Slapped Actress

The theme of this album is growing old. The concept took shape when singer Craig Finn saw Opening Night, a 1977 John Cassavetes film about a mature screen siren. This song takes its lyrics directly from the film's plot. Finn told Q magazine July 2008: "The movie just killed me. It summed up everything I was trying to say about how we let people see what we want them to see, the constant projection we make."

Finn expanded on Opening Night in an interview with Uncut magazine August 2008: "I'm not someone who's emotionally moved by much film, but I got this Cassavetes box set and I was surprised by the impact his films had on me. With Opening Night, I was very drawn to this idea of the aging actress. I mean, if you're trading on your beauty, the aging process is really your enemy. And Opening Night has that as a really tragic thing, her simply getting older. I was also really taken by the scene where Cassavetes wants to slap Gena Rowlands, and he says, 'If I don't really slap you, it won't look real for the performance.' And she says 'It's a play, why would you have to actually slap me, that's the whole point.' That kinda connected with the way I think people are preoccupied with my relationship with the characters I write about. I've always said no one really cares whether Quentin Tarantino kills people or does karate but for a songwriter there's this question of a perceived honesty, that your songs are the story of your life."

This song references Ybor City, a party district in Tampa, Florida that has been name-checked in several other Hold Steady albums.