Actress Candy Clark helps close out Plaza Classic

Director Nicolas Roeg called “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” his 1976 science-fiction movie, a “classic American love story.”

For actress Candy Clark, the movie has become a passion.

“I never gave up on that film,” Clark said in an interview from her home in Los Angeles.

Clark will introduce the film and talk about her experiences performing with the late-rocker David Bowie and her fight to have the film released in its original uncut form, as a special guest during the Plaza Classic Film Festival on Saturday at the Plaza Theatre.

Clark also will greet fans and sign autographs from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday in the Foundation Room, 333 N. Oregon. Admission is free, however, there is a fee for autographs.

The Plaza Classic Film Festival, produced by the El Paso Community Foundation, wraps up its ninth season Sunday. Billed as the world’s largest classic film festival, it was created in 2008 to bring movies back to the historic Plaza Theatre, which the foundation helped restore in 2006.

Beginnings

Clark was born in Oklahoma and raised in Fort Worth. At the age of 19, Clark left for what she thought would be a short visit to New York to explore a modeling career.

“I was going to go for two weeks and ended up staying for four years,” Clark said. “When I saw New York City from the air as the plane was landing, I thought to myself, ‘I’m never going back.’ It was dawn; everything was pink and gold. I loved it.”

Clark said that after four years of modeling, she began looking for work in film, “just as an extra, in the background,” when a New York casting director passed her photo along to a colleague from California.

“He started calling me and saying I had to come to California to audition for (the movie) ‘Fat City.’” Clark said. “I didn’t want to go. I was modeling and finally having a breakthrough. But, he kept calling and insisting.”

Clark, who “thought New York was the ultimate city and I’d be there forever," was finally persuaded to travel to California to audition.

"I’ve been in California ever since,” Clark said.

‘American Graffiti’

"Fat City," the John Huston-directed movie about a boxer who is past his prime, was a critical success, and soon, Clark would find herself nominated for an Oscar in just her second big-screen role, co-starring in George Lucas' "American Graffiti."

Clark said that, while “Fat City” hit screens in 1972 and “American Graffiti” debuted in 1973, it felt like “it took a long time to get another job.”

“I had to learn to act,” Clark said. “I was modeling my way through my first actor job.”

Eventually, Clark was called to audition for the part of the rebellious blonde Debbie Dunham in the classic movie about a night of cruising, hot rods and teenagers. Clark called the audition process “very competitive.”

By the time Clark auditioned, 5-foot-4 actor Charles Martin Smith had already been cast as her opposite, Terry “The Toad” Fields.

“I thought, ‘I’m not going to get this role because he’s too short and I’m too tall,” the 5-foot-7 Clark said. “I went through the motions and I didn’t try too hard because I knew I wasn’t going to get it. But I guess I came across so relaxed, I got the part.”

Clark would go on to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role.

To this day, Clark still does autograph signings at hot-rod shows, alongside some of her co-stars, thanks to the success of “American Graffiti.”

“A lot of (hot-rod enthusiasts) were inspired to start collecting cars from that movie,” Clark said. “They like to see us in person.”

‘Starman’

Following her breakthrough role, however, Clark was forced to take a hiatus from acting for a few years due to illness.

It was during that time that she met Roeg at a beach party. Soon the two were dating.

Clark said it took some time to get “The Man Who Fell to Earth” financed and cast. She first read the movie's script, based on Walter Trevis' 1963 novel, while waiting for Roeg to come out of a meeting with potential financiers.

“I was reading it, sitting in the corridor, when (Roeg) came out,” Clark said. “I said, ‘This is really good.’”

Roeg offered her the female lead on the spot.

Clark spent several months studying the script and developing the character of Mary-Lou, a young hotel worker who befriends and falls in love with an alien who comes to Earth in search of water to take to his home planet.

The search for the male lead, someone who could play the handsome alien, Thomas Jerome Newton, took months, according to Clark. Novelist Michael Crichton was considered for the role, “because he was really tall,” Clark said, before Bowie was eventually cast in his first movie role.

With the cast set, production began and much of the movie was filmed in parts of New Mexico, including nearby White Sands National Monument.

Bowie, who died in January, was known not only for his music, but for his early-'70s stage persona Ziggy Stardust – the out-of-this-world leader of the band the Spiders from Mars. The song “Starman” was among the hits culled from his 1972 album, “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.”

“(Bowie) was fantastic in the movie,” Clark said. “He was perfect. He looked like someone who belonged to another planet.”

Clark said that despite Bowie’s lack of movie experience he was easygoing and took the role seriously.

“He was a real hard worker,” Clark said. “He liked to run lines and practice, practice, practice, which was good because the only way I can learn lines is repetition – going over and over it. He was a really good actor. He wanted it to be a great film and it is.”

Unfortunately, studio executives didn’t understand the film’s ambiguous plot or its themes of isolation and alienation. More than 20 minutes of footage was edited out of the version released in the U.S. The movie was panned by critics and largely dismissed by moviegoers.

But as time passed, even film critic Roger Ebert was moved to revisit the movie in 2011 and rethink his initial 2½-star rating.

“As science-fiction films go, this is a unique one,” wrote Ebert. “It focuses on character and implied ideas, not on plot and special effects. ... .A production of this style is almost unthinkable today.”

Clark couldn’t agree more, and it’s why it became a personal mission to have the original director’s cut released some 20 years later.

“I consider it (Bowie’s) best work and also my best work,” Clark said. “I put so much effort into that character and to have it destroyed broke my heart.”

The director’s cut, which was released as part of the Criterion Collection on DVD in 2005, and which Clark helped make a reality, is now considered a sci-fi classic.

Clark said that even though it took nearly 30 years, she’s happy the film is finally getting its just due.

“It all turned out great in the end,” Clark said. “We’re still talking about it.”

Dave Acosta may be reached at 546-6138; dacosta@elpasotimes.com; @AcostaDavidA on Twitter.

Make plans

What: "The Man Who Fell to Earth," with special guest, actress Candy Clark. Part of the Plaza Classic Film Festival, which comes to a close Sunday.

When: 9 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Plaza Theatre, Downtown.

Tickets: $8; available at the Plaza Theatre Box Office, all Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at 800-745-3000 and online at ticketmaster.com.

Autograph signing

What: Actress Candy Clark will greet and sign autographs for fans.

When: 2 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Foundation Room, 333 N. Oregon.

Admission: Free; there will be a fee for autographs.

Information: 231-1100, plazaclassic.com.