Since this book doesn’t have an index, and I haven’t read the whole thing (it’s quite the hefty tome), this quote has only recently come to my attention. I had not heard this story before, and I honestly can’t vouch for its veracity. Seymour Cassel mentioned nothing about this during our interview with him in June. I’ll just leave this here for now.

[John Cassavetes] also continued to help out friends in a variety of ways – for example, backing and acting in a brief production of one of Tim Carey’s plays, similar to what he had previously done for Meade Roberts and Everett Chambers. As evidence of Cassavetes’ fundamentally non-judgmental stance, it is worth mentioning that prior to this, needing money, Carey had stolen a Moviola from Cassavetes and sold it. To the people in Cassavetes’ circle, it was the lowest crime imaginable. In their view, Carey had taken not just a piece of equipment but the means to conduct their livelihood. Everyone turned on him, excommunicating him, refusing to have anything to do with him from that point on (in the end, even refusing to let him speak at Cassavetes’ memorial service). Everyone but one person. Cassavetes himself defended Carey and apparently never held the theft against him.

– Ray Carney, Cassavetes on Cassavetes (Faber and Faber, 2001)