All language subtitles for 03 Interview - William Petersen - Taking a Chance_track2_[eng]_DELAY 40ms

I was at the Stratford Shakespeare
Festival in Ontario, Canada, doing

a play, A Streetcar Named Desire,
playing Stanley Kowalski.

Billy was casting To Live and Die in L
.A. in New York, in Manhattan.

His casting director was a man by the
name of Bob Wiener.

And Bob was interviewing actors for the
movie.

Billy evidently wanted no names.

He wanted to kind of, I think, mimic
what he had done with French Connection,

because really Gene Hackman was not
known then, and Roy Scheider was, nobody

knew who he was.

And I think he was trying to capture
that idea that, you know, I want to put

these guys in a movie, and I don't want
anybody to think, oh, that's Richard

Gere, that's Mel Gibson, you know.

And so he was looking for unknown actors
in film.

And he was interviewing one actor.

a friend of mine by the name of Gary
Finney.

And he interviewed Gary.

This is Bob Wiener, the casting
director.

And when he was done interviewing him
and reading him, he said, okay, you're

going to get this part, but do you know
anybody in Chicago, because I hear

Chicago is really happening with all
these actors, and I know you're a member

Stepwell Theater.

Do you know anybody who would be right
for this part?

And Gary, being a mensch, said,

Well, I do know a guy named Billy
Peterson in Chicago, and he might be

the part.

So Bob Wiener tracked me down in Canada.
I happened to be up in Canada doing the

play. And he flew up there by himself
and came to the play and met me in the

lobby after the play and said, let's get
a cup of coffee. We talked.

He was a very strange sort of guy, and I
didn't know him. And we had a cup of

coffee, and he left, went back to New
York.

And he called me up.

And he said, would you be willing to
come down to New York to meet Mr.

I said, well, I have shows on Sunday.

The only day I don't have shows is on
Monday. He says, well, we'll fly you

on Monday, and you can meet with Mr.
Friedkin if you're interested in doing

movie. And I flew down on Monday to
Manhattan, and

all of a sudden found myself at Billy
Friedkin's fabulous Fifth Avenue

house, really.

i sat there with billy for 45 minutes
and i was in awe because of course the

exorcist and friends connection and i
didn't really know what to say although

didn't know he was from chicago you know
so we had that in common and uh he

taught me a script and and i i read a
scene with him just sitting in his

room and i put it down and he said
that's great you got the part

i didn't have an agent nothing and i was
like Really? I got the part?

Yeah.

So I left his apartment and went to a
hotel because I was staying overnight to

fly back on Tuesday morning.

And we got a call from Bob Wiener, the
casting director. And he said, we want

make a deal with you for this movie.

A deal? I don't even... I have no idea.

Well, my friend John Malkovich had just
made his first movie.

So I called...

and talked to his wife, and I said, I've
got to know what John made on his first

movie, because I have no idea what to do
about making a deal with these guys.

And so that's how it happened, and by
that evening, he called me up and asked

to come back over to his apartment,
because he wanted me to read with

actor to play Vukovic.

And I did that, and we decided that
wasn't quite right, and he said, is

anybody you know that could play this
part?

And I said, well, I have a great friend
that's here that I've done a theater

with.

His name is John Pankow, and he's
understudying a play on Broadway. He was

Amadeus on Broadway.

And he said, well, bring him over in the
morning. I said, well, I got an 11 o

'clock flight. So we ran over.

Johnny and I ran over to Billy
Friedkin's place on Tuesday morning and

improvised a scene around his couch.

And he said, I like it. You got the
part.

So John and I are downstairs now waiting
for a cab. He's going uptown. I'm going

to the airport.

And we're standing there going, okay.

Mr. Friedkin's flipped over to the other
side.

He's cast us both like in a matter of
minutes.

Doesn't know either of us. This can't be
happening.

This is some sort of, he's telling all
these actors in New York they all have

the part in this movie.

That must be happening.

And the next thing I knew, I went back
to Stratford, and the next night Billy

flew up and saw the play and took the
whole cast out to dinner afterwards, and

we started talking about the movie.

And then, even then, I was, and I had
never done a thing.

And then I said, well, he was going to
start shooting in October. I said, well,

I'm committed to this play until the end
of October. He goes, well, you can get

out, two -week notice. I said, I really
don't feel comfortable doing that.

And he puts the movie back for me.

I mean, nobody would ever do that, you
know?

So, I mean, completely unique.

My first two movies, to work with
Friedkin and Michael Mann on these first

movies, it was an education in one year
that you couldn't have gotten if you

would have been out here in L .A. for 20
years.

Does this mean that you won't carry your
weight if something goes down? Look,

what I'm saying is we could have got
shit -canned for this little trick.

If you expect me to take the heat, you
should tell me about it before you do

If I'd asked you, what would you have
said?

I'd have said that the cops probably
would have let us copy the diary after

was booked into evidence.

