The production of Moonstruck was tight and focused. His second day on set included one of the most volatile and defining scenes of the film: the first meeting of Loretta Castorini and Ronny Cammareri in Cammareri's bakery.
The basement set was a sensory assault—heavy air, flour dust hanging like fog, and the intense heat radiating off the immense coal-fired ovens.
Alex, as Ronny, stood by an oven. He was a striking figure, a stark contrast to his past roles: his black hair was deliberately messy and wild, framing a face etched with handsome intensity. This raw, untamed look was a new stylistic departure for the young actor, adding a layer of unpredictable, primal drama. He was staring blankly into the oven's fire when Rocco announced the visitor.
ROCCO calls out, "Ronny!"
Alex demands, "What!"
ROCCO announces, "Somebody here to see you."
Ronny turns and takes in Loretta. He closes the oven door and slowly walks toward her.
With a deep, lazy drawl, Alex asks, "Have you come from my brother?"
Cher affirms, "Yes."
Alex asks, "Why?"
Cher replies, "I'm going to marry him."
A look of subtle, deep disdain crosses Ronny's face.
Alex questions, "You are going to marry my brother?"
Cher confirms, "Yes. Do you want..."
Alex interrupts her abruptly, declaring, "I have no life."
Cher asks in confusion, "Excuse me."
Alex repeats, "I have no life. My brother Johnny took my life from me."
Cher states, "I don't understand."
Everything in the oven room has stopped and everyone is watching. Ronny moves around the table.
Alex continues, "And now he's getting married. He has his, he's getting his. And he wants me to come? What is life?"
Cher asserts, "I didn't come here to upset you."
Ronny (Alex) moves to a box of bread.
Alex explains, "They say bread is life. So I bake bread, bread, bread." He picks up loaves of bread and tosses them with force across the floor one by one. "And the years go by! By! By! And I sweat and shovel this stinking dough in and outta this hot hole in the wall and I should be so happy, huh, SWEETHEART?"
Alex raises his voice here, looking at Cher. Alex demands, "You want me to come to the wedding of my brother Johnny?!! Where is my wedding?" Alex turns to the actress playing Chrissy, "Chrissy! Over by the wall! Bring me the big knife!"
Chrissy refuses, "No, Ronny!"
Alex commands, "Bring me the big knife! I'm gonna cut my throat!"
Cher suggests, "Maybe I should come back another time."
Alex speaks smoothly here, adding a smile that looks utterly misplaced, and insists, "No, I want you to see this! I want you to watch me kill myself so you can tell my brother on his wedding day!" He then changes tone again. Alex shouts, "Chrissy, bring me the big knife!"
Chrissy declares, "I tell you I won't do it!"
Alex repeats Chrissy's words, "She won't do it." He looks at Cher: "Do you know about me?"
Barbara, the actress beside Chrissy, exclaims, "Oh, Mr. Cammareri!"
Alex shouts, "WHAT," and she shuts her mouth.
Alex, to Cher, reveals, "Nothing is anybody's fault, but things happen." Then, he holds up his left hand to Loretta and pulls off the glove. The hand is made of wood.
Alex explains, "Look. It's wood. It's fake. Five years ago I was engaged to be married. Johnny came in here, he ordered bread from me. So okay, some bread." Alex laughs here. "I put it in the slicer and I talked with him and my hand got caught 'cause I wasn't paying attention. The slicer chewed off my hand. It's funny." He laughs again. "'cause — when my fiancé saw that I was maimed, she left me for another man."
Cher surmises, "That's the bad blood between you and Johnny?"
Alex confirms, "That's it."
Cher protests, "But that wasn't Johnny's fault."
Alex looks at Cher, and suddenly moves, striking a can of flour with his wooden hand. Everybody flinches.
Alex roars, "I DON'T CARE! I AIN'T NO FREAKIN MONUMENT TO JUSTICE!" He holds up his hand, showing it. "I LOST MY HAND, I LOST MY BRIDE! JOHNNY HAS HIS HAND, JOHNNY HAS HIS BRIDE! YOU COME IN HERE AND YOU WANT ME TO PUT AWAY MY HEARTBREAK AND FORGET?"
Director Norman Jewison, watching from the monitors, felt a chill run through the room. Alex's portrayal of Ronny's unreasonable pain was utterly consuming, a performance that rejected logic and embraced raw, theatrical emotion. It wasn't about seeking justice; it was about the profound, all-encompassing bitterness that had become the character's entire existence. The physical act of striking the flour can grounded this operatic suffering, reminding the audience that Ronny was perpetually on the brink of true violence.
Everybody is silent, looking at him. Alex murmurs softly, with pain in his voice.
Alex murmurs, "Is it just a matter of time till a man opens his eyes and gives up his one dream of happiness?" (A slight silence) "Maybe." (A small break) "Maybe."
He slowly wanders away to the back room.
Jewison let out a long breath he didn't know he was holding, pulling himself back from the intensity of the scene. He raised his hand and finally called, "Cut!"
A genuine smile broke across his face. He was satisfied—more than satisfied. He was ecstatic. It was true that Alex hadn't been his first choice for the role of Ronny Cammareri; the character required an operatic quality, a primal, wounded aggression Jewison wasn't sure the young star possessed. But the studio wanted Alex. Hell, every studio wanted Alex, and the executives had pushed hard for the name. The director had only given in after seeing The Breakfast Club and recognizing the slightly dark, unpredictable quality in his portrayal of John Bender. He'd sent the agent to contact Alex still harboring a sliver of doubt.
But seeing that raw, untamed energy burst forth in the basement heat—watching the complete rejection of logic in favor of pure, theatrical pain—Alex had just demolished every single one of Jewison's reservations. Today, Alex didn't just meet expectations; he owned the character, utterly laying to rest all the director's doubts.
The director's realization coincided with Alex's own complex internal processing. Alex knew the raw, primal darkness of Ronny's rage had been so accessible only because of the gloomy mood following his breakup with Mia. After completing the scene, a flash of insight struck him: he understood why some method actors practiced such extreme emotional preparation. It allowed them to experience and convey genuine pain. Yet, this approach was fundamentally not Alex's style. While it seemed great to possess the character so completely, he believed an actor couldn't simply remove himself entirely.
He recalled Laurence Olivier's famous jab at Method acting, often paraphrased as, "Why can't they just act?" For Alex, a controlled, technical approach was always safer, protecting the actor from the role's consuming darkness.
The mood on the set of Moonstruck remained electric through the final days of Alex's filming. Having nailed the volcanic first scene with Cher, the rest of his compact schedule went smoothly. By the first week of March, Alex was officially wrapped, leaving the New York production and returning to Los Angeles.