Editing My Dinner with Andre (section)

==Production==
After spending several years away from the theater, André Gregory was looking to get back into it, so he asked his friend Wallace Shawn if he wanted to do something together. Shawn knew Gregory wanted to tell his story, even working with a biographer at one point, and suggested they develop a story consisting of a conversation between the two of them, with interest coming from their contrasting personalities and Gregory's anecdotes. Having recently acted in his first few films, Shawn saw the project as a film, rather than a play.<ref name="Criterion" /><ref name="AVClub" />

Although the film was based on events in the actors' lives, Gregory and Shawn denied they were simply playing themselves, and said in an interview with film critic [[Roger Ebert]] that, if they were to remake the film, they would swap characters to prove their point. In an interview with [[Noah Baumbach]] in 2009, Shawn said:

{{blockquote|I actually had a purpose as I was writing this: I wanted to destroy that guy that I played, to the extent that there was any of ''me'' there. I wanted to kill that side of myself by making the film, because that guy is totally motivated by fear.<ref name="wally" />}}

While Shawn and Gregory were trying to find someone to direct the film, Gregory received a phone call, which he initially thought was a prank, from French director [[Louis Malle]], who said he had read a copy of the screenplay he received from a mutual friend and he wanted to direct or produce the film.<ref name=Criterion /> The writers brought Malle on board, and he worked with them to cut an hour from the three-hour script. Shawn later said that while he had carefully constructed the screenplay and would have preferred to make the longer film, Malle had won most of the arguments, and he credited Malle with infusing the film with a warmth that helped it connect with audiences.<ref name=Criterion />

A rehearsal held at a restaurant caused Malle to question whether the setting of the film should be changed, as the eating seemed likely to create problems. Shawn and Gregory tried to think of what else their characters could be doing, but they wound up just having Gregory not eat very much, as he is the one who does most of the talking in the film.<ref name=Criterion />

''My Dinner with Andre'' was filmed over two weeks in December 1980 in [[Richmond, Virginia]], in the then-vacant [[Jefferson Hotel (Richmond, Virginia)|Jefferson Hotel]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://m.styleweekly.com/richmond/talking-heads/Content?oid=17031997|title=Talking Heads|work=[[Style Weekly]]|date=26 January 2021}}</ref> which has since been restored and reopened as a luxury venue. The set was designed to look like the [[Café des Artistes]] in New York City.<ref name="Taubin 2009" /> [[Lloyd Kaufman]] was the film's production manager, and his [[Troma Entertainment]] provided production support.<ref name="damn" /><ref name="fifty" /><ref name="spin" />