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So I'm always caught in that dichotomy,
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is the journey
the most thrilling part of it?
3
00:00:27,608 --> 00:00:32,602
Or is it, I say end result. I don't
think you ever get to an end result.
4
00:00:32,780 --> 00:00:37,774
You get to a result as close as you can
get in the time that you need to get it.
5
00:00:37,951 --> 00:00:40,613
And I think if you have a lot of curiosity,
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you-you kind of never feel
like you've completed any journey,
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because you're always changing trains.
8
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And you're always, without knowing it,
on some other destination.
9
00:00:51,865 --> 00:00:52,889
It's a conundrum.
10
00:01:20,928 --> 00:01:24,523
I thought about Leon as a
moth that was attracted to the flame
11
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that causes the moth
to burn its own wings off.
12
00:01:30,105 --> 00:01:34,507
Stanley Kubrick was
an incredibly bright light.
13
00:01:34,675 --> 00:01:39,874
His seductiveness was strong enough
for Leon to be burned by Stanley's light.
14
00:01:50,924 --> 00:01:54,655
I'd seen 2001
just after I left drama school.
15
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And I just thought it was the
greatest movie I'd ever seen.
16
00:02:03,971 --> 00:02:07,908
Then I went to see to A Clockwork
Orange, because it was Stanley Kubrick.
17
00:02:08,076 --> 00:02:09,076
Whoo-hoo!
18
00:02:13,046 --> 00:02:14,911
When I was watching the performances,
19
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like Malcolm McDowell,
20
00:02:17,419 --> 00:02:20,148
it was so big, so bold.
21
00:02:20,522 --> 00:02:26,154
And I thought, this is as close as you get
to a theatrical kind of performance on film.
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00:02:26,527 --> 00:02:27,927
And it makes sense.
23
00:02:28,096 --> 00:02:30,121
And how wonderful for an actor
24
00:02:30,497 --> 00:02:34,729
to be able to come on and give
that whole, broad feeling.
25
00:02:36,804 --> 00:02:38,964
- ♪ I'm singin' in the rain ♪
- When the film finished,
26
00:02:39,072 --> 00:02:42,508
I turned to the person
I was actually watching it with,
27
00:02:42,677 --> 00:02:45,543
and I said, "I want to work for that man".
28
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That's exactly what I said.
29
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"I want to work for that man".
30
00:03:02,864 --> 00:03:05,457
I was lucky, because I never didn't work.
31
00:03:05,632 --> 00:03:10,070
I was doing theater, television,
prestige costume dramas, BBC.
32
00:03:10,238 --> 00:03:11,603
I shocked you, didn't I?
33
00:03:11,772 --> 00:03:15,139
I was doing one-off plays,
a couple of movies.
34
00:03:15,510 --> 00:03:17,136
There were cop dramas.
35
00:03:17,512 --> 00:03:20,913
Why should they want to? I live on the
outskirts of town, middle of suburbia.
36
00:03:21,082 --> 00:03:25,609
I think I did every single one of them
that was being done at the time.
37
00:03:25,786 --> 00:03:29,018
Not gonna bring her back to life again
are you, you interfering bastards?
38
00:03:29,190 --> 00:03:31,639
Were you, on the night in question,
anywhere near that warehouse?
39
00:03:31,659 --> 00:03:32,455
No, no, no!
40
00:03:32,627 --> 00:03:34,652
I was doing sitcoms.
41
00:03:54,081 --> 00:03:56,744
I was in London
when everything was changing.
42
00:03:56,918 --> 00:04:01,150
I felt I could be, and do, and behave
the way I wanted to.
43
00:04:01,522 --> 00:04:03,889
It was a huge release for me.
44
00:04:26,681 --> 00:04:30,515
- Thy will be done, on Earth as it is...
- Amen
45
00:04:30,685 --> 00:04:32,277
May I come with you?
46
00:04:35,657 --> 00:04:40,822
One of my agents had actually heard that
Stanley Kubrick was doing a new production.
47
00:04:40,995 --> 00:04:43,589
And he organized an audition for me,
48
00:04:43,764 --> 00:04:45,528
and it was a film called Barry Lyndon.
49
00:04:49,203 --> 00:04:50,898
So Stanley had the text sent to you.
50
00:04:51,072 --> 00:04:53,198
And on the front of mine, when it came,
51
00:04:53,575 --> 00:04:57,602
it had a little note which had what I later
understood to be Stanley's handwriting.
52
00:04:57,779 --> 00:05:00,714
Which was, "Learn these lines".
53
00:05:00,882 --> 00:05:05,251
And when someone like Stanley Kubrick
tells you to learn your lines,
54
00:05:05,620 --> 00:05:07,747
you learn your lines.
55
00:05:10,058 --> 00:05:12,788
A phone call came through,
and my agent told me,
56
00:05:12,961 --> 00:05:16,158
"You've got the role
in Stanley Kubrick's picture".
57
00:05:16,331 --> 00:05:18,629
Well, my head was somewhere out there.
58
00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:20,062
Thanks, oh great ones.
59
00:05:22,805 --> 00:05:28,936
I got a telephone call, who said "You
should be at the White Hart Hotel at 6:00,
60
00:05:29,110 --> 00:05:31,044
because Stanley wants to meet you".
61
00:05:31,212 --> 00:05:34,204
And I was standing in that hotel foyer,
62
00:05:34,382 --> 00:05:37,647
and suddenly, there was this
little tap on my shoulder.
63
00:05:37,819 --> 00:05:42,586
I turned round, and he said,
"Hi, Leon. I'm Stanley".
64
00:05:43,625 --> 00:05:44,625
And we shook hands.
65
00:05:44,792 --> 00:05:46,112
And I have to tell you something.
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00:05:47,228 --> 00:05:48,889
When you shook hands with Stanley,
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it was warm and gentle.
68
00:05:54,335 --> 00:05:57,031
Just, like, a buzz went through you.
69
00:06:03,778 --> 00:06:06,372
On the first shooting day,
I was a little surprised at myself
70
00:06:06,748 --> 00:06:10,344
at how nervous I actually felt about
what was going to happen.
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00:06:10,718 --> 00:06:12,709
He was given a long tube.
72
00:06:12,887 --> 00:06:14,912
And he said, "Put an 18 on".
73
00:06:15,089 --> 00:06:17,023
Now I didn't know what that meant.
74
00:06:17,191 --> 00:06:19,820
But then he put it up to his eye,
and said, "Okay, Leon, action.
75
00:06:19,994 --> 00:06:22,155
And do it the way you think
you're gonna do it.
76
00:06:22,330 --> 00:06:24,958
I don't want any of this kind of
saving it for the take".
77
00:06:25,134 --> 00:06:26,998
And so we kicked off.
78
00:06:27,169 --> 00:06:29,966
He was wandering around.
He was looking through this tube.
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00:06:30,138 --> 00:06:32,369
He was getting up close.
He was standing far back,
80
00:06:32,740 --> 00:06:34,867
standing on a stepladder, down on his knee.
81
00:06:35,043 --> 00:06:38,137
And then he'd change lenses and
go through the whole process again.
82
00:06:38,312 --> 00:06:40,678
And each time I'd have to start
from the beginning
83
00:06:40,849 --> 00:06:43,089
and keep saying it and keep saying it
and keep saying it.
84
00:06:43,217 --> 00:06:45,377
And then just about we were
going to start shooting it,
85
00:06:45,453 --> 00:06:47,388
he actually said,
"Let's do something else".
86
00:06:47,755 --> 00:06:48,983
Completely disorientated me.
87
00:06:49,157 --> 00:06:50,318
I thought, "Oh, my God".
88
00:06:50,692 --> 00:06:52,990
He was going to change the scene
he was going to shoot.
89
00:06:56,164 --> 00:07:00,157
When I walk in with Bryan,
my little stepbrother,
90
00:07:00,334 --> 00:07:04,169
and he's wearing my shoes, we did it
over and over and over again.
91
00:07:04,339 --> 00:07:10,004
And once we'd kind of found the pulse,
the emotional beat of the whole thing...
92
00:07:10,178 --> 00:07:12,203
- Madam!
- he just let everything go.
93
00:07:12,380 --> 00:07:14,143
There was never a cut.
94
00:07:14,315 --> 00:07:17,079
I have borne as long as mortal could endure
95
00:07:17,251 --> 00:07:21,449
the ill treatment of the insolent Irish
upstart whom you've taken into your bed.
96
00:07:23,092 --> 00:07:25,117
It is not only the lowness of his birth
97
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and the general brutality
of his manners which disgusts me.
98
00:07:28,397 --> 00:07:32,332
We just kept doing complete
takes with the whole speech.
99
00:07:32,501 --> 00:07:35,902
His brutal and ungentlemanlike behavior,
100
00:07:36,071 --> 00:07:38,972
his open infidelity,
his shameless robberies
101
00:07:39,141 --> 00:07:43,134
and swindling of my property and yours.
102
00:07:43,312 --> 00:07:47,180
And as I cannot personally chastise
this low-bred ruffian,
103
00:07:47,349 --> 00:07:50,078
and as I cannot bear to witness
his treatment of you,
104
00:07:50,251 --> 00:07:53,152
and loathe his horrible society
as if it were the plague,
105
00:07:54,790 --> 00:07:57,816
I have decided to leave
my home and never return.
106
00:07:57,993 --> 00:08:00,894
And that's really where I got the message.
107
00:08:01,063 --> 00:08:04,226
This is what filmmaking is about.
108
00:08:04,399 --> 00:08:09,769
As opposed to just shooting a film,
this was filmmaking.
109
00:08:09,938 --> 00:08:11,769
And I leap up out of my chair,
110
00:08:11,940 --> 00:08:14,738
and I hit him as hard as I can in the back.
111
00:08:14,910 --> 00:08:17,276
And knock him to the ground,
and try to-to throttle him.
112
00:08:17,445 --> 00:08:19,470
And I hit him and...
113
00:08:19,848 --> 00:08:22,008
And Stanley said, "You're not
hitting him hard enough".
114
00:08:22,084 --> 00:08:25,109
I'm looking at Leon, you know
115
00:08:25,287 --> 00:08:26,287
"Oh, Leon".
116
00:08:29,056 --> 00:08:31,821
But we did it 30 times.
117
00:08:31,994 --> 00:08:34,986
And—And I know I hurt him.
I know I hurt him.
118
00:08:35,164 --> 00:08:36,164
I didn't want to.
119
00:08:36,298 --> 00:08:38,892
But this was Stanley.
"Again, again".
120
00:08:39,067 --> 00:08:40,329
We broke for lunch.
121
00:08:40,502 --> 00:08:42,901
He said, "Leon, don't go anywhere.
I want to talk to you".
122
00:08:43,071 --> 00:08:44,867
And I thought,
"Oh, my God. This is it".
123
00:08:45,039 --> 00:08:47,959
He's gonna say, "You tried hard, but
it's not quite what I'm looking for".
124
00:08:48,109 --> 00:08:50,202
Because we had three George the Thirds.
125
00:08:50,378 --> 00:08:53,075
And the first two were kind of fired.
126
00:08:53,248 --> 00:08:56,809
If you didn't know your lines, uh, suddenly
you weren't in the picture anymore.
127
00:08:56,985 --> 00:08:58,509
And a new one, actor was brought in.
128
00:08:58,887 --> 00:09:00,445
This happened a couple of times.
129
00:09:00,822 --> 00:09:03,238
You didn't make friends. You didn't
know if they were gonna last.
130
00:09:03,258 --> 00:09:03,339
He said, "Leon,
let's sit down". We sat down.
131
00:09:03,359 --> 00:09:06,190
He said, "Leon,
let's sit down". We sat down.
132
00:09:06,361 --> 00:09:09,023
And then he said,
"I really like what you're doing.
133
00:09:09,197 --> 00:09:12,133
And I like the fact that when we
break to set up new lighting,
134
00:09:12,301 --> 00:09:15,327
that you're actually walking around,
going through your text.
135
00:09:15,504 --> 00:09:19,304
And so I decided I was going to write
a whole bunch of scenes for you
136
00:09:19,474 --> 00:09:21,089
and keep you here till
the end of the movie".
137
00:09:21,109 --> 00:09:22,440
I almost passed out.
138
00:09:24,213 --> 00:09:27,272
Can you imagine?
Ay, can you imagine?
139
00:09:33,956 --> 00:09:35,446
Although I'd worked on films,
140
00:09:35,623 --> 00:09:37,888
you were always just there as an actor.
141
00:09:38,060 --> 00:09:43,123
So you never really understood anything that
was going on into the making of that film.
142
00:09:43,298 --> 00:09:46,927
I started to sort of look around
and just see all the resources.
143
00:09:47,102 --> 00:09:50,434
And you see people moving these banks
of brutes, like ten yards further in,
144
00:09:50,606 --> 00:09:51,971
ten yards further back.
145
00:09:52,140 --> 00:09:53,300
Angling them differently.
146
00:09:53,475 --> 00:09:55,875
The costumes were being made and hand-sewn
147
00:09:56,044 --> 00:09:59,036
in the way that they would have
been made in the 18th century
148
00:09:59,214 --> 00:10:01,444
and people talking about fine details.
149
00:10:01,617 --> 00:10:05,144
And you see Stanley and heard
Stanley talking to the art director.
150
00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:08,312
So many people walking around.
And everyone had something to do.
151
00:10:08,490 --> 00:10:11,391
And they were doing something
to get something on a strip of film
152
00:10:11,561 --> 00:10:14,085
to make that single moment work.
153
00:10:15,931 --> 00:10:17,923
I thought, it's so amazing
154
00:10:18,100 --> 00:10:22,298
that one man's idea should spawn all this.
155
00:10:22,471 --> 00:10:25,305
This goes into making a movie.
156
00:10:25,474 --> 00:10:27,908
And that intrigued me so much.
157
00:10:30,412 --> 00:10:31,936
The raw egg.
158
00:10:32,114 --> 00:10:34,714
But when you shoot with Stanley,
you better have a dozen raw eggs.
159
00:10:34,917 --> 00:10:37,249
But do you know what they gave me
for lunch before that?
160
00:10:37,419 --> 00:10:38,443
- No, stop it.
- It was...
161
00:10:38,620 --> 00:10:41,418
- Scrambled.
- It was semi-raw chicken.
162
00:10:41,590 --> 00:10:45,185
And tomatoes or tomatoes.
163
00:10:45,361 --> 00:10:48,558
And it was all mashed together.
I was so vomitous.
164
00:10:49,965 --> 00:10:52,229
But the moment I got on the set,
165
00:10:52,401 --> 00:10:54,528
- and it was like nothing.
- Yeah.
166
00:10:54,703 --> 00:10:58,298
And then, Stanley said, "Give him a
raw egg". A raw egg. Give him a...
167
00:10:58,473 --> 00:11:00,032
But you know what he saw in you?
168
00:11:00,209 --> 00:11:02,143
He saw a way out
of the movie. He saw an ending.
169
00:11:02,312 --> 00:11:04,677
- Yeah, yeah.
- Some-Somebody has to get Barry Lyndon.
170
00:11:05,047 --> 00:11:07,072
Somebody has to get him.
Who can it be?
171
00:11:07,249 --> 00:11:10,548
It was in July we shot the last scene.
172
00:11:10,720 --> 00:11:15,179
It was sad to know that these were going
to be the last couple of days of shooting.
173
00:11:15,357 --> 00:11:19,589
I kind of thought, "Oh, well, this is
going to be quite tough, actually".
174
00:11:19,962 --> 00:11:22,522
I said to Stanley that I'm beginning
to get quite interested
175
00:11:22,698 --> 00:11:25,189
in your whole sort of technical side of it.
176
00:11:25,368 --> 00:11:28,336
And everything that has to go
into the making of the movie.
177
00:11:28,504 --> 00:11:31,233
And I'd be quite interested
to work in that area.
178
00:11:31,406 --> 00:11:34,069
And he said to me, "If you really
are serious about it, Leon,
179
00:11:34,242 --> 00:11:36,574
do something about it and let me know"
180
00:11:36,745 --> 00:11:40,273
And he gave me a Christmas gift,
a beautiful art book.
181
00:11:40,449 --> 00:11:45,615
It says, "Dear Leon, thank you for your
great talent, energy and kindness.
182
00:11:45,988 --> 00:11:48,081
Sincerely, Stanley".
183
00:11:48,256 --> 00:11:50,019
It almost brought tears to my eyes.
184
00:11:50,192 --> 00:11:52,490
It was so touching.
A Treasury of Master Drawings.
185
00:11:52,661 --> 00:11:55,096
- Barry Lyndon.
- And then Barry Lyndon came out.
186
00:11:55,263 --> 00:11:58,256
And I started getting invites
to a lot of parties.
187
00:11:58,433 --> 00:12:02,062
And there was somebody who contacted
me and wanted to be my press agent.
188
00:12:02,238 --> 00:12:04,638
And the more of these parties I went to,
189
00:12:05,007 --> 00:12:08,637
the more people I met who just thought it
was the most fantastic film they'd ever seen.
190
00:12:09,011 --> 00:12:11,138
Wow! A Stanley Kubrick film?
191
00:12:11,313 --> 00:12:12,678
Bloody hell!
192
00:12:13,049 --> 00:12:16,280
This guy is going places,
you know I couldn't believe it.
193
00:12:16,451 --> 00:12:20,080
Things were kind of happening
in parallel in a positive way.
194
00:12:20,256 --> 00:12:23,453
And I was offered a season at
the Royal Shakespeare Company,
195
00:12:23,626 --> 00:12:28,358
which, when I had early thoughts of being an
actor, I would have given anything to be a part of.
196
00:12:28,530 --> 00:12:30,658
And I had offers
for the National Theatre too.
197
00:12:31,034 --> 00:12:35,061
But what I had understood
for myself was the first chance I got,
198
00:12:35,238 --> 00:12:37,206
the next movie that
I was going to get to work on,
199
00:12:37,373 --> 00:12:40,206
I would ask if I could work
in the cutting room.
200
00:12:40,376 --> 00:12:42,469
I'd make tea, anything.
I don't care. I didn't care.
201
00:12:42,645 --> 00:12:45,637
There was a Swedish-Irish
co-production of Frankenstein.
202
00:12:45,815 --> 00:12:48,510
I talked to the director.
And he'd seen Barry Lyndon.
203
00:12:48,684 --> 00:12:51,447
He said, "I think you'd work well
as Frankenstein".
204
00:12:51,620 --> 00:12:53,485
And so I said, "Great".
205
00:12:53,655 --> 00:12:57,114
I said, "I was wondering if, at the end
of it, I could work in the cutting room.
206
00:12:57,293 --> 00:13:01,194
Just get to know that process".And I said,
"You don't have to pay me or anything".
207
00:13:01,364 --> 00:13:04,196
And he said, "Sure, if you really want to".
208
00:13:04,366 --> 00:13:05,664
Let me tell you about myself.
209
00:13:07,170 --> 00:13:08,466
I started a whole period
210
00:13:08,638 --> 00:13:10,628
where I worked in the cutting room
211
00:13:10,807 --> 00:13:14,265
till the whole thing was assembled
and mixed and released.
212
00:13:14,444 --> 00:13:18,346
And so I did that, and I let Stanley
know that's what I'd done.
213
00:13:18,514 --> 00:13:20,448
I kind of started off very slowly.
214
00:13:20,616 --> 00:13:23,049
He sent me a book which was
called The Shining.
215
00:13:23,218 --> 00:13:24,858
And there was a little note on the front.
216
00:13:25,121 --> 00:13:27,146
He wrote, "Read this book".
