The 1989 rock and roll biopic, Great Balls of Fire, might not have been made, save for a single photograph of star Dennis Quaid sitting alongside the legendary musician, Jerry Lee Lewis. Film producer The Breakfast Club, and cult genre flicks like Ravenous and Brokedown Palace.
While promoting the 4K Blu-ray special edition re-release of one of his most acclaimed films, Donnie Darko, Fields spoke at length with Screen Rant about his decades-long career as a behind-the-scenes dealmaker, working hard to get the green-light for his movies and then working even harder to make sure his projects were successfully completed and released.
Making a movie isn't an easy task. Even in the 21st century, with high-resolution cameras on every smartphone and video sharing sites like YouTube providing an alternative path to underdog success, aspiring filmmakers looking to reach "the next level" need to attract investors and studios, and to do that, they need a producer. In fact, for any movie to be made (excepting the ones attached to ongoing, successful franchises), it usually requires a producer making deals and employing some creative sleight-of-hand and old-fashioned showmanship to bring in enough money to get the ball rolling, so to speak.
The Jerry Lee Lewis biopic, Great Balls of Fire, was met with a mixed critical and commercial reception, but is fondly ed as one of actor Dennis Quaid's finest performances. Even Jerry Lee Lewis himself, who was sometimes less-than-enthused towards the film's uncompromising frankness, had nothing but praise for Quaid's acting. In any case, the movie might have never seen the light of day, were it not for a single provocative photograph that piqued interest from investors.
Nobody Wanted To Make Great Balls of Fire
In the 1950s, Jerry Lee Lewis was one of the biggest stars in the caught Fields' attention:
"I didn't know anything about him, but I saw an article in the LA Times about, "Jerry Lee Lewis on the Comeback Trail," and I go, "Come back from what? Where's he been?" So I went to see him at some club out here, and it was like going to see a Grateful Dead show or an early Springsteen show. He played for three hours, he had crazy energy. And then I read about him, and I realized I had to do this movie.
From there, it was still a long road to get the movie made. For the better part of a decade, Fields was shopping the project to various studios, but it never quite worked out. One studio closed down, while the legendary Dino De Laurentiis seemed interested until the Italian mega-producer realized that the project was about Jerry Lee Lewis, the rock star, and not Jerry Lewis, the comedian, actor, and MDA telethon host. However, even with his rights to Jerry Lee's story set to expire, Fields didn't give up, and soon conjured up a perfect storm that would lead to one perfect moment.
A Photograph of Dennis Quaid and Jerry Lee Lewis Led To Great Balls of Fire
Everything came to a head on one fateful (or slyly orchestrated) day. As Fields, who was in the process of wrapping Johnny Be Good for the studio, took the opportunity to arrange an impromptu meeting between the actor and the rocker. First, he employed his former college roommate, a photographer, to come to the office. Then, he had a piano installed in the conference room. After that, the piece fell naturally into place:
"I knew what would happen. Jerry Lee started playing the piano, my friend is taking pictures, and I knew everyone would hear it and come pouring down into the conference room. Sure enough, Dennis, who had a band, just couldn't stand that he wasn't the center of attention! So he sits down at the bench with Jerry. Well, Jerry wasn't so cool with that, and he starts snarling and giving Dennis the elbow, and Dennis is giving him the leg... And, with a little movie star magic, he turns to the camera with his million-dollar-grin at the perfect moment while Jerry's snarling... It was one of the great, magical photos."
The photo (seen above, center) was so perfect, Fields sent it to a friend of his who worked at Premiere Magazine, the image was published, and the long-gestating film suddenly became a hot ticket. As Fields recalls, "Suddenly, I had a movie." Great Balls of Fire was fast tracked for a June, 1989 release. Unfortunately, this release date was only one week after the launch of Tim Burton's 1989 Batman adaptation; Batman instantly became one of the biggest box office hits of all time, leaving a trail of broken, would-be blockbusters in its wake, with Great Balls of Fire one of its many casualties. Nevertheless, the film has since gone on to find an audience, since rock and roll never goes out of style, especially the way Jerry Lee Lewis does it.
Great Balls Of Fire Was Jerry Lee Lewis' Way Of Beating Elvis
Jerry Lee Lewis proved an invaluable resource while the film was being developed, and his numerous meetings with Fields were instrumental in keeping the story authentic to Lewis' real-life story and character. For one thing, the film may never have gotten an official green light without that infamous photograph, but Fields was also able to pick his brain and have lengthy conversations with the rock renegade that would help shape the film as it was developed. Every week, Fields would take a trip to Lewis' Mississippi ranch, filling in the music titan on the coming week's plans and sapping up any insight he could to make the movie even better and more true to life. At one point, Lewis was concerned the film might be damaging to his reputation, which, by then, had just about recovered from his various matrimonial scandals. As the film's story came together, and it became clear that none of Lewis' demons would be off-limits, the musician grew nervous towards the project. Fields recalls:
"He was kind of a scary guy, and he looked me in the eye at one point with a really scary look, and he goes, "Am I gonna like this movie, boy?" And I said, "You know, Jerry, I don't know if anyone would feel comfortable watching their whole life story on the screen for the whole world to see. I know I wouldn't, and my life hasn't been as 'textured' as yours."
That "texture," of course, refers to Lewis' aforementioned underage cousin-wife scandal, to say nothing of the multiple wives of his who died under mysterious circumstances, but that's a whole other story.
In any case, the one element that kept Lewis trucking along with the production was an unexpected one: Elvis. Back in the mid-1950s, there was something of a friendly rivalry between the various top-tier Sun records artists, from Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins to Johnny Cash and "The King of Rock and Roll" himself, Elvis Presley. With their provocative stage antics and sheer punk rock energy, Jerry Lee and Elvis were neck-and-neck in of their popularity and willingness to throw caution to the wind and perform with unadulterated sensual energy, with Jerry Lee matching Elvis' gyrating pelvis with his wild hair and penchant for literally setting his piano on fire during a set.
While Lewis' career was completely derailed by his unfortunate choice of spouse, Elvis went relatively unscathed when it came to his relationship with his own wife, Priscilla Presley, who Elvis first met when she was 14 (they would eventually marry in 1966, when she was 21). To this day, while Jerry Lee Lewis is regarded as one of the all-time musical legends, he's always played second-fiddle to Elvis, who will always be ed as the most impactful artist in the history of rock and roll. Had things gone differently in their private lives, maybe things would have been different. As Fields explains:
He couldn't stand the fact that Elvis was the King. Jerry said to me, "Hey, Priscilla was 15 when she moved into Graceland. At least I married mine! You could do my life's story, and it could be nothing but weddings and funerals from start to finish... Then again, Elvis didn't have no movie made about him while he was alive, did he? I guess this makes me bigger than Elvis now, don't it?" And I go, "Uh, sure."
Jerry Lee Lewis, the man, the myth, the legend, the earthy southern boy who loved church music and rock and roll, and yes, the guy who married his 13-year-old cousin. He is all of these things, and the film, Great Balls of Fire, doesn't pull its punches when it comes to any of those disparate elements. His was a story that deserved to be told through film. Were it not for the work of Adam Fields and the stars lining up to create that one perfect photograph, maybe the legacy of Jerry Lee Lewis, "The Last Man Standing," would be entirely different from the tragedy, terror, and triumph of a real-life American legend we all know today.
