Pyle-ing It On: How Vincent D’Onofrio Landed His "Full Metal Jacket" Role

Vincent D'Onofrio's path to one of the most unforgettable roles in war-movie history started at the door of the Hard Rock Cafe on 57th Street. That is where D'Onofrio was working as a doorman years ago when his friend Matthew Modine walked by with his wife, stopped to talk, and mentioned he was off to England to shoot a movie with Stanley Kubrick.

"That's not a bad name to drop right there," Rich noted. D'Onofrio agreed, and explained that Modine told him there was a part available, undefined at the time, and that he should audition for whatever it turned out to be. So D'Onofrio made a tape. Then another. Then Kubrick himself got involved, sending words for him to read and send back. The role that emerged was Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket, and it came with a catch. Kubrick wanted him to gain weight.

D'Onofrio said yes without hesitation, citing the example in front of him. "De Niro had just done it for Raging Bull," he said. The target kept climbing. The initial plan was 20 or 30 pounds, but that was not enough. "I just looked like I could kick everybody's butt," D'Onofrio said. He ended up putting on roughly 70 pounds before he started looking, in his words, weak enough for the part.

Asked what it was like to be directed by Kubrick, D'Onofrio answered simply. "It was amazing." And he had the story to back it up. The production was shooting in Beckton with roughly 300 extras, nearly all British, arranged around giant rings of yellow-painted tires meant to evoke a Marine Corps setting. Kubrick was up on a crane with his lenses, taking a long time to line up a shot, and the extras grew hungry, thirsty and restless.

Then a voice cut through in a thick British accent, telling Kubrick in unprintable terms to get down from the crane because everyone was starving. Kubrick came down. The first assistant director walked over to the crowd demanding to know who had said it. No one confessed. They reset and went again, and the same thing happened.

The third time, Kubrick himself came over and asked who had said it. What followed was the kind of moment that only happens on a set full of performers. "One of the Brits in the back gets up and goes, I'm Spartacus," D'Onofrio recalled. "And then another guy gets up and goes, no, I'm Spartacus. And the other guy goes, I'm Spartacus." An entire crowd invoking the most famous line from another Kubrick film, right to his face. D'Onofrio's verdict on the whole scene was as concise as his verdict on the director. "It was awesome."