217
00:13:27,322 --> 00:13:30,840
And it was, again, it was like, "Well, if
Stanley says I gotta read it, I gotta read it".
218
00:13:30,860 --> 00:13:34,727
The phone rang, I picked it up, and the voice
on the other end said, "Did you read it?
219
00:13:35,098 --> 00:13:36,122
What do you think?"
220
00:13:36,299 --> 00:13:39,200
I said it could be
a really exciting project.
221
00:13:39,368 --> 00:13:43,702
He said to me, "How would you like to go to
America and find a little boy to play Danny?"
222
00:13:43,873 --> 00:13:48,468
Yeah, how would I like to go to
America to find a little boy to play Danny.
223
00:13:48,644 --> 00:13:54,446
And I actually just, you know, just said no
to every offer of a-a-an acting job, you know
224
00:13:54,617 --> 00:13:56,414
Mission accomplished, is how I saw it.
225
00:13:58,254 --> 00:14:01,382
I think I was rather amazed
that he'd stopped acting.
226
00:14:01,557 --> 00:14:03,388
Because I thought he was such a good actor.
227
00:14:03,559 --> 00:14:06,425
And wanted to be an actor, and enjoyed it.
228
00:14:06,596 --> 00:14:08,120
It's a paradox, isn't it?
229
00:14:08,297 --> 00:14:10,492
He was at the height of his career.
230
00:14:10,665 --> 00:14:12,600
And he decides not to carry on acting.
231
00:14:12,767 --> 00:14:14,463
I was dumbfounded.
232
00:14:14,637 --> 00:14:16,717
And he suddenly goes to
the other side of the camera,
233
00:14:16,806 --> 00:14:18,865
something I could never see myself doing.
234
00:14:19,242 --> 00:14:21,767
I had been there now 16 months.
235
00:14:22,145 --> 00:14:24,238
So as soon as they said I could
go home, I fled,
236
00:14:24,412 --> 00:14:27,382
thinking they'd probably
try to call me back, so I fled.
237
00:14:27,550 --> 00:14:32,214
But apparently they had
some kind of, um, connection.
238
00:14:32,388 --> 00:14:36,518
Why would someone
like Leon Vitali, who was an actor,
239
00:14:36,692 --> 00:14:38,660
he had his life, he had his work,
240
00:14:38,828 --> 00:14:42,161
put all that on hold
for another individual?
241
00:14:42,331 --> 00:14:45,664
And I think because you
recognize in that individual
242
00:14:45,835 --> 00:14:49,772
something that you don't see
in 90 percent of the human race.
243
00:14:49,939 --> 00:14:52,737
He was, um, a master.
244
00:14:52,909 --> 00:14:55,434
You don't meet that many masters
in your lifetime.
245
00:14:55,611 --> 00:14:57,238
You're lucky if you meet one.
246
00:14:57,413 --> 00:15:00,315
Leon is one of the only actors
who has ever,
247
00:15:00,483 --> 00:15:05,477
you know, surrendered his, uh, career
to work closely with a filmmaker.
248
00:15:05,655 --> 00:15:06,917
Let's be honest.
249
00:15:07,290 --> 00:15:09,155
Uh, a filmmaker of Stanley Kubrick's,
250
00:15:09,325 --> 00:15:11,886
not only his stature, but his mystique.
251
00:15:12,261 --> 00:15:13,728
And I look at a box like this,
252
00:15:13,896 --> 00:15:19,528
and I just think, this is years
of dealing with all the detritus
253
00:15:19,702 --> 00:15:24,264
of what you have to do inside the film
industry to make something work.
254
00:15:24,440 --> 00:15:28,399
All the correspondences,
and all the bullshit.
255
00:15:28,578 --> 00:15:30,705
There's a lot of that.
256
00:15:30,881 --> 00:15:33,815
There's footage notes about
what's wrong with a print, you know
257
00:15:33,983 --> 00:15:38,784
So you had to look at everything
frame by frame and send him notes.
258
00:15:38,955 --> 00:15:44,622
One of Stanley's manias
was you had to write everything down.
259
00:15:44,794 --> 00:15:47,957
Write it down. Remember to look at
what you've written down.
260
00:15:48,331 --> 00:15:53,428
You could say I spent half my time
with Stanley writing down things.
261
00:15:53,603 --> 00:15:58,473
We were always working with all of
Stanley's titles all the time.
262
00:15:58,641 --> 00:16:03,203
There wasn't a single one of his
movies that somewhere in the world
263
00:16:03,379 --> 00:16:06,405
didn't want to get a print of,
and didn't want to screen.
264
00:16:06,582 --> 00:16:08,915
Whether it was a special exhibition print.
265
00:16:09,285 --> 00:16:13,415
I mean Finland, France, Germany, Sweden
were doing Paths of Glory and The Killing.
266
00:16:13,589 --> 00:16:15,319
And Denmark.
And the thing is,
267
00:16:15,491 --> 00:16:17,982
we were working on
something completely different,
268
00:16:18,362 --> 00:16:20,795
i.e. Full Metal Jacket
at this time.
269
00:16:20,963 --> 00:16:25,799
Oh, this is Danny Lloyd's. This is his
record of times. I call it book of lies.
270
00:16:25,969 --> 00:16:28,995
By law in England, they were
very strict about child actors.
271
00:16:29,372 --> 00:16:32,808
You could only film
within 20 minutes inside any hour.
272
00:16:32,975 --> 00:16:36,377
Stanley started to get nervous. And Stanley
said, "I want you to keep the times".
273
00:16:36,546 --> 00:16:38,786
Well, of course, this is where it
becomes a book of lies.
274
00:16:38,848 --> 00:16:40,688
I think, oh, when was his last day
of shooting?
275
00:16:40,817 --> 00:16:43,444
March 27, 1979.
276
00:16:43,620 --> 00:16:46,611
Good evening, Mr. Torrance.
277
00:16:46,790 --> 00:16:48,552
Good evening.
278
00:16:48,724 --> 00:16:49,987
Well, I went to Denver first.
279
00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:53,352
The idea was that
I would video every child.
280
00:16:53,530 --> 00:16:57,523
We would ask them an initial set of
questions that all of them would get.
281
00:16:57,701 --> 00:16:59,031
There were 4,000 kids.
282
00:16:59,403 --> 00:17:01,871
The biggest number were in Chicago.
283
00:17:02,038 --> 00:17:05,405
The first thing I
remember, I'm four years old.
284
00:17:05,574 --> 00:17:07,735
And my parents talking in the kitchen.
285
00:17:07,911 --> 00:17:10,708
Something about sending my picture in.
286
00:17:10,880 --> 00:17:13,543
And now we had to go to Chicago
for an audition.
287
00:17:13,716 --> 00:17:14,808
We're underdressed.
288
00:17:14,984 --> 00:17:16,452
And there's so many kids there.
289
00:17:16,620 --> 00:17:18,611
And-And, you know, we don't have a chance.
290
00:17:18,789 --> 00:17:21,781
And I said,
"Hi, are you Danny?"
291
00:17:21,958 --> 00:17:24,051
and he wouldn't answer.
292
00:17:24,427 --> 00:17:30,627
For some reason, I got down on my haunches,
you know, to get myself on the same level.
293
00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:32,768
And said, "I'm Leon.
It's all right.
294
00:17:32,935 --> 00:17:34,426
You know why you've come here?"
295
00:17:34,604 --> 00:17:36,435
He was sitting in the chair like...
296
00:17:37,407 --> 00:17:38,407
that.
297
00:17:38,475 --> 00:17:39,737
And his mum was saying,
298
00:17:39,910 --> 00:17:42,571
"Come on, Danny. We've come all
this way," what have you.
299
00:17:42,746 --> 00:17:45,680
And suddenly he said, "Okay".
300
00:17:45,849 --> 00:17:49,580
And so he took my hand,
and we walked into this room.
301
00:17:49,752 --> 00:17:54,951
Then we sat on a chair about
a foot away from each other,
302
00:17:55,124 --> 00:17:57,650
and just stared at each other like this.
303
00:17:59,096 --> 00:18:03,692
And then he said,
"Gee, I really like your suit".
304
00:18:05,102 --> 00:18:06,659
And that was it.
305
00:18:06,837 --> 00:18:08,895
From that moment, we were talking.
306
00:18:09,072 --> 00:18:12,098
Boy, Leon was really so nice.
307
00:18:12,476 --> 00:18:14,467
From then on, you know,
we were like best friends.
308
00:18:14,644 --> 00:18:17,078
Hello, Danny.
309
00:18:17,447 --> 00:18:19,407
It wasn't even in the script
that they were twins.
310
00:18:19,549 --> 00:18:20,989
I was just looking for someone good.
311
00:18:21,051 --> 00:18:23,815
And the problem with kids
who come to these things,
312
00:18:23,987 --> 00:18:26,648
they go to these children's stage schools.
313
00:18:26,822 --> 00:18:31,851
But they were all infected with having
an inflection in the way they talk.
314
00:18:32,027 --> 00:18:34,553
Was like, "I don't know why you would..."
315
00:18:34,731 --> 00:18:37,358
And you kind of thought, you know..
316
00:18:37,534 --> 00:18:39,254
But I was getting really, really desperate.
317
00:18:39,468 --> 00:18:40,993
And suddenly, on the very last day,
318
00:18:41,171 --> 00:18:44,072
this woman brought
these two girls into the room.
319
00:18:44,441 --> 00:18:45,908
And they were twins.
320
00:18:46,076 --> 00:18:48,135
And the first thing that went
through my head was
321
00:18:48,512 --> 00:18:52,141
Diane Arbus' famous photograph
of these twins who look a bit weird.
322
00:18:52,516 --> 00:18:55,917
So I did about ten takes
of them doing this.
323
00:18:56,086 --> 00:18:58,611
And I went running onto stage.
324
00:18:58,789 --> 00:19:01,552
"I got it, I got it!
It's the Arbus twins!"
325
00:19:01,725 --> 00:19:04,750
He looked at it and said, "Well, there's
no question, is there? That's it".
326
00:19:04,928 --> 00:19:06,555
Come play with us, Danny.
327
00:19:06,730 --> 00:19:08,130
When something like that happens...
328
00:19:09,699 --> 00:19:12,497
- Forever.
- it kind of speaks for itself.
329
00:19:12,669 --> 00:19:16,833
- You don't have to say it.
- And ever, and ever.
330
00:19:19,609 --> 00:19:21,509
I remember Leon and I...
331
00:19:21,678 --> 00:19:23,612
He would say,
"Okay, color. Okay, now stop".
332
00:19:23,780 --> 00:19:25,180
Or.
"Okay, give me the scared look".
333
00:19:25,515 --> 00:19:27,915
So I was able to tune into his voice.
334
00:19:28,084 --> 00:19:29,915
He was my acting coach.
335
00:19:30,087 --> 00:19:33,055
Stanley saw that it worked in that way.
336
00:19:33,223 --> 00:19:36,223
If ever we'd, doing a running shot,
a traveling shot or something like that,
337
00:19:36,526 --> 00:19:39,017
I'd be the one closest to him
behind the camera.
338
00:19:39,196 --> 00:19:40,857
Danny, you gotta listen to Stanley.
339
00:19:41,031 --> 00:19:44,057
So I could tell him to do things
like look around now, or hesitate.
340
00:19:44,234 --> 00:19:45,963
Keep going, come on, scared.
341
00:19:46,136 --> 00:19:47,831
"Look scared".
What about the gun, Danny?
342
00:19:48,005 --> 00:19:50,029
"Look back, look back.
Left, Danny. Turn right".
343
00:19:50,207 --> 00:19:52,447
Leon and I would be working
together and practicing that.
344
00:19:52,576 --> 00:19:54,544
Or maybe we were actually shooting it.
345
00:19:54,711 --> 00:19:55,837
But Leon would play Jack.
346
00:19:56,012 --> 00:19:58,139
Danny!
347
00:19:58,515 --> 00:20:00,995
Yeah, this whole place is such an
enormous maze. I feel like...
348
00:20:01,084 --> 00:20:04,885
And then Stanley wanted me to
work with Shelley, just run dialogue.
349
00:20:05,055 --> 00:20:06,990
And the same with Scatman.
350
00:20:07,157 --> 00:20:09,625
It's big, but it still ain't
nothin' but a kitchen.
351
00:20:09,793 --> 00:20:12,887
Do you remember
the repetitive, the many takes?
352
00:20:13,063 --> 00:20:16,692
Uh, kind of. I think the reason I do is
because there was a bowl of ice cream.
353
00:20:16,867 --> 00:20:19,165
But it was like a few days later
somebody said,
354
00:20:19,536 --> 00:20:21,835
"Oh, we went through
five gallons of chocolate ice cream".
355
00:20:22,005 --> 00:20:24,154
The continuity would be
if you had to stop and start again,
356
00:20:24,174 --> 00:20:25,698
you got a new bowl of ice cream.
357
00:20:25,876 --> 00:20:28,196
And not being able to eat it all,
somethin' to that effect.
358
00:20:28,246 --> 00:20:31,086
You know, a five-year-old's mind was,
"Hey, look at all this ice cream".
359
00:20:31,114 --> 00:20:33,912
That is such a-an iconic character.
360
00:20:34,084 --> 00:20:36,746
So many people strive to get to that level.
361
00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:40,014
The most important thing that I would
wanna say about that is that
362
00:20:40,190 --> 00:20:44,627
I think that's the tribute to the job
Leon did, and the kind of person he is.
363
00:20:44,794 --> 00:20:46,489
Stanley had said from the very beginning,
364
00:20:46,663 --> 00:20:48,823
"Whenever you're not doing
anything specific, you know,
365
00:20:48,965 --> 00:20:52,230
just stick by me, and you can come
into meetings, and things like that,
366
00:20:52,602 --> 00:20:55,762
and just see how things are done and how
they're run and how they're organized".
367
00:20:55,839 --> 00:20:57,603
I worked with John Alcott.
368
00:20:57,775 --> 00:21:01,141
We worked a lot with black-and-white
Polaroids to get contrast and density.
369
00:21:02,046 --> 00:21:03,046
This is another thing.
370
00:21:03,114 --> 00:21:04,842
I was allowed to bring my camera.
371
00:21:05,016 --> 00:21:08,815
And then Stanley keyed me into ASA
speeds, what you could do with them.
372
00:21:08,985 --> 00:21:11,215
Push them, underexpose, overexpose,
373
00:21:11,589 --> 00:21:14,921
all those things that he learned
as a young man, as a photographer.
374
00:21:15,091 --> 00:21:18,527
Also, he'd given me the job of
doing all those location stills
375
00:21:18,696 --> 00:21:20,891
in Chicago and Denver,
and Kansas City, Missouri.
376
00:21:21,065 --> 00:21:24,262
So we went to every hotel
in whatever town we were in
377
00:21:24,634 --> 00:21:28,035
and just photographed every
kind of room that there was.
378
00:21:28,205 --> 00:21:31,002
I went back with about
a hundred rolls of film.
379
00:21:31,174 --> 00:21:34,190
And he said, "I just want you to know,
I think you've done a really great job".
380
00:21:34,210 --> 00:21:36,269
And he just makes you feel so great,
381
00:21:36,647 --> 00:21:39,274
because he's making you feel
like you're a part of it.
382
00:21:39,649 --> 00:21:41,369
Get him in.
That you're part of his process.
383
00:21:41,685 --> 00:21:43,846
That you've been an important
part of his process.
384
00:21:44,021 --> 00:21:47,012
Just get him in!
Let him realize we're out of time!
385
00:21:47,191 --> 00:21:50,558
Every day was full
of a lot of different jobs.
386
00:21:50,728 --> 00:21:52,662
I was in absolute heaven.
387
00:21:54,799 --> 00:21:57,063
Mr. and Mrs. Kiget,
Mr. Kubrick.
388
00:21:57,233 --> 00:21:58,997
- How you doing?
- And Mr. Woodland.
389
00:21:59,170 --> 00:22:01,797
If anybody met Stanley,
390
00:22:01,973 --> 00:22:04,999
maybe talked with him
for ten minutes or 20 minutes,
391
00:22:05,176 --> 00:22:08,339
or maybe worked for him for a year,
or as long as I did,
392
00:22:08,713 --> 00:22:14,583
they're always going to come away thinking,
"I know the real Stanley Kubrick".
393
00:22:14,752 --> 00:22:17,778
He could meet somebody,
shake their hands, and be...
394
00:22:17,955 --> 00:22:20,355
"Hello, I'm Stanley".
395
00:22:20,724 --> 00:22:22,783
And remember, he was a chess player.
396
00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:27,693
I always remember the people who met him for
the first time would always come out saying,
397
00:22:27,864 --> 00:22:31,231
"Aw, gee, he's nothing like
what I've heard about.
398
00:22:31,402 --> 00:22:35,600
He's fantastic. He's so gentle.
He's so this, he's so that".
399
00:22:35,773 --> 00:22:38,799
I mean, he was the same with
me when I first met him.
400
00:22:38,976 --> 00:22:41,240
It was only when we got
into Full Metal Jacket
401
00:22:41,412 --> 00:22:44,677
and the responsibilities
were getting heavier and heavier,
402
00:22:44,848 --> 00:22:46,373
another Stanley came in.
403
00:22:46,751 --> 00:22:49,618
Because it was, like,
POW! POW! POW!-
404
00:22:49,827 --> 00:22:51,424
♪ Kiss, me good-bye ♪
405
00:22:51,756 --> 00:22:58,025
♪ And write me while I'm gone ♪
406
00:22:58,195 --> 00:23:02,291
♪ Good-bye, my sweetheart
Hello, Vietnam ♪
407
00:23:02,667 --> 00:23:05,032
Date, August 19, 1985.
408
00:23:05,202 --> 00:23:07,898
Location, production office.
409
00:23:08,071 --> 00:23:12,099
Stanley invites me to the production office
to show me what goes on behind the scenes.
410
00:23:12,275 --> 00:23:14,767
The first thing that strikes me
is the lack of people.
411
00:23:14,945 --> 00:23:17,072
This place is almost empty.
412
00:23:17,248 --> 00:23:19,647
There's a guy here named Leon Vitali.
413
00:23:19,817 --> 00:23:21,944
I've met him a few times
at Stanley's house.
414
00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:24,110
I think he's Stanley's assistant.
415
00:23:24,288 --> 00:23:26,654
Leon appears to be a jack of all trades.
416
00:23:26,824 --> 00:23:28,314
He makes notes about everything.
417
00:23:28,693 --> 00:23:31,719
Sometimes he writes on his arms.
One thing about Leon..."
418
00:23:31,896 --> 00:23:33,244
When I was working on Full Metal Jacket,
419
00:23:33,264 --> 00:23:36,028
I thought of Leon as kind
of an Igor character
420
00:23:36,200 --> 00:23:37,861
from, uh, Frankenstein, you know?
421
00:23:38,035 --> 00:23:42,404
"Yes, Master". That he was... That he
was just a slave to Stanley Kubrick.
422
00:23:42,773 --> 00:23:45,674
You kind of had to be everywhere at once.
423
00:23:45,843 --> 00:23:49,074
It was just one of those things
where Stanley kind of utilized me
424
00:23:49,245 --> 00:23:52,704
in any way that he thought
would be effective and would work.
425
00:23:52,883 --> 00:23:57,217
It was the first time that Stanley had
given me responsibility of casting.
426
00:23:57,388 --> 00:23:59,856
There were thousands
and thousands and thousands
427
00:24:00,024 --> 00:24:02,254
and thousands of tapes that were sent over.
428
00:24:02,426 --> 00:24:05,020
And it was just so much to do, you know?
