Do you remember the scene in which the protagonist of Buffalo 66, Billy, cries in a public bathroom? That scene, Vincent Gallo explains, is an affectionate tribute to his friend River Phoenix!
“Everything was born on the set of My Own Private Idaho, by Gus Van Sant. I had gone to the set to find my dear friend, River, and I witnessed the shooting. I had noticed that River had an almost maniacal attention to his hair and was almost obsessive. He was always worried about how they were, how they looked on the screen, how the tuft fell back over and rebelled against his eyes at every movement. At the end of the day, jokingly, I told him that sooner or later I would make a scene that was a hymn to [his] hair and I would show off a better cut than his. Then River, my beloved friend River, with all his extraordinary talent, his dazzling inner light, his wealth of soul and thought, has tragically [passed away]. Years later, I had almost finished filming Buffalo 66 and suddenly remembered that I had never fulfilled my promise to River. I had never made a sequence that was a hymn to my hair. I missed shooting the scene in the toilet, and I decided it would be the one and I would have dedicated it to my friend. Look at it and see how my hair is the real star of the sequence”