“THERE’S a crew around. We say go and the actors do their thing. You think, are they going too long? Is her hair blocking her face? It’s a very unromantic time that I usually use to catch up on my eating.” Photo by Ruben V. Nepales
LOS ANGELES, California—In a recent interview, Woody Allen was unusually candid about directing love scenes (he finds watching them “unromantic,” even if they involve hot Spanish on- and off- screen couple Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, and Scarlett Johansson); his relationship with wife Soon-Yi; Asian women; and his own belief that greatness has eluded him.
Woody spoke to us not in his beloved Manhattan but here in LA, which he famously described once as having this greatest contribution to American civilization: A motorist can make a right turn on a red light. He is in town for a month to direct an opera for the first time. Yes, El Lay does have culture — no less than Placido Domingo oversees such productions as director of the Los Angeles Opera.
Looking considerably older from the last time we talked to him on the set of “Cassandra’s Dream” in England, the actor-writer-director was gaunt, appeared frail and hard of hearing. But he was still very alert, like the intellectual “schnook” persona he has honed onscreen since the 1960s.
The true American auteur, whose last two films, “Scoop” and “Cassandra’s Dream” are considered dismal failures, is back in fine form via “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” In this, his fourth and most recent film shot away from New York, Woody serves up an engaging romance-comedy-drama set in Barcelona with the splendid (looks and acting-wise) trio of Penelope, Javier and Scarlett. Rebecca Hall, Patricia Clarkson and Chris Messina complete the cast of Woody’s humor-tinged musing on fidelity, chemistry and love.
Asian women
Since this was his fourth film in Europe (“Cassandra’s Dream,” “Scoop” and “Match Point” were set in England), Woody was asked about his opinion of European women. He answered, “In the past, there was never any difference [among] cultures, races or anything. If a woman was attractive and interesting, she was. If she wasn’t, she wasn’t. It didn’t matter if she was American or French.”
He continued, “But for some inexplicable reason, some years ago, I started to get a crush on Asian women. I find Asian women very, very attractive. If someone had told me when I was younger that I would be married to an Asian woman, I would have said, ‘That’s very unlikely. You’re crazy.’ Because all the women I went out with were Caucasians from New York. They were actresses, writers or something.”
Asked if he was living his dream, the septuagenarian reiterated how fortunate he felt to be married to Soon-Yi, 37: “I never imagined that I was going to be the father of two children with an Asian woman who is many years my junior, who is not in show business and doesn’t have a particularly big interest in show business. I didn’t dream of this; it came accidentally and it has been great. I’ve been married 10 years and it has been sensational.”
Woody seemed more comfortable talking about his relationship with Soon-Yi, the revelation of which sparked a controversy in the 1990s. Soon-Yi, a Korean native, was adopted by Mia Farrow while the actress was married to conductor Andre Previn. Woody and Mia broke up when he admitted his romantic involvement with her adopted daughter.
‘Unromantic time’
Woody’s comments on directing love scenes came up when we asked him to comment on actress Hayley Atwell’s amusing printed quotes about doing such scenes in “Cassandra’s Dream.” The British actress said that, while she and Ewan McGregor were at it, Woody was eating a tomato sandwich, spilling some on his shirt and worrying about the resulting stain. Woody smiled and said, “When you see it on the screen, it’s one thing; but if you are there on the set when we do it, it’s very bland and professional. The actors come in. People hang the lights. There’s a crew around. Then we say go and the actors do their thing. You’re thinking, are they going too long? Are they going too short? Is her hair blocking her face? Is there a shadow of the microphone on something? It’s a very unromantic time that I usually use to catch up on my eating. Then when it’s finished, someone says, ‘Okay, lunch’ (laughter) and everybody goes in different directions.”
Dinner and sex
Javier, playing a Barcelona artist who proposes a weekend of gourmet dinners and sex to two American tourists, Scarlett (Cristina) and Rebecca Hall (Vicky), has such scenes with these actresses. Woody said of Scarlett, his current film muse (this is their third film together): “Scarlett has everything — she’s beautiful, sexy, a great actress, smart and amusing. She can do anything. In my opinion, she has no limit. I would always consider her for any part... in a movie of mine. She creates a very good atmosphere on the set.”
