Cassian Elwes of William Morris Agency stands outside during the 2005 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
Cassian Elwes, a onetime Hollywood agent and the executive producer of the forthcoming film Lawless, never expected to have to take the law into his own hands.
On the evening of Aug. 19, Elwes boarded a Sunday night flight on JetBlue airways from New York to Los Angeles. The flight was diverted to Denver for what JetBlue told Denver’s 7NEWS that it was just a “customer service issue” — but Elwes had a darker story to tell.
In a series of harrowing tweets, Elwes detailed a flight that read like a movie thriller script: a disgruntled veteran, a brave citizen, dozens of innocent bystanders and an emergency landing.
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When Elwes boarded the plane, he told his followers, he found an irritable, burly man settled down in the window seat he’d reserved; when Elwes asked him to move, he received an expletive-laced tirade in reply. After taking a seat in the row behind the man, whom Elwes described as a “youngish looking guy maybe late 20′s( turned out he was 32) quite burly white crew cut lots of tatoos” [sic], he noticed the seat-stealer — whom he dubbed “Hoodie” after his baggy sweatshirt — couldn’t seem to stay put.
Hoodie wants to get up. he walks to the back & stands in the galley for 10 mins just staring at the metal wall. The stewardesses ignore him
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cassian elwes (@cassianelwes) August 20, 2012When he returned to his seat, his behavior turned markedly stranger.
“He starts ripping up a magazine and licking the paper,” Elwes tweeted. “Then he starts sticking the magazine pieces to the mini tv in front of him.” The Japanese couple sitting in the two seats next to the man proceeded to vacate their seats and went to stand in the back of the completely full flight. After the 53-year-old Elwes made a futile effort to get the on-board air marshal to deal with the man, he took the seat next to him.
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Elwes was able to charm the man, who said his name was Marco and that he was on his way to Los Angeles to “work on a commercial doing construction.” After the ice was broken, the intimate personal details started to emerge.
ThIs is not a particularly reassuring conversation 20 rows from the cockpit. Where did u grow up. Lower east side man ny. Shooting heroin
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cassian elwes (@cassianelwes) August 20, 2012My father killed his father who was a bad man and my father's dead. I live in queens now. I went to the marines to get off drugs.
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cassian elwes (@cassianelwes) August 20, 2012Marco, who claimed to be a Marine veteran, allegedly asked Elwes to read his movie script. But Marco seemed unconvinced that Elwes will actually reach out.
You're going to forget me man and then he punches me quite hard in the ribs. I laugh in shock. Then he whacks me on the thigh which hurts.
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cassian elwes (@cassianelwes) August 20, 2012Upon landing in Denver, Marco is ushered off the plane and arrested.
With not much fuss they handcuff him and lead him down the aisle and out of the plane. Its silence. The 2 stewardesses come up and thank me
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cassian elwes (@cassianelwes) August 20, 2012Elwes hung around to complete the NYPd’s witness paperwork, as did a woman who claims Marco groped her on board. After a nearly two-hour delay in Denver, according to FlightAware, the plane was en route to LAX, and Elwes is left to collect his thoughts. The flight lands after 2 a.m. local time in Los Angeles, but expectedly, Elwes’ mind is racing. He pondered the effects of war on our veterans after discovering the pills Marco dropped were prescribed to treat bipolar disorder and anxiety. Despite his insomnia, Elwes was far from enraged about the incident. Instead, he took a markedly pensive tone, trying to make sense of the troubles the man faced.
We eventually take off again. I replay the whole thing in my mind again as the adrenaline wears off. What's the message what's the point
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cassian elwes (@cassianelwes) August 20, 2012Removed from the incident and safely grounded, Elwes concedes in the end that Marco wasn’t all that tricky to deal with.
I write that I used to be william morris agent and I've dealt with difficult people before and really this guy wasn't that difficult
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cassian elwes (@cassianelwes) August 20, 2012An apt warning indeed to all aspiring Hollywood agents.
Read the entire stream of Elwes’ tweets here.
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