In the Moment

For the first time, the acclaimed actor Ben Gazzara (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Anatomy of a Murder, Husbands, Saint Jack) shares his intimate account of more than fifty years in film, theater, and television. The son of Sicilian immigrants, Ben Gazzara began acting at age sixteen in New York City’s Italian American community. Making the improbable leap to the Actor’s Studio in the 1950s, Gazzara learned his craft alongside stars such as Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe, and went on open-calls and auditions with James Dean. But Elia Kazan turned Gazzara into a star when he hand-selected him to originate the role of Brick in the landmark Broadway production of Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Gazzara made the jump to Hollywood with Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of Murder, bringing him national stardom. Nevertheless, Gazzara is most celebrated for the innovative movies he made with John Cassavetes — movies that in the 1970s helped launch today’s independent film movement. In the Moment takes readers behind-the-scenes and onto the movie sets, revealing how movies were created through an intense collaboration between actors and their director. Gazzara’s more recent films continue to shape the independent film tradition for a new generation.