What I learned from James Earl Jones

Today I heard the sad news that the wonderfully talented actor James Earl Jones passed away. For those of you who have never heard of him, Jones was the voice of Luke’s dad, Darth Vader in Star Wars, Mufasa in The Lion King, and  King Jaffe alongside Eddie Murphy in Coming to America.  His most popular role was when he co-starred with the red hot Kevin Costner in every middle-aged man’s favorite movie, Field of Dreams, where he uttered the immortal lines: "Build it and they shall come.”  Spoiler alert he was referring to a baseball diamond full of ghosts, in a cornfield in Iowa. This famous line hauntingly delivered in Jone’s deep baritone timbre, has become an iconic part of our national Lexicon, and has been used many times in new home sales ads ever since.

A very young Roland with his famous friend, James Earl Jones

Since I met him in the early 90’s, I have felt I have a special connection to this world class actor, please let me explain. I have always loved movies, and many moons ago, I dreamt of being a screenwriter. I even wrote my Oscar acceptance speech for Best Screenplay; feel free to ask me for it when I next see you. At the time, I was successfully selling brand new homes, at a Country Club Community in delightful Boynton Beach, Florida, to active adult buyers, retiring to the Sunshine State.  

I was constantly writing short stories, and training material, and a friend of mine knowing that I was an aspiring writer, asked me if I could write a screenplay. He explained that he had a buddy Brian, who was a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, and he wanted to produce a film that would inspire addicts to change their lives and get the help they needed from a treatment program. Being a salesman and an eternal optimist I said that I could write Screenplays and would be happy to undertake this noble project. I met with and signed an agreement with Brian, and the next day I bought the book “How to Write a Screenplay” by Syd Field and started studying.

Brian explained that his movie was about six addicts on their first day of treatment. It would be called “Paper Slippers” as at treatment centers you give up your own clothes and have to wear paper clothing and shoes, so you don’t do harm to yourself. He also explained that the movie would start with the six characters shuffling in, and you would hear a famous poem he had heard once, that was the voice of addiction, and it began “I have destroyed more men then all the wars in the worlds history...” Brian couldn’t remember the rest.

I went to AA meetings for three months to learn more about this devastating disease and find my six characters for the movie.  The stories I heard were truly eye opening, and I remember marveling at the wisdom and benefits of the ten step program. I went so frequently that I had no choice but to introduce myself in the famous AA way, which is to be humble and admit that you are an addict, which was literally very sobering; although I never made up any stories.

After three months of research, I had the stories for my six characters and was ready to start writing the movie, so I called Brian for the rest of the Poem, which would begin the movie as the voice of addiction. Brian became agitated, couldn’t find it and then admitted that he had no idea who wrote it. He bellowed down the phone at me “I am paying you to write, you’re the writer so write the god-damned thing!” and hung up on me. I was so furious that I started pounding out the poem on my computer keys. The somber voice of addiction that I was hearing in my head was that of my childhood hero Winston Churchill, one of the greatest orators ever, whose chilling words and delivery, inspired a nation during World War II.

I would send pages of the screenplay to Brian as I was writing them, five pages at a time, and he would in turn send them to the lead actor who was his friend Antonio Fargas, who had played the streetwise con “Huggy Bear” in the original Starsky and Hutch TV Show, a favorite of young boomers like me. (Decades later that same role was played by Snoop Dogg in the movie version). Antonio was in a play in LA at the time with James Earl Jones, they were sharing a dressing room and as fate would have it,  he shared the script with Mr. Jones.  Incredibly, James Earl Jones felt so moved by the subject and the initial poem, he contacted Brian and asked to be in the movie playing the role of addiction! Needless to say when Brian called me and told me this, I didn’t believe him, as it was such a far-fetched idea, that the legendary James Earl Jones would star in my very first screenplay. 

Fast forward (Screenplay term) to three months later when the movie was about to start filming.  I had worked for years with my much younger sister Abi to create a park in my neighborhood in Wellington, as I lived in a townhome with no backyard, and was concerned that the kids needed somewhere safe to play before there was an accident with the speeding pick up trucks whizzing by. Abi and I knocked on over 200 doors with a petition, and then I went to Palm beach County Commissioner meetings and convinced the commissioners to graciously buy a couple of contiguous homesites, that I had already contacted the owner, and they had agreed to sell at fair market value in the middle of our neighborhood.  Then, our idea was that if the kids named the park, they would have a sense of ownership and protect it from graffiti and vandalism. We even had a park naming ceremony with over 30 kids piling into my home, with the local newspaper recording and taking photos. With uncanny serendipity, the kids came up with the name “Field of Dreams” for their new park.

The weekend the park was slated to open was the same weekend that James Earl Jones was coming into town to film our movie. I asked Brian if he could ask Mr. Jones to swing by and sign autographs for the kids at the park opening on Saturday afternoon, to which Brian replied he would try. The local paper and Channel Five news had been tipped off and were on high alert. Sure enough at around 3:30 PM on Saturday, February 20^th, I saw Brian's car pull up and park, behind the little grassy mounds of the park, which we had designed for privacy from the street. We waited with bated breath and then after what seemed like an eternity, we saw Brian and the unmistakable large figure of James Earl Jones casually walking over the mound toward me. The crowd gasped and then cheered, and I swear it was like they were walking in slow motion, I temporarily lost my hearing, as everything went completely silent. I was stunned and in shock that this was all actually happening! Mr. Jones was humble and gracious and stayed until he had signed every last autograph. By the way, I remember the date, so well as that is my Birthday, what a magical and memorable day. 

As if that wasn’t enough. On Monday, I took the afternoon off from my sales job and skipped over to the sound stage in West Palm Beach and watched the great man on the stage reciting the actual words that I had written in my tiny office at home. Can you imagine the thrill of watching and hearing my words being spoken by this most incredible actor, with his deep and uniquely resonant enunciation.  I had goosebumps and tears in my eyes and to this day, this will remain one of the seminal moments in my life.