All language subtitles for 04 Interview - Debra Feuer - Renaissance Woman in L.A._track2_[eng]_DELAY 40ms

I was doing a play called Vesper's Eve,
and I was playing a wonderful character

that I had a fun time with named Ruby
Diamond.

And I think Willem Dafoe and Billy
Friedkin both came to see me in that

And it's not that they made their
decision based on that, but they did

see me, and shortly after that I found
out that I had the role.

My agent told me, she called me up one
day and she said, I'd like you to go on

an interview for this movie.

It's a wonderful director.

And I said, okay, great, give me the
info.

And she said, you know, I can't get you
the script in advance, so just go there.

You're going to meet, you'll see the
casting director and you're going to go

right in and meet the director.

And the actor, one of the actors, is
going to be there. And I said, okay,

fantastic.

So she read me the breakdown of the
character, which I'll share with you

I'm going on memory.

But the character's name was Bianca, and
she was a mulatto,

bisexual,

you know, a girlfriend of a
counterfeiter. And I

said, well, Eileen, my agent, a mulatto?
Really?

are you sure I should go on this
interview?

I mean, really.

I think it's a bit of a stretch. And she
said, well, you know what? They know

who you are. They want to see you. Just
go.

And so that was it. I went to the
interview.

I think I met briefly with the casting
director. He walked me right in to meet

the director.

I sat down.

Willem was there.

And I had sides. I think we did a little
bit of a reading.

But I think Billy was really looking for
chemistry. He really wanted to see what

the chemistry was.

And Willem and I had instant chemistry.
I mean, I just thought the guy was

fascinating and intriguing and sexy

and intelligent.

And I, you know, so there was so much
there, right, right, you know, almost in

a moment of meeting him, of the meeting.
And I think that's the way it really

is. You can, I mean, I'm sure if you
don't really have chemistry with

you can sort of develop it.

Or maybe as you get to know the person,
more happens.

But I think it's really initially
there's either something really there or

there's not.

And someone who's intuitive and has a
good eye can spot that. And I think

that's what Billy saw right away.

I had a bad dream last night.

Tell me.

I was on stage and people were burning
me with cigarettes.

Serena once told me if she writes her
dreams down, she keeps them in a little

book. Who's Serena?

What did Carl say?

He says Max ripped us off.

Believe him?

Looks that way.

What are we going to do about it?

Take care of that problem.

So, of course, they had...

several other girls to see, so I went on
my way.

And like I said, I spoke about the play
that I was doing.

I was doing theater.

I just happened to be doing theater at
the time, but I'd been doing a lot of

television and movies of the week and,
you know, other features.

I just happened to be doing a theater
piece, which was nice because Willem

is a theater guy.

So that was... perfect for him.

He was very happy to go see me, you
know, in some LA, downtown LA theater,

know.

I loved the way Billy Friedkin worked.

He would actually say, okay, here's the
scene.

One day he asked me, he said, do you
play a musical instrument? And I said,

I play sax and flute.

And I also play piano, but I don't play
it anymore. I play sax and flute. And he

said, bring your flute in.

I want you to play a song on the flute.
And I was like, Oh my God, I haven't

played the flute for years.

But all right, I'll bring it in and I'll
do something.

I can remember something. So I brought
my flute in and he said, okay, what I

want you to do is Willem's going to be
painting you.

And you're sitting over here on the
couch in your dance rehearsal clothes.

First of all, the scene, I'm supposed to
be completely nude in the scene anyway.

So when he said you're in your dance
rehearsal clothes, I was like, oh God,

thank God. You know, I don't want to be
sitting there nude playing my flute.

So I'm in my dance rehearsal clothes,
and I start playing, you know, I think I

started playing Hey Dude or something
really lame because I couldn't remember

anything else. I was playing my flute,
and then he said, so you guys just start

the scene whenever you're ready.

And I'm not going to say action or
anything. You're not going to know when

start filming.

I'm just going to be filming, so you
guys just start the scene when you're

ready.

I'd never worked like that.

I mean, it was just a dream to have
someone with such a sense

of... I don't know if he had an
understanding of how actors work,

certainly, in my opinion, he did. Not
that he was trained that way, but I

he just really had a sense of when you
were being truthful and real,

or not. And that's what he wanted in
this film. As a matter of fact, All the

clothes that I wore were my own clothes.
Every time I came to work, he said, I

like that.

Wear that.

Can you wear that? Do you mind wearing
that?

So everything I wore, I was watching the
movie last night. I was like, that's my

wardrobe, my whole wardrobe.

And I think the wardrobe people were
really freaking out about that.

There's nothing in there.

Some tennis rackets in the trunk, men's
clothing with palm springs, door labels,

business letters.

with return addresses in the Cayman
Islands.

