A GOOD YEAR: An Interview with Director Ridley Scott, continued
By Wilson Morales

November 6, 2006

What were your challenges on this film?

RS: Not to eat too much at lunch and dinner. Not to drink too much in the evening, make sure I could get up in the morning and drive from my house without feeling to guilty, that was about it. But if any of you know anything about actual movie making, it’s all hard. But it’s why we love the chase, we love the challenge. You get up at 5:45, you do a twelve, thirteen hour day, go straight to the editing room, see my rushes from the day before, probably edit a bit and then go back to bed about 10:30, 11 o’clock. Right now I’m up at 5:45 and up til 1 AM.

Right now you seem to be going back and forth between genres, do you have a preference?

RS: No. I think the key, if you can do it, is to have an evolution of big one, small one, big one, small one, because it’s taxing. It takes its toll. “Kingdom of Heaven” was massive. You walk on set and there’s two and a half thousand people for breakfast. You say, wow, everyone’s set by 8:45 A.M, we’re going to be turning at 9:15 so moving the army, there’s eleven cameras going. You get there, and the wall is a thousand feet long. That will be the main backdrop on the Jerusalem side of it, to then a lot of digital, CGI work that will go on top of it which is pretty formidable.

So why do you still do the big movies, if you enjoy the smaller ones so much?

RS: Well, have you ever addressed two thousand people in the morning? It’s fantastic.

How did you get him to do this film?

RS: Well, Russell’s done about thirty movies and you’ve only seen “Mystery, Alaska,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “Gladiator,” “The Insider,” “L.A. Confidential.” He’s done about another twenty-five movies which are, for the most part, Australian. I’d seen a lot of them, so I know Russell’s order and I’ve seen anything. He doesn’t know I’ve seen everything, but I can get anything. I saw “Romper Stomper” and I said, “This is the guy for ‘Gladiator.’” “Romper Stomper” really brought attention to Russell in the States.

How did you get him to go back?

RS: He loves the idea of anything that’s new, that’s different, is attractive and the same for me. Anything I haven’t done is very interesting, provided that is well-thought, well-designed, a good idea, good story, has its own truth, has its own character, he’ll definitely pay attention to that. Or anything original, it’s original in context…

Was it difficult getting him to relax into the character?

RS: No, not at all.

What was most difficult then? Was it the kid?

RS: Oh no, he was brilliant. Freddie’s a professional. He’s like an adult. Russell said to him, “Hi Freddie, I’m going to be Max” Freddie says, “Yes, I know.” Russell says, “Maybe we should get together” Freddie says, “Why?” and Russell says, “Well, you’re going to be acting, I’m going to be acting, don’t you think it would be useful?” and he said, “I don’t think so.” That was it.

So what is it about you and Russell that works well on the screen?

RS: I think we both speak our minds so that’s a good starting point for him. You can never bullshit with Russell. You have to come right out with it and say what you mean and then you get a reply back, which is surprisingly crystally, clearly distilled and so you have to get used to that over the period. I think people may find that intimidating. And then going through something like “Gladiator,” was pretty rough, pretty challenging. It looked smooth but it was murderous because we went in really with only the first act written.

What can we expect to see from Russell in “American Gangster?”

RS: The great attraction to “American Gangster” is these two great characters who are absolute paradoxes within their own sphere. You’ve got Ritchie Roberts who is alive and well today, still lifts weights, is a very fit in his mid-60’s a man who is a very successful prosecutor, and he visits me about three times a week on set.

Has anything changed with the story because in the beginning it seemed like Denzel was the primary character?

RS: Yes and I think that was what was wrong, it needed to be balanced out. I know Steve very well, he’s done two things for me. Steve had sent me the script about three years ago and asked “What do you think?” I said, “Well, as usual, it’s really good writing.” I think he’s almost the best out there, but I said, “the problem is the Ritchie Roberts character is out of balance with Denzel’s character, Frank Lucas.” It really should be both, they should be one with the other because Ritchie, finally, at the end of the day, cornered Frank Lucas and brought him down. In that process when Frank was released from prison, he did seventeen years, the first person to meet him coming out was Ritchie Roberts with a jacket and clothing, saying “I won’t let you starve.” Because Frank Lucas had actually turned in the state’s evidence and instead of giving him 135 years, where Ritchie could have brought in everything from statutory crime, first-degree murder, etc. they kept that out of it in exchange for information on the corrupt police department. So everyone that Frank Lucas had been dealing with on that level of corruption was pretty substantial. They made, I think, about 75 serious arrests in the police department alone, that’s a lot. Out of that, he got only 17 years. Now if you go into jail when you’re closing in on 50, you come out 65, 67 with no money, that’s a serious condition. Frank Lucas visits me about three times a week as well.

Where does your TV work come into play?

RS: I come out of TV. I come out of live television, BBC drama, that’s where I started first as a designer, then a director. Then I went independent TV then television advertising. I wanted to go back to it because you can explore things in television that might not be considered commercial enough for feature film. For instance, with my show that runs on Friday night called “Num3rs,” it’s pretty good. We’re in our third season now, some great characters. I’m doing a great thing for TNT with director Michel Som. We’re doing a project called “The Company.” It’s the anthology of the CIA from 1957 through the fall of the Berlin Wall. It’s a 5-month shoot with Michael Keaton, Chris O’Donnell, a really great cast. The challenge is that the characters age thirty odd years during the series so it’s a tremendous challenge to them and the production, but so far so good. I’m doing Churchill too, with Albert Finney and this time he’s not going to do the warriors now. Before it was pre-warriors. We got an Emmy and a Golden Globe. The evolution of television keeps going, so we’re going to be very television oriented.

Do you know what your next big epic will be? And have you thought about revisiting “Gladiator?” I know there was talk of a prequel.

RS: Yeah. It’s possible. You can do that and bring back Russell. I know what to do. You don’t do a prequel. The thing I’m doing next will almost certainly be something that was a book, coming out, which is about what is happening now in the middle east and how a complete misunderstanding of what’s going on and how we’re not dealing with it, basically.

Was there talk of you doing “The Warriors?” The LA version?

RS: We have it, we’re developing it. Tony might do that… you mean “The Road to Hell?” We’re kind of looking at it to remake it, I enjoyed the film. I don’t know about the setting yet, I think it should be New York, though.

Are there any other films you’d like to do as a Director’s Cut?

RS: I put two shots in “Alien.” I did that because they asked me to. I thought “Alien” was kind of perfect. I think “Legend” was great I would have had "Legend" almost 20 minutes longer. That was completely not right for the time. Now we're doing all these magical children's movies along that genre and actually, all I was doing was a live-action cartoon..

Is there a film you’d like to re-release?

RS: Actually, “Legend” might be one. It has a huge website theme in Japan.

Would you ever consider going back to a science fiction book?

RS: Always, continually. If I was going to do science fiction… that film, “The Day After Tomorrow” touches on the idea of war coming to a head.

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