Candy Clark: How Saying Yes Changed Everything | American Graffiti Stories

One spontaneous decision changed everything for Academy Award-nominated actress Candy Clark.

Skip Clark sits down with the unforgettable star of American Graffiti for a candid conversation about her journey from modeling in New York City to working with some of Hollywood’s most legendary filmmakers and actors.

Candy shares how saying yes to an unexpected adventure led her to Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and her breakout role as Debbie Dunham. She also takes us behind the scenes of American Graffiti, including memories of Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford and Charles Martin Smith.

The conversation explores her Oscar nomination, the movie’s lasting cultural impact, her friendship with rock legend Jeff Beck, her collection of rare Polaroid photographs and why fans still become emotional when discussing the film.

Plus, Candy talks about returning to Central New York for the Syracuse Nationals, her love of classic cars, Wolfman Jack, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and the memories that continue connecting generations of movie fans.

Hosted by Syracuse radio personality Skip Clark.

Transcript

Meet Candy Clark

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Inner Harborcast. It is I, Skip Clark, and the one and only, no relation. However, I would love to be like related. It's Candy Clark. Candy Clark, no E. Yeah, yeah. And I said, How are you, Debbie? Because I read American graffiti. You were the Debbie kid.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Yes, I was. I played the character Debbie opposite Toad. I remember that Charles Martin Smith.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Can we

From Modeling To Movie Sets

SPEAKER_01 0:26

go back just a little bit? I know you're a very busy woman. You're here for the Nationals. But uh before acting, you were working as a model. How did you make that jump modeling into your first major movie?

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Which was, if I'm not mistaken, it's a long answer, but all right, I um was a model in New York City, and uh I wanted to kind of get into doing some extra work. So I went to a casting director's office and said I'd like to. So I was an extra of a in about in a film called Who is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Things About Me with Dustin Hoffman? So I was in a crowd scene of about 200 people, and I've rented that film and looked for myself in the film, and I think I saw myself, but and so I went back. I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the donuts and the coffee and the fellowship of other extras. And I went back to the casting office and I said, I'd like to do more of this extra work. And there was a big time cat, I didn't know who he was at the time. Fred Roos was there hanging out with his friend Lynn Stallmaster. And um, so Fred Roos said, Hey, do you want to go with me to watch him shoot the screen test for The Godfather? I said, Yeah. I mean, back in the early late 60s, early 70s, you would go off with people and you know, think nothing of it. So uh we wound up in I think Brooklyn, uh, watching Jimmy Kahn and all these actors and met Francis Coppola. You know, it's just kind of uh just by saying yes to that adventure, wow, it led to a film uh part in the film called Fat City and then American Graffiti and uh The Man Who Fell to Earth and etc.

A Yes That Led To Hollywood

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Uh many, many, many more roles, but just saying yes to that adventure that that got the whole thing running. That is so cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Wow, Candy Clark. Uh

Becoming Debbie In American Graffiti

SPEAKER_01 2:28

can you take us back? I mean, you auditioned for Debbie Dunham. Uh, what do you remember about walking into that room? And did you immediately understand who Debbie was?

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Debbie was exactly who I was in Fort Worth, Texas back in the 60s. Uh, I graduated high school in 1965. I had the big old blonde hair. I did used to bleach my own hair. Uh it was called, what was it called? Champagne beige by Claire All. And I did it myself in in the bathroom of my house. And I was the oldest of five. I'm the only girl, oldest, and very mean. But uh, so it was someone that that I was very familiar with, and that's why the film is so uh liked big people because they knew all of these characters, and I knew my character because I was Debbie.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

You were, yes, smoking, drinking, you know, having a you know, you could have just been played by simply the pretty girl, but you did make that your own because that's who you were.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

No, I totally identified with the whole movie.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Unforgettable, I made some notes here.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Vulnerable.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Well, that's what it said here. That's what I wrote down. But no, uh, you know, you know, I was really nice to Toad.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

I was really nice to him, you know. Anyone else would have been, you know, he lied about everything. He really did. He said he had polo ponies, he had a Jeep, he he was, you know, over 18, he was gonna get us some liquor. Uh, but it turned out everything he said was false. And so at the very end, I said, you know, give me a call sometime, and if I'm not busy, so how maybe we'll do something.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Um, yeah, Candy, how much of the the script was uh Debbie and how much came from you?

SPEAKER_00 4:20

We are we already discussed that, yeah. We did, didn't we?

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Yeah, we did because that's who you were.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Exactly. That was me in Fort Worth, and that was a lot of people that I knew in Fort Worth, and we did the same thing, went from Carlson's drive-in to Lone Star Drive-in, back to Carlson's, back to Lone Star, spent the whole evening going back and forth, back and forth, and that's what we did.

Nights In Petaluma With The Cast

SPEAKER_01 4:46

What was it, um, if you don't mind me asking, what was it like on the set with Richard Dreyfus and and all those others?