What did the letters say?

Something about, please forward the
stock we discussed, or something like

Who were the letters addressed to?

Caribbean Banking Unlimited, that's
Antilles.

Did you notice the name Jessup or Victor
on any of the letters?

No.

The sexuality of my character in the
script was that she was bisexual.

And my relationship with Jane,

I'm going to call her Jane because that
was her character's name in the film,

was, there was a flirtation. It was sort
of, I want to say ambiguous, my

relationship with her and the sort of
menage a trois reference that there was

for us. We never filmed anything like
that, but certainly.

We were ready to film something like
that because at any moment, as a matter

fact, I'll just tell you a little, I'll
give you a little nugget. The end of the

movie, the end of the movie for my
character, when I leave with my

in the Ferrari, we leave together. Well,
that was not in the script.

That was a last second, Billy Friedkin
said,

You know, I leave, I get in the Ferrari,
and I drive off.

And so he said, you know, I want to try
a take where you and Jane leave

together.

So we said, okay, great. So that's kind
of the way it was with that character.

But definitely in the breakdown for the
character Bianca, she was bisexual.

Yeah.

Sexually fluid.

That's the term.

But there ain't no beginning to the dead
time.

In the dance performance, I was wearing
kabuki makeup, and that was Billy

Freakin'. I mean, that was written in.
She's a kabuki dancer.

So that was definitely scripted. The
rest was he really wanted my input, and

he really liked, Billy Freakin' really
liked what I had going on at the time.

hair. I had this do from the play. That
was the character Ruby Diamond in the

play.

Um, and my clothing, he, every time I
came, like I said, every time I came to,

to, to work, he said, I love what you're
wearing.

Can you wear that in the film? Or he
would remember something that I had worn

and said, can you wear that thing?

And so I.

There was a lot of input on my part. It
was sort of a collaboration.

I think that Billy Friedkin just was on
to something with me, like he saw.

That's not the way I always dressed, but
it definitely was my theme at the time.

And I think he just tapped into it, and
he was embellishing it, and he gave me

the confidence to sort of go in that
direction, maybe in the direction that I

intuitively had hit on with this
character. I loved the character.

I just, I loved Bianca. It was so, it
was such a juicy part for me and

probably the best part that I had been
offered at the time with, you know, such

a fantastic director and cast.

Well, it's interesting because I was
married.

to Mickey, and Willem was with someone
for a long time, and

Billy freaking wanted us, and he could
see that there was, you know, there was

an attraction, and of course, that's
what he wanted, and there was one, and

everyone was fully aware of that, so he
wanted us to spend time together, and,

you know, embellish that.

and feel comfortable with each other.

But he definitely wanted all the juicy,
spicy stuff to be on screen, not

off. And he was very clear about that.

He specifically said, I want it on
screen, not off. And so that was our

instruction.

So we did, I mean, we didn't work on the
scenes off screen. We just, we spent

some time and, you know, to sort of get
to know each other, but we didn't

work on the scenes. We didn't really
have rehearsals like that.

Friedkin was very generous about giving
us the time we needed before shooting to

run over it, to rehearse, to feel
comfortable in the space, as I told you,

improv a little bit.

So that was it.

Really. It was a very good experience
for me work -wise. I think I learned

a lot.

You know, I felt good. I felt
comfortable. You know, one thing I want

that when I watched the film last night,
I looked fabulous.

And I attribute that to Robbie Mueller.
He was a brilliant cameraman.

cinematographer and he just made me look
beautiful and I'm not talking about

filters and stuff like that I mean just
absolutely such an artist with

lighting and the other thing about him
and the atmosphere of the set is that

they made me feel so comfortable I had
some sex scenes and there was some stuff

shot that was not in the film and it was
very delicate for me it was really my

first fully nude

love scenes and I was nervous about it
and I felt uncomfortable and Billy

freaking just he treated me like I was
like his daughter or something I mean he

was so tender and it's not what I heard
about him I heard otherwise beware

you know he was such a gentleman with me
and I just I mean to this day I just I

I really um I cherish that relationship
that we had that he was so respectful

and um

And Willem Dafoe, too. And, I mean,
Willem Dafoe was walking around totally

in one of the scenes. He was completely
comfortable.

I don't think that's in the movie.

I don't remember seeing that last night.

And he was very comfortable. I wasn't.
But the whole thing, it was just, you

know, the atmosphere of the film itself,
for me, was very accommodating.

Again, that's, I think, the brilliance
of Friedkin is that he's...

intuitive like that or trust his
spontaneous gut feeling about

something or something pops in and he
gives it permission to have a birth.

And I think that's really wonderful
about him.