When news broke over the weekend about the death of Czech-American filmmaker Milos Forman, movie lovers, actors and directors mourned the legacy of a man who celebrated rebels and outcasts in iconic, Oscar-winning works like One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Amadeus.Forman was fearless, taking on controversial projects his satireThe Firemans Ball was banned in his homeland ofCzechoslovakia and, in the case of Amadeus, arguing that the roles of the vain, mediocre composer Antonio Salieri and bratty young genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart must be played by unknowns rather than movie stars.
It was a risky decision when adapting a smash, Tony-winning play, but Forman stuck to his guns, casting Animal House costar Tom Hulce as Mozart and stage actor F. Murray Abraham as Salieri a role that won the latter a Best Actor Oscar.Abraham spoke from his home in New York Sunday night about his unlikely path to Amadeus, what he so admired in Forman and why they were never close.
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Before Amadeus, I was making a living and supporting my family [as an actor] but I wasnt prominent at all. At that time, British actors were being brought in to do plays and movies, and Americans were brought in to support them. I really objected to it because I thought we were as good as any British actors. They asked me, along with a whole bunch of other people, to do improvisational scenes around the [Peter Shaffer] play, which we all knew because it was famous. But I said, I want to come in and read for [Salieri] or I dont want to do it at all.
When I insisted on auditioning only for that role, I didnt think I had a chance in the world of getting it. I auditioned a few times, but I didnt meet Milos until I had this little interview in his apartment. The only film of his I knew was Cuckoos Nest, but when he was interested in seeing me, I saw Firemans Ball, which is really terrific. [Laughs] I thought, This is a guy I want to work with! Basically, Im a comedian, and I loved the [films] sense of humor. It wasnt foreign to me, because Im from the border of Mexico, and Im familiar with certain classical Mexican movies. But that movie was unusual it was a take on life that I just simply responded to.
He was not sentimental at all. We tried to give him a surprise birthday party once [during shooting]. He came into the party and turned around and walked out.
I still didnt expect to get the part, though I just wanted to have the audition material, and to meet Milos Forman. We did this audition, and when I was finished, he just disappeared. It was a very famous role and a very famous play, and actors from all over the world wanted to do it. Some very famous people came to audition for him with their own makeup men, by the way. So it was ridiculous. It was a British writer, and they always used British actors. But then he called me and said he wanted me to do it.
He never told me [why he picked me]. Hes not a man who does that kind of thing. Hes very direct. It was always about getting it done. But what he saw in me, I think, was someone who understood the role. There was no discussion of the play or the direction or how it was going to be shot or anything like that. He was very businesslike he just wanted to make sure there was a clarity in our exchanges and an understanding between us. Its what any director does with actors: Can they speak his language? Can he speak theirs? He saw in me that thing that he was looking for in that character. And if a man like that, whos gambling like that on you well, you know he trusts you. Thats the greatest compliment.
While we were filming Amadeus, if I tried something if I read a scene, and he didnt think it was truthful or honest his expression was [stern Czech accent] Thats bullshit. But that didnt bother me. There is something that happens between an actor and a director [as an actor] you know when a director knows what hes doing. You know that very early in the relationship. Some directors talk a good game, but they dont really know what the fuck theyre talking about. The best acting comes from when you trust your director to say, Thats not right try this.
During the shoot in Czechoslovakia, we had nothing to do with each other, ever it was always [only about] the film. But thats what I chose to do, also. I didnt have anything to do with anybody else on the film I was separate from them all, because thats what I thought Salieri would have been like. He was his own man: It was between him and God, and that was it. I lived in a separate hotel. Our communication was only on the set, ever. And he wasnt a schmoozer.
We had to contend with several different personalities and several different approaches to discussing things with actors from different cultures and backgrounds. We had Brits, we had Czechs, we had Germans, we had Americans and all of them have to be spoken to in a different way even though the lingua franca was English. But he was the boss. He and his old friend from school days, [Miroslav] Ondricek, the great cinematographer who should have won an Oscar for that picture, and they would have screaming fits it was really funny. Ondricek walked with a short cane, and he would swing it and shout and scream at Milos. I dont know what they were saying it was all in Czech but Forman didnt scream at any of the actors.
Hed sometimes lose his temper, though. With Roy Dotrice [who played Mozarts father], hed sometimes say [stern Czech accent] That looks too much like acting! I want it more natural! And then Roy would do it again, and hed say, No! Now you are acting as though you are not acting! Thats an interesting comment. He really wouldnt settle.
The way we were shooting it it was so elaborate, and the costumes and the sets were authentic. Im not sure if I can explain the difference it makes to be working in a place thats that many hundreds of years old and to shoot in the same theater where Mozart actually conducted Don Giovanni from the same platform. All of that affected us. I even wore one of the costumes from that period. The Czech people worshiped Milos they adored him, and they gave him everything he wanted for that film.
He left Czechoslovakia to escape Communism to find artistic freedom. He went back once on the promise that the Communist regime would not keep him in Czechoslovakia. [They said] he could come back and visit he had family there and then he could go back to America. But he found out while he was there that they were going to put him in jail, and some friends smuggled him out. They put him under some blankets in the backseat of a car which is very dangerous, needless to say. Thats how he got out.
So before he went back to shoot Amadeus in Prague, they made ironclad deals between governments that he would be safe. So he became someone who had returned to Czechoslovakia as a conquering hero who had overcome the regime. And on those terms, he was functioning on a different plane as a director, I believe. He was functioning as a hero, but not with the laurel on his forehead. He was not redