Richard J Lewis

0:04ready and prepared for you are you what how what what kind of preparation have you done uh... a little stretching you know just jogging on the spot a little bit and uh... idea of the vocal exercises on a good to know i'm sure you do need a little you probably celebrate a little bit last night well we did we celebrated heart heartily was it a deserved victory for those who don't know paul giomadi's best actor victory at the golden globe's last night absolutely a lot of hard work went into the movie and a lot of hard work uh... done by mister jia mottie uh... and and never never a moment complaint here he could be the work ethic is so incredible and accountable those two things combined um... equal and award you know for people who don't know because i mean it this is the kind of film that that borders mainstream and and the independent

0:52market i think for people who don't know bernie's version or haven't read the book you want to give people just a brief synopsis on what it is you know it's a story of a man's life it's and two continents three wives and uh... a battle in paul expected uh... murder of his best friend and then battling with uh... the onset of early all-timers getting the character out of paul giomadi were you looking more to to create bernie or more to cut or barn for sure i don't know more more to have very well i mean i never i'd never actually met him uh... uh... my producer of the land is had met him but i had not so uh... you know my uh... my idea was that maybe there were some critical uh... things we could borrow from from richard

1:40and also was written to the character you know which is semi-auto autobiographical of course is the drinking mmm now and the literary quip um... but i think most we just we took some physical uh... physical qualities and sort of translated was it hard the first time you read the book was it hard to get through the first fifty or sixty pages i found it hard difficult to get through the beginning of that book you know it's quite dense and it's get around a lot it's interesting because i've been thinking about the book a lot because i'm doing through the sort of literary uh... king pong match the parents review with a writer named it does more than it and um... it's like i've been thinking about what drop drew me to the book and it certainly wasn't the first fifty pages mmm uh... but i i i i do remember

2:25it's like very funny and very literary and not quite a film yet until you get to that uh... you know i think once the second mrs t shows up it's correct to really become a film i remember reading the scenes where he's reading the hockey scores in the sport section while she's yammering on and and and the way i remember the way um... mister uh... richler handled that it's so interesting because he put like her her voice in regular letters and then a net pallet i think they were like the low scores the second like it if he's blocking her out with the pallet right and i remember getting caught by that and around the second mrs t really started deeply involving myself in the in the book and by the time you get to that place where he runs out of his own wedding you really you're you want to make a movie

3:12right how different was the script that you wrote so i heard you wrote a script and then michael came with the script that you enjoyed more uh... yeah that's true uh... my students structurally cut quite different i mean michael one of the genius parts of michael's krypton i know i'm i'd really kick myself that i never thought of this but one of the dea thing that michael did with that he he stuck the alfheimer's in a very surprised place in the script like it no in the book we know he is all farmers from the get but in michael's gift you don't realize it told us though almost the third act so that at that point i think oh my god what a cool little hook for the third act like it just it's sort of a twist in the movie you know and that was a case in my script i started off with the alfheimer's and actually it's interesting in my script it starts up with the discovery of the bones of boogie on the island and then it works in a way and and bernie's in a home

3:58and then he tells you sort of like you sort of get the story from you know his mind from the home oh interesting uh... sort of like a first person narrative in a way yes there's more first person narrative in which is proved to be a problem as well i think how hard was it to decide because it's got the feel of a foreign film as well again maybe that's just because location shoots but a and the and the uh... the dialogue but it's also a mainstream film how hard was it to and i guess you don't really think about this while you're shooting it but at the same time you have studios breathing down your neck how hard was it to the line between mainstream and making it more of an art house film but that that's pretty interesting that's a pretty interesting question you kind of you kind of try not to think about it that way you know uh... you try to make you try to serve the material in the way that

4:44you think it's best served and then it starts to get kind of um... bolted by the element that come aboard instance you know dust and came aboard a mini-cam aboard and then you know and and and all giomadi and and so therefore it it necessarily takes on a more mainstream sort of uh... uh... field and then you know but i think i wanted to make a film that felt more like a film from the past and i think sort of a very no-frills classic Hollywood movie though i was conscious of trying to keep it uh... in gimmick free but you know you know something i was i was thinking about you mentioned deston hoffman how i mean you know he's one of the all-time greats did you learn something

5:31from him directing him did he say to you well what about this so i think that would be a good thing process with something like that it definitely it's a definitely given take relationship you know uh... between actor and director so that there's called constant sort of learning process that goes on that you know it's so like you know the relationship between adults and their child you know you you learn from the child they don't just learn from you and you know when you when you're hoffman you know you're apt to want to want to listen and really here so that because it's really it's really enough engaging what the actor needs you know it's not it's not how it's not directing them in a way that tells them how to ask or anything it's like gauging with the actor needs and then creating space for those needs to be met it's a watching his process was quite unique because it's the first time that

6:20i've seen someone you know really um... kind of explore it someone to really go deep into a method into a method approach like like dusting and i think he was probably the brought his character with him the first day showed up and he left with his character at last day he left so that was always i was intriguing to watch and what also is intriguing to watch was the um... the way that two actors work together Paul and Destin i learned a lot about about about that from both watching both of those guys you know um... to sort of predispose them to it a product an outcome with a kiss of death and the idea was that these two sort of the amount were essentially going at it and looking for looking for the moment as it happened in the moment not uh... and not trying to like pre-rehearsed anything or not try to

7:08sort of choreograph anything but letting or or these moments come organically through the course of what may or may not happen as they began their their you know for their their their their tap dance or their dialect you know there's a the cemetery scene is just brilliant with the two of them that's it how um... and this is how weird how different was that directing this compared to csi what was their different process you take into it um... you know i mean first of all csi you know i i worked without rehearsals i worked without read from the world without you know you just here's a scene with get it on its feet with negative interesting uh... that's a let's let's see what we can add to um... you know a help the writing and be you know just do so uh... and a lot of times

7:53you'd have to you know you you'd you'd just you'd basically i'd i'd basically have a very perfunctory exposition and say to myself i'm not walking away ever having directed a perfunctory exposition of the what's going to make the scene interesting so i have to add an element now in the opposite in bardie's version you know you've got beautiful writing that from the get-go and you've got beautiful acting so the question is you know what now get once again how can i get out of the way of it how can i get out of the way of it rather than trying to add it's almost like you want to subtract no make sure that it makes sure that it is real and human is possible so that you make you know the

8:38job mmm it will steady work very good job go to go to work every week make a little mini feature that's exciting and deals with like you know all sorts of you know perversion funky things so why the decision to leave just wanted to try new things yeah i think you know after nine years it was enough i'd made forty six episodes as a director and produced about a hundred and fifty of them written a handful i think it was time to uh... try to figure out how to have a make another movie since well music yeah and what what's next are you working on anything i am uh... nothing nothing in stone yet but i can't really talk about much but i'm definitely definitely working on a couple things that uh... i'm excited about well i'm sure you're gonna be in demand over the next couple months after this one's huge success from your mouth to god yeah let's hope so uh... before i let you go five quick questions one word answers

9:26spielberger scores a z lennon or mccartney kubrick or hitchcock kubrick picture you're most proud of i think bernie and uh... in one word bernie's version all nice