429
00:24:05,196 --> 00:24:08,688
I agreed to be Stanley's technical adviser
430
00:24:08,866 --> 00:24:14,202
simply so I could get my foot in the
damn door and audition for Stanley.
431
00:24:14,371 --> 00:24:17,465
I wanted to be Gunnery Sergeant
Hartman, no question about it.
432
00:24:17,842 --> 00:24:21,437
I couldn't imagine anybody that could
do it any better than I could.
433
00:24:21,812 --> 00:24:23,532
He looked me straight in the eyes and said,
434
00:24:23,748 --> 00:24:26,808
"Not a chance. I already have
a contracted actor".
435
00:24:26,984 --> 00:24:30,385
Well, it's... The Marine Corps never
did teach me to lose gracefully.
436
00:24:30,755 --> 00:24:33,280
Good afternoon, sir. My name's
Tim Colceri. I'm 32 years old...
437
00:24:33,457 --> 00:24:34,897
I get a phone call from Warner Bros.
438
00:24:34,959 --> 00:24:36,073
"Uh, hello, Tim?"
"Yes, sir?".
439
00:24:36,093 --> 00:24:37,475
"Come on down and sign your contract".
440
00:24:37,495 --> 00:24:39,759
I think you have
the finest role in the film.
441
00:24:39,931 --> 00:24:42,956
And he reached under his desk, and he
pulled out the Full Metal Jacket...
442
00:24:43,135 --> 00:24:45,262
He said, "You play the role
of the drill instructor".
443
00:24:45,436 --> 00:24:48,338
I was looking for extras for the platoon.
444
00:24:48,506 --> 00:24:52,272
So I went to Army regiments and
just said, we're making a film.
445
00:24:52,443 --> 00:24:54,934
We'd like to know if anyone
would be interested,
446
00:24:55,112 --> 00:24:59,412
and it occurred to me, Lee Ermey, he
used to dress in his drill instructor gear.
447
00:24:59,784 --> 00:25:02,514
I thought, well, why don't we do it
sort of the way he used to do it?
448
00:25:02,887 --> 00:25:06,084
Just stand 'em up.
You give 'em their induction.
449
00:25:06,258 --> 00:25:09,021
So we did that.
And I was videotaping it.
450
00:25:09,193 --> 00:25:12,287
So, and I'm thinking
Stanley Kubrick's gotta see this.
451
00:25:12,463 --> 00:25:14,762
And then I had a little talk
with these people
452
00:25:14,932 --> 00:25:19,926
and let 'em know that I might say a few
unsavory things about their mothers and fathers,
453
00:25:20,105 --> 00:25:21,833
their immediate family.
454
00:25:22,006 --> 00:25:24,133
And that they should not take a shot at me,
455
00:25:24,309 --> 00:25:27,300
because if they hit me,
I would for sure not hire them.
456
00:25:31,550 --> 00:25:33,517
Uh, what a dirtbag they looked like.
457
00:25:33,885 --> 00:25:35,146
"What's your name, scumbag?"
458
00:25:35,319 --> 00:25:37,117
I had a couple of 'em suckin' their thumbs.
459
00:25:37,288 --> 00:25:42,555
Then I noticed this, that,
uh, Leon was subtly...
460
00:25:42,927 --> 00:25:46,329
He would tape them.
Then he would come to me.
461
00:25:46,498 --> 00:25:49,159
So I says yep, it's workin'.
462
00:25:51,535 --> 00:25:55,471
I ended up having to rehearse
all this dialogue with Leon.
463
00:25:55,841 --> 00:25:58,502
And Lee Ermey is out with the troops,
marching them around.
464
00:25:58,876 --> 00:26:00,468
And I started doin' that dialogue.
465
00:26:00,845 --> 00:26:03,885
"If you have a mole, a bump, a scar,
anything else protruding from your head,
466
00:26:03,981 --> 00:26:06,916
and by protruding, I mean anything
else sticking up outta your head,
467
00:26:07,084 --> 00:26:08,814
the minute you sit in that chair, the..."
468
00:26:08,986 --> 00:26:11,956
He goes, "Stop". I go,
"What? It's goin' pretty good".
469
00:26:12,122 --> 00:26:15,580
"It's the minute you sit down in
that chair".And I went...
470
00:26:17,428 --> 00:26:20,522
I knew that Leon
would send the tape to Stanley.
471
00:26:20,898 --> 00:26:25,232
Stanley would see the tape that night,
and tomorrow I would have the job.
472
00:26:25,403 --> 00:26:27,530
- Plain and simple.
- You knew that?
473
00:26:27,905 --> 00:26:30,898
In my mind, I knew that, yes.
474
00:26:31,076 --> 00:26:34,045
I took the tapes to Stanley.
I said, "You gotta see this".
475
00:26:34,212 --> 00:26:37,172
He couldn't help laughing. I mean,
he was falling about all over the place.
476
00:26:37,282 --> 00:26:41,616
I pretty much was-was counting on
being called to the production office
477
00:26:41,986 --> 00:26:44,147
first thing the next morning, and I was.
478
00:26:44,322 --> 00:26:50,487
The hardest thing I think I actually had to
do on that film was go to this guy's house
479
00:26:50,662 --> 00:26:53,357
and give him a letter
that Stanley had written saying,
480
00:26:53,530 --> 00:26:55,931
"I'm really sorry to tell you but..."
481
00:26:56,101 --> 00:26:59,628
"After painful deliberation, I've decided to
use Lee Ermey to play Sergeant Hartman.
482
00:27:00,004 --> 00:27:02,320
I'd like you to stay on and
play the helicopter door gunner,
483
00:27:02,340 --> 00:27:04,500
which is a very powerful role
in a very powerful scene.
484
00:27:04,542 --> 00:27:07,408
Sincerely, Stanley Kubrick".
485
00:27:07,579 --> 00:27:10,547
Well, it crushed me. And I didn't
want to be around people.
486
00:27:10,916 --> 00:27:12,542
So I could see that they...
they were...
487
00:27:12,918 --> 00:27:15,386
Everything became like a blur to me.
488
00:27:15,552 --> 00:27:17,111
The TV was kinda blurry.
489
00:27:17,289 --> 00:27:20,417
And I was angry, because I had that
role for eight months,
490
00:27:20,592 --> 00:27:23,082
that he couldn't come to me as a man
and talk to me about it.
491
00:27:23,261 --> 00:27:24,922
He sent Leon with a letter.
492
00:27:25,095 --> 00:27:27,575
The caliber of actors who would
probably sell their own mothers
493
00:27:27,599 --> 00:27:30,067
just to have the chance
at working with Stanley.
494
00:27:30,235 --> 00:27:34,069
And you think you've got it,
and then it, suddenly it's gone.
495
00:27:34,239 --> 00:27:36,036
It was not an easy thing to sit through.
496
00:27:36,207 --> 00:27:38,300
My heart bled for him.
It really did.
497
00:27:38,476 --> 00:27:41,502
"As Stanley's assistant,
Leon is prepared to go for
498
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:43,477
and answer everything that might come up.
499
00:27:43,648 --> 00:27:46,014
It's a huge undertaking.
500
00:27:46,183 --> 00:27:52,054
Leon's face is a testament to that undertaking,
a road map of sleeplessness and concern.
501
00:27:52,223 --> 00:27:54,453
I love Leon, but he makes me sad.
502
00:27:54,626 --> 00:27:58,357
I want to help him, but I don't
know how He's chosen his path".
503
00:27:58,530 --> 00:28:00,498
I was suspicious of Leon
504
00:28:00,665 --> 00:28:03,463
when he would come to me and say that
he wanted to work on my lines.
505
00:28:03,635 --> 00:28:06,502
Because I knew that he was that guy
that was back there in the shadows
506
00:28:06,671 --> 00:28:07,791
who was speaking to Stanley.
507
00:28:08,073 --> 00:28:09,267
And I thought maybe...
508
00:28:09,441 --> 00:28:11,306
I think the other actors
working on the film
509
00:28:11,476 --> 00:28:14,968
thought that Leon might
have been some kind of spy
510
00:28:15,146 --> 00:28:19,515
that was going to see if somebody was smoking
pot or somebody was doing drugs.
511
00:28:19,684 --> 00:28:22,585
And so everybody was kind of
a little bit suspicious of Leon.
512
00:28:22,754 --> 00:28:28,249
When, in fact, all Leon wanted to do was make
sure that people were truly, deeply prepared.
513
00:28:28,426 --> 00:28:30,291
Everybody was on edge.
514
00:28:30,462 --> 00:28:33,363
I realized was that each day
that went past,
515
00:28:33,531 --> 00:28:38,628
I could see and feel Stanley getting more
and more sort of tense and nervous.
516
00:28:39,004 --> 00:28:42,030
We had a-an art director
who had a-a nervous breakdown,
517
00:28:42,207 --> 00:28:44,334
simply because of the work
that had to be done.
518
00:28:44,509 --> 00:28:47,444
I mean, Beckton had to be demolished
and then kind of built again.
519
00:28:47,612 --> 00:28:50,206
Stanley assigned Leon to me.
520
00:28:50,382 --> 00:28:53,146
I was Leon's project.
521
00:28:53,318 --> 00:28:54,638
You think you're Mickey Spillane?
522
00:28:54,786 --> 00:28:57,220
That's right.
You think you're Mickey Spillane.
523
00:28:57,389 --> 00:29:00,688
There's all the hours and hours and
hours of these auditions and these tapes.
524
00:29:01,059 --> 00:29:02,583
We had them transcribed.
525
00:29:02,761 --> 00:29:08,063
And we actually stitched together
Lee's role from about 800 pages.
526
00:29:08,233 --> 00:29:11,259
Fucking— That's fucking God awful.
527
00:29:11,436 --> 00:29:13,267
I know how hard he worked with Lee Ermey.
528
00:29:13,438 --> 00:29:16,498
Because Lee's dressing room was
next door to my dressing room.
529
00:29:16,674 --> 00:29:19,142
And I—And I heard them playing
catch with a ball.
530
00:29:19,310 --> 00:29:21,574
One day, I pissed off Leon.
531
00:29:21,746 --> 00:29:23,442
And there was a bowl of fruit.
532
00:29:23,615 --> 00:29:26,585
He reached over, he picked up an
orange, and he threw it at me.
533
00:29:26,751 --> 00:29:28,412
I caught it.
534
00:29:28,586 --> 00:29:30,383
And I threw it back.
535
00:29:30,555 --> 00:29:36,255
And as we were tossing that orange back
and forth, I started doing dialogue.
536
00:29:36,428 --> 00:29:39,363
It didn't matter to him
how often we went through stuff,
537
00:29:39,531 --> 00:29:41,260
how much we went through stuff.
538
00:29:41,434 --> 00:29:44,562
I'd have him lying on his back on
the floor with his eyes closed.
539
00:29:44,736 --> 00:29:46,328
Just say the dialogue.
540
00:29:46,504 --> 00:29:49,132
And then speed it up,
and speed it up, and speed it up.
541
00:29:49,307 --> 00:29:51,502
So he was just saying it fast,
fast, fast, fast, fast.
542
00:29:51,676 --> 00:29:53,803
Sir, no sir!
Are you a peter pumper?
543
00:29:54,179 --> 00:29:55,646
Sir, no, sir!
544
00:29:55,814 --> 00:29:58,430
I'll bet you're the kind of guy
that would fuck a person in the ass
545
00:29:58,450 --> 00:30:01,477
and not even have the goddamn common
courtesy to give him a reach around.
546
00:30:01,653 --> 00:30:04,646
Leon Vitali, I...
547
00:30:04,823 --> 00:30:09,726
He would drop me off in the evening, and
then he would pick me up in the morning.
548
00:30:10,095 --> 00:30:11,494
When I was there, he was there.
549
00:30:11,663 --> 00:30:15,827
And I spent, anywhere, 14 to 20
hours a day, seven days a week.
550
00:30:16,202 --> 00:30:19,330
It was amazing. He never slept.
Stanley drove him.
551
00:30:19,505 --> 00:30:22,302
If it wasn't for Leon Vitali,
552
00:30:22,475 --> 00:30:26,342
I doubt I would have done half the job
553
00:30:26,511 --> 00:30:29,708
that I ended up doing in Full Metal Jacket.
554
00:30:31,382 --> 00:30:33,748
Now, you listen to me, Private Pyle,
555
00:30:35,254 --> 00:30:36,845
and you listen good.
556
00:30:38,491 --> 00:30:42,187
I want that weapon.
And I want it now!
557
00:30:43,895 --> 00:30:47,194
You will place that rifle
on the deck at your feet...
558
00:30:48,533 --> 00:30:50,262
and step back away from it.
559
00:30:56,841 --> 00:30:58,206
Ahh.
560
00:30:58,377 --> 00:31:02,278
What is your major malfunction, numb nuts?
561
00:31:02,448 --> 00:31:04,368
Didn't Mommy and Daddy
show you enough attention?
562
00:31:04,516 --> 00:31:07,111
And that is the one
that opened all the doors.
563
00:31:07,285 --> 00:31:10,187
So... I haven't stopped workin'
ever since.
564
00:31:10,355 --> 00:31:12,482
It's been a great life.
565
00:31:12,657 --> 00:31:13,817
They're done with the movie.
566
00:31:14,193 --> 00:31:16,888
The movie's finished, shot, done.
567
00:31:17,263 --> 00:31:19,595
And they decide to put
the door gunner role back in.
568
00:31:21,901 --> 00:31:25,701
- Action.
- Then as we went through it, what you noticed was that,
569
00:31:25,871 --> 00:31:28,737
little by little, he was beginning
to find nuances.
570
00:31:28,908 --> 00:31:32,275
- Any women and children?
- Sometimes!
571
00:31:32,444 --> 00:31:35,413
It really was a wonderful kind of process
572
00:31:35,581 --> 00:31:39,642
of watching somebody get an
understanding about something.
573
00:31:39,818 --> 00:31:43,754
And then we actually went to the place
to shoot it, we went up in a helicopter.
574
00:31:43,923 --> 00:31:45,617
And I took a video camera with me.
575
00:31:45,791 --> 00:31:48,851
And we rehearsed it. Because Stanley,
of course, he wasn't going to fly.
576
00:31:49,228 --> 00:31:53,688
And then Stanley arrived about noon, and we'd
been doing this for about two or three hours.
577
00:31:53,865 --> 00:31:55,924
And then they set up the thing
in the outhouse.
578
00:31:56,302 --> 00:31:58,736
And he went, "This angle's still off.
Good, Tim".
579
00:31:58,904 --> 00:32:01,371
- Get some! Get some!
- "Do it 13 more times just like that".
580
00:32:01,540 --> 00:32:03,940
Get some, get some, come on!
Get it, come on!
581
00:32:04,309 --> 00:32:06,436
Get some, get some!
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
582
00:32:06,611 --> 00:32:07,943
I got you mother...
583
00:32:10,282 --> 00:32:13,615
And he just became a little
bit calmer, but more terrifying for it.
584
00:32:13,786 --> 00:32:17,483
Anyone who runs is a VC.
585
00:32:17,656 --> 00:32:20,249
Anyone who stands still
586
00:32:20,426 --> 00:32:24,192
is a well-disciplined VC.
587
00:32:24,363 --> 00:32:26,763
♪ Ho Chi Minh
Is a son of a bitch ♪
588
00:32:26,966 --> 00:32:28,762
Stanley came in to me and he said,
589
00:32:28,934 --> 00:32:30,867
"You gotta do the foots and Foley".
590
00:32:31,237 --> 00:32:33,652
"What do you mean?" He says,
"That's where you do all the footsteps,
591
00:32:33,672 --> 00:32:36,436
and you do all the sound effects,
and you do all this, and all that".
592
00:32:36,609 --> 00:32:39,874
And I said, "I don't know if I can do that".
And he said, "Sure, you can".
593
00:32:40,245 --> 00:32:43,841
And that's how he always
started me off on a new task.
594
00:32:44,016 --> 00:32:46,484
If I ever said, "I don't know
how to do layouts".
595
00:32:46,651 --> 00:32:47,651
"Sure, you do".
596
00:32:47,820 --> 00:32:50,448
- Okay.
4 am the Foley man.
597
00:32:50,623 --> 00:32:54,559
Eddie Tise, who was
our sound recordist, and I,
598
00:32:54,727 --> 00:32:58,527
just the two of us, we did all the
footsteps and clothes rustle,
599
00:32:58,697 --> 00:33:00,756
and gear rattle, and everything.
600
00:33:00,933 --> 00:33:04,460
Every bit of sound, including the hooker.
601
00:33:06,272 --> 00:33:08,865
♪ Somethin' you call love
But confess- ♪
602
00:33:09,041 --> 00:33:11,771
Could you, after
Full Metal Jacket, do what Leon did
603
00:33:11,944 --> 00:33:15,311
and actually switch gears, knowing
what you know about Stanley?
604
00:33:17,516 --> 00:33:20,610
Um... no.
605
00:33:20,786 --> 00:33:24,654
I think I could not have, uh, after
Full Metal Jacket said, "You know what?
606
00:33:24,823 --> 00:33:27,291
I'm gonna go to work for Stanley".
I'm too selfish.
607
00:33:27,459 --> 00:33:30,428
What Leon did was a selfless act,
608
00:33:30,596 --> 00:33:33,030
a kind of crucifixion of himself.
609
00:33:33,399 --> 00:33:36,960
I couldn't imagine doing it
myself. I guess I'm too selfish.
610
00:33:37,336 --> 00:33:42,330
Leon was compelled to dedicate his entire
life, 30 years, he spent with Stanley Kubrick.
611
00:33:42,508 --> 00:33:44,305
Leon did for Stanley
612
00:33:44,476 --> 00:33:46,725
what half a dozen executive producers
and associate producers
613
00:33:46,745 --> 00:33:48,474
and production managers and...
614
00:33:48,647 --> 00:33:52,048
and drivers and tailors...
615
00:33:52,418 --> 00:33:54,909
do on other movies for directors.
616
00:33:55,087 --> 00:33:59,491
It was a real roller-coaster
ride even through a single day.
617
00:33:59,658 --> 00:34:02,456
And of course,
the days were very, very long.
618
00:34:02,628 --> 00:34:05,597
And when you turned in through the gates,
619
00:34:05,764 --> 00:34:09,064
these huge wrought-iron gates
which would never close normally.
620
00:34:09,435 --> 00:34:10,835
They wouldn't... Just never closed.
621
00:34:10,903 --> 00:34:15,897
You'd kind of mentally hear this bang,
you know.
622
00:34:16,075 --> 00:34:19,704
They were closing behind you.
You hear... I mean, I did. I did.
623
00:34:19,878 --> 00:34:22,472
Fact of the matter was, "This is it".
624
00:34:22,648 --> 00:34:25,617
There will be no "you"
625
00:34:25,784 --> 00:34:29,914
until you start driving
out of here at some point.
626
00:34:30,090 --> 00:34:33,684
The phone calls you had to make early
in the morning with the laboratory,
627
00:34:33,859 --> 00:34:35,588
or Warner's in London.
628
00:34:35,761 --> 00:34:39,562
'Cause what you know is, you're gonna
be chasing for the rest of the day.
629
00:34:39,733 --> 00:34:46,331
The thing was, when I say I worked 14, 15,
16-hour days, that was at the place.
630
00:34:46,505 --> 00:34:49,497
That was at Stanley's place,
the place where we worked.
631
00:34:49,675 --> 00:34:53,008
But when I got home,
it was all telephone work.
632
00:34:53,380 --> 00:34:55,439
Was there a big staff on the estate?
