The Outsiders Director Shares Original Auditions From Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, and More

Francis Ford Coppola is known for directing some of the most iconic films of all time, including The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. One of the most surprising films in Coppola’s filmography is The Outsiders, the 1983 film based on S.E. Hinton’s novel of the same name. The coming-of-age drama featured a star-studded cast that included Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, and Diane Lane. Recently, Coppola took to Instagram to share original auditions from the film. 

“42 years ago we cast The Outsiders in a unique way,” Coppola wrote. “We had all the actors together on a soundstage and would alternate different actors reading for different roles. It was interesting because each of them was watching their competition, so while it could’ve been a volatile situation, it turned into a very positive one.There emerged the natural respect and sense of colleagueship among them. The result worked beautifully and reminded me of my days as a camp counselor.” You can check out the video below:

What Is Francis Ford Coppola’s Next Film?

Coppola’s next epic, Megalopolis, is finally set to be released this year. The plot of the film largely remains under wraps, but it’s reportedly set in an alternate reality version of New York City dubbed “New Rome.” In the film, the fate of Rome haunts a modern world unable to solve its own social problems in this epic story of political ambition, genius, and conflicted love. The film is a passion project for Coppola, who has been financing almost all of the film’s $100 million budget himself.

The ensemble cast for Megalopolis includes Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Chloe Fineman, Kathryn Hunter, Giancarlo Esposito Dustin Hoffman, DB Sweeney, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Bailey Ives, Grace Vanderwaal, and James Remar.

“What would make me really happy? It’s not winning a lot of Oscars because I already have a lot and maybe more than I deserve,” Coppola said of his career in a 2022 interview. “And it’s not that I make a lot of money, although I think over time it will make a lot of money because anything that the people keep looking at and finding new things, that makes money. So somewhere down the line, way after I’m gone, all I want is for them to discuss [Megalopolis] and, is the society we’re living in the only one available to us? How can we make it better? Education, mental health? What the movie really is proposing is that utopia is not a place. It’s how can we make everything better? Every year, come up with two, three or four ideas that make it better.”

“I would be smiling in my grave if I thought something like that happened, because people talk about what movies really mean if you give them something,” Coppola continued. “If you encouraged people to discuss marriage and education and health and justice and opportunities and freedom and all these wonderful things that human beings have conceived of. And ask the question, how can we make it even better? That would be great. Because I bet you they would make it better if they had that conversation.”

Stay tuned for more updates about Megalopolis.