like a throwback to one of those Depression-era movies that you'd seen Jean Harlow in: A rich lady ends up taking in this little orphan. I thought it was very sweet, and I thought, "Well, she can finally see what I do for a living." As opposed to showing her, say, Drugstore Cowboy , which, uh, wouldn't really be appropriate. [Laughs.] It was originally going to be me, Alec Baldwin, and Kevin Spacey, which would've been a whole different situation. John Hughes had just come off of Home Alone , he was the biggest director on the planet, and it was really exciting to be with him on what was the last movie he ever directed. I loved working with him, and it was interesting to see just how he worked and how he got performances. He really was very clear. It was almost like puppetry, where he had an idea about how you looked, your expressions, and your intonations. It was very precise. But somehow he made it feel organic, like it came from me as well. But he was very specific with what he wanted and very kind about how he got it. I liked working with him a lot. He and Jimmy [Belushi] had a hard time, however. Alec Baldwin had to walk because he was doing Streetcar [ Named Desire ] with Jessica Lange, and the rehearsals on that had kind of accelerated because they'd decided that they were going to do them early. So he