633
00:34:55,615 --> 00:34:59,574
No, there was me that worked,
dealt with all the film, video, TV...
634
00:35:00,720 --> 00:35:02,813
lab work and all that stuff.
635
00:35:02,989 --> 00:35:04,649
You know, to do with his movies.
636
00:35:04,824 --> 00:35:07,758
And then there was Tony Frewin,
who looked after the estate,
637
00:35:07,926 --> 00:35:10,918
a go-between writers,
between them and Stanley.
638
00:35:11,096 --> 00:35:14,589
And then it was Jan who looked
after Stanley's interests
639
00:35:14,767 --> 00:35:17,895
and legal interests, and that was it.
640
00:35:18,070 --> 00:35:20,129
But you handled Stanley creatively?
641
00:35:20,506 --> 00:35:23,101
- No, I never handled Stanley.
- Really? Okay.
642
00:35:23,475 --> 00:35:25,457
- Never "handled" Stanley.
- Well, reword it for me.
643
00:35:25,477 --> 00:35:27,502
I handled myself
644
00:35:27,679 --> 00:35:32,946
so I could exist in Stanley's world.
645
00:35:33,118 --> 00:35:35,781
You know, you're there till
3:00 in the morning.
646
00:35:35,954 --> 00:35:37,752
You're just writing these notes.
647
00:35:37,924 --> 00:35:40,118
And that's how I learned so much
about color timing.
648
00:35:40,492 --> 00:35:43,689
Because I was with him doing it
for all those years.
649
00:35:43,863 --> 00:35:44,863
It was years.
650
00:35:44,898 --> 00:35:46,126
Most of his grading,
651
00:35:46,498 --> 00:35:49,400
he'd-he'd stop and start
on-on the Steenbeck.
652
00:35:49,569 --> 00:35:51,092
He'd come in about 11:00.
653
00:35:51,471 --> 00:35:53,836
And Leon would be there.
654
00:35:54,006 --> 00:35:56,737
So it was very much a family thing.
655
00:35:56,910 --> 00:36:01,006
This is, uh, Stanley's notes,
the maestro's writing.
656
00:36:01,181 --> 00:36:04,616
All bloody night doing this. "Very
unnatural color. Ryan's hair is not orange".
657
00:36:04,783 --> 00:36:06,512
Fifteen pages of this stuff.
658
00:36:06,685 --> 00:36:08,676
I'm sure their hearts sank
659
00:36:08,854 --> 00:36:11,756
when they did come in in the morning
and find this waiting for them.
660
00:36:11,924 --> 00:36:15,759
Warner Bros. went through a time where
every fax they sent you had that.
661
00:36:17,030 --> 00:36:19,520
You actually started to hate Bugs Bunny.
662
00:36:19,699 --> 00:36:21,189
You really did.
663
00:36:21,567 --> 00:36:25,765
You thought, "Oh, this is another
bad news fax coming through".
664
00:36:25,938 --> 00:36:30,535
This was, uh, 2001, the video, VHS,
with the notes that I gave them.
665
00:36:30,710 --> 00:36:33,611
They hadn't followed my layout.
I mean, not to the millimeter.
666
00:36:33,780 --> 00:36:35,509
So I had to give them these notes.
667
00:36:35,682 --> 00:36:37,478
I did this one.
There it is.
668
00:36:37,650 --> 00:36:41,211
And then you open it up,
and then you had a little booklet.
669
00:36:41,587 --> 00:36:43,988
Everything had to be to the millimeter.
670
00:36:44,157 --> 00:36:45,851
We even got Stanley to sign.
671
00:36:46,025 --> 00:36:47,992
I was using a color copier.
672
00:36:48,161 --> 00:36:51,597
Do you know how slow
those things were? It drove you nuts.
673
00:36:51,764 --> 00:36:55,791
It drove you nuts because
Stanley wanted everything now
674
00:36:55,969 --> 00:37:01,600
This was all pre-production on, um,
Wartime Lies, a.k.a. Aryan Papers.
675
00:37:01,773 --> 00:37:04,572
Hand weapons list, small arms, artillery.
676
00:37:04,743 --> 00:37:05,903
Inventory.
677
00:37:06,079 --> 00:37:08,513
Do you know, for every one
of Stanley's films,
678
00:37:08,681 --> 00:37:11,707
there were, like, 25 protection tracks,
679
00:37:11,885 --> 00:37:14,513
for every single original negative.
680
00:37:14,687 --> 00:37:17,212
There were dozens, and dozens,
and dozens, and dozens.
681
00:37:17,589 --> 00:37:21,526
The original negative of Dr. Strangelove
disappeared off planet Earth.
682
00:37:21,693 --> 00:37:24,026
And the only bit of
original negative you'll see
683
00:37:24,197 --> 00:37:28,258
is just one little short when Mandrake
has discovered a working radio
684
00:37:28,635 --> 00:37:32,036
that tells him that
there is not a nuclear alert.
685
00:37:32,204 --> 00:37:36,938
And so for ten years,
I was searching for that one.
686
00:37:37,110 --> 00:37:43,015
That's why we kept a track of every
reel of all of Stanley's movies.
687
00:37:43,182 --> 00:37:49,087
And if we could grab 'em and store them
and archive them ourselves, we did.
688
00:37:49,255 --> 00:37:50,654
That was a full-time job itself?
689
00:37:50,823 --> 00:37:52,654
Well, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
690
00:37:52,825 --> 00:37:55,293
Funnily enough, everything you ever
did was a full-time job.
691
00:37:59,132 --> 00:38:04,001
Leon put together, put together quite
literally different trailers
692
00:38:04,170 --> 00:38:05,660
for every country in the world.
693
00:38:05,838 --> 00:38:06,964
They were printed here.
694
00:38:07,140 --> 00:38:10,109
Stanley Kubrick...
695
00:38:10,275 --> 00:38:11,903
They were checked by Leon.
696
00:38:12,078 --> 00:38:13,773
Heil!
697
00:38:13,947 --> 00:38:15,187
And they were then shipped out.
698
00:38:16,282 --> 00:38:17,642
He helped small production houses.
699
00:38:17,784 --> 00:38:19,251
He delivered the ads if we needed.
700
00:38:19,619 --> 00:38:24,852
All the minutiae that drove Leon
into, you know, catatonic foam,
701
00:38:25,024 --> 00:38:27,788
foaming at the mouth hysteria
702
00:38:27,961 --> 00:38:30,862
were the things that
other people in our company,
703
00:38:31,030 --> 00:38:33,828
and certainly in the other film
companies, hadn't thought about.
704
00:38:34,734 --> 00:38:36,133
Didn't think about.
705
00:38:36,302 --> 00:38:41,103
When it came to release
the Full Metal Jacket in the UK,
706
00:38:41,274 --> 00:38:44,732
Stanley intuitively
707
00:38:44,911 --> 00:38:50,076
came to distrust the managing director
of Warner Home Video in the UK,
708
00:38:50,249 --> 00:38:55,277
going as far as to send people
across England,
709
00:38:55,656 --> 00:39:00,718
take photographs of the in-store
displays and the store windows.
710
00:39:00,894 --> 00:39:04,590
I went up around all these
stores, and I took photographs.
711
00:39:04,764 --> 00:39:06,789
When I told Stanley
712
00:39:06,966 --> 00:39:12,734
"There's not a single bit of advertising
in Warner Home Video's own building,"
713
00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:16,600
you know, he just went fucking berserk.
714
00:39:16,777 --> 00:39:21,770
I felt incredibly, um,
responsible for this.
715
00:39:21,949 --> 00:39:26,009
Ultimately, we remedied the shortcomings.
716
00:39:26,186 --> 00:39:31,316
His attention to perfection
could periodically be maddening.
717
00:39:31,692 --> 00:39:34,661
Well, the reality, these were his works,
718
00:39:34,828 --> 00:39:37,125
and he brought the passion
719
00:39:37,296 --> 00:39:41,892
of an artist who wanted
the audience to see the movies
720
00:39:42,069 --> 00:39:44,333
in the highest-quality form
721
00:39:44,704 --> 00:39:47,367
and to have them marketed properly.
722
00:39:47,740 --> 00:39:51,073
What Leon provided was that link
723
00:39:51,244 --> 00:39:55,773
between Stanley and this great
behemoth that was Warner Bros.
724
00:39:55,949 --> 00:39:58,850
Huge, huge, powerful corporation,
725
00:39:59,019 --> 00:40:00,781
rather like a dinosaur.
726
00:40:00,954 --> 00:40:05,323
Wonderful mass, power body,
and a tiny little brain pan.
727
00:40:05,692 --> 00:40:08,662
And what Stanley was doing,
and it went through Leon...
728
00:40:10,196 --> 00:40:12,688
was getting them to change things
ever so slightly.
729
00:40:12,866 --> 00:40:16,426
I-I never heard a word said other than,
"Leon needs it. Let's get it done".
730
00:40:16,804 --> 00:40:18,703
If anything ever went wrong, he said,
731
00:40:18,872 --> 00:40:24,036
"It is your responsibility to make sure
they understand exactly what you want".
732
00:40:24,211 --> 00:40:29,273
And that could take two, three,
four, five, six tries to get it right.
733
00:40:29,450 --> 00:40:33,215
If I felt like I wasn't getting
any response,
734
00:40:33,386 --> 00:40:37,949
or people were kind of, uh,
for want of a better phrase,
735
00:40:38,125 --> 00:40:39,353
dicking me around, you know,
736
00:40:39,726 --> 00:40:41,926
saying they're gonna
send something, it never gets sent.
737
00:40:42,062 --> 00:40:43,688
You gotta chase 'em up and chase 'em up.
738
00:40:43,863 --> 00:40:48,266
He'd say, "Okay, Leon, tonight you get
on the phone and you say to them,
739
00:40:48,435 --> 00:40:52,427
if they're talking like that to you,
they're talking like that to me".
740
00:40:52,806 --> 00:40:55,240
It really felt like there was a
kind of a loyalty there.
741
00:40:56,776 --> 00:40:59,177
So sometimes, I'd get into my office
742
00:40:59,346 --> 00:41:02,406
and there'd be a fax
on my desk from Stanley
743
00:41:02,782 --> 00:41:06,879
to somebody about some heinous crime
that they'd committed.
744
00:41:07,053 --> 00:41:12,754
Except it didn't come from Stanley.
He'd typed my name under it.
745
00:41:12,926 --> 00:41:15,895
Where I never knew what it was
I was saying to anybody,
746
00:41:16,063 --> 00:41:18,463
because Stanley was saying it for me,
747
00:41:18,831 --> 00:41:21,426
using me as a substitute for him.
748
00:41:21,801 --> 00:41:27,205
I never met, with maybe two exceptions,
anybody from the offices here in LA,
749
00:41:27,374 --> 00:41:29,136
even when he came over to England.
750
00:41:29,308 --> 00:41:31,333
Stanley would stick me in a back room.
751
00:41:31,511 --> 00:41:34,208
I think what it was,
in a way, this, you know,
752
00:41:34,381 --> 00:41:36,396
Stanley didn't want them
to see what I looked like.
753
00:41:36,416 --> 00:41:36,779
Stanley didn't want them
to see what I looked like.
754
00:41:36,950 --> 00:41:39,466
Being his, for want of a better word,
spokesman, when I would say,
755
00:41:39,486 --> 00:41:41,043
"We need to do this.
You gotta do that.
756
00:41:41,221 --> 00:41:42,745
You gotta do this.
You gotta do that".
757
00:41:42,922 --> 00:41:44,754
They probably heard my voice on the phone
758
00:41:44,925 --> 00:41:47,951
and thought I wore
a three-piece suit, six feet tall
759
00:41:48,128 --> 00:41:49,368
and I had tremendous authority.
760
00:41:49,496 --> 00:41:50,986
The assumption that people think,
761
00:41:51,165 --> 00:41:54,225
"Oh, somebody's an assistant for
someone, you're doing layouts".
762
00:41:54,401 --> 00:41:56,961
- Mm-hmm.
- "You're, you know, you're working with labs.
763
00:41:57,137 --> 00:41:58,897
- You're working with restoration".
- Mm-hmm.
764
00:41:59,039 --> 00:42:02,133
You're, uh, casting people.
You're working with the actors.
765
00:42:02,309 --> 00:42:04,173
And sometimes I'm acting.
766
00:42:04,344 --> 00:42:06,243
Was that the title you were happy with?
767
00:42:06,413 --> 00:42:08,128
-Or was that... You never—
-Didn't make any difference.
768
00:42:08,148 --> 00:42:09,945
You know something?
When I traveled abroad,
769
00:42:10,117 --> 00:42:12,813
and I used to have to fill in these visas.
770
00:42:12,986 --> 00:42:14,283
They used to say, "Occupation".
771
00:42:14,454 --> 00:42:16,354
And I always used to write "filmworker".
772
00:42:16,523 --> 00:42:18,491
I mean, I'm a filmworker.
773
00:42:18,858 --> 00:42:21,019
I'm a worker.
That's what I do.
774
00:42:21,195 --> 00:42:27,930
So assistant, to me, is nothing other
than I am assisting somebody
775
00:42:28,101 --> 00:42:33,869
to fulfill what it is
they want to get up on a screen.
776
00:42:34,041 --> 00:42:36,202
I was dialogue coaching and casting.
777
00:42:36,376 --> 00:42:38,810
I was also in charge of shipping.
Television. Sales.
778
00:42:38,978 --> 00:42:40,879
This was all about licensing.
Doing layout.
779
00:42:41,048 --> 00:42:43,539
Video transfers. DVDs.
Laser discs. Inventory.
780
00:42:43,917 --> 00:42:45,908
Timing sheets.
Checking of all these prints.
781
00:42:46,086 --> 00:42:49,078
The trailer. Translations.
All of that work on the timing.
782
00:42:49,256 --> 00:42:52,225
There wasn't a print or a
telecine I hadn't sat with Stanley,
783
00:42:52,392 --> 00:42:55,953
made the changes and then talked to the
lab about it afterward, for all his movies.
784
00:42:56,129 --> 00:42:58,927
At first, you're like, "Oh!
785
00:42:59,099 --> 00:43:00,430
My God, Stanley Kubrick".
786
00:43:00,601 --> 00:43:03,866
And then you're like, "Fuckin' hell, man".
787
00:43:04,037 --> 00:43:06,164
'Cause you're pushed to a point
where you're like,
788
00:43:06,340 --> 00:43:07,898
"I have no more".
789
00:43:08,075 --> 00:43:10,566
You have to understand Stanley Kubrick
790
00:43:10,944 --> 00:43:12,664
before you could even
begin to understand...
791
00:43:13,580 --> 00:43:17,949
what Leon V-Vitali did, does, went through,
792
00:43:18,118 --> 00:43:20,951
what's imprinted on his soul and mind.
793
00:43:21,121 --> 00:43:25,319
It's only when you understand
that this remarkable man, a genius,
794
00:43:25,492 --> 00:43:30,225
a nightmare, warm, caring, distant, cold,
795
00:43:30,397 --> 00:43:35,266
expansive, funny, hugely intelligent,
totally driven man
796
00:43:35,435 --> 00:43:37,596
would do to make his movies.
797
00:43:37,971 --> 00:43:42,341
Stanley's extraordinary
attention to the tiniest detail
798
00:43:42,509 --> 00:43:44,306
drove a lot of people away from him.
799
00:43:44,479 --> 00:43:46,969
The production designer on Barry Lyndon
800
00:43:47,147 --> 00:43:50,514
actually got taken off
by men in white coats
801
00:43:50,685 --> 00:43:52,618
because he couldn't stand the pressure.
802
00:43:52,986 --> 00:43:55,887
He could be as charming as charming to you.
803
00:43:56,057 --> 00:43:58,338
You know, where you think,
"Boy, I'm on top of the world".
804
00:43:58,492 --> 00:44:02,223
He's just patted me on the back and
been very pleased about something.
805
00:44:02,397 --> 00:44:05,888
And then the next thing, you can be
shit on from a great height.
806
00:44:06,066 --> 00:44:09,263
I was always scared of him,
to be honest. I really was, you know
807
00:44:09,436 --> 00:44:11,495
Because it was really cold.
808
00:44:11,672 --> 00:44:14,163
It was like talking to God, pretty much.
809
00:44:14,341 --> 00:44:18,437
But living in that environment, and working in
that environment, you know, which was so intense.
810
00:44:18,612 --> 00:44:22,413
And the intensity of Stanley
is-is well-documented.
811
00:44:22,583 --> 00:44:26,450
So Leon was as close as anybody
was likely to get to that.
812
00:44:26,621 --> 00:44:31,319
If Leon would do one thing
that wasn't correct, or what...
813
00:44:31,491 --> 00:44:34,517
Nobody can do everything correctly.
I'm sorry.
814
00:44:34,695 --> 00:44:36,244
Especially when you're working
with Stanley,
815
00:44:36,264 --> 00:44:40,165
because there's... it's so much detail
and so much stuff.
816
00:44:40,335 --> 00:44:44,533
It was his nature to always think that you
didn't care, or you were gonna mess up,
817
00:44:44,706 --> 00:44:47,230
that people weren't gonna be
as invested as he is.
818
00:44:47,407 --> 00:44:50,535
He was always waiting
for you to fuck up, in a way.
819
00:44:50,711 --> 00:44:55,580
So it was always like as much as you
gave, that it was like "Give more".
820
00:44:55,749 --> 00:44:58,684
And you had to give more,
and more, and more, and more.
821
00:44:59,052 --> 00:45:00,679
And that's why Leon got eaten up.
822
00:45:01,054 --> 00:45:05,651
I think we have these ideas about what
it would be like to spend all of your time
823
00:45:06,026 --> 00:45:07,742
with one of the world's
greatest film directors.
824
00:45:07,762 --> 00:45:10,286
And then when you really stop to think
about it, you think,
825
00:45:10,464 --> 00:45:12,523
"God, that would be hell, actually".
826
00:45:12,699 --> 00:45:15,396
Because you would never
have your own life anymore, you know
827
00:45:15,569 --> 00:45:19,336
Your entire existence would
revolve around this one individual.
828
00:45:19,507 --> 00:45:23,466
I'd say outside of the film industry,
829
00:45:23,644 --> 00:45:28,342
Stanley's equivalent would be
Gordon Ramsay on one of his,
830
00:45:28,515 --> 00:45:30,676
you know, reality TV shows
831
00:45:31,052 --> 00:45:32,746
where he's saying, "Oh, fuck me, fuck me.
832
00:45:33,121 --> 00:45:34,502
Yes, fucking stupid.
You know what you..."
833
00:45:34,522 --> 00:45:36,037
Fucking look at me!
Look at me in the eyes!
834
00:45:36,057 --> 00:45:38,115
You're not as pissed as I am!
You fucking ass!
835
00:45:38,292 --> 00:45:39,589
I'm not sending that shit!
836
00:45:39,761 --> 00:45:41,208
This is not personal.
This is professional!
837
00:45:41,228 --> 00:45:42,228
I'm sorry, Chef.
838
00:45:42,397 --> 00:45:43,678
That was a piece of shit.
Now put it back!
839
00:45:43,698 --> 00:45:45,358
Stanley could be like that.
840
00:45:45,533 --> 00:45:47,694
I mean, if he was mad about something,
841
00:45:48,069 --> 00:45:50,299
you could bet that if there was a fault...
842
00:45:52,672 --> 00:45:53,730
you were done.
843
00:45:54,108 --> 00:45:56,201
The worst part of any of those jobs,
844
00:45:56,377 --> 00:45:59,403
was actually the time you left the lab
845
00:45:59,580 --> 00:46:05,177
or whatever facility it was
with what you thought you'd got.
