#actor facts

Lots of that iconic argument-on-the-stairs scene is James Dean improvising. Jimmy is supposed to be having a more back-and-forth, if passionate, discussion with his parents but instead James Dean is talking over them or, especially, talking over his mom, like when he faces the window and just goes “It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter it doesn’t matter” over and over, that is SO GOOD. That’s just like arguments that we used to have with our parents as teenagers. 

And you know, besides being realistic, it communicates way more the way that the character is feeling. Like this is a very tense moment and his parents aren’t there for him, they’re not really listening to what he’s saying, and they don’t see it the way he does. They don’t see what he thinks is so important as important. And the whole movie is about facing who you are and taking responsibility for the people who depend on you, and his parents won’t do that. And in the scene James Dean and Jim Backus and Ann Doran are all literally moving around each other and never facing each other. 

Also, the line with Judy after “‘I bet you’re a real yo yo,” was supposed to be, “what? I’m not all that bad!” but instead James Dean said, “‘I love you, too.”

Also also, I don’t know if James Dean was uncomfortable or mumbled too much so they had to cut stuff out, or if it was his idea at all, but the love-declaring scene in the mansion had a lot more lines from Jimmy Stark and James Dean did not wind up saying them in the final film.

Also just saw an interview with Sal Mineo, who was 17 at the time, and said that the director of Rebel asked him if he could do improv while reading for the part of Plato. Which Sal responded to by saying, “‘yeah, of course I can,” but it was his first big screen role, and he didn’t know what improv was. He didn’t know how to do what wasn’t written on the script. And he said that he picked it up by realizing that James Dean wasn’t saying what was in the script, or he would say more than what was in the script.