While promoting his Rogue One prequel series, Andor, that’s racking up rave reviews on Disney+, Tony Gilroy dropped by Marc Maron’s WTF podcast this week to discuss his decades-long screenwriting career that really took off during the ’90s. One film that Gilroy is particularly proud of is the 1997 classic, The Devil’s Advocate, starring Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino. The movie stars Reeves as a hot shot, small town attorney who finds himself working for the actual devil, played by Pacino at the top of his scenery chewing game.
The script called for Pacino’s character to have a decadently evil New York City apartment, and the production was frantically trying to find a location that fit the bill. Enter Donald Trump. The real-estate mogul caught wind of the search and “threw” his Trump Tower home at the filmmakers. According to Gilroy, the apartment was so over-the-top “ugly” that they didn’t have to change a thing. Via Pajiba:
We needed the ugliest, most garish, horrifying real-estate developer apartment we could possibly find, and Trump threw his apartment at us. We didn’t have to [do anything]. If you look at the movie, that’s his f**ing sh*t-bag apartment with all Versailles gilt and the high-rise windows. It’s just so perfect. He came by the set every day. Because he was living there. He’d come by the set and poke around … he was a clown. I’ve been in New York since 1979. I’m with him … he’s a f**king clown. You know, just that grifter clown kind of loser outsider, pretend rich guy. [To the actual titans of New York], he was lint.
In an on-brand move, Trump would reportedly drop by the set unannounced to try and get a look at Charlize Theron. However, unbeknownst to the now former president, the production was mocking him the whole time.
“He would come by on the way to the office, peek by and try to see Charlize,” Gilroy told Maron. “Everyone was laughing at him. Laughing at his apartment.”
You can listen to Gilroy talk about The Devil’s Advocate at the 26:00 mark below:
(Via WTF with Marc Maron)