I wouldn't have done it if I was with
somebody I didn't trust.

Look, I'm no snitch.

We got to rehearse a lot. Billy wanted
to go to the locations, actually, and

rehearse, which was also unique.

I mean, we actually went to the airport.

to LAX and came up with that idea of
running along the escalator, you know,

doing that whole thing.

I got to have time with Darlan at the
little house that she lived in, you

know, where we were. So he had gotten
all his locations in advance, took the

actors, and we got to work on these
scenes together.

We got to work on the script with him,
what didn't work, what didn't come out

our mouth right.

I mean, half the movie is kind of
improvised because he wanted such a fast

-paced shooting thing. He wanted the
movie to just move.

And so he didn't want the actors to
stop. He didn't want to hit marks.

He didn't want to make sure you're in
the light. He wanted to shoot it as if

was really happening.

And Robbie Mueller, the director of
photography, was...

genius in that in being able to do that
to capture it with sometimes sometimes

we would think we were doing a rehearsal
and he would tell Robbie to just turn

the camera on and we would do what we
thought was a rehearsal

and he'd say that's it I got the scene
no coverage

just that camera from there captured
what he wanted in the rehearsal I was

whoa whoa wait a minute what do you mean

What? We're not doing this again?

But there's so many things I could do
with this.

And he'd be like, I got what I want.

Mr. Masters?

How you doing? Ben Jessup.

My associate, Dr. George Victor.

Pleasure. How do you do?

Cut yourself shaving, Mr. Jessup?

No. As a matter of fact, I got hit by a
tennis ball.

You're in from Palm Springs, huh? Yeah.

What's the weather like there?

Really nice. I've been up here the last
few days.

I've got a friend in Palm Springs.

Lenny Green.

You know?

I've got a friend in Hollywood. Donald
Duck. You know him?

That was the other thing. I learned
everything there is to know about L .A.

in three months with Billy.

Because we were everywhere.

You know, we were in San Pedro.

We were in Pasadena.

It was...

It was phenomenal. We were on the
freeway going the wrong way.

I mean, he blocked off the 710 freeway
for two weekends.

Two Saturdays and Sundays we shot on the
710 freeway with trucks and cars. I

mean, he had 200 extras driving cars and
trucks.

Big trucks, semis, sliding sideways.

And he was... I remember the first day
we were shooting it, and I...

i realized all of a sudden we were we
were going on the wrong side of the road

i was going against the traffic the
traffic was coming this way but it was

then the other traffic was going that
way right and but we were on the wrong

side of the freeway like we were in
england or something right and i said to

i said billy

I mean, I'm sure you're aware of this,
but we're on the wrong side of the

freeway. We should actually be over
there going that way, and the car's

this way.

If you look at the movie, you'll
actually see it.

And again, this great lesson, he said,
I'm disorienting the audience.

You're disorienting me, that's for sure.

And sure enough, that's what he did. And
again, I learned all these lessons

about what you can do with film.

I remember...

Several years later I was doing a play
in Chicago and Barry Levinson came to

play to see it.

And afterwards we were in the bar and he
was gracious enough to buy us a beer

and say he liked the play.

And we were talking and he said, you
know, we started talking about Friedkin.

And he said as far as he's concerned,
Billy Friedkin knows how to use film

better than anybody in the business.

How to use film to get his,

that thing.

And, you know, if you look at things
like The Exorcist and The French

Connection, it's obvious, you know.

And, you know, I didn't even realize it
at the time, but, you know, that energy

that we created. So I never felt, I was
always, at the end of the day, I was

always, I felt like I hadn't even done
anything, that I hadn't acted at all.

You know, that I just, I showed up, I
drove the car, and now I'm going home.

You know and and it was kind of great
that way it was a very spontaneous

Improvisational and yet he knew exactly
what he's doing and he never had to look

through the camera or anything He'd look
at this cameraman and say did you get

it? You're not wired are you?

It's my package

Look okay?

You're beautiful.

But it was great. All of a sudden, you
know, we're up in San Luis, and then

thing I know, I'm standing in the middle
of this prison.

And convicts are everywhere.

Now, that prison up there is a bit of a,
you know...

country club -like prison. I mean, it
didn't have a whole lot of serious

murderers, you know. They had a lot of
white -collar guys and a lot of drug

guys.

But he got us access into the prison,
and we used the prisoners in the movie,

which was amazing, too, because, I
mean...

I mean, it was running and gunning, and
there were no rules. I remember when we

got to the airport to do this scene in
the airport where I chased down John

Turturro's character. We had gone there
and rehearsed it and thought, oh, this

would be great. I'll get up on the
escalator and run along there and go

the people and jump and chase them.

And so we got to that point where we
were shooting, and the head of the

who was with us on the set, said,

Excuse me, we rehearsed it with the
camera, and he said, no, we can't have

jump up on that and run along the top of
the escalator. We can't.

