An
Interview with Ridley Scott
I
had a chance to talk to Sir Ridley Scott at a recent press junket
here in NYC. Director Ridley Scott discussed his latest film Matchstick
Men and a few other projects lined up. Here is what he had to
say.
 Why
is Nicolas Cage so good at playing characters?
Ridley: I don’t
know. He’s got a definite chameleon quality. Not many have,
they try but Nicolas really does attempt extremities. From shooting
and ruining cars, to playing alcoholics in Las Vegas to doing
comedy, he’s really great. Nic is really smart and savvy
about everything. He just tackles everything.
What’s it like
to work on a film with a smaller budget?
Ridley: Refreshing
and easy. The fact that one tries to that in between a big one,
no one likes to go away for a year. If I’m doing a big film,
I’m gone from ten months to a year. Your life comes to a
standstill, so I’m always trying to find something to keep
me at home like “Thelma and Louise”. This to me was
doing like that film because I only left LA for 3 weeks on Thelma.
I loved the script, which is really what the film is about. I
talked to Ted (Griffin, the screenwriter) and said, “You’ve
written this for Ft. Lauderdale, and I picked Philadelphia, and
he said “Why?” and I said because it’s written
in the book. I then asked if we could make it the Valley and he
said ok.
What led you to do
this film?
Ridley: I was
engaged by the writers from the first page. I get so used to working
with writers. I get so used to actually working with writers that
my prime occupation is development and I know exactly what I’m
doing in 2006. I’m doing in “Gladiator 2” in
2005.
 What
about the rumors of you doing Gladiator 2?
Ridley: Yeah,
that’s well in process.
Are you directing
it?
Ridley: Yeah,
probably for 2005.
Will John Mathieson
be filming that for you?
Ridley: Depends
if he’s available or not.
Will Russell Crowe
be in it?
Ridley: No, he
died.
But we heard he’s
in flashbacks?
Ridley: Um, maybe.
Or that the character
Lucius comes back as he’s son?
Ridley: No
Would Russell want
to come back?
Ridley: I don’t
think so, I think he’s done.
What kind of storyline
are you gravitating towards?
Ridley: It’s
just a natural evolution, next generation. Which is the intelligent
way to go.
Do you have any casting
ideas?
Ridley: No
Do you find that
historical epics have to be authentic all the time?
Ridley: I think
we kicked off genre again with “Gladiator” where frankly
everyone in Hollywood was figuring, I think, that there hadn’t
been an epic like that in 40 years. “Spartacus” was
the probably the last similar film. “Braveheart” was
Scottish and a different genre. There was Braveheart, there was
Rob Roy; we tend to do things out of the UK.
 With
regards to “Matchstick Men”, how important was it
to get the cast right?
Ridley: Everything.
The cast is everything. Someone once asked me if I had anything
to do with casting. I also make a decision about the cast. I knew
about Sam’s work cause he has a body of work. Sam’s
already in the radar. As I was reading, I was thinking him already
mainly because of the comedic aspects, and I wanted to work with
him. He was the first actor we called and he said yes. Then I
started thinking about who’s the other guy. Neither are
straight men when you think about it. Who was the straight man
between Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau? They both were kind of
erratic. So Sam, in this instance is being erratic, he’s
mister cool. So Sam was always in the radar and I thought George
Clooney’s directorial debut (Confessions of a Dangerous
Mind) was pretty good, and I thought, “There he is.”
Sam moves very fast. You get to make decisions quick. I make fast
decisions now. I would have agonized over it 24 years ago. Now
I don’t. I find it’s better that way. I agonize over
everything and I agonize over nothing. So the tricky was, now
that Sam’s already interested, what about the gal? We narrowed
it down to a few groups and then finally I met with Alison. She
was charming and could really do it. The shock at the end is that
she’s 22 (years old). If I had she was 22 earlier, I still
wouldn’t have changed a thing. I would have been more skeptical
when she walked through the door.