This film belongs to the two Spaniard thespians, however. There is some truth to the observation that Penelope acts best when she speaks in her native tongue. The actress, playing a volatile and emotionally unstable painter, speaks partly in English in the film. She and Javier are fun to watch as a bickering couple, especially when they argue fiercely in Spanish.
Spanish lines
Woody, who still writes his scripts on the same portable Olympia he’s had since he was 16, told an amusing anecdote about the two thespians speaking en Español. “I always encourage my actors to improvise,” he began. “It will sound great, I tell them. So Javier and Penelope were improvising all over the place in Spanish and I don’t speak a word of Spanish (laughter). I had no idea what they were saying. They were acting up a storm but [with] their body language, their faces and expressions, they were getting the point of the script across. It wasn’t until I was in New York editing the picture when I brought in a person to do the subtitles that I asked, ‘What are they saying?’ The person explained that they were right in the ballpark of the script.”
Javier’s character says that if one element in his life is missing, it can affect him greatly. Woody was asked what was missing in his own life. “Oh, greatness,” he quickly replied to laughter. “It has bothered me for years that I have been trying. I’ve made many films and I keep trying. True greatness always eludes me. It’s very bothersome.”
When we interjected that he is great, Woody answered, “Oh well, don’t stop now.” With films like “Annie Hall” and “Manhattan,” Woody ranks as one of the greatest American directors in our book.
Achieving greatness
When asked to elaborate on his belief that “true greatness” eludes him, Woody said, “I would rather be able to get into bed at night thinking, if I die now, young kids can go see my movies in a festival alongside those of Fellini, Kurosawa and Bergman. But I don’t feel I have anything that I could put up there if there was that kind of festival. But I have come to terms that this is never going to happen. I’ve only myself to blame because, from day one, I’ve had complete control over all my pictures. No one has ever told me what to do, who to cast. No one goes over my scripts. So I have no excuses.”
Woody also misses those days when he was the romantic lead in his own movies and acted opposite a long list of beautiful, talented actresses. He admitted, “I don’t like it when I see people playing scenes that I would like to play (laughter) but there’s nothing I can do about it. If I wrote a script and there was a very good part in it for me, I would do it. But at this point, I am not going to play the romantic interest in a film. I’m going to play a lovable old grandfather, some absent-minded college professor or some doorman backstage at the theater or some part like that, unless I come up with something great for myself but it’s not going to be romantic lead.”
He confessed, “It’s a terrible feeling. It’s like when I see the baseball players and I think, I used to be able to do that. I could run down those fly balls, hit the ball very hard and all that. Now, I can’t. It’s a feeling worse than not being able to play the lead.”
First opera
Well, at least he can say that at 72, he directed his first opera. He will tackle “Gianni Schicchi,” a third of Puccini’s trilogy of one-act operas (the other two will be directed by another filmmaker, William Friedkin) bowing next month at the Music Center in downtown LA.
“Talk about illogic,” he declared, referring to his opera directorial debut. “I’ve never directed an opera. I’ve not directed live theater that often. I’ve only directed my own one-act plays. I’ve never directed anybody else’s work. I show no aptitude for it but I’m friendly with one of the men on the board of directors of the Los Angeles Opera. He’s been asking for a long time if I would direct an opera. Placido Domingo and I have talked on many occasions over the years about me doing an opera. In this instance, I might be able to do it. This is not ‘Aida’ or something with an elephant onstage. These are one-acters and the third of this is comic. Billy Friedkin, the wonderful movie director, is doing the first two and he is a legitimate opera director. He’s quite good at it.
“I’m doing only the last one. It’s a 60-minute maximum opera. It doesn’t have a huge cast. The only thing that bothers me is that, unlike in the movies, at the opera, the audience boos if they don’t like it. That’s something I’ve never experienced before. But I’ve certainly been disliked from a distance (laughter). I’ll give it my best shot; I hope Puccini’s work is so strong and indestructible that I can’t screw it up.”
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