1.
You worked with the late, great Elaine
Stritch twice—on September and Small Time Crooks. What fascinated you about her
as a comedian?
2.
I loved her. I thought she was funny when I
saw her years ago, and when I worked with her, I really fell in love with her.
She was one of those people like Maureen Stapleton that I could insult and make
the most sarcastic remarks to and she would always top me; she would always
shoot back a line that was better than mine and nail me. I never tired of it,
if I would meet her on the street, work with her in movies, or go to dinner
with her, forever teasing her and forever being sarcastic with her—just
merciless to her—and she would always laugh hysterically at what I was saying,
and then instantly come back with a line better than mine. She was so great. I
was crazy about her.
3.
Do you remember one of her zingers to you?
4.
I don’t remember the specific lines, because
they were hot and heavy all the time, but she was just great; a wonderful,
eccentric lady. She was a lady you’d go to dinner with, be eating at an elegant
restaurant with her, and you’d be leaving and she’d be stealing the rolls from
the roll basket and putting them in her pocketbook so she could have them later
in her hotel room.
5.
Magic in the Moonlight really seems to
explore the battle between pragmatism and “magic.” Do you believe in mediums
and psychics? I walk around New York City, where I live, and see all these
elaborate storefronts for psychics and I always feel they’re running a cockfighting
ring or something underneath to foot the rent.
6.
You can tell from this movie and You Will
Meet A Tall Dark Stranger that I think they’re the acme of frauds appealing
only to the most gullible, simple-minded people. Look, like Colin Firth in my
movie, I only wish they were real. It would be great if someone could predict
the future, there was more to life than meets the eye, and somebody could do a
séance and communicate with someone from another world, it would all add
enormous spice and hope to life. Unfortunately, I feel it’s wishful thinking.
7.
"At the end of that, I said, 'I’ve said
my last words on it,' and I have."
8.
Some people who’ve seen the film have taken
issue with the age difference between Colin Firth and Emma Stone playing lovers
in the film, since they’re 53 and 25, respectively.
9.
To me, it’s a complete non-issue. It’s no
issue whatsoever. People that fall in love fall in love, whether the woman is
20 years older, whether the man is 50 years older, whether they’re the exact
same age, whether they’re the same religion, color, or speak the same language,
or don’t. To me, it’s a total non-issue.
10.
What do you feel sets Emma Stone apart as an
actress? She does have a certain zest, and you’ve chosen to work with her again
on your upcoming movie that you’re filming now.
11.
Apart from the fact that she has that magical
feeling that movie stars have, you look at her on the screen and she’s very,
very pretty—and not just pretty in a way that’s routine, but a certain
movie-star pretty, like interesting-pretty. She’s a very beautiful girl with a
special look to her face that sets her apart from other girls who are as
beautiful or even more beautiful from a technical point of view, but they’re
not as much fun to look at. And she happens to be a wonderful actress. I had
never heard of her until I was on my treadmill and I happened to see her in
passing in some silly movie, and I thought, “Oh, it’s a silly movie, but that
girl is really interesting. She’s great looking, has a great look to her, and
can really act.” When I spoke to my casting director, Juliet Taylor, about her,
she told me she was one of the very best actresses around, so I got to use her,
and she did not disappoint.
12.
Jews from New York are a very different brand
from the Israelis. What’s your take on the situation in Gaza right now?
13.
More terribleness. Ever since I can remember,
when I was 21 years old, they were telling me, “Peace is around the corner
between the Arabs and Israelis. The next generation. Right now, there’s a lot
of bitterness, but with time, new generations will grow up and be more peaceful
with each other.” This would go on and on and on, and in the end, nothing’s
changed. This situation remains tragic and terrible, and the leaders in Israel
and the leaders in the Arab world have not been able to come to an agreement.
It’s a terrible, tragic thing. Innocent lives are lost left and right, and it’s
a horrible situation that eventually has to right itself—but I say that without
knowing that it will. I hope that it will, but it seems, at this point, that
nobody on either side is ready, willing, and able to. But
I feel that the Arabs were not very nice in the beginning, and that was a big
problem. The Jews had just come out of a terrible war where they were
exterminated by the millions and persecuted all over Europe, and they were
given this tiny, tiny piece of land in the desert. If the Arabs had just said, “Look, we know
what you guys have been through, take this little piece of land and we’ll all
be friends and help you,” and the Jews came in
peace, but they didn’t. They were not nice about it, and it led to problems,
and over the years, both sides have made mistakes. There’ve been public
relations mistakes, actual mistakes, and it’s been a terrible, terrible cycle
of mismanagement and bad faith. [The usual
hawkdovediscussion. “Lunatic version of History”, the roles of oppressor and
the oppressed shifted.]
14.