Can you talk about
Nicolas’ approach to his character? Some people were talking
about how the obsessive compulsive disorder wasn’t really
in the script.
Ridley: Well
it was, at least I saw it that way. The obsessive compulsive disorder
was tricky because I didn’t want it to be sad. I had already
predetermined the tone of the movie and I could feel it cause
I started to hear Nina Roth’s music thinking this is a jolly
chap who’s never really examined what he does for a living.
He a bastard, but he preys on people who are slightly greedy,
so that’s what lets him off the hook. He says, “I
don’t take their money, they give me their money”
and the doctor tells him that he has to change professions, and
he says “From being an antiques deals”, and the doctor
says, “No, from being a criminal.” He finds those
moments where to me, you think dialogue is music, is right. Obsessive
syndrome is going to come and fit in where I don’t want
you to feel sad about this guy. I want you to be marginally amused
by him without offending those out there who have this syndrome.
How do you he approached
the role? Do you know if he did research on the syndrome?
Ridley: He knows
a little bit about it. Also, if the film becomes too much about
it, then it becomes sad, so for the first week, how much is too
much? How little is too little? The person who washes his hands
obsessively is neat. I find neatness is laziness because it’s
much too easy to be neat than a slob because eventually as a slob,
you’ll be walking all over everything. If you’re a
super slob, you’ll just leave it and have flies and everything
else.
What other genre would
you like to see revived?
Ridley: Westerns.
What do you consider
a good film?
Ridley: A hit
for me is if I enjoyed the movie.
 So
this re-release of the beautiful digital print ALIEN The Directors
Cut, is this theatrical re-release a fall out of “THE EXORCIST”
or is it something you wanted to do for 20 years?
Ridley: No, it’s
Fox [20th Century], it’s a Fox thing. They wanted to do
it, I mean they came in with the idea of re-release. I think they
just look back at certain kinds of films like THE EXORCIST as
only being seen once properly when you think about it. It's all
about the quality of the film.
Have you gone back
and added scenes?
Ridley: Yeah,
there are some scenes that we took out earlier because the dynamics
were correct, at the end of the movie the thing is really flying
and we put this scene in but it kept coming to a halt. But it
was a pretty good scene?
Can you elaborate
a little bit about the scene?
Ridley: It’s
a scene lovingly called “THE NEST.” Which is what
happens when the bodies… Brett [Harry Dean Stanton], Dallas
[Tom Skerritt] was taken, there in…and she [Sigourney Weaver]
finds them, so there’s that, and its pretty ugh!! It’s
pretty bad. And one of them is still alive.
During the interview the
subject of film production in England came about in which Ridley
said, “It’s all about the money.” Ridley
did mention his next development that is called “CRUSADES.”
Here is what he had to say about his next Epic film:
Crusades? Is this
the movie Arnold Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to do?
Ridley: No,
this is a completely separate development. It’ s a big subject.
Who are you talking
to, to star in it?
Ridley: We are
trying to get no star, we’re trying to go that route.
 No
star, the movie is the star?
Ridley: Yes,
exactly.
What about the Muslim/Christian
conflict that may affect the Box Office?
Ridley: No,
I think it would be really fascinating. I’ve been on this
idea of Crusades for almost 20 years you know? And I’ve
been developing it for the last 19 months really. The subject
has to be dealt with such a delicate fashion. It’s one giant
misunderstanding. And when you got Saladin [He is considered the
greatest leader to ever take on the Crusaders.], probably the
whitest of all the Knights in the sense of, the most trust worthy,
the most honorable. He is the leader of the Muslims like no Muslim
has been since. I think the battle of Hittin was on biggest single
defeat of the Christian army by a Muslim. He took back Jerusalem.
What kind of budget
are talking about here?
Ridley: High
[Laughs]
MATCHSTICK MEN OPENS ON
SEPT 12
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