NikkeiWest--Northern California Japanese American Newspaper

By J.K. Yamamoto

Like many people, Steven Mori is fascinated by cinema. Unlike most, he has channeled this interest by appearing in movies, making his own films, and interviewing Hollywood legends.

A write-up of his 1974 interview with tough-guy actor Lee Marvin is the cover story of the current issue of Cinema Retro: The Essential Guide to Movies of the ’60s and ’70s (www.cinemaretro.com). Mori also wrote an article based on his interview with Steve McQueen for Cinema Retro’s first issue.

A Castro Valley resident, Mori works for Intrada, a CD producer that specializes in film soundtracks. His work as a photojournalist has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Times and the Hollywood Reporter, among other publications.

Asked how he managed to meet these iconic movie stars, Mori explained, “I think I had youth and a real love of movies on my side. In high school, my journalism teacher gave me an assignment to interview someone important to me for my final paper. For my first interview, I aimed high, really high. I chose one of my idols.

“I heard that Steve McQueen was in San Francisco shooting a film called ‘Bullitt’ (1968), so I tracked him down to the S.F. Airport, where he was shooting, and asked him if I could interview him for my assignment. To my surprise, he said yes and wanted to do it on the spot, but I wasn’t quite ready, and besides, it was a school night, so he told me to set it up with the film’s publicist.

“I called the guy for weeks, and he kept putting me off until I had to visit the set again in a panic. I told McQueen what happened and he was shocked. He said it was too late to do the interview in S.F. because they were leaving the next day. My heart sank, but McQueen said I could do the talk in L.A. if I wanted to drive down.”

Months later, Mori interviewed McQueen on the set of “The Reivers” (1969).

“I was extremely nervous, this being my first interview and all, but McQueen put me at ease and was just as cool off-screen as he was on-screen,” Mori recalled. “He was extremely paranoid of the press — he wouldn’t let me photograph him at the time — but he did open up quite a bit when we talked.”

At the time, McQueen’s credits included “The Sand Pebbles” (1966) and “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1968). His subsequent films included “The Getaway” (1972) and “The Towering Inferno” (1974). He died in 1980 at the age of 50.

Secret Agent Man

Another of Mori’s favorite actors, Patrick McGoohan, star of the TV series “Secret Agent” and “The Prisoner,” visited Stockton to film “The Moonshine War” (1970).

“I had another writing assignment, this time for college, so I went to the set and asked McGoohan for his autograph,” Mori said. “While he signed, I asked him about doing an interview for my class. He said no and I thought that was that. About a half-hour later, his assistant came over to me and said he had changed his mind and that we could set up something.

“It took a while, but I finally got to interview him at his Stockton hotel room, and he was a fascinating person. Although he was an Irish actor, he answered most questions using the Southern accent he developed for his film role at the time, and he was enigmatic and extremely intellectual.”

McGoohan, whose other credits included “Escape From Alcatraz” (1979) and “Braveheart” (1995), died earlier this year at the age of 80.

When Mori interviewed Marvin on the set of “The Klansman” (1974), “I was told by a publicist that he hated the press and that he would probably only give me five minutes. Although Marvin had turned away other reporters and was known for drinking a bit too much, he was incredibly nice and totally sober as far as I could tell when I met him.

“He was genuinely gracious and gave me almost an hour while opening up to me more than he had to any reporter at the time. I was really moved and surprised by how deep he was.”

Among the topics they discussed was “Hell in the Pacific” (1968), in which Marvin and Toshiro Mifune played mortal enemies stranded on a Pacific island during World War II. Marvin was also known for such films as “Cat Ballou” (1965) and “The Dirty Dozen” (1967). He died in 1987 at age 63.

Literary Legacy

Mori is the son of Toshio Mori (1910-1980), a pioneering Nisei writer who published “Yokohama, California,” a short-story collection, in 1949. While growing up, the younger Mori met many of his father’s fellow authors.

“One of the most memorable moments was meeting writer William Saroyan (1908-1981), my father’s drinking buddy and mentor in the 1930s who eventually wrote the introduction for ‘Yokohama, California,’ ” Mori said. “Sometime in the 1960s, Saroyan’s car had a flat tire in San Leandro while on one of his road trips. He remembered that my dad lived in San Leandro and called him up and asked him if he wanted to meet.