We ran a piece by Robert Weide, who made the
PBS documentary on you, defending you against the 20-year-old allegations by
Dylan Farrow. Why do you think the allegations resurfaced?
15.
I said everything that I had to say about
that in my op-ed piece in the Times, so you can read that and that will give
you everything I’ve got to say about that. At the end of that, I said, “I’ve
said my last words on it,” and I have. But you can Google that piece and it
will give you all my feelings about it.
16.
The op-ed named and shamed many of the
actresses you’ve worked with. How has it affected your career?
17.
You have to read my piece. I have nothing
more to say on that.
18.
Was your choice to make many of your recent
movies abroad a financial one? That it was easier to find foreign backers for
your films than domestic ones?
19.
It certainly began that way, yes. I got
backing from foreign countries, so I went there and made films. But then I
started getting backing from independent sources—patrons, and people who liked
my films who said, “Look, we have no interest other than that we’d like to back
you as an artist,” and they backed me.
20.
I’m curious about your thoughts on Louis C.K.
and Lena Dunham—two comedians I really admire who seem to have been heavily
influenced by your approach to comedy.
21.
I’m not really that familiar with their work
because I don’t get a chance to watch television that much. I’m not a big TV
watcher. I go out to dinner every night, come back home around 11 at night, get
into bed, and either watch Charlie Rose a bit, the news, or the end of a
basketball or baseball game, and by 11:30 pm, I’m out like a light. People
always ask me about Louis C.K. who I love, and used him in Blue Jasmine, or
something that happened on Letterman on some night, but I’m usually not home to
see it!
22.
Blue Jasmine touched on this a bit, but as a New
Yorker, how do you feel about the state of New York City? Manhattan, in
particular, seems to just be an island for rich people these days.
23.
Yes. Unfortunately, I couldn’t agree more with
you, and I think it’s a really bad thing. When the middle class was forced to
leave New York City because it got too expensive for them, it lost an
absolutely great thing. What you want are middle class families living in the
city, and the city thriving as it had in the ‘20s,
‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s. [The typical petitbourgeoisie.] As it started to
become an island for the rich, it hurts the city. You can’t live in Manhattan
at all unless you have a certain amount of money, and you certainly can’t live
decently—you can’t live and raise kids. This is a terrible thing. It’s not
going to be good for the future of New York, and it’s an unfortunate situation.
What has to happen is there’s got to be a reversal so that middle class
families can live on the isle of Manhattan in a decent way—not live in some
tiny, little, squalid apartment or housing project they don’t want to live in,
when they can go out and live in the suburbs in a much more decent lifestyle.
Living in New York has got to be made practical for the middle class, and right
now, it’s getting more and more for not just the rich, but the very rich.
24.
Are there any young filmmakers out there that
have really grabbed your attention?
25.
Well, is… Paul Thomas Anderson a young gun? I
think he’s a terrific filmmaker. There are. I can’t think of them all off the
top of my head, but he’s one that springs to mind. Naturally, the guys that I’m
always crazy about are more from my generation—Scorsese, Francis Coppola,
Oliver Stone, and people like that.
26.
Are we going to see you in front of the
camera again? You’re not retired as an actor, right?
27.
No, no. John Turturro gave me a part in his
movie [Fading Gigolo], and I was happy to do it. Nobody offers me anything! In
all the years I’ve been in the movie business, I’ve very rarely been offered an
acting job by anybody ever. I’m not offered anything. When I was younger, it
was easier to write stuff for myself because I could write the romantic lead in
a movie and play the part, but now, I’m 78 years old and I can’t be the guy
who’s flirting with the girl and gets the girl, so it limits the kinds of parts
I can do. If I think of something I can do, I’ll do it. I’ve always wanted to
do a movie with Louis C.K. We’ve talked about it, and I have not been able to
come up with an idea in my mind that works for the two of us. I’d love to act
in a film, but I just can’t think of an idea that’s good for me.
28.
You can still play the guy that gets the
girl, though, if the girl happens to be someone like, say, Diane Keaton. It’s
been over 20 years since you two hooked up onscreen in Manhattan Murder
Mystery. Are we going to see you two reunite?
29.
I’d love to work with her. I’m very close
with her—we’re always on the phone with each other, and we see each other if
she’s in town or I’m out [in Los Angeles]. She has two kids and big expenses,
and she has to work for the money we can pay. She can’t always afford to work
for me. She works for the money most of the time now, and we pay union minimum
scale on my movies, so the people who work on my movies have to do it for the
love of working. If she’s available, of course, she’d be the first one to do
it, but a lot of her years are taken up writing books, doing movies to make
money, or trying to do television pilots. But, if I had a script with a part
that was available, she would do it in a shot and there’s nothing that would
please me more.
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