That's just not going to happen. We
don't want to start letting people think

they can do that in an airport.

So Billy came over to me, and he said,
the guy doesn't want us to do the shot.

I said, oh, Billy, we've got to do the
shot. That's the whole point of being

here.

And he said, well, I'm going to tell
Robbie to roll.

And I'm going to tell you in front of
everybody not to do that.

And then, however you feel, you do what
you

need to do.

So he said, all right, all right, Billy,
we can't do it up there. I need you to

go along the escalator just like regular
and just knock through people and go

through. Okay, all right.

Ready? Roll cameras.

Action.

I come running around the corner. I jump
up on the thing. I run along there.

Robbie's shooting as fast as he can. You
know, he's chasing me on a cart.

And I jump down at the end, and shot's
over.

Guy's freaking out. He goes, I just told
you you can't do that.

I said, you know, I had rehearsed it
that way, and it got in my head, and I

just, I'm sorry. I did it. I'm sorry.

And Billy said, don't worry about it. We
won't use it. We'll shoot him now. Now

we'll shoot you the way you're supposed
to do it. And I went through there, and

of course, we used it.

I mean,

yeah, some stuff was dangerous, but it
wasn't dangerous beyond anything else

that would be dangerous, you know.

And he had really good people all the
time everywhere.

You know, our stunt guys were
phenomenal.

We did some dangerous stuff, stunt
-wise, in terms of that.

And we got away with all of it.

I tore up a camera.

They had a camera mounted on the side of
my car.

And we're down in East L .A., driving
through the warehouse district, you

and I'm racing through these trucks, and
he's got guys opening doors, and he

wants me to pull through like this, all
of which was great, and I got to do the

driving, and I was all pumped up. Panko
was freaking out in the backseat. He did

not want me driving this car, and he did
not want to be in the car either.

Every scene that we'd do in the car,
he'd go, do I have to be in the

Are you going to actually see the guy in
the backseat?

Get in there, and off we go.

And I was going through there at one
time doing this shot, and I had a camera

mounted on the side because they wanted
that thing, and he let me drive it. And,

of course, I got past the corner of the
truck, the car, but the camera

mount hit the truck.

And then they told me how much one of
those cameras was, and I was like,

sorry.

I think we lost the mothers. I don't see
them, man. Huh? I don't see them. We

fucking did it, man. We made it, baby.

We fucking did it.

God damn it, we did it.

Oh, shit.

You had me scared out of my fucking
mind, man. You had me scared.

Ha!

Sons of bitches.

The first time I saw the movie was Billy
actually...

He let my theater company in Chicago do
a screening of it as a benefit.

So we charged people to come see the
movie who were part of our theater.

And so I had friends and family and
everybody all over the place was there.

I thought, I'll never do that again.

And I remember afterwards going into the
bar with everybody and talking about

the movie and saying, you know, these
scenes that weren't in it that I wished

were still in it, blah, blah, blah.

And Bud Smith was our editor, and he was
there. He had come with the movie for

the thing.

And I realized he was hearing me. I
said, you know, Bud, I don't mean, I

mean, I just like, you know, because
again, I was unfamiliar with how movies

work and the whole editing process and
what the thing is and why the scenes

disappear.

You shoot them and then they don't ever
end up in the movie.

Because you start to think, well, that's
an important thing.

And you find out at the end of the day
that it's not, and that they're right,

and that the editors and the director
know what they're doing.

There was only one... Because, of
course, I get my head blown off in the

And somehow or another, the producers,
at the end of the day, when they saw it,

they said, you know, this is really kind
of a downer.

And I remember talking to Billy about it
in Malibu. We were walking on the

beach, and he said, you know, they
really want me to do something about

ending. And I said, but Billy, that's
why we made the movie. We made the movie

because we could play it this way
because that's how it ends, right?

And he agreed.

And he said, I've got to do something.
I've got to give them something. So he

came up with a scene that John Pankow
and I shot over at Culver Studios.

They built a set where we were in like
a...

a weather station for the Secret Service
up in the North Pole

or something. And I had my head covered
in bandages and stuff. And it was so

silly and ridiculous that, you know, he
shot it in such a way that there was no

way they could use it.

Billy was great. I learned so much from
him in terms of

how you can do stuff.

and what you should do.

Well, I mean, the Wang Chung soundtrack
is a classic.

I mean, you hear that music, and all of
a sudden you're back in the movie.

Again, that was a... Who would have
thought of that?

And Wang Chung's like two guys in
England, you know?

And he specifically told them, do not
write a song that has to live and die in

.A. in the title.

And, of course, they immediately did.

And he loved it, and he put it in. You
know, I mean, it's funny. You know,

sometimes the great thing about this
business is there are very many happy

accidents, you know.

And to be a filmmaker is being able to
be open to the happy accidents.

And I've been fortunate to work with
guys that were able to do that.