846
00:46:06,621 --> 00:46:09,112
And you had to have lots of alternatives.
847
00:46:09,290 --> 00:46:12,555
And the whole journey back was,
you know, really, uh,
848
00:46:12,726 --> 00:46:15,161
"Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God.
He may not like this.
849
00:46:15,329 --> 00:46:17,194
He might not like this".
850
00:46:17,365 --> 00:46:18,126
- I mean...
- Stress?
851
00:46:18,299 --> 00:46:19,459
It... Oh, yeah.
852
00:46:19,634 --> 00:46:23,627
They made a 70 mil print of 2001.
853
00:46:23,805 --> 00:46:28,299
And they sent us this copy
which was about ten points too green.
854
00:46:28,475 --> 00:46:30,636
I had to go through every single frame.
855
00:46:30,811 --> 00:46:34,213
The smaller frame here
is Stanley's 35mm print,
856
00:46:34,382 --> 00:46:36,816
color-timed to his specifications.
857
00:46:37,185 --> 00:46:39,551
But you can see, they're so different.
858
00:46:39,720 --> 00:46:43,520
And when Stanley saw it,
he was just... apeshit.
859
00:46:43,691 --> 00:46:45,784
I think that's the word to describe it.
860
00:46:46,160 --> 00:46:50,494
Oh, I saw it, and I just said, "There's no
way he's gonna approve this thing".
861
00:46:50,665 --> 00:46:53,225
What a huge difference there is.
862
00:46:53,401 --> 00:46:56,734
And how couldn't someone see that?
863
00:46:57,104 --> 00:47:00,506
That was where I had a lot of
empathy for Stanley.
864
00:47:00,675 --> 00:47:05,078
But then, I also think he kind of
pulled that a little bit on himself,
865
00:47:05,246 --> 00:47:10,411
because his temper was so vitriolic
and so sarcastic, and so hard.
866
00:47:10,585 --> 00:47:15,488
It took a little bit of courage to actually
say the truth about any situation.
867
00:47:15,656 --> 00:47:17,624
If when we were watching the rushes,
868
00:47:17,792 --> 00:47:22,695
I couldn't not say, "I don't think
that looks quite right".
869
00:47:24,165 --> 00:47:27,328
Because if I didn't say it,
870
00:47:27,502 --> 00:47:29,697
he would say afterwards,
871
00:47:29,871 --> 00:47:32,840
"Why didn't you say something?"
872
00:47:33,207 --> 00:47:38,338
♪ Happy Birthday
Dear Jesus ♪
873
00:47:38,513 --> 00:47:40,504
♪ Happy Birthday... ♪
874
00:47:40,681 --> 00:47:44,777
It was Christmas Eve, and suddenly, I was
the only person left in the cutting room,
875
00:47:45,153 --> 00:47:47,212
and everyone had pissed off by noon.
876
00:47:47,388 --> 00:47:49,219
And I had to show Stanley these rushes.
877
00:47:49,390 --> 00:47:52,757
And he came down
in the foulest fucking temper.
878
00:47:52,927 --> 00:47:55,225
And whenever I said to Stanley,
879
00:47:55,396 --> 00:47:58,036
"There's flare in this shot or
that shot," he said, "I like flare".
880
00:47:58,266 --> 00:48:00,530
So I never bothered to mention it.
881
00:48:00,701 --> 00:48:03,898
So we were watching the rushes,
and he saw this flare.
882
00:48:06,374 --> 00:48:08,894
And I said, "Well, yeah, but you've
always said you like flare".
883
00:48:09,243 --> 00:48:12,212
And he gave me such a bollocking.
It was unbelievable.
884
00:48:12,380 --> 00:48:14,348
I mean, he was just screaming at me.
885
00:48:14,515 --> 00:48:17,245
And as soon as he finished, he said,
"I guess you wanna go home now
886
00:48:17,419 --> 00:48:18,715
I got some gifts for you. Come".
887
00:48:18,886 --> 00:48:21,446
And so he walked down the hallway.
888
00:48:21,623 --> 00:48:25,456
And outside his office was this
box with lots of gifts in them.
889
00:48:25,626 --> 00:48:27,891
He said, uh, "So, take it, and,
uh, Happy Christmas".
890
00:48:28,262 --> 00:48:29,889
You kinda think, "I can't believe this.
891
00:48:30,264 --> 00:48:32,824
Well, this will be the end.
He'll leave me alone now"
892
00:48:33,202 --> 00:48:35,726
Until 1:00 on Christmas Day.
893
00:48:35,903 --> 00:48:38,532
And that's when I started getting
bombarded with phone calls.
894
00:48:38,706 --> 00:48:41,723
Uh, "What's happening with this? What's
happening with that? Where are we now?"
895
00:48:41,743 --> 00:48:44,438
And thought you'd finished the
conversation. You put the phone down.
896
00:48:44,612 --> 00:48:46,705
And nine, ten minutes later,
you know, it would ring.
897
00:48:46,882 --> 00:48:49,242
"What's happening with that?
And what's happening with this?
898
00:48:49,283 --> 00:48:51,376
And have you looked at that?
And have you done this?"
899
00:48:51,552 --> 00:48:52,780
It just went on and on.
900
00:48:52,954 --> 00:48:54,512
Oh, what am I doing?
901
00:48:54,689 --> 00:48:56,850
When you work as
Stanley Kubrick's assistant,
902
00:48:57,225 --> 00:49:01,252
general factotum, it's not terribly
difficult to lose your temper.
903
00:49:01,429 --> 00:49:02,863
It's-It's easy.
904
00:49:03,231 --> 00:49:06,257
You have to have patience
of a tribe full of Jobs
905
00:49:06,434 --> 00:49:09,369
to listen to that kind
of thing every day and take it
906
00:49:09,537 --> 00:49:11,505
and understand from whence it came.
907
00:49:11,672 --> 00:49:14,369
I guess he didn't feel he needed anymore
908
00:49:14,543 --> 00:49:19,844
to be kid-glove handling me
and my sensitivities.
909
00:49:20,014 --> 00:49:22,482
It became, right, you're here to do this
910
00:49:22,651 --> 00:49:24,208
and you have to get it done.
911
00:49:24,385 --> 00:49:28,220
Any kind of error or mistake
could be just jumped on
912
00:49:28,389 --> 00:49:31,722
and absolutely, you could feel
crucified at the end of it.
913
00:49:31,892 --> 00:49:32,074
There were times when
I was a total dickhead.
914
00:49:32,094 --> 00:49:34,619
There were times when
I was a total dickhead.
915
00:49:34,795 --> 00:49:36,820
And I didn't get it,
916
00:49:36,998 --> 00:49:41,868
or I made a gross error
of judgment or something.
917
00:49:42,037 --> 00:49:43,868
As much as Stanley would yell at him
918
00:49:44,039 --> 00:49:46,336
and be like,
"Leon, what are you doing?"
919
00:49:46,507 --> 00:49:50,274
"Oh, God, yes, Stanley. Yes, Stanley.
Okay, Stanley, but listen".
920
00:49:50,445 --> 00:49:52,572
Always kind of, like, keeping it low tone.
921
00:49:52,747 --> 00:49:55,875
It was... How many years were they together?
922
00:49:56,050 --> 00:49:59,612
I think that the only reason that
that could have continued for so long
923
00:49:59,788 --> 00:50:01,881
was because of a deep loyalty.
924
00:50:02,057 --> 00:50:06,892
That Stanley understood that Leon was somebody
who had his back, that would protect him.
925
00:50:07,062 --> 00:50:10,758
The few things that Leon has shared
with me that he holds most dear to him,
926
00:50:10,931 --> 00:50:15,027
standing on the porch of his house smoking
cigarettes and peeing off the porch.
927
00:50:15,404 --> 00:50:18,635
I don't think Jack Nicholson ever peed
off the porch with Stanley Kubrick.
928
00:50:18,807 --> 00:50:23,607
I think they had a unique
relationship, uh, rarely found.
929
00:50:23,779 --> 00:50:26,576
And they had this level
of trust between each other.
930
00:50:26,747 --> 00:50:28,579
Leon was like a part of Stanley.
931
00:50:28,749 --> 00:50:32,014
There was an understanding between
them, an unspoken understanding.
932
00:50:32,387 --> 00:50:34,582
These are depositions I wrote
933
00:50:34,756 --> 00:50:39,955
about aspect ratios that Stanley
had wanted his films to be.
934
00:50:40,328 --> 00:50:41,887
And I had them notarized.
935
00:50:42,064 --> 00:50:45,658
Barry Lyndon, that's been a bone
of contention all the time.
936
00:50:45,833 --> 00:50:48,598
And I went through a day of hell
937
00:50:48,769 --> 00:50:50,896
where I had all these people saying,
938
00:50:51,072 --> 00:50:54,702
"It never was 1.77.
It never was".
939
00:50:54,876 --> 00:50:58,402
I mean, it's really funny, isn't it, that I
worked for all those years with Stanley,
940
00:50:58,580 --> 00:50:59,877
working on prints.
941
00:51:00,048 --> 00:51:03,574
We had a special aperture plate
that we put in the projector,
942
00:51:03,751 --> 00:51:05,014
and it was 1.77.
943
00:51:05,387 --> 00:51:07,446
You know, I mean, pshh.
944
00:51:07,622 --> 00:51:09,647
Bit like Room 237, you know,
945
00:51:09,825 --> 00:51:13,989
where people had their own ideas of what
the film was about and blah, blah, blah.
946
00:51:14,363 --> 00:51:18,389
And, you know, a picture of a downhill skier
was not a picture of a downhill skier.
947
00:51:18,567 --> 00:51:22,025
It was a picture of Satan,
and you could see his tail behind him.
948
00:51:22,404 --> 00:51:26,067
You know, when I look at the full moon,
I don't see a man in the moon.
949
00:51:26,441 --> 00:51:30,969
If you look on one side of it,
I can see a French poodle sitting.
950
00:51:31,145 --> 00:51:34,513
I don't think there is a French poodle
sitting on the moon.
951
00:51:34,683 --> 00:51:36,665
I'm gonna have to turn
to Leon, and I'm gonna have to say,
952
00:51:36,685 --> 00:51:39,745
"Leon, uh, was-was Stanley involved
in the Apollo landings?"
953
00:51:39,921 --> 00:51:42,788
No.
954
00:51:44,593 --> 00:51:46,026
Task lists.
955
00:51:46,395 --> 00:51:49,922
"Finish cleaning up projection room".
About half a day.
956
00:51:50,097 --> 00:51:55,900
"Go through my filing cabinets
and reorganize". About one day.
957
00:51:56,071 --> 00:51:58,631
"Clear up old library.
958
00:51:58,807 --> 00:52:01,139
Finish inventory long garage.
959
00:52:01,510 --> 00:52:04,876
Finish inventory in long stalls".
About half a day.
960
00:52:05,046 --> 00:52:10,040
And the stable block was a line
of buildings 50 yards long
961
00:52:10,419 --> 00:52:13,752
where everything was shoved into,
962
00:52:13,922 --> 00:52:15,685
and I had to sort it out.
963
00:52:15,857 --> 00:52:19,759
"Dear Stanley, this is now complete
regarding stable block".
964
00:52:19,928 --> 00:52:20,928
Was he happy?
965
00:52:21,029 --> 00:52:22,758
He didn't even come and look at it.
966
00:52:22,931 --> 00:52:26,799
"Leon, how could you
get the couch so filthy?"
967
00:52:26,968 --> 00:52:30,904
Well, it was the dog hairs of the dogs
968
00:52:31,072 --> 00:52:33,870
who he allowed to lie on the sofa
969
00:52:34,042 --> 00:52:37,478
on the Sunday evening
he was watching the movies.
970
00:52:37,646 --> 00:52:41,742
My appreciation for genius
would probably end
971
00:52:41,917 --> 00:52:44,647
when the genius told me
to clean a room for him.
972
00:52:44,820 --> 00:52:47,186
He would do anything for the guy,
973
00:52:47,556 --> 00:52:48,955
and I would not.
974
00:52:49,124 --> 00:52:51,888
I would, when it got physically difficult,
975
00:52:52,060 --> 00:52:54,552
I'm here to tell you I would probably say,
976
00:52:54,729 --> 00:52:57,994
"Thank you very much. You're quite
a genius. Leave me alone now"
977
00:52:58,166 --> 00:53:01,795
Amongst my other
duties is the cat compound.
978
00:53:01,970 --> 00:53:03,996
How we kept the cats safe.
979
00:53:04,172 --> 00:53:09,542
Stanley, oh, my God. He never
thought animals had any guile.
980
00:53:09,711 --> 00:53:15,149
And so when one of them was dying,
it became a major, major problem.
981
00:53:15,518 --> 00:53:19,750
There was this, oh, lovely cat, you know,
16 years old, named Jessica.
982
00:53:19,922 --> 00:53:22,481
She had a fit, couldn't move.
983
00:53:22,657 --> 00:53:25,956
I set up a whole video system in the house
984
00:53:26,128 --> 00:53:29,722
so that in every room there was a monitor
985
00:53:29,898 --> 00:53:35,599
where you could see Jessica lying
there anytime of the day or night.
986
00:53:35,771 --> 00:53:39,171
It just became obsessive.
Just didn't wanna let her go.
987
00:53:39,541 --> 00:53:41,509
And in the end, we called the vet.
988
00:53:41,676 --> 00:53:45,703
And they gave her the shot
she should have had weeks before.
989
00:53:45,881 --> 00:53:48,975
- Put her to sleep.
- Everything was a tragedy for him.
990
00:53:49,150 --> 00:53:54,213
If a dog was dying, there was nothing
else except this dying dog.
991
00:53:54,590 --> 00:53:57,787
And I understand it.
Nothing got done.
992
00:53:57,960 --> 00:54:01,725
I had to keep with the work
so that when he came back to it,
993
00:54:01,898 --> 00:54:04,162
I could say, "This is where we are".
994
00:54:04,533 --> 00:54:09,095
Leon is fascinated,
and he's curious, and he's there.
995
00:54:09,272 --> 00:54:11,865
Someone who's
a Shakespearean-trained actor.
996
00:54:12,040 --> 00:54:14,022
Someone that you can explain
three-point lighting to,
997
00:54:14,042 --> 00:54:15,704
and they get it.
998
00:54:15,878 --> 00:54:19,177
Then you find someone that
you can tell them about baths in labs,
999
00:54:19,548 --> 00:54:20,548
and they remember.
1000
00:54:20,682 --> 00:54:22,014
And you've struck gold.
1001
00:54:22,184 --> 00:54:23,878
And that person is so enamored with you,
1002
00:54:24,053 --> 00:54:25,849
and they don't want to
leave your existence.
1003
00:54:26,021 --> 00:54:27,989
That sort of thing is irreplaceable.
1004
00:54:28,156 --> 00:54:31,558
And if Leon had really ever
seriously tried to make a break,
1005
00:54:31,727 --> 00:54:34,992
you know, for the hills, I think he would
have been prevented from doing it.
1006
00:54:35,163 --> 00:54:37,962
He came in to my office and he said,
1007
00:54:38,134 --> 00:54:42,536
"Leon, I've just had a thought. You're not
gonna go and work for Warner Bros., are you?"
1008
00:54:42,704 --> 00:54:45,673
I was wearing a Marine jacket.
1009
00:54:45,840 --> 00:54:49,777
My hair hadn't looked as if
it had been combed in a week.
1010
00:54:49,945 --> 00:54:52,710
I just said,
"Stanley, do I look corporate?"
1011
00:54:52,882 --> 00:54:56,248
He kind of smiled, and then laughed,
and then he kind of walked out.
1012
00:54:56,618 --> 00:55:01,920
And then there was never any discussion about
me leaving or him gettin' rid of me again.
1013
00:55:02,091 --> 00:55:04,321
When somebody would say
to Stanley, and they would,
1014
00:55:04,693 --> 00:55:06,559
"I'd give my right arm to work for you,"
1015
00:55:06,729 --> 00:55:08,697
he would kind of smile.
1016
00:55:08,864 --> 00:55:12,128
Because I actually think,
you know, he thought,
1017
00:55:12,300 --> 00:55:14,234
"Well, why are you low-balling me?
1018
00:55:14,604 --> 00:55:18,562
What, just a right arm? How about the
left one and the legs?
1019
00:55:18,740 --> 00:55:22,199
And the body and the heart,
and everything?"
1020
00:55:22,378 --> 00:55:25,609
If you said to him, "I commit myself,"
1021
00:55:25,781 --> 00:55:28,180
you just better make sure you mean it.
1022
00:55:28,351 --> 00:55:31,582
Otherwise, why would you bother?
1023
00:55:31,754 --> 00:55:34,917
'Cause you'll betray yourself
anyway, in the end,
1024
00:55:35,091 --> 00:55:37,924
if you're not going to give
everything you've got...
1025
00:55:39,261 --> 00:55:42,253
to what it is you're doing, because he did.
1026
00:55:42,632 --> 00:55:45,658
He gave everything he got
to what he was doing.
1027
00:55:45,835 --> 00:55:47,598
And that's the most important thing.
1028
00:55:47,770 --> 00:55:50,260
And that's what I saw,
that's what I understood,
1029
00:55:50,640 --> 00:55:52,870
and that's what I reacted to.
1030
00:55:54,944 --> 00:55:58,345
Friends, family, et
cetera, everybody understood that?
1031
00:55:58,713 --> 00:56:00,341
I don't think so.
1032
00:56:00,716 --> 00:56:02,183
And why is that?
1033
00:56:02,351 --> 00:56:06,184
Because Stanley kind of ate you up.
1034
00:56:06,355 --> 00:56:08,380
You're in this strange world.
1035
00:56:08,758 --> 00:56:11,955
And-And probably Stanley Kubrick's
world was stranger than most.
1036
00:56:12,128 --> 00:56:15,393
He was obviously someone who was so steeped
1037
00:56:15,765 --> 00:56:18,700
in the day-to-day minutiae
of his own films.
1038
00:56:18,867 --> 00:56:22,770
He wanted to do everything. And a lot
of that work got deferred to Leon.
1039
00:56:22,938 --> 00:56:25,372
And Leon really became his arms and legs.
1040
00:56:25,741 --> 00:56:28,039
And I think it probably
took quite a serious toll.
1041
00:56:28,210 --> 00:56:30,370
He would not admit it.
1042
00:56:30,746 --> 00:56:34,273
He probably wouldn't say it out loud.
I-I will, though.
1043
00:56:34,450 --> 00:56:40,286
Leon surrendered a great deal of his family
life to the cause. Did he need the job?
1044
00:56:40,456 --> 00:56:44,085
No, he could have worked on, continued
working, as I said, as a very good actor.
1045
00:56:44,260 --> 00:56:48,094
Stanley said, "You either care
or you don't care.
1046
00:56:48,264 --> 00:56:51,062
There's no gray area in between".
1047
00:56:51,233 --> 00:56:54,862
So caring meant giving as much
of your time as you had,
1048
00:56:55,037 --> 00:56:57,437
until you quite literally
were too tired to go on.
1049
00:56:57,807 --> 00:56:59,365
How was Stanley with you guys?
1050
00:56:59,742 --> 00:57:00,834
Stanley?
Yeah.
1051
00:57:01,010 --> 00:57:02,170
Uh, he was...
1052
00:57:03,345 --> 00:57:05,210
um, he was lovely.
1053
00:57:05,381 --> 00:57:09,112
He was always very sweet to me and Max.
1054
00:57:09,285 --> 00:57:12,015
But I always found him
really rather charming.
