turned into a mixed-use
village with some 209,000
square feet of retail shops,
more than 1,500 new homes
and a six-acre park. The new
fence, along with the rest of
what was seen in the film, will
be razed.
Another location, the Hotel
Metropolis at 25 Mason
Street, which appears in the
film as a Tenderloin SRO
where Jimmie's father lives, is
already gone too, soon to be a
new 155-unit condo complex,
and the neon green marquee
of the old Mission Theater at
2567 Mission Street, which is
featured prominently outside
the window of a sleazy realtor
played by Finn Whittrock …
Well, it's still green … but now it sits atop an Alamo Drafthouse
movie theater.
Saying "No"
For another key moment in the film, Lee had to do something he
is loathe to do with the filmmakers he works with … say "no."
Late in the film, the lead character sits down at a bus stop and,
moments later, a white man—fully nude—walks up and sits next
to him. It's a very short scene, but arriving at a location they
could use to shoot it was quite possibly the toughest to figure
out … at least initially.
"Joe had an idea of where he wanted to shoot that, and I had
also scouted some possibilities on my own," Lee recalled, "but
inevitably when I'd go to the city for permission, there was
always an issue, like a school or city park too close by." With the
director getting increasingly frustrated, Lee came up with a new
tack: He asked SF Film where in the city they could shoot full-
frontal male nudity in public. Their reply? "They said, 'You can
do pretty much anything at Castro and Market because there's
basically ongoing male full-frontal nudity there.'" Lee laughed.
Lee told Talbot Castro and Market was their only option and
thought he'd made it pretty clear. Turns out, Talbot seemed to
think there was room for negotiation. "Two days before we were
set to shoot the scene, Joe was still trying to come up with other
possible places," Lee said, "and I finally had to just say, 'This is
it. It's not up for negotiation. Castro and Market is where it has to
be. You have to make it work there.' I was sorry to have to force
his hand on it, but we had no other options."
An Iconic Shot
In a film with any number of shots that could be considered
iconic, there is one that, while brief, really stands out.
In the scene, Jimmie rides his skateboard down Jones Street, one
