:07:02
I was sent down to Mexico
to study to be a bullfighter.
:07:06
Mind you, I have never once
seen a bull in my life.
:07:12
I worked my ass off for three months.
:07:14
Wearing a rubber girdle each day, so I'd
lose weight around my midsection.
:07:18
There was one big problem.
No one wanted me in the picture.
:07:23
Ernest Hemingway was furious they'd
pick a guy out of a nightclub...
:07:27
...to play Pedro Romero,
who in the true-life story was him.
:07:31
A telegram goes out to
Darryl Zanuck. It reads:
:07:34
"With Robert Evans playing Pedro Romero,
The Sun Also Rises will be a disaster.
:07:39
Signed, Ernest Hemingway,
Tyrone Power...
:07:42
...Ava Gardner, Eddie Albert."
:07:44
The only one who refused to sign it
was Errol Flynn. He laughed.
:07:49
I know I'm gonna get fired.
But that gave me the resolve.
:07:53
I said, fuck them. And, you know,
when I knew that telegram went out...
:07:57
...I became Pedro Romero in one week.
:08:03
Zanuck arrives in Morelia, Mexico,
and I'm summoned to the bullring...
:08:07
...to do my quites and
veronicas in front of him.
:08:10
I walk into the bullring, take off
my hat, throw it to him. For you.
:08:16
And then I start going through
my various things.
:08:19
I feel like an idiot.
I know I'm gonna get fired.
:08:27
Suddenly, Zanuck stands up, all
5'3" of him, picks up a bullhorn:
:08:32
"The kid stays in the picture. And
anybody who doesn't like it can quit."
:08:38
Puts the bullhorn down, and walks out.
:08:48
Also, it was then that I realized
that's what Evans wants to be.
:08:52
Not some actor shitting in his
pants, waiting to get a role.
:08:55
But the guy who can say,
"The kid stays in the picture."
:08:59
Bob Evans is a 28-year-old New Yorker
who is in the enviable position...