1055
00:57:12,188 --> 00:57:13,883
Probably because I didn't work for him.
1056
00:57:14,056 --> 00:57:16,923
If they had a good day, then
it became a good day for me.
1057
00:57:17,093 --> 00:57:20,187
If it was a bad day for Stanley,
it became a bad day for Leon,
1058
00:57:20,362 --> 00:57:22,353
and that would be a bad day for me.
1059
00:57:24,467 --> 00:57:26,435
Very good. Well done.
1060
00:57:26,802 --> 00:57:31,068
Of course, I see a person
who demanded a lot from Leon
1061
00:57:31,240 --> 00:57:34,175
and made life tricky for Leon
to maybe balance.
1062
00:57:34,343 --> 00:57:36,459
And he'd be working, working,
working, working, working.
1063
00:57:36,479 --> 00:57:38,913
And constantly working.
Not a break.
1064
00:57:39,082 --> 00:57:41,107
And that would take all his time.
1065
00:57:41,283 --> 00:57:43,717
So me and Vera would do other things.
1066
00:57:43,886 --> 00:57:45,251
He would just be on the phone,
1067
00:57:45,422 --> 00:57:49,289
or by the copy machine, nonstop,
nonstop, nonstop. And smoking.
1068
00:57:49,458 --> 00:57:54,486
And a cigarette and a cup of tea
and just being totally in the work.
1069
00:57:54,865 --> 00:57:57,833
It was kind of Kafkaesque, I guess.
1070
00:57:58,001 --> 00:58:00,764
Always piles of stuff to do
that would never go away.
1071
00:58:00,936 --> 00:58:03,371
Piles of film reels to check.
1072
00:58:03,539 --> 00:58:07,999
All the stands for the video stores, and all
the dubbings, translations and subtitles.
1073
00:58:08,177 --> 00:58:10,509
Piles of posters to check
the color temperature of,
1074
00:58:10,880 --> 00:58:14,509
or piles of VHS's
to check Hungarian dubbing.
1075
00:58:14,885 --> 00:58:17,352
Or whatever. Oof.
1076
00:58:17,520 --> 00:58:20,819
I get exhausted just thinking
about those things, actually.
1077
00:58:20,990 --> 00:58:24,949
In a professional way, Leon never relaxed.
1078
00:58:25,127 --> 00:58:29,461
I know there were periods where he would
stay dressed and sleep on the doormat
1079
00:58:29,833 --> 00:58:32,130
so he could wake up two hours later
and go back to work.
1080
00:58:32,301 --> 00:58:34,896
Never being comfortable,
'cause then you might oversleep.
1081
00:58:35,071 --> 00:58:37,431
When you're working for
somebody who's such a perfectionist,
1082
00:58:37,473 --> 00:58:40,204
you just keep going
and going and going and going,
1083
00:58:40,377 --> 00:58:42,402
I think, until you literally fall over.
1084
00:58:42,578 --> 00:58:46,258
And I think there's been times when it's got to
a point where Leon has literally fallen over.
1085
00:58:46,348 --> 00:58:47,906
Because he feels it's bigger than him.
1086
00:58:48,083 --> 00:58:50,449
So he'll keep going until he achieves
1087
00:58:50,821 --> 00:58:53,414
something close to
impossibly beautiful or perfect.
1088
00:58:53,589 --> 00:58:55,389
It's something that
just keeps driving you on.
1089
00:58:55,424 --> 00:58:57,540
That you need to have it again.
It's almost like a drug.
1090
00:58:57,560 --> 00:59:01,258
Nothing mattered to him as much
as the work he's been doing.
1091
00:59:01,431 --> 00:59:03,524
Because that overshadowed everything.
1092
00:59:03,899 --> 00:59:06,265
It'd be hard to have
a single discussion, let's say.
1093
00:59:06,436 --> 00:59:10,873
Try to communicate, but someone is still...
1094
00:59:12,241 --> 00:59:14,210
somewhere else in his mind.
1095
00:59:14,376 --> 00:59:18,836
I remember feeling jealous that he
always had the energy for other people.
1096
00:59:19,014 --> 00:59:22,507
Being a kid and seeing that
I don't... I-I don't get that.
1097
00:59:22,885 --> 00:59:24,513
No one works 24 hours a day,
1098
00:59:24,887 --> 00:59:30,053
but if anybody could or would, Leon's
job pretty much encompassed that.
1099
00:59:30,226 --> 00:59:32,957
And he was certainly on tap
seven days a week.
1100
00:59:33,129 --> 00:59:34,960
There was one day, I remember,
1101
00:59:35,131 --> 00:59:39,066
when Stanley decided we were gonna
change the Full Metal Jacket campaign,
1102
00:59:39,236 --> 00:59:44,070
and Leon had to go through
frame by frame of 35 millimeter film
1103
00:59:44,240 --> 00:59:49,268
to pull the right frame that just reflected
the nuance that Stanley was looking for.
1104
00:59:49,445 --> 00:59:52,437
And on that day, Leon was in absolute pain.
1105
00:59:52,615 --> 00:59:54,549
He had an abscess in his tooth.
1106
00:59:54,918 --> 00:59:59,412
And he was taking a swig out
of a bottle of, uh, whiskey to...
1107
00:59:59,589 --> 01:00:03,355
hoping that the whiskey was
going to sort of kill the pain.
1108
01:00:03,526 --> 01:00:05,288
Leon had a lot of knowledge,
1109
01:00:05,462 --> 01:00:08,555
not only about filmmaking, but also
about literature and everything.
1110
01:00:08,932 --> 01:00:11,298
And at the same time, he was a workhorse.
1111
01:00:11,467 --> 01:00:12,935
Uh, he'd do anything.
1112
01:00:13,103 --> 01:00:15,128
I mean, he'll carry logs for you.
1113
01:00:15,305 --> 01:00:19,469
When you're working
with these kind of directors,
1114
01:00:19,643 --> 01:00:23,305
it's like you-you're sharing
your blood with them,
1115
01:00:23,480 --> 01:00:25,072
if you're in the inside.
1116
01:00:25,247 --> 01:00:27,306
I think it could be like a drug.
1117
01:00:27,483 --> 01:00:29,952
Filmworkers are slightly
different than other people.
1118
01:00:30,120 --> 01:00:31,643
And that goes for theater workers too.
1119
01:00:32,022 --> 01:00:34,081
They're usually there for the love.
1120
01:00:34,257 --> 01:00:36,555
They-They work worse hours.
They're usually not at home.
1121
01:00:36,926 --> 01:00:38,451
And they do all this
1122
01:00:38,628 --> 01:00:43,223
with a fantastic capacity of creating
a functioning social unit
1123
01:00:43,400 --> 01:00:46,459
that is extremely intimate within hours.
1124
01:00:46,636 --> 01:00:50,504
I remember coming in at night and
meeting the negative developing crew
1125
01:00:50,673 --> 01:00:54,075
Precious negative.
There's no light in the room.
1126
01:00:54,244 --> 01:00:56,269
Everything you do is by feel and by touch.
1127
01:00:56,446 --> 01:00:58,641
Once, there was a break on a developer,
1128
01:00:59,015 --> 01:01:02,143
and a guy basically wrapped himself in film
1129
01:01:02,318 --> 01:01:06,448
so that he could pull it over and quickly get
it back into solution to save the film.
1130
01:01:06,623 --> 01:01:09,558
I mean, this industry has been
built on people like that.
1131
01:01:09,725 --> 01:01:13,287
And you're not just doing it at this
level. You're doing it at this level.
1132
01:01:13,463 --> 01:01:15,931
You're doing—
You are at the tip of the spear.
1133
01:01:16,099 --> 01:01:21,935
That is an absolutely intoxicating
and addictive environment.
1134
01:01:22,105 --> 01:01:24,505
I don't have an obsession for creativity.
1135
01:01:24,674 --> 01:01:27,302
It just is a necessary requirement.
1136
01:01:27,477 --> 01:01:30,446
You either love it so much
you can't help it,
1137
01:01:30,613 --> 01:01:34,413
or you're a fucking idiot,
or you're a mixture of both.
1138
01:01:34,584 --> 01:01:37,052
Are you obsessive about creativity also?
1139
01:01:37,220 --> 01:01:39,347
I don't know I don't think about it.
I-I am creative.
1140
01:01:39,522 --> 01:01:41,717
I, uh... I-I work a lot.
1141
01:01:42,092 --> 01:01:43,687
And when I'm not working, I'm cooking.
1142
01:01:43,707 --> 01:01:48,253
And when I'm not cooking,
I'm fucking. It's all creative work.
1143
01:01:48,431 --> 01:01:52,595
I worked as an assistant for a very,
very good Swedish director
1144
01:01:52,769 --> 01:01:54,649
in the Royal Dramatic Theatre
for several years.
1145
01:01:55,005 --> 01:01:57,030
I did small roles in his plays.
1146
01:01:57,207 --> 01:02:01,303
And I assisted and did... and did a lot
of assistant work. And I loved it.
1147
01:02:01,478 --> 01:02:04,413
And after a while, you feel how he feels.
1148
01:02:04,582 --> 01:02:07,072
You think how he thinks.
1149
01:02:07,250 --> 01:02:11,744
And-And you learn to see
what's going on with his eyes.
1150
01:02:12,122 --> 01:02:15,523
And that's a fantastic
revelation as an assistant.
1151
01:02:19,397 --> 01:02:23,196
This was a vicarious experience.
1152
01:02:23,366 --> 01:02:28,497
I'm experiencing something through
somebody else's genius or whatever it is.
1153
01:02:28,671 --> 01:02:31,265
You go with it, and you work with it.
1154
01:02:31,441 --> 01:02:35,036
And then you learn from it.
And you get the hang of it.
1155
01:02:35,212 --> 01:02:40,080
And then Stanley would suddenly say, "Changed
my mind. You're starting all over again".
1156
01:02:40,250 --> 01:02:42,013
What difference does it make to me?
1157
01:02:42,185 --> 01:02:46,246
I'm at the service of him, because
he's at the service of his movie.
1158
01:02:47,490 --> 01:02:51,358
And the thing was that I wanted...
1159
01:02:51,528 --> 01:02:57,365
I wanted to be with Stanley,
work with Stanley.
1160
01:02:57,534 --> 01:03:00,662
Do all that stuff.
I just wanted to.
1161
01:03:00,837 --> 01:03:05,467
He was the most brilliant, fantastic
filmmaker of the 20th century.
1162
01:03:05,642 --> 01:03:08,668
And how honored was I
1163
01:03:08,846 --> 01:03:13,441
to be able to work for him,
hmm, for all those years?
1164
01:03:13,616 --> 01:03:16,382
I have noticed for a very long time,
since I was very young,
1165
01:03:17,555 --> 01:03:20,318
that how... what kind of impact
Stanley had on him.
1166
01:03:20,491 --> 01:03:23,688
How important that was, even
though I didn't always like it.
1167
01:03:23,861 --> 01:03:28,593
But kind of always known that that was his,
you know, that's what he needed as well.
1168
01:03:30,433 --> 01:03:32,197
My dad, who I loved...
1169
01:03:33,370 --> 01:03:35,338
I loved him...
1170
01:03:35,506 --> 01:03:39,134
he'd sit down at the piano
and he used to sing "La Mer" to me.
1171
01:03:39,309 --> 01:03:41,835
It was just wonderful
to stand there, and he'd be playing,
1172
01:03:42,212 --> 01:03:44,172
and he'd be looking at me
while he was singing it.
1173
01:03:44,214 --> 01:03:46,409
You felt like, "Oh, this is just for me".
1174
01:03:46,583 --> 01:03:48,245
And whether he understood or not,
1175
01:03:48,418 --> 01:03:53,583
that song permeated me
over many years so deeply
1176
01:03:53,756 --> 01:03:58,090
that it really became, and still is,
1177
01:03:58,261 --> 01:04:02,722
one of those beautiful songs I can
hear over and over and over again.
1178
01:04:05,668 --> 01:04:09,695
During the first World War, when my
father was a child and living in Belgium,
1179
01:04:09,873 --> 01:04:13,207
the Germans had come to his house.
1180
01:04:13,377 --> 01:04:15,776
There was just him and his mother there.
1181
01:04:16,146 --> 01:04:20,310
And his father was part of the
Resistance to the German invasion,
1182
01:04:20,484 --> 01:04:22,314
and they'd come looking for him.
1183
01:04:22,485 --> 01:04:26,889
And his mother either couldn't or wouldn't
say what she knew about where he was.
1184
01:04:27,258 --> 01:04:30,352
They took her out into
the backyard and they shot her
1185
01:04:30,528 --> 01:04:33,792
and made my father watch the incident.
1186
01:04:34,164 --> 01:04:38,625
He was a very, very volatile person
for the rest of his life.
1187
01:04:38,802 --> 01:04:40,393
What was the household like?
1188
01:04:40,571 --> 01:04:43,300
It could be explosive at times.
1189
01:04:43,473 --> 01:04:45,374
- Fraught, I think is...
- Yes.
1190
01:04:45,542 --> 01:04:48,205
- is how I remember it.
- Yes. I'm, uh...
1191
01:04:48,379 --> 01:04:49,779
- What, when Father was alive?
- Mm.
1192
01:04:49,946 --> 01:04:50,946
- Yes.
- Oh, yes.
1193
01:04:51,215 --> 01:04:53,308
You had to do just the slightest thing
1194
01:04:53,484 --> 01:04:55,714
to get him to flip his type.
1195
01:04:55,886 --> 01:05:01,791
I think we just tried not to put ourselves into
a position which would engender any criticism.
1196
01:05:01,959 --> 01:05:04,928
I think that-that's really
what we tried to do.
1197
01:05:05,296 --> 01:05:09,823
Uh, keep your heads down
and keep out of the way?
1198
01:05:10,201 --> 01:05:11,634
He died when I was eight.
1199
01:05:11,802 --> 01:05:15,259
I remember it was
a beautiful summer morning.
1200
01:05:15,439 --> 01:05:20,809
And what was funny for me, my mother and
my older brother were painting the hallway.
1201
01:05:23,646 --> 01:05:26,309
And before I could say anything else,
she just hushed me up.
1202
01:05:26,483 --> 01:05:28,212
And I looked at her face,
1203
01:05:28,385 --> 01:05:34,186
and I'd never seen such
a peaceful face in my life.
1204
01:05:34,358 --> 01:05:38,293
And she said, "Go into your bedroom
and just sit there quietly and think".
1205
01:05:38,462 --> 01:05:42,262
Of course I was thinking, "Well, we'll never
go to the cinema with him again.
1206
01:05:42,433 --> 01:05:46,529
We'll never walk down to the sweet shop
on a Sunday morning with him again".
1207
01:05:46,704 --> 01:05:51,232
And then you also thought, "Well, I
won't ever get slapped by him again.
1208
01:05:51,408 --> 01:05:55,207
And I won't have to watch him trying
to kill my eldest brother again".
1209
01:05:55,379 --> 01:05:58,979
And while I was thinking all these things, all
I could hear was these paintbrushes going...
1210
01:06:03,821 --> 01:06:07,382
Bit by bit, we kind of rebuilt our lives.
1211
01:06:07,558 --> 01:06:10,550
But, of course, we were
caretakers of the school,
1212
01:06:10,728 --> 01:06:14,357
so it meant that
we had a job to do every night.
1213
01:06:14,531 --> 01:06:18,627
When it came to Stanley,
you see, I kind of got it in a way.
1214
01:06:18,802 --> 01:06:22,636
I just understood
from my experience of my dad,
1215
01:06:22,806 --> 01:06:24,797
you take a step back
1216
01:06:24,975 --> 01:06:29,378
so you weren't being abused.
1217
01:06:29,546 --> 01:06:33,573
You just stood back, and you didn't
confront, you didn't challenge.
1218
01:06:33,751 --> 01:06:38,688
You just let them blast their way out
of whatever it was
1219
01:06:38,856 --> 01:06:40,585
they had a problem with.
1220
01:06:40,758 --> 01:06:44,023
I think that's what I bless Stanley
for more than anything else
1221
01:06:44,395 --> 01:06:48,388
is he kind of helped me
to understand who I am.
1222
01:06:48,565 --> 01:06:52,023
The thing with Stanley was,
you worked for him,
1223
01:06:52,403 --> 01:06:56,305
but you also worked with him,
and he gave you that latitude.
1224
01:06:56,474 --> 01:06:58,601
It's not about what I want to be anymore.
1225
01:06:58,776 --> 01:07:01,904
It's about how I am.
1226
01:07:02,079 --> 01:07:04,919
You know, the head of Warner Bros.
once said to me on a visit to London,
1227
01:07:04,983 --> 01:07:06,823
shortly before Stanley died,
you know, he said,
1228
01:07:06,985 --> 01:07:11,045
"It's remarkable how low
his production costs are".
1229
01:07:11,422 --> 01:07:13,737
And I said, "Well, it's because,
quite frankly, he does everything.
1230
01:07:13,757 --> 01:07:16,055
He's Stanley Kubrick, and he...
1231
01:07:16,427 --> 01:07:18,759
The only thing he doesn't do is act".
1232
01:07:18,929 --> 01:07:20,658
He acted once, actually.
1233
01:07:20,832 --> 01:07:24,699
He did do a performance once for Leon.
1234
01:07:24,868 --> 01:07:28,736
Good evening. I'm sorry not to be able
to be with you tonight
1235
01:07:28,906 --> 01:07:31,341
to receive this great honor.
1236
01:07:31,508 --> 01:07:34,773
People came, and they set up
the cue card. I had the camera.
1237
01:07:34,945 --> 01:07:40,508
So, as usual, the guys who set up the cue
cards were going to be there operating.
1238
01:07:40,684 --> 01:07:45,519
And Stanley said, "Uh, no, no, no. And,
um, uh, could you... could you go?"
1239
01:07:45,689 --> 01:07:47,919
So in the end, I was operating the camera
1240
01:07:48,093 --> 01:07:51,460
and having to operate
the cue card at the same time.
1241
01:07:51,628 --> 01:07:55,690
And we did it again, and it would be, "Leon,
you're moving it too fast, the cue card".
1242
01:07:55,866 --> 01:07:58,460
Or, "Leon, you're moving it too slow"
1243
01:07:58,636 --> 01:08:02,731
When he finished,
he started walking backwards.
1244
01:08:04,875 --> 01:08:08,572
And I said,
"Why are you doing that?"
1245
01:08:08,746 --> 01:08:12,478
And he said, "Well, you know, kind of
finishing it off, you know"
1246
01:08:12,650 --> 01:08:14,584
And I said, "I think
it would be better, really,
1247
01:08:14,753 --> 01:08:19,121
if I just kind of put
a big fade on the camera
1248
01:08:19,490 --> 01:08:21,857
so that you weren't there anymore.
1249
01:08:22,026 --> 01:08:23,617
We just went to black,
you know?"
1250
01:08:23,794 --> 01:08:26,355
It was quite tortuous for him.
1251
01:08:26,530 --> 01:08:30,661
I had a feeling that everything
around Leon and Stanley
1252
01:08:30,834 --> 01:08:36,101
was a studio for, um, filmmaking.
1253
01:08:36,473 --> 01:08:40,808
High and low, small details, big things.
1254
01:08:40,979 --> 01:08:46,383
It was like coming to a creative
workshop, very creative atmosphere.
1255
01:08:48,586 --> 01:08:51,453
- So, Leon, yeah?
- Mm-hmm?
1256
01:08:51,623 --> 01:08:53,420
Uh, we, have we... you been recording this?