“I happened to be home, attending high school at the time, so my dad, my mother Hisayo and I drove to the auto repair shop and met the famous writer, who was as full of life and stories as I imagined he would be. Wearing his signature walrus mustache, he spent a half-hour talking over old times with my dad, and when the tire was repaired, he shook our hands, said his goodbyes and hit the road again.

“My dad and I would meet him again once more in the ’70s when we attended a UC Berkeley tribute to him, and we also met his son, poet Aram Saroyan.”

Toshio Mori was included in the 1974 Asian American literary anthology “Aiiieeeee!,” which was edited by up-and-coming writers Frank Chin, Jeffrey Paul Chan, Lawson Fusao Inada and Shawn Wong. Steven Mori remembered attending a dinner celebrating the book’s publication:

“We all sat at a big round table and the conversation between these diverse writers, some meeting for the first time, was electric.

Although my dad was more soft-spoken than most of the much younger and more radical writers, there was a great deal of mutual respect. He formed a particular bond with poet Inada and writer Chin, both of whom would later work with my dad and I on the film ‘Farewell to Manzanar,’ fittingly playing the camp radicals ...

“A study in contrasts, Inada had a quiet but intense presence while Chin was extremely outspoken, wild and crazy. Although my dad and I disagreed with Frank about some things, the discussions were always enjoyable and lively, and I think being around the younger writers invigorated my dad.

“It was also a period where his writing was finally being recognized by college students and teachers after decades of neglect, and he was eternally grateful for that late recognition. At the time, he also developed strong ties with writer Hisaye Yamamoto and poet Janice Mirikitani that would last for the rest of his life.”

Tule Lake and Manzanar

Steven Mori worked on the 1976 made-for-TV film “Farewell to Manzanar,” based on the book by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, and it was “one of the most joyous and memorable experiences of my life.”

The cast and crew went to the internment camp site at Tule Lake, just south of the Oregon border, to make a movie about Manzanar, which is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada in southeastern California.

Director John Korty hired Mori — whose father was interned at Topaz, Utah — to work as a photographer, publicist and actor. One of the characters in the film was a professional photographer, but his photos were actually taken by Mori.

“It was a very emotional experience to see the barbed-wire fences, armed guard towers and the wooden rebuilt barracks,” Mori said. “For the first time, I understood what my parents had suffered. I also had no idea that the cast and crew would become a true family for the next two months and beyond ...

“I grew very close to most of the cast, and they were all wonderful, very talented people: Nobu McCarthy, Yuki Shimoda, Clyde Kusatsu, James Saito, Akemi Kikumura, Momo Yashima, Dori Takeshita, Vernon Kato, Pat Morita and Mako.

“Korty’s direction was a revelation as he guided the actors to excellent performances and tried to be as accurate as possible in recreating camp life. It was also inspiring to see cinematographer Hiro Narita work and art director Robert Kinoshita design and build the camp.”

On Screen and Behind the Camera

Mori began making his own films in high school, where he completed two spy features — influenced by the Beatles and James Bond films, both popular at the time — and a documentary about his trip to Scotland. Those films were only shown at high school events.

While studying filmmaking at San Francisco State, he made “Springtime,” which he described as “an anti-Vietnam War musical satire that was underscored by Mel Brooks’ song ‘Springtime for Hitler’ while visually intercutting a top hat and tux wearing dancer with offbeat footage taken from TV commercials. The film was shown at San Francisco State’s Film Finals and a few other local festivals and was well-reviewed in the S.F. Chronicle’s Sunday pink section.”

As an actor, Mori played a small part in an independent film, “The Motive,” and the main role in a short film, “The Hollow Vale,” both of which were shown at the Screen Actors Guild Film Festival and a few colleges. He also appeared prominently in a Paul Masson Wine commercial that was only shown in Europe.

He has gotten more exposure through walk-ons in mainstream films like “The Candidate” (1972) as a photographer; “Time After Time” (1979) as a bloody hospital patient; and “Quicksilver” (1986) as a stock trader, as well as several episodes of “The Streets of San Francisco.”

“Although I have worked on many films and TV shows, I haven’t interviewed many of the stars with whom I have worked, other than the entire cast of ‘Manzanar,’ because I’ve tried to keep the acting/extra work separate from my journalism work,” Mori said.

Perhaps the easiest way to spot Mori would be to watch the 1979 movie “Hardcore” starring George C. Scott. “I’m the last person you see in the film, jaywalking across North Beach.”