Doug MacRay ( Ben Affleck) is not cut from the same cloth as his fellow thieves. To Charlestown, our one square mile of brick and Now, William shares his story after his Caught in Providence case went viral. But it was very real. I came back and met with Ben, and I was so excited. It all went to the actual production of the movie. So we wrote parts for characters with Boston accents because we thought that was something that we could do well and that you saw done badly. But if Charlestowns present reality as a yuppie stronghold is easy to establish, its past status as a mythical crime mecca is difficult to entirely dismiss. Jason Bourne kills the bad guys. The story was much clearer and cleaner. Hes been forever. NEW YORK -- The mystery began when a Boston ex-con dropped dead on a New York train platform with a backpack stuffed with $180,000. I was up there for what Im sure was a good half hour. We all want to be from Douggies Charlestown and we all know its a fantasy. He didnt want to option it himself, so they set him up with [producer] Graham King, who got the option. And so if you cant do it, just dont do it. They look at him. Hed be happy to settle down with his former hostage, Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall). When I saw it, I thought, Its fine. I wound up learning a lot from how Ben did that. Some residents felt it portrayed the locals as in the words of onequoted in The Christian Science Monitor, a bunch of dumb bums. Hogan: I think weve played out the Irish Boston gangster thing. We went back to his hotel room right after. When he took over the project Fatal Attractions Adrian Lyne was originally down to direct local boy Affleck decided he wanted to make this as much of a Boston filmas he possibly could. It has ended with the government getting most of the money. We had bank robbers, we had career criminals, people that couldnt show up certain days because theyd be violating their parole. He often has a very small crew. The second thing was, I realized what a fool I was to think like, Oh, if its bad Ill have a story. I realized that I wouldve been crushed if that movie was bad. Thats my quote that you used in the book. I was like, Oh man, whats up? He was excited. The one thing I miss about Boston is you saw a fistfight every day. So if you give somebody a space, all they want to do is figure out how to do a heist in there. Affleck: The Yawkey Red Sox, Im sure, wouldve been impossible. WebDouglas "Doug" MacRay is a former career criminal and professional bank robber from Charlestown, Boston, which was the bank robbery capital of the world. Carter: Someone was getting married. These interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity. I dont think you know how you sound. Actors tell me that thats one of the toughest ones they have to do. Affleck: In a world of increasing homogenization, having this fresh place that I think stood out, it was appealing. Thats the one moment that gives you a glimpse into how damaged and how profoundly broken Jem is. Free shipping for many products! The money was all on the screen. Staging a chase scene in the North End was difficult, but shooting a robbery inside and around Fenway Park was unprecedented. ], Affleck: Having been through an experience myself where I felt that people had a sense of me that wasnt really fair, Im very sympathetic to and interested in people who are, I think, sort of pigeonholed. I said, Is there any way in hell that you can imagine that someone would ever rob a bank if theyre from Charlestown dressed as a nun? And the FBI agent I was meeting with turned to me and said, You know what, thats not a bad idea at all. And thats where that idea started. Around 3 p.m., two armed men robbed the Hingham Institution for Savings on Charles Street, according to police spokeswoman Rachel McGuire. I sort of pretended that Charlestown was still the way it used to be. He goes into the family business. It also had a scheme so ingenious that Frank Sinatra supposedly considered pulling the job over doing the film. And Ben Affleck was incredibly famous already. Affleck: Hockeys such a big thing in Charlestown. Which was nice. Crockett: As he puts it, you have so many fame chips you can use. We had this huge screen over the third base dugout. It definitely felt like, Im getting to see something that not a lot of people get to see. His father, Stephen MacRay (Chris Cooper) was a thief, just like his father, and all of Dougs friends were thick with thievery. I had somebody from Marblehead quote all her dialogue. Affleck: Those little streets created something visually interesting that you dont see in many car chases. Or a child abduction? At heart, its a story of social mobility. Ill use them because Im from Boston to get into Fenway. And they told us all these stories, and all these fascinating things, and built up what this mythology was. Affleck: There have been a lot more New York city movies than there have Boston, for sure. Ive never felt all that interested in literally translating from book to page. Hogan: I was just checking out the internet one day in my office and I saw a Variety headline: Affleck moves to The Town. I called my wife over and said, I think theyre making a movie of the book. And that was it. Matheson: I will never forget sitting there with some felt and scissors at 3 or 4 in the morning. The gang torches their escape cars and their transfer vehicles. Published in 2004 and set in the 90s, it follows a team of stick-up men led by Doug MacRay, a washed-up NHL draft pick and recovering addict whose traumatic childhood has led him to follow his incarcerated father into the family business. But the Associated Press, which broke the Coyman story, reported Burke is also from Charlestown and was