num_pages: 304
description: From award-winning actress Illeana Douglas comes a memoir about learning to survive in Hollywood while staying true to her quirky vision of the world.In 1969 Illeana Douglas' parents saw the film Easy Rider and were transformed. Taking Dennis Hopper's words That's what it's all about man to heart they abandoned their comfortable upper middle class life and gave Illeana a childhood filled with hippies goats free spirits and free love. Illeana writes Since it was all out of my control I began to think of my life as a movie with a Dennis Hopper-like father at the center of it. I Blame Dennis Hopper is a testament to the power of art and the tenacity of passion. It is a rollicking funny at times tender exploration of the way movies can change our lives. With crackling humor and a full heart Douglas describes how a good Liza Minnelli impression helped her land her first gig and how Rudy Valley taught her the meaning of being a show biz trouper. From her first experience being on set with her grandfather and mentor-two-time Academy Award-winning actor Melvyn Douglas-to the moment she was discovered by Martin Scorsese for her blood-curdling scream and cast in her first film to starring in movies alongside Robert DeNiro Nicole Kidman and Ethan Hawke to becoming an award winning writer director and producer in her own right I Blame Dennis Hopper is an irresistible love letter to movies and filmmaking. Writing from the perspective of the ultimate show business fan Douglas packs each page with hilarious anecdotes bizarre coincidences and fateful meetings that seem well right out of a plot of a movie. I Blame Dennis Hopper is the story of one woman's experience in show business but it is also a genuine reminder of why we all love the for the glitz the glamor the sweat passion humor and escape they offer us all.
language: English
title: I Blame Dennis Hopper: And Other Stories from a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies
publisher: Flatiron Books