By Kit Bowen, Hollywood.com Staff
You once said you have a drawer full of little matchbooks on which
you've jotted down ideas. Did you get this story from that pile
in the drawer?
Woody Allen: This was a prime example of that, yes. This was an
idea that occurred to me spontaneously on the street once and I
threw it in the drawer, along with Small Time Crooks and another
film I just finished shooting called Hollywood Ending. These are
all comedies that I wanted to get to but didn't have the time because
I was doing other films. A couple of years ago, I pulled them all
out of the drawer, and now I've done three of them. What I do next
I don't know, but I'm hoping eventually to do another idea in the
drawer.
Was it accidental or intentional to have two comedic crime capers
come out back-to- back [Small Time Crooks came out last year]?
Allen: Completely accidental. Yet, [they're] different in the sense
that in addition to wanting to make Jade Scorpion a crime picture,
I wanted to make it a romantic bantering picture. I grew up on those
Cary Grant/Rosalind Russell or Tracy/Hepburn movies, where you knew
they'd get together but you didn't know how because they seem to
hate each other so much. And they were always insulting one another
and topping one another. I always loved [those films] when I was
a kid.
You get hypnotized in the film. Ever done it, or wanted to, in
real life?
Allen: No. I have no interest in it whatsoever. It was always this
exotic thing when I was growing up. People thought of it as half
comic, half sinister. But I've never been hypnotized. I don't think
that I could be. I'd giggle. I've seen it done for entertainment
purposes. I could never figure out how much of it was fake or how
much was real. It's tough to tell but apparently very entertaining
to people.
How did you cast Helen Hunt and the rest of the cast?
Allen: Helen Hunt to me--and to Juliet Taylor, when we were casting--was
an obvious choice [for Betty "Fitz" Fitzgerald]. I finished
the script and we started pitching names. And the minute Helen Hunt's
name came up [snaps his fingers], that was it! She projects that
intelligence. She's got that great cutting sense of humor, and I've
worked with a number of great comediennes through the years. When
she walks into the room, she's got that authority. She could come
in to the office, take over and put you down no matter how many
times I insulted her. Dan Aykroyd was a tougher part to cast because
that character has got to exploit Helen [but] be sort of likable
and funny, and attractive enough. Everything came together smoothly.
It was an easy picture to do.
Why set the film in the 1940s?
Allen: It's a 1940s-style story. Hypnosis was very exotic for that
time. Now, it would much more clinical. Also the kind of banter
between the men and women was very indigenous of that time. I like
to do period films of the '20s, '30s and '40s because I like the
music, the clothing styles, the visuals and the way the women looked--the
romance of the era. I like in the '20s the gangsters with the violin
cases with the machine guns in them. And the '40s with the soldiers
and the sailors, you know, kissing their girlfriends goodbye. It's
a very good visual thing. So I do a lot of period films in those
three decades.
A lot of people are calling this film "vintage Woody."
How do you feel about that label?
Allen: You know, I personally never can understand any of that.
From where I sit, I'm doing now what I did in 1968 when I first
started making films. I just make what I feel like making at the
time. If tomorrow I woke up and had an idea for a very heavy film
about religion in medieval Norway, um, I'd do it. I would never
make a film just to get [audiences] in. I made this film cause I
wanted to get this idea done. So when people call it vintage, I'm
sure that's right for them. For me, it's just the idea I had at
that moment.
You frequently appear in your films, but you've been quoted saying
that one of the biggest surprises in this movie was that you weren't
a very good actor. Is that right?
Allen: No, not exactly the right quote. But I'm not an actor really.
I can play a few things; I'm very, very limited. I can play the
sort of New York neurotic character close to what I am. I can play
a writer, musician or something like that. And I can play a lowlife,
well, just because I can. But apart from that... I've tried on many
of my films to get other people [for my parts]. I would have been
thrilled if Tom Hanks or Tom Cruise or Dustin Hoffman were available
to do this. I would have happily bowed out. But the next film, Hollywood
Ending, I'm perfect for [the role]. I really am the right person
because the lead character is a New York neurotic filmmaker. I'm
better for it than say Tom Cruise, more believable. But all those
guys are great, it's just they work 365 days a year.
People who have worked with you generally talk about being thrilled
as well as terrified to get the opportunity to work with such a
legend.
Allen: It's funny, isn't it? It's part of the mythology. The pros
and cons about me, which is just total mythology. People think that
I'm a recluse and that I'm a formidable character. Nothing could
be further from the truth. I live in New York. I walk around the
streets all the time. I go out for dinner. I lead a middle-class
life with my family. I'm not secretive. But all these things get
built up in the press and they think they are going to be working
with someone whose got all kinds of creative, eccentric habits.
So you're dispelling the myth, then?
The film is never my first priority. It's always either family or
going home on time. Or getting to the Knicks game on time. The film
is just one part of my life. I go home early--I never work nights.
I'm not a perfectionist at all. I don't like to rehearse because
it bores me. If there's a scene I'm shooting with a mistake in it,
I don't do another take particularly because I don't have the patience.
[Actors] are disabused of that notion that they are going to come
in and be working with someone that is formidable or will fire them
or will yell at them. Or make them to do crazy things. I never get
a performance from anyone that wasn't there before I met them. I
hire top people as actors and actresses. And then I get out of their
way. I tell them, if you want to change the script, change it. If
you want to say these lines, you can say them. If you don't want
to say them, as long as you're in character, make up your own lines.
If you want to ad lib, you can ad lib. I give them enormous amounts
of freedom. So after a couple of weeks, all the mythology gets completely
dispelled.
