One of the greatest moments of my professional life happened while I was still prepping to direct DragonHeart. I was sitting in my Universal bungalow office, alone, (the assistants were at lunch) and someone rapped on my outer office door. I got up, walked over, opened it. And there was Jerry Goldsmith. "Hi... Are you Patrick?" he asked. "Guh... I... uh... ", I croaked. (Jerry, of course, had no idea he was my favorite film composer of all time.) "I'm Jerry Goldsmith." "YES YOU ARE!", I replied, way too loud... He smirked. "May I come in?" "Yes!! Of course! YES!" I grabbed his arm and dragged him into my office, stumbling around behind my desk to drop into my chair, as he, to my amazement, remained standing in front of it. He could tell I was utterly in awe and, equally confused as to what he was doing there, and he smiled the most disarming of smiles and said, "Patrick... I've just read DragonHeart. Now... as you probably know, I don't have to go around fishing for work." "Yeah. I know!" I blurted. "But, I came here to tell you, personally, that I am willing to get down on my knees, right here, right now, and beg you to let me score this film." Attempting to not burst into tears, I looked up at this hero of mine and said, simply... "IF Universal ends up actually letting me direct my project... it's me who will be showing up at your door, begging you to score it."
And Jerry beamed the way only he could beam. He put out his hand. I grabbed it with both of mine and shook it ridiculously hard. Hard enough to make him laugh. When I finally let go, he looked me in the eye and said, "I'll wait to hear from you." He then nodded and walked for the door. Just before he went through it, I called after him-- "Mr. Goldsmith. I would have come knocking whether you came here or not." He grinned once more, winked, and that was the last time I ever saw him.
Thanks to Universal.