For the film’s two featured actors, Spacek and Martin Sheen, it was their first leading roles in a feature. They didn’t challenge the director who gave them the opportunity; they followed him. They had just stepped into their dreams, why step back? Sheen later recalled: Terry called one night and said, “I want you to play the part.” I had to get up very early the next morning to go to work, and I was driving along the Pacific Coast Highway in a little Mazda. I was listening to a Dylan album I was fond of, and the song “Desolation Row” was playing, and the sun was rising, and it hit me that I
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