and Bobby reached out and shook my hand,” Estevez says.
Playing the film-festival circuit, “Bobby” has earned high praise for its cast, which includes Anthony Hopkins, Sharon Stone, Laurence Fishburne, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Lindsay Lohan, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy, Harry Belafonte, Christian Slater, Heather Graham and Elijah Wood. Sheen also appears.
Estevez’s original screenplay was a whopping 162 pages. There was no central character, and no villain, “except for the chaos and the climate of the times,” he says.
And Estevez himself was on the outs with Hollywood. As an actor, he had made a mark in the mid-1980s with Francis Ford Coppola‘s “The Outsiders” and the quirky cult flick “Repo Man,” then established himself as one of the Brat Pack with such hits as “The Breakfast Club” and “St. Elmo’s Fire.”
He went mainstream with the Western “Young Guns,” the cop caper “Stakeout” and the kids’ hockey story “The Mighty Ducks.” Then he fell into the sequel trap, churning out “Young Guns II,” “Another Stakeout” and two “Mighty Ducks” follow-ups.
“I think people didn’t take me seriously as an actor any longer, and it felt like I’d done it, and I was over,” Estevez says.
He turned to directing, overseeing “Rated X” in 2000 for Showtime, in which he co-starred with brother Charlie Sheen, and episodes of “The Guardian,” “Cold Case” and “CSI: NY.”
In summer 2001, severe writer’s block had Estevez stuck at 30 pages on the “Bobby” script. He packed up and checked into an inn near Pismo Beach, north of Los Angeles.
When the hotel desk clerk learned about his project, she told him she had been there, at the Ambassador, the night Kennedy was shot.
She became the inspiration for Lohan’s character, who is about to wed an old friend (Wood) in hopes the marriage will keep him from getting sent to Vietnam.
And Estevez’s writer’s block was gone.
The birthday bunch
Actress Susan Anspach is 61. Actor Steve Landesberg is 61. Singer Bruce Hornsby is 52. Actress Kelly Brook (“Smallville”) is 27. Actress Miley Cyrus (“Hannah Montana”) is 14.