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Uh they were just uh young actors, and um Ron Howard, Harrison. Ron Howard was uh like a TV actor, and he'd always been a star. He was a kind of a Shirley Temple type when he was young, you know, he was cute, he could memorize lines, he was, you know, and he was always uh very down to earth, even though he'd been a you know, in Andy Griffith show and all of that, very unspoiled. And uh his brother was in the business too. Uh and I think his dad was an actor too, so it was a family, family business, and um super nice. Charlie was great, Richard was great, um Bo. Bo and and and uh Harrison were kind of the troublemakers, so was uh Paula Matt, and they were uh always up to mischief. And finally, I think Harrison got separated and had to live at another hotel. But we were at the Holiday Inn for we shot the film, it took 28 nights, and uh it was very cold. We shot it in Petaluma, California, okay, and um very chilly that summer. So when you see me in that, you know, I picked that spaghetti strap dress, and luckily I picked a sweater to wear over it. Do you still have that in the closet? No, I would, you know, 2020 hindsight. That was just used clothing from a secondhand store. But uh, if I had that dress, it's probably worth a half a million dollars. I don't probably know you're right, you know, Marilyn Monroe stuff and the Ruby slippers, you know, are going for big money.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

But yeah, because what that movie just

When A Small Film Turns Huge

SPEAKER_01 6:39

went. Did you ever expect that movie to go where it went? It got, you know, it's like a phenomenal. It's a cultural thing. It is.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

We shot it for 850,000. That included 41 songs, and it's made uh close to I think 200 million dollars. George Lucas gave each of uh of the main actors uh one tenth of one percent of his points, and uh that's amounted to you know a nice hefty sum. Believe me, it's all been spent, so don't ask me for a loan, okay?

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Okay, I would never do that.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Never do that. We shot that film in 72, it came out in 73, so that's like 53 years later, okay. And you sitting right here means even more than that to me. Being able to do and go through, you know, ask you a few questions.

Hearing About The Oscar Nomination

SPEAKER_01 7:30

But I do want to ask you about the Oscar nomination. Okay. Uh being uh nominated for playing Debbie. Where were you when you heard the news and how did that uh nomination change?

SPEAKER_00 7:38

I was sound asleep.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

They called you, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Uh six in the morning and said, you know, my PR person called and said, Guess what? And after that, I was on Cloud Nine for about two or three weeks until you know the actual Academy Awards. And back then we used to dress ourselves, do our own hair, find, you know, uh something to wear. It was way more casual. Now it's all you know glammed up with uh satin gowns with long trains, and it's just a big production. But back then we we did our own stuff, and uh that was pretty neat.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Yeah, was it at the Beverly Hills Hilton? Was that is that where they had them?

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Um I think it could have been at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, but I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Okay, I mean I was like a long time ago for a business trip, and I ended up in Beverly Hills Hilton, and they were I saw Ron Howard there and uh Screen Directors Guild and all it was all going on. I was sitting in the lobby behind a magazine just seeing who I could see.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Oh my gosh, exciting fabulous times. But George Lucas being so early in his career and you being a part of with without graffiti's being successful, he wouldn't probably wouldn't have had a career. He he did one film prior to that called THX 1138, which was a dismal failure. And uh I just happened to see it. I paid money to see that film before I knew George Lucas. I you know, I used we used to pay good money to go see movies back then, and the theaters were always full of people. And um, I'm like, wow, it was shot in a parking lot and it seemed to be all about running. And it was Robert Duval. I actually had a pretty good uh, you know, movie star in the film, but it was just all kind of a chase movie.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

How often do you think about all this? Uh, you spend a lot of time alone on planes, maybe traveling, and then you you kind of get into a thought and you think about wow, I was a part of that. And that's why you're sitting here today. That's why you're in Syracuse for the Syracuse Nations, which you know, those cars go back to that time.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

Yes, they do. Uh at the Nationals, I think there's gonna be 7,000 cars. Can you believe it? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

No, I can we've seen it year after year. It's like the largest in the largest gigantic.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

And on Thursday night, they've changed the show hours, and it's gonna be Thursday, Friday, and Saturday instead of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Syracuse Nationals And Car Culture Memories

SPEAKER_00 10:07

So don't forget to come on Thursday. Come on out, come on down, exactly, and it'll be uh after five o'clock, I think you can get in for five dollars, and they're gonna be a big party, and you can see the cars, and that that's a very reasonable price, and you can stay till nine o'clock, it's five to nine, and and uh it's gonna be a great time, so yeah, come on down. I was gonna say most importantly, they get to meet Candy Clark. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

And who has not seen the movie American Graffiti?