1257
01:08:53,591 --> 01:08:54,922
You've been talking, yeah.
1258
01:08:55,092 --> 01:08:57,424
Have you more wigs?
Yes.
1259
01:08:57,594 --> 01:08:59,790
- Let's try something.
- All right, okay.
1260
01:08:59,964 --> 01:09:02,523
You look like you've lost weight anyway.
1261
01:09:02,699 --> 01:09:04,633
They asked me to come to London.
1262
01:09:04,802 --> 01:09:07,737
It was just me and Stanley
and Leon in the room.
1263
01:09:07,905 --> 01:09:11,033
- A little bit too down maybe.
- Look at me.
1264
01:09:11,208 --> 01:09:14,645
Ah. Just stand with your legs
a bit straighter, yeah.
1265
01:09:14,813 --> 01:09:15,939
With, uh...
1266
01:09:16,114 --> 01:09:18,048
Any way you want.
But not the way you were, no.
1267
01:09:18,216 --> 01:09:19,808
Just, uh, moving— Anything.
1268
01:09:19,984 --> 01:09:21,184
Whatever you feel comfortable.
1269
01:09:21,453 --> 01:09:23,478
Oh, I feel very uncomfortable.
1270
01:09:25,756 --> 01:09:28,054
You haven't been a model I see, huh?
1271
01:09:28,226 --> 01:09:31,160
No. No.
1272
01:09:31,529 --> 01:09:33,497
Oh, these are from Eyes Wide Shut.
1273
01:09:33,665 --> 01:09:39,126
You know, when I was playing Red
Cloak for a bit of makeup touch-up.
1274
01:09:39,503 --> 01:09:43,906
Although I never understood it, seeing as
I was wearing a mask all the time. I never...
1275
01:09:44,075 --> 01:09:46,839
What was the feeling
when he called you to be MC or...
1276
01:09:47,010 --> 01:09:48,842
Oh, well, embarrassed.
1277
01:09:49,012 --> 01:09:52,847
Because I was actually doing
a screen test for the MC.
1278
01:09:53,017 --> 01:09:55,952
And I'd seen about 30, 35 actors.
1279
01:09:56,120 --> 01:09:59,146
And I'm auditioning, he was
a really well-known actor,
1280
01:09:59,524 --> 01:10:02,584
and suddenly this phone call came
through, so I picked up the phone.
1281
01:10:02,759 --> 01:10:06,127
And he said, "Leon, I just decided.
You're gonna play it".
1282
01:10:06,498 --> 01:10:07,898
And put the phone down.
That was it.
1283
01:10:08,031 --> 01:10:11,092
May I have the password, please?
1284
01:10:11,268 --> 01:10:14,533
I just felt that I could
build on it for every take.
1285
01:10:14,706 --> 01:10:18,698
And you weren't afraid of going
too far or going over the top.
1286
01:10:18,877 --> 01:10:21,641
You could just keep going and keep going,
1287
01:10:21,812 --> 01:10:24,907
just like when I was
working on Barry Lyndon.
1288
01:10:25,082 --> 01:10:28,712
This is what we had to do every day.
They were the lighting plans.
1289
01:10:28,887 --> 01:10:32,687
So we went around together
every night at like 1:00 am.
1290
01:10:32,857 --> 01:10:36,156
And we would take the readings
from the lights.
1291
01:10:36,528 --> 01:10:40,555
And then I had to send a fax to the DOP
1292
01:10:40,732 --> 01:10:43,792
with a laid-out plan of every light.
1293
01:10:43,967 --> 01:10:46,960
But isn't that what the
cinematographer is supposed to do himself?
1294
01:10:47,137 --> 01:10:51,632
Yes. But you know, Stanley
never trusted anybody.
1295
01:10:51,809 --> 01:10:53,709
He just didn't.
1296
01:10:53,878 --> 01:10:59,578
It must have been very difficult for people,
you know, who are serious professionals
1297
01:10:59,751 --> 01:11:03,847
to sort of go through that kind of,
1298
01:11:04,022 --> 01:11:08,118
I don't know, examination,
for want of a better word.
1299
01:11:08,292 --> 01:11:10,124
But he had a specific look that he wanted?
1300
01:11:10,295 --> 01:11:13,662
Yeah, he did. And he wanted to
keep it once he found it.
1301
01:11:13,831 --> 01:11:16,231
On one of the days, Leon
pulled me aside and he said,
1302
01:11:16,601 --> 01:11:19,069
"You know, Stanley really
only saw your tape".
1303
01:11:19,237 --> 01:11:21,762
And I was like, "Oh, thanks, Leon.
That's really cool".
1304
01:11:21,940 --> 01:11:24,670
He said, "No, really,
yours is the only tape I put in.
1305
01:11:24,842 --> 01:11:28,073
So, you know, Stanley looked at it and
went, ‘Great, yeah. Let's-Let's have him.'
1306
01:11:28,246 --> 01:11:31,796
So just let you know, you know, you were, uh,
great on the day, and that's why I booked you
1307
01:11:31,816 --> 01:11:33,716
and really glad that you're part of this".
1308
01:11:33,885 --> 01:11:36,125
And I was like, "Oh, Leon,
thank you, man. This really...
1309
01:11:36,154 --> 01:11:39,646
Wow, that's a lot of, um,
high praise coming from you and—"
1310
01:11:39,824 --> 01:11:42,588
Leon, he was always working,
never sleeping.
1311
01:11:42,760 --> 01:11:44,887
I don't know when he slept at all.
1312
01:11:45,063 --> 01:11:49,329
In the Masked Ball scene, I'm playing eight
different people, including the Red Cloak.
1313
01:11:49,701 --> 01:11:52,603
You know, we'd finish a take
and Stanley'd say,
1314
01:11:52,770 --> 01:11:57,764
"Leon, go down and find the shot that
we took, like, two weeks ago".
1315
01:11:57,943 --> 01:12:03,812
I was on these six-inch-high platforms
in this full-dress costume.
1316
01:12:03,982 --> 01:12:06,109
I'd have to run down this corridor,
1317
01:12:06,285 --> 01:12:08,343
'cause it had to be "Now, now"
1318
01:12:08,720 --> 01:12:12,884
And then I'd have to search through all
these slates and put it up on a Steenbeck.
1319
01:12:13,057 --> 01:12:14,787
And he'd come down and we'd look at it.
1320
01:12:14,959 --> 01:12:16,825
And he'd say,
"Great. Now, get back up there".
1321
01:12:16,996 --> 01:12:18,930
So I'd be running back up to the set.
1322
01:12:19,098 --> 01:12:20,962
And then we were up and running again.
1323
01:12:21,899 --> 01:12:25,698
You know, that's what Stanley
grew to look like.
1324
01:12:25,870 --> 01:12:28,304
And you could see he was kind of tired.
1325
01:12:28,674 --> 01:12:32,370
I mean, some people have said,
unkindly, that they thought he'd lost it,
1326
01:12:32,745 --> 01:12:35,828
but I can tell you, you were there with
him every day, that was the last thing.
1327
01:12:35,848 --> 01:12:40,784
He and I and Margaret Adams,
who was his coordinator,
1328
01:12:40,952 --> 01:12:42,817
we were the last people out of the studio.
1329
01:12:42,987 --> 01:12:44,852
And it would be
3:00 or 4:00 in the morning.
1330
01:12:45,023 --> 01:12:46,923
But it was a ritual which we always had.
1331
01:12:47,091 --> 01:12:50,117
When it was a wrap, and
when everyone left the studio,
1332
01:12:50,294 --> 01:12:53,286
he would come in to my office
and say, "Let's have a talk".
1333
01:12:53,665 --> 01:12:58,625
And then we'd talk about everything
that had gone well that day.
1334
01:12:58,803 --> 01:13:00,634
Who tried hard, who didn't.
1335
01:13:00,805 --> 01:13:03,831
We were always looking at
material that was shot yesterday
1336
01:13:04,008 --> 01:13:05,999
or the day before or what have you.
1337
01:13:06,177 --> 01:13:08,236
We were shooting, and at the same time,
1338
01:13:08,413 --> 01:13:10,974
the Venice Film Festival had announced
1339
01:13:11,149 --> 01:13:16,416
that they were going to celebrate the
filmmaker Stanley Kubrick.
1340
01:13:16,788 --> 01:13:19,257
But they needed copies of all his films.
1341
01:13:19,425 --> 01:13:23,087
So I was having to crank
those out of the lab.
1342
01:13:23,262 --> 01:13:25,923
And at the same time...
1343
01:13:26,097 --> 01:13:29,898
we were making a new internegative
of A Clockwork Orange.
1344
01:13:30,068 --> 01:13:34,130
And at the same time, I was dialogue
coaching, casting and God knows what.
1345
01:13:34,305 --> 01:13:36,432
And I just thought I was going to explode.
1346
01:13:36,808 --> 01:13:41,802
He was getting tireder
and tireder and tireder.
1347
01:13:41,979 --> 01:13:46,973
You know, there were some days when we were
driving home from this location in Norfolk.
1348
01:13:47,151 --> 01:13:49,449
And when he got out of the car,
you kind of thought,
1349
01:13:49,822 --> 01:13:53,087
he's not even going to find
a way to the front door.
1350
01:13:53,258 --> 01:13:55,123
But we're parked right in front of it.
1351
01:13:55,294 --> 01:13:58,422
If he bent down on the floor
to pick something up,
1352
01:13:58,796 --> 01:14:01,924
then I had to bend down
and pick Stanley up.
1353
01:14:02,100 --> 01:14:07,265
I think that last week
was totally exhausting for him.
1354
01:14:07,438 --> 01:14:07,587
On a Saturday afternoon,
I went down to the supermarket.
1355
01:14:07,607 --> 01:14:11,007
On a Saturday afternoon,
I went down to the supermarket.
1356
01:14:11,176 --> 01:14:15,874
My phone rang, and I answered it.
1357
01:14:16,048 --> 01:14:19,142
And it was Stanley.
And there we...
1358
01:14:21,052 --> 01:14:24,146
I was standing, leaning up against my car,
1359
01:14:24,323 --> 01:14:26,883
and we were talking
for two and a half hours.
1360
01:14:27,059 --> 01:14:31,792
It was eerie simply because it
was that same kind of gentleness
1361
01:14:31,964 --> 01:14:37,095
since the very first day I met him
when he said, "Hello, Leon. I'm Stanley".
1362
01:14:37,269 --> 01:14:41,330
Everything was rational
and measured and gentle.
1363
01:14:41,507 --> 01:14:44,999
More relaxed than it had been for a...
for-for quite a while,
1364
01:14:45,176 --> 01:14:48,146
because you're in the middle
of this mayhem.
1365
01:14:48,312 --> 01:14:52,306
Um, but it was.
It was.
1366
01:14:52,484 --> 01:14:55,419
That was the last contact I had with him.
1367
01:14:55,787 --> 01:14:58,086
And then, of course,
1368
01:14:58,257 --> 01:15:02,250
early hours of Sunday morning,
that's when he died, you know?
1369
01:15:04,163 --> 01:15:08,862
I was told that it looked as if he had been
1370
01:15:09,034 --> 01:15:12,868
trying to reach for an oxygen bottle...
1371
01:15:14,106 --> 01:15:16,165
that he had in his bedroom.
1372
01:15:16,341 --> 01:15:18,832
Stanley Kubrick has died at the age of 70,
1373
01:15:19,010 --> 01:15:21,393
one of the greatest and most
controversial masters of cinema.
1374
01:15:21,413 --> 01:15:22,971
The director Stanley Kubrick,
1375
01:15:23,148 --> 01:15:26,515
one of film's greatest yet most
controversial figures, died today.
1376
01:15:26,885 --> 01:15:32,221
Kubrick was revered by his peers for movies like
2001:A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange.
1377
01:15:32,391 --> 01:15:36,452
He'd just finished what
was to be his last film, Eyes Wide Shut.
1378
01:15:40,499 --> 01:15:43,400
The studio was... was in shock for a while.
1379
01:15:43,569 --> 01:15:46,197
And because Stanley,
1380
01:15:46,371 --> 01:15:50,467
when he was making the film and getting it
ready for delivery as a finished piece of work,
1381
01:15:50,843 --> 01:15:52,970
as a finished film to the studio,
1382
01:15:53,145 --> 01:15:56,842
that part of it was now missing.
1383
01:15:57,015 --> 01:16:02,248
So there was Leon Vitali,
who was the key factor in all of this.
1384
01:16:02,421 --> 01:16:04,480
He'd been through the process
of making the film.
1385
01:16:04,857 --> 01:16:08,850
Leon Vitali was probably
the most important person
1386
01:16:09,027 --> 01:16:12,019
from what I call the Kubrick stable.
1387
01:16:12,197 --> 01:16:15,325
I have to tell you. It was a very
touching scene at the Dorset Hotel.
1388
01:16:15,500 --> 01:16:19,267
There was Leon, eyes red-rimmed with tears,
1389
01:16:19,438 --> 01:16:22,999
but determined, in the face of
chairman of the board of the company,
1390
01:16:23,175 --> 01:16:24,535
the head of
Warner Bros. technical,
1391
01:16:24,877 --> 01:16:26,367
Stanley Kubrick's brother-in-law,
1392
01:16:26,545 --> 01:16:29,378
determined that he was
going to do whatever he could
1393
01:16:29,548 --> 01:16:33,177
to finish Eyes Wide Shut
as Stanley would have wanted it.
1394
01:16:33,352 --> 01:16:35,112
And that's the greatest
compliment I can pay.
1395
01:16:35,187 --> 01:16:40,989
Because that speaks not of personal
kudos but of a commitment to.
1396
01:16:41,159 --> 01:16:45,027
The person that, you know, you had
this relationship with for 30 years,
1397
01:16:45,197 --> 01:16:47,597
every single day, sacrificed your life.
1398
01:16:47,966 --> 01:16:52,596
they're gone, and now you're left
to do this last piece of their work.
1399
01:16:52,972 --> 01:16:56,271
And then you're having a bunch of
other people, like, not respecting you
1400
01:16:56,441 --> 01:16:58,966
and treating you like shit about it.
1401
01:16:59,144 --> 01:17:01,169
It was bad.
It was a bad time.
1402
01:17:01,347 --> 01:17:07,012
It was easier to work and live by
those standards and that code.
1403
01:17:07,185 --> 01:17:12,213
I think it was harder
as an assistant to demand the same.
1404
01:17:12,391 --> 01:17:14,257
- Was it easy?
- No.
1405
01:17:14,426 --> 01:17:17,088
While he was alive, we fought the battles.
1406
01:17:17,263 --> 01:17:19,288
Of course we did, but he was there.
1407
01:17:19,465 --> 01:17:22,525
And everything was about him.
1408
01:17:24,604 --> 01:17:29,267
Now it was about what everybody thought...
1409
01:17:30,509 --> 01:17:32,443
he was about.
1410
01:17:32,611 --> 01:17:35,944
I mean, there were people just crawling out
of the woodwork, being as obstructive,
1411
01:17:36,115 --> 01:17:38,549
like they all wanted to be the ones
1412
01:17:38,717 --> 01:17:42,518
who were gonna now tell us
how things were gonna be done.
1413
01:17:42,689 --> 01:17:46,624
And so sticking that picture up there in
my office, I could just look at that picture.
1414
01:17:46,993 --> 01:17:49,358
And I just thought, well, no,
this is why you're doing it.
1415
01:17:49,528 --> 01:17:54,228
Everything in this picture doesn't
really even describe the rest of it.
1416
01:17:54,400 --> 01:17:56,561
Because at that time,
1417
01:17:56,735 --> 01:18:02,470
I was also checking every single transfer
from every country in the world.
1418
01:18:02,642 --> 01:18:06,703
One in five prints that were
shown in theaters in America
1419
01:18:07,080 --> 01:18:09,513
was checked from
the first to the last reel.
1420
01:18:09,681 --> 01:18:13,640
I think there was something like
2,500 prints came to America.
1421
01:18:14,019 --> 01:18:15,214
So how did you collapse?
1422
01:18:15,388 --> 01:18:17,116
I'm gonna tell you this.
1423
01:18:17,290 --> 01:18:22,592
And it's not to make myself
a hero or anything like that.
1424
01:18:22,762 --> 01:18:27,028
I did two 36-hour sessions
1425
01:18:27,200 --> 01:18:29,633
in a screening room at the lab.
1426
01:18:30,003 --> 01:18:34,099
And I had to make a call
every now and then to say,
1427
01:18:34,273 --> 01:18:37,709
"Could somebody come down here
and keep their eye on the print?"
1428
01:18:38,076 --> 01:18:43,640
Because I had to run off
and throw up, I was so sick.
1429
01:18:44,017 --> 01:18:45,347
I was so sick.
1430
01:18:45,517 --> 01:18:48,486
Our working days
were anything, 15, 18 hours.
1431
01:18:48,653 --> 01:18:51,418
Leon was doing 24 hours a day,
seven days a week.
1432
01:18:51,591 --> 01:18:53,218
I don't think I want to talk about this.
1433
01:18:53,393 --> 01:18:55,588
I don't know when he ever slept.
1434
01:18:55,762 --> 01:18:58,390
They had released a DVD set,
1435
01:18:58,564 --> 01:19:03,126
because they'd done so much heavy advertising
timed with the release of Eyes Wide Shut.
1436
01:19:03,301 --> 01:19:04,633
It was a bit of a disaster.
1437
01:19:04,804 --> 01:19:07,670
There was so much angry reaction to it,
1438
01:19:08,041 --> 01:19:12,273
like, how could you just do
this to the master's oeuvre?
1439
01:19:12,445 --> 01:19:15,495
When you do that, it's not a case of
just sticking a piece of film into a machine,
1440
01:19:15,515 --> 01:19:16,835
and it comes out in a new format.
1441
01:19:17,115 --> 01:19:18,515
You have to do everything again.
1442
01:19:18,684 --> 01:19:21,551
And you have to have people like Leon
who knew the films backwards.
1443
01:19:21,721 --> 01:19:26,124
I authorized incurring the cost
1444
01:19:26,292 --> 01:19:29,125
for perfect mastering and digitalization.
1445
01:19:29,295 --> 01:19:32,093
Remastered again
1446
01:19:32,265 --> 01:19:38,033
and in yet a higher quality format
than had been available in VHS.
1447
01:19:38,203 --> 01:19:41,803
Without a doubt, there was only one man that
could have, uh, headed that restoration effort
1448
01:19:42,175 --> 01:19:43,733
and that was Leon.
1449
01:19:44,110 --> 01:19:48,570
Someone like Leon, who had that wonderful
grasp of the production process
1450
01:19:48,747 --> 01:19:53,081
and the distribution process,
which is quite a rare animal.
1451
01:19:53,252 --> 01:19:56,779
You learn the film by working
with it and printing it, you know?
1452
01:19:57,156 --> 01:20:01,559
And if you've printed it for 15 years,
you know... You know the negative.
1453
01:20:01,727 --> 01:20:03,422
And I didn't.
1454
01:20:03,595 --> 01:20:05,223
It was that daunting.
1455
01:20:05,398 --> 01:20:08,526
He was trained in the way to
know how it was supposed to sound,
1456
01:20:08,701 --> 01:20:10,498
know what to do with the tracks,
1457
01:20:10,670 --> 01:20:13,252
know how it was supposed to look and
know how to handle the negatives.
1458
01:20:13,272 --> 01:20:15,365
And he was the only person who knew that.
1459
01:20:15,541 --> 01:20:20,672
His final part of his job was
basically preserving everything.
1460
01:20:20,847 --> 01:20:25,113
Making sure it was in good order, making sure
it was all vaulted securely on the shelves.
