No./11 “Ray was just fucking magnetic”
Joe Carnahan remembers his longstanding collaborator and friend, the late RAY LIOTTA
[IN MEMORIAM]
I WAS SITTING on a Zoom when a text popped up in the corner of the screen from my friend:
“Ray Liotta died.”
That’s all it said.
I felt an immediate flush of tears flood my eyes and awkwardly excused myself.
“Ray Liotta died.”
I kept rereading it.
Some essential part of me felt like it had been punched loose. This weird vertigo overtook me, then this momentary panic, like I had missed something absolutely vital and there was no getting it back now.
This was the man most responsible for my career. This was my go-to guy over four separate films. I lived at his house for weeks on end. He came up north for a screening of NARC on a moment’s notice because we were raising money for cancer. He kissed my Aunt Janette’s hand and thanked her profusely when she told him she was a schoolteacher.