sent to prison in 1988 for six bank robberies in Florida. So I leave the movie theater and Im really kind of numb, trying to figure it out. If possible, its really great to hire people with whom an audience isnt overly familiar, because audiences have developed expectations and kind of anticipate what an actor might do if theyve seen them a bunch. The two banks The city also set the scene for Clint Eastwoods Mystic River, and Afflecks directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, both based on books by local crime novelist Dennis Lehane. Nobodys gonna hire me to do anything except Boston., Stockard: I said, You can do Boston again, but lets get out of there for a while., Affleck: Which is why I was like, Great. Welliver: When we were doing The Town is when he was up for the role of Hawkeye. Craig: I hadnt really processed the new ending. Theyd closed off the street, working on this story that I had cooked up in my bedroom at home. And they said, We like what you did, we think youre a good director and we believe in you. And I was kind of struck by the enthusiasm they had considering for the most part, Hollywood operates based on success. David Fincher does an even more exaggerated version of that. Affleck: The attitude in that scene where [Jem] shows up and discovers me with Claire, in front of Grendels in Cambridge, and the audience knows what he knows, but she doesnt know, and I know that hes discovered me Hall: Jeremy Renners character was just so brilliant and frightening. A U.S. District Court jury delivered guilty verdicts on 54 of 55 counts, including ones charging the five in the Aug. 25, 1994, robbery in Hudson in which two Its a fun heist movie. [Owner] John Henry visited the set. 10 Patty Hearst But it isnt. He poses as a florist, just like Dean OBanion, the Irish gang leader who celebrated St. Valentines Day with Al Capone in Prohibition Chicago. Culture Editor Tony Sokol is a writer, playwright and musician. He wanted to tour the prison and see it. And the guy said, Oh, the guy who wrote the book that that movies based on is on my softball team. And she said, Dennis Lehane is on your softball team? And thats when I was like, Its a small circle here.. WebCharlestownis the oldest neighborhoodin Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is because the small community adheres to omerta, silence unto death. Affleck: There tend to be trends and people feel like at first its fresh, and then its kind of something they like, and then it becomes something that people get tired of. Jem is his right hand muscle, and unquestioning backup. I lived in South Boston, Roslindale. Im fairly good at being invisible and disappear quite easily, but Boston? They dont fink. Its gentrified and diverse now, a local TV show host told The Christian Science Monitor. But mostly a Boston accent depends on your socioeconomic status, by and large. Then put it in Connecticut.. In 2018, there were just over 4,000 robberies in Massachusetts compare that to 1980, when there more than 13,500. And it is a bit like visiting royalty there, for me, in a way that I dont get in any other town or city in the world. The car chases get stuck in traffic, and the dialogue comes directly from testimony. Ive been on the force for 20 years and Im not looking for money or anything, but Im originally from Charlestown and I think I could be helpful. Shes like, Well, its really great to talk to you, we do have technical advisers and everything kind of lined up, but if you wanted to drop off a card or something like that. I said, Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. Hogan: I went in to go see it in a screening room in Manhattan like two months before it came out. Both robbers were shot, one in the back and one in the head, and the getaway driver promptly rear-ended a parked car. But John is obviously a much bigger guy. Shea, 35, Stephen Burke, 42, and Michael OHalloran, 40, were convicted of racketeering, conspiracy, robbery and other offenses Dec. 22 for a series of holdups in New England and Florida. And I was like, Why are the people who live here letting us do this? Date Updated: Jan 18, 2023. I was like, Im not gonna do another movie in Boston. Because of oversaturation in the last decade, Boston movies have been rightfully skewered. They like walking out with a little bit of hope. Affleck: When this movie came out, the Boston Phoenix review said it had horrible Boston accents. Or do we want to give him a chance to live and a better life? But not everyone was happy with the image of Charlestown given toa generation of moviegoers. It at least had that upswing. Violence, unsolved murders . In all of his years of being a criminal, he robbed two banks and seven armored cars, plus robbing Fenway Park during a baseball game. 2 hours ago. Hamm: I got to meet Pete Postlewaite, rest in peace, at the hotel bar. By the way? Hes not someone that blends in easily. As I got older I lived in [Jamaica Plain], West Roxbury, where my son was born. Affleck: Because it was the first time I was gonna star and direct, and because I didnt have a lot of money to pay a bunch of stars, I had the luxury of being able to just cast the best actors. As robbers in Halloween masksbrandish machine guns and snarl at the terrified staff in heavy Boston drawls Everybody on the f----n flaar! you wonder: is this just an average day in Charlestown? Walking in I was feeling kind of glib. We all sat there, and he did it. And I said, Yeah, its just so great that he can come back and do this and dig in. : in a screening room in Manhattan like two months before it came out, the who. Do a heist in there quite easily, but Boston that Frank Sinatra supposedly considered the... 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