1461
01:20:25,284 --> 01:20:28,515
So he packed up, and he came to the US.
1462
01:20:28,688 --> 01:20:31,748
Somebody has to the standard-bearer
for that thought process.
1463
01:20:32,125 --> 01:20:33,683
And this is where Leon comes in.
1464
01:20:33,860 --> 01:20:39,162
Leon was tasked with this kind of
Herculean effort to move the ball ahead,
1465
01:20:39,332 --> 01:20:42,932
and then take all the flack from the people
who thought that this shouldn't be done at all.
1466
01:20:43,236 --> 01:20:47,605
And Leon was the person who was left
standing there when all the knives came out.
1467
01:20:47,773 --> 01:20:50,401
And I know that he took
a huge amount of shit
1468
01:20:50,576 --> 01:20:53,807
for what Stanley had done
to people for many, many years.
1469
01:20:54,180 --> 01:20:55,700
Because Stanley wasn't around anymore.
1470
01:20:55,815 --> 01:20:59,444
And it was the Kubrick gang, Chris Young
and Jan, the Warner Bros. people.
1471
01:20:59,619 --> 01:21:03,784
They were known for being tough
and not taking any bullshit from anybody
1472
01:21:04,157 --> 01:21:07,197
and doing what they wanted to do because
they had this guy who had proven it.
1473
01:21:07,226 --> 01:21:10,252
He was unique. So Warners
wasn't going to say no.
1474
01:21:10,429 --> 01:21:12,124
The critics weren't going to say yes.
1475
01:21:12,298 --> 01:21:14,324
And Leon was caught
in this position in between
1476
01:21:14,500 --> 01:21:17,367
of having to be the guy
that had to address all parties.
1477
01:21:17,538 --> 01:21:18,902
When I'm working on a film,
1478
01:21:19,272 --> 01:21:22,834
I need to learn the production
history of the film, the archaeology.
1479
01:21:23,209 --> 01:21:24,767
And you have to know how it was made.
1480
01:21:24,945 --> 01:21:27,811
And when you got it, it's
that the film speaks to you.
1481
01:21:28,181 --> 01:21:31,617
Just to recreate what
Stanley had done originally
1482
01:21:31,784 --> 01:21:35,584
took two to three years of
research and finding masters
1483
01:21:35,755 --> 01:21:37,955
and going and proving
that that was exactly what it was.
1484
01:21:38,191 --> 01:21:39,805
And then you could start to do your work.
1485
01:21:39,825 --> 01:21:42,920
Barry Lyndon, it's a lot
of long, long, long shots.
1486
01:21:43,296 --> 01:21:46,163
And often it's outside.
Often they're landscape exteriors.
1487
01:21:46,332 --> 01:21:49,733
Leon always knew how bright
it was supposed to be,
1488
01:21:49,902 --> 01:21:52,463
how contrasty it was supposed to be,
how rich or how dense.
1489
01:21:52,638 --> 01:21:56,267
And you realize as you work
with him that his skills are enormous.
1490
01:21:56,443 --> 01:22:00,310
And then you finish it, and you realize
that it's not really finished at all,
1491
01:22:00,479 --> 01:22:03,448
because Leon then had
the task of moving into Warner Bros.,
1492
01:22:03,616 --> 01:22:05,675
where he was the only person who was left,
1493
01:22:05,851 --> 01:22:08,445
and fighting for another
transfer to be done,
1494
01:22:08,621 --> 01:22:10,919
or something to be kept up
in a certain way.
1495
01:22:11,291 --> 01:22:13,051
All of a sudden,
it's Leon against the world.
1496
01:22:13,293 --> 01:22:14,816
And they were just grinding him down,
1497
01:22:14,994 --> 01:22:18,486
because Warners had exuded goodwill way
beyond what anybody would have done
1498
01:22:18,665 --> 01:22:19,962
in going through the process.
1499
01:22:20,333 --> 01:22:24,463
I got, you know, people calling me saying,
1500
01:22:24,637 --> 01:22:28,767
"You know what they're saying about you right
now is that you're looking for problems".
1501
01:22:28,941 --> 01:22:31,502
No, we're not looking for problems.
1502
01:22:31,677 --> 01:22:33,736
We were never looking for problems.
1503
01:22:33,913 --> 01:22:37,873
But if there were problems,
you have to point them out.
1504
01:22:38,251 --> 01:22:39,776
You have to.
1505
01:22:39,953 --> 01:22:45,481
You know, I mean, in all honor,
you have to say, "This isn't right".
1506
01:22:45,658 --> 01:22:49,288
So he started getting thinner
and thinner and sicker and sicker.
1507
01:22:49,463 --> 01:22:51,930
He looked very gaunt, a bit scared.
1508
01:22:52,299 --> 01:22:55,530
I weighed in at one point, 65 pounds.
1509
01:22:55,702 --> 01:22:59,603
This is when I wasn't very well,
and it was my affirmation.
1510
01:22:59,773 --> 01:23:03,367
"I am Leon Vitali.
I'm healing myself".
1511
01:23:03,542 --> 01:23:06,011
He was always present for the work,
a hundred percent, more.
1512
01:23:06,380 --> 01:23:09,247
But he's, you know, everybody
says, like a cockroach.
1513
01:23:09,416 --> 01:23:13,352
Not a great term, but there's nothing
that'll stop him. Just keeps going.
1514
01:23:13,520 --> 01:23:17,547
Eventually, they gave his office away and they
gave him a desk in the hallway at Warner Bros.
1515
01:23:17,724 --> 01:23:19,554
And he was sitting there alone,
1516
01:23:19,726 --> 01:23:22,694
still going through all the files,
making sure all the things were done.
1517
01:23:22,863 --> 01:23:25,831
And if somebody wanted to screen
2001, he had to be there for that.
1518
01:23:25,999 --> 01:23:29,866
No one else was gonna followthrough
with the level of maniacal detail
1519
01:23:30,036 --> 01:23:32,471
that only Stanley
or only Leon could have done.
1520
01:23:32,639 --> 01:23:34,436
And it shows in the work.
1521
01:23:34,608 --> 01:23:37,805
It's this body of work that exists today
that never would have existed.
1522
01:23:37,978 --> 01:23:41,937
Because Leon took the sweat equity
of all those years with Stanley.
1523
01:23:42,316 --> 01:23:45,581
Leon righted every
single wrong that was done.
1524
01:23:45,751 --> 01:23:48,550
He basically preserved the process
1525
01:23:48,722 --> 01:23:51,987
so that for future generations
that will get to see Stanley's work,
1526
01:23:52,359 --> 01:23:54,725
they will see it
the way the master made them.
1527
01:23:54,895 --> 01:23:59,389
That will always be Leon's
imprint on Stanley Kubrick's legacy.
1528
01:24:07,441 --> 01:24:10,034
Well, right now in
Los Angeles, California, there is an exhibit.
1529
01:24:10,410 --> 01:24:12,537
Director Stanley Kubrick arguably made...
1530
01:24:12,713 --> 01:24:14,943
And then the exhibit comes about.
1531
01:24:15,115 --> 01:24:17,345
And there's this big opening
and a world tour.
1532
01:24:17,516 --> 01:24:19,815
And Leon, kinda not really a part of it.
1533
01:24:19,986 --> 01:24:21,782
It felt like Leon was really dismissed.
1534
01:24:21,955 --> 01:24:26,585
All these, like, experts on Stanley talking
about Stanley and what he was like.
1535
01:24:26,760 --> 01:24:30,457
Here is this person still standing in
the corner, how he always would be,
1536
01:24:30,630 --> 01:24:33,929
who's worked with him from acting,
from cinematography, everything.
1537
01:24:34,101 --> 01:24:36,399
And meanwhile,
it was like Leon didn't exist.
1538
01:24:36,569 --> 01:24:38,529
I guess the opening,
I guess, or the presentation,
1539
01:24:38,571 --> 01:24:40,335
were you part of that?
1540
01:24:40,507 --> 01:24:44,102
You mean in a kind of official capacity?
1541
01:24:44,478 --> 01:24:45,775
No, not at all.
Yeah.
1542
01:24:45,946 --> 01:24:48,813
The actual big gala thing... Gala, mm.
1543
01:24:48,982 --> 01:24:50,882
where people came and spoke about Stanley.
1544
01:24:51,051 --> 01:24:53,519
Oh, no, no.
Um, no, I didn't go to that.
1545
01:24:53,687 --> 01:24:55,917
- You didn't go to that?
- No, I didn't go to that.
1546
01:24:56,089 --> 01:24:58,956
Now was that, like, choice by you or
they just didn't invite you, or...
1547
01:24:59,126 --> 01:25:01,651
Um, no, just didn't invite me, so...
1548
01:25:01,827 --> 01:25:04,661
Leon had every right
to say, "That exhibit stinks,
1549
01:25:04,831 --> 01:25:07,527
and I want nothing to do with it".
1550
01:25:07,701 --> 01:25:11,000
Just the opposite. He said,
"You want to go? I'm gonna take you".
1551
01:25:11,171 --> 01:25:15,733
When another friend of mine wanted to go,
Leon said, "I'll gladly take you guys again".
1552
01:25:21,481 --> 01:25:25,781
to walk through these worlds with a guy who
knows them intimately, is just incredible.
1553
01:25:25,952 --> 01:25:27,783
And he's so generous about it.
1554
01:25:27,954 --> 01:25:32,789
When I asked Leon to take a bunch of
high school film and visual arts students,
1555
01:25:32,959 --> 01:25:34,620
he said yes like this.
1556
01:25:34,795 --> 01:25:38,060
I was shocked.
It was so amazing.
1557
01:25:38,432 --> 01:25:41,458
It lifted his spirit to be able to share.
1558
01:25:41,635 --> 01:25:44,160
I remember at a recent Academy meeting.
1559
01:25:44,538 --> 01:25:49,168
And they were talking about people that
they needed to have an oral history with.
1560
01:25:49,543 --> 01:25:53,502
I said, "I don't understand why you guys
haven't done an oral history on Leon Vitali".
1561
01:25:53,680 --> 01:25:56,547
And I said, "You should
have done it a long time ago
1562
01:25:56,717 --> 01:25:59,982
when you were preparing
the Stanley Kubrick exhibit".
1563
01:26:00,153 --> 01:26:03,680
I found out that he went
25 or 30 times with people
1564
01:26:03,857 --> 01:26:06,985
as favors to people, just
to give them that same gift.
1565
01:26:07,160 --> 01:26:10,721
There was such a kind of emotional
attachment to so much of that material.
1566
01:26:10,897 --> 01:26:14,800
I could actually say, "Well, remember when
I was doing that, working on that".
1567
01:26:14,968 --> 01:26:17,163
There was a story about
just about every bit of it.
1568
01:26:17,537 --> 01:26:20,631
I spent hours just looking at the lenses.
1569
01:26:20,807 --> 01:26:25,039
It felt more like I was saying good-bye
to him this time than when he died.
1570
01:26:28,114 --> 01:26:30,207
You know, some places are like people.
1571
01:26:31,719 --> 01:26:34,516
Some shine and some don't.
1572
01:26:35,823 --> 01:26:37,653
Is there something bad here?
1573
01:26:37,825 --> 01:26:43,058
And for Leon, not only did he
have to face life without his mentor,
1574
01:26:43,231 --> 01:26:48,691
he also moved to Los Angeles, initially
to work for the estate on the restoration.
1575
01:26:48,869 --> 01:26:51,133
Then he made the decision
to stay in Los Angeles.
1576
01:26:51,506 --> 01:26:55,100
And suddenly found that doors
are not easily opened.
1577
01:26:55,275 --> 01:26:58,006
You understand? Stay out.
1578
01:26:58,178 --> 01:27:00,840
I had to help him for a while financially.
1579
01:27:01,015 --> 01:27:05,475
Um, I guess that's kind of sad,
1580
01:27:05,652 --> 01:27:07,621
because he's worked so much.
1581
01:27:07,787 --> 01:27:10,119
You would hope that...
1582
01:27:10,290 --> 01:27:15,991
that you'd have enough to survive the
pretty simple lifestyle he lives, you know
1583
01:27:16,162 --> 01:27:18,097
Good. Finally, the last three.
We're going good.
1584
01:27:18,266 --> 01:27:19,981
I think the last two
were better than previous...
1585
01:27:20,001 --> 01:27:22,128
Stanley had an amazing vital energy.
1586
01:27:22,303 --> 01:27:26,136
I had the license to go into
any area on the operations side.
1587
01:27:26,307 --> 01:27:30,573
But, of course, you can't do that here
because it's quite heavily demarcated.
1588
01:27:33,213 --> 01:27:35,579
Are you still working for Stanley?
1589
01:27:35,750 --> 01:27:37,240
Of course.
1590
01:27:37,617 --> 01:27:39,608
So this is all voluntarily at that point?
1591
01:27:39,786 --> 01:27:41,686
This is because I love Stanley.
1592
01:27:41,855 --> 01:27:44,847
That's why I do it.
Because I love him.
1593
01:27:45,025 --> 01:27:46,550
You're not even getting paid?
1594
01:27:46,727 --> 01:27:48,250
No. So?
1595
01:27:48,629 --> 01:27:52,861
Leon is one person of many
that are like him in the business.
1596
01:27:53,034 --> 01:27:54,968
I think he's an extraordinary
example of it.
1597
01:27:55,136 --> 01:27:58,128
And I think he represents
the best of that group of people
1598
01:27:58,306 --> 01:28:01,207
who are unrecognized
for doing what they're doing.
1599
01:28:01,576 --> 01:28:04,807
You give your assistant a gift at
Christmastime, and that's their recognition.
1600
01:28:04,978 --> 01:28:08,141
But that person was crushing it
for you for 25 years.
1601
01:28:08,315 --> 01:28:12,013
How do you acknowledge them in a way
that celebrates what they've done?
1602
01:28:12,186 --> 01:28:14,551
Film is just such a fascinating thing.
1603
01:28:14,722 --> 01:28:16,586
Requires tireless effort.
1604
01:28:16,756 --> 01:28:20,749
It is a moving train of people
getting on and off at a process,
1605
01:28:20,927 --> 01:28:25,057
but having the train with enough fuel to
continue to make it to the destination.
1606
01:28:25,231 --> 01:28:28,132
It's a very special world.
It's like the circus.
1607
01:28:28,301 --> 01:28:32,567
Whatever those worlds are, they have
an attraction that goes beyond
1608
01:28:32,740 --> 01:28:35,708
how creative your own work is,
that you're a part of it.
1609
01:28:35,876 --> 01:28:38,970
What skin color you had,
what sexual preferences you had,
1610
01:28:39,146 --> 01:28:43,946
it has always been a place to go to as
long as you function socially.
1611
01:28:44,117 --> 01:28:45,237
All right, clear back, boys.
1612
01:28:45,386 --> 01:28:48,252
Anybody who's sort of
self-obsessed or grumpy
1613
01:28:48,623 --> 01:28:51,888
won't survive in the business,
unless he's an actor.
1614
01:28:52,059 --> 01:28:54,340
And stay there now. We're ready...
getting ready to shoot.
1615
01:28:54,395 --> 01:28:56,658
Are you okay?
1616
01:28:57,999 --> 01:29:01,196
Leon spent years of his life,
1617
01:29:01,369 --> 01:29:04,827
almost drove himself into an early grave
1618
01:29:05,006 --> 01:29:09,102
because the prints needed to be
as good as they possibly could.
1619
01:29:09,276 --> 01:29:12,939
All those other people,
if you took out one person,
1620
01:29:13,114 --> 01:29:15,105
there'd be something missing in that film.
1621
01:29:15,282 --> 01:29:18,251
This is like all a bunch of Leons.
1622
01:29:18,419 --> 01:29:21,286
All these people below the line
1623
01:29:21,656 --> 01:29:24,750
are the ones that elevate
the people above the line.
1624
01:29:26,794 --> 01:29:30,161
It was amazing that Leon got to,
uh, to stick around
1625
01:29:30,331 --> 01:29:33,095
and stay with the... with the... with the
maestro, as we called him.
1626
01:29:33,267 --> 01:29:37,965
And they were inseparable for...
for the longest time.
1627
01:29:38,139 --> 01:29:41,073
I've been dreaming about him
more and more and more.
1628
01:29:41,242 --> 01:29:44,405
It's always in a house that I have.
1629
01:29:44,779 --> 01:29:49,978
And it's always full of people,
most of which I do not know
1630
01:29:50,151 --> 01:29:53,052
And we're starting a film production.
1631
01:29:53,220 --> 01:29:59,716
And it's like, there's no kind of feeling
that we need to communicate at all.
1632
01:29:59,894 --> 01:30:04,797
It's just looking at each other and nodding
our heads and saying, "That's it".
1633
01:30:09,437 --> 01:30:12,201
If you look back on your life
when you were a child,
1634
01:30:12,373 --> 01:30:15,969
and you had aspirations,
and you had ambitions,
1635
01:30:16,143 --> 01:30:19,306
but they never really worked out
the way you thought they would.
1636
01:30:19,480 --> 01:30:24,281
So there's a lot that can make you
extremely frustrated and extremely mad.
1637
01:30:24,452 --> 01:30:28,252
But at the same time,
it's kind of exhilarating.
1638
01:30:28,422 --> 01:30:30,947
In many ways, it doesn't really matter
1639
01:30:31,125 --> 01:30:35,255
if things work out exactly the
way you wanted them to or they didn't.
1640
01:30:35,429 --> 01:30:38,398
The most important thing is the journey.
1641
01:30:38,766 --> 01:30:43,965
Because the experiences can be
so rich and so valuable to you.
1642
01:30:44,138 --> 01:30:45,901
Leon was a spirit.
1643
01:30:46,073 --> 01:30:48,355
You could see, you know, the doors
open before he got to a door.
1644
01:30:48,375 --> 01:30:52,311
He has this aura
of "Kubrickism" around him.
1645
01:30:52,480 --> 01:30:55,779
The apprentice that all of a sudden one day
1646
01:30:55,950 --> 01:30:57,510
became the master with all the answers.
1647
01:30:59,287 --> 01:31:01,880
You're proud and
you're happy of your journey.
1648
01:31:02,056 --> 01:31:04,786
Yeah. Yeah, of course.
1649
01:31:04,959 --> 01:31:08,986
Of course, I am.
It's been amazing so far.
1650
01:31:09,163 --> 01:31:12,758
The best way I could think of,
you know, leaving this world,
1651
01:31:12,934 --> 01:31:16,994
and it would be either,
you know, go to sleep and not wake up
1652
01:31:17,172 --> 01:31:21,870
or be in the middle of,
you know, I don't know
1653
01:31:22,042 --> 01:31:27,036
I guess dying on a flatbed Steenbeck, I mean
if you could find one nowadays.
1654
01:31:27,214 --> 01:31:33,176
I mean, maybe in a telecine suite
doing a new transfer.
1655
01:31:33,354 --> 01:31:38,758
Like a... a 4K or an 8K transfer of 2001.
1656
01:31:38,926 --> 01:31:43,192
Just as the music plays out,
I'd say, "I'm coming".
1657
01:31:43,364 --> 01:31:46,026
"I'm with ya, Zarathustra".
1658
01:31:46,200 --> 01:31:49,169
You know, maybe something like that,
romantic, you know.
1659
01:31:50,504 --> 01:31:52,472
It's okay. Mm.
1660
01:31:52,840 --> 01:31:54,274
So it's a happy ending?
1661
01:31:54,441 --> 01:31:57,343
Sure. Yeah.
Of course, it is.
146944
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