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Who has not? You know, Jeff Beck saw it 3,000 times, he admitted to that. I believe it. And so when I met him, he he asked for a selfie and he was shaking. And I said, This should be the other way around. I should be trembling meeting you. And he he overlapped me, Candy Clark, as Debbie, and he was crazy about Debbie, and he replicated the yellow hot rod, and that's why he watched it 3,000 times. I said, You really want to admit to that? But he did.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

No, you know, it's one of those movies where I wish those type of movies would come back because if you want to feel good about life, feel good about everything, just put on American graffiti. Oh, yeah, it's a classic place and time.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

It really is, and it really captures that and the music, you know. George got all 41 songs for $40,000. You cannot touch that music. Uh, yeah, like a thousand dollars a piece. Yeah, yeah. Into perpetuity, though.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

You know, it's so so you

Polaroids Then And Fan Connection Now

SPEAKER_01 11:45

carried around a Polaroid camera. I'm told.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Do you still have a lot of those shots or did they fade away?

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Oh no, no, I uh made a book called Tight Heads with uh Polaroids uh from that era, 1970s, has got Steve Spielberg and everybody when they were just starting out, and we were all on the same level playing field. And um so uh it's was it done very well. I brought three, only three books to the show. So I got you.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

It wasn't like, oh no, here comes Debbie with her photograph, or here comes Candy with the camera.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

You know, people are were nice then and they're still nice, you know.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

And uh, when somebody comes up to you and uh says, Hey, uh, I remember you were Debbie and uh and they tell you how much you meant to them, uh, what does that connection mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 12:35

It means a lot to me, the the connection of because I've met people who get teary-eyed when they talk about that movie because that's where they took their wife, you know, for the first date. You know, they weren't married then and they're still married, and you know, it brings back a lot of good memories for people. And um yeah, it's it's and it also brings back memories of their youth and when you know things were carefree and they had their own little hot hot rod or car, and uh, you know, Mustangs were coming in and all of this, you know, that was back when cars really meant something, and they it didn't all look alike, you know. Every year, General Motors would come out with a new design, and people would, you know, want to get the new latest and the newest, and cars. You know, I I uh what did you have? I understood I had no car, we were very poor. Um, but I had a lot of friends with cars, and that's when we cruising. There you go. But uh yeah, all teenagers had great cars back then, you know, that they uh bought enough friends where you could just go cruise with them.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Oh, exactly, exactly a beautiful young lady, still our beautiful lady, and uh you get to uh you know enjoy all those memories and uh think about riding in those

Wolfman Jack And Late Night Radio

SPEAKER_01 13:59

cars. And did you ever meet Wolfman Jack?

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Uh I met him uh after the fact, uh after we shot American Graffiti, I got his autograph. But um yeah, we would listen to him uh in Fort Worth, Texas. He would come in real late at night and kind of scratchy and far away, and there's a lot of speculation as to who he was and and uh where he was, you know, broadcasting from. You know, we thought it was Mexico, so I, you know, he is a total mystery.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Of course, he was in New York at one time, and then he was in what California, but um, I can remember listening with my transistor radio, and I had my you know, the little earpiece. Oh god, that was the latest, and and it would be scratchy, but you yeah, oh my.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

I know, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Uh it was I'm sorry, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

It was definitely came in, came in tune around midnight, so you'd be having your ears close to the radio. But I remember transistor radios, that was the thing that everybody wanted, and then when calculators, hand calculators came in, everybody wanted one of those. Simple, simple pleasures back then.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Now we're at we're at the level of a smartphone, which tries to make

Where To Meet Candy In Syracuse

SPEAKER_01 15:15

us smarter. I don't know how that works, but uh candy, it's such an honor. I mean, oh thank you. You're in the radio station. Here I am. We're talking about this radio station. Yes, well, we have a whole bunch of them here at the United Harbor, but uh you're in town once again. It's the Syracuse National the biggest car show in the northeast, and it brings back a lot of those memories. Huge, huge all ages too. Yeah, you get uh it's a family affair for so many.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Oh, spent so many and I'll be in the center of progress building.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Okay, yep, and you've been there before. I have, you've been here a few times. I have, and uh you came in and said the salt city and what salt city, yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

And I went to the old salt mine here. Uh I toured around Syracuse a couple of years ago and went to the zoo, and and I always go back to the dinosaur restaurant and last night I was there right off the plane. Let's go to the dinosaur. Had ribs and did they know it was you? Did the dinosaur people? Nah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

Yeah, because she looks like Debbie.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Oh, when I come off a plane, I do I look like a wreck, really. It takes so long to get here. I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Candy Clark, I just want to say thank you again for being here, being on just a great doing like a last-minute interview. We kind of put it together. Not hard on dinosaur radio here with this inner harbor group. Oh, yeah. Uh, with John Carucci, you've done an interview that he's going to air on the morning show. Excellent. Excellent. But Candy Clark, good luck to you. Good luck to your career. You love it. Thank you, Mr. Skip. Look at that. I love this power. I love it. She looks great. She's here. Get out and say hello. She'll be at the Syracuse Nationals. Excellent. Excellent. And the weather's just, you know, this weather's for you. It's beautiful.

unknown 16:49

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

It's LA weather. LA. You're used to that. All right. Candy Clark, thanks for being here. All right.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

You're welcome.