"It's behind the screen."

"Come back to me
and I'll come back to you."

I'd never thought of Francis Ford Coppola as a director with a stable of actors, yet after watching Rumble Fish last night, I was ready to put him in league with cast recyclers like The Andersons (P.T. and Wes).

Obviously, when making The Godfather and its sequels, Coppola would call upon most of the same players. Including family members time and time again in his films certainly didn't count as Coppola keeping a roster, either. (For the record: nephew Nicolas Cage appeared in three Coppola films; son Gian-Carlo appeared in four (and may have appeared in more, had he not died in his early twenties); and daughter Sofia appeared in six.) Even casting Matt Dillon and William Smith in both The Outsiders and Rumble Fish seems less like drawing from his own reserve than preserving S.E. Hinton "continuity", as both movies were based on her novels. (Hinton herself has a cameo in each film. Poor Heather Langenkamp was also cast in The Outsiders and Rumble Fish, but all her scenes in both films were deleted! Good thing the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise was around the corner.)

Noticing Tom Waits and Laurence Fishburne in the opening scene of Rumble Fish, however, I got to thinking about how Waits had also appeared in Coppola's version of Dracula, and Fishburne had appeared in Apocalypse Now. I became obsessed with figuring out how many times each actor in Rumble Fish was featured in a Coppola film, an obsession that didn't last long, as the research was made quite easy by IMDb's "Find where Francis Ford Coppola is credited alongside another name" search engine. Here's what I found:

• Mickey Rourke, who played the older brother, Motorcycle Boy, later appeared in The Rainmaker;
• Diane Lane, who played the girlfriend, Patty, also appeared in The Outsiders, The Cotton Club, and, er, Jack;
• Dennis Hopper, who played the father, was also in Apocalypse Now;
• Chris Penn, who played a friend named B.J., was in a Coppola-directed episode of Faerie Tale Theatre titled "Rip Van Winkle";
• Laurence Fishburne, who played a friend named Midgit, was also in Apocalypse Now, The Cotton Club, and Gardens of Stone;
• Michael Higgins, who played Mr Harrigan, was also in The Conversation and Coppola's segment of New York Stories ("Life Without Zoe");
• Glenn Withrow, who played Biff Wilcox, was also in "Rip Van Winkle", as well as The Outsiders, The Cotton Club, and Peggy Sue Got Married;
• Herb Rice, who appeared as one of the black pool players, was also in Apocalypse Now;
• and Tom Waits, who played Benny the bartender, was in One from the Heart, The Outsiders, The Cotton Club, and, of course, Bram Stoker's Dracula.

I also confirmed -- in my own head, at least -- that Coppola isn't much of an auteur, despite appearing on this list. I mean, outside of his repeated dipping into a particular casting pool, it's still very easy to forget that he had anything to do with either The Rainmaker, Peggy Sue Got Married or Jack (again...er).

I can't imagine how many other post-Rumble Fish actors join the Coppola collective. For the sake of this entry's length, and your reading pleasure, it's probably better that I didn't check.

TRACK LISTING: Hot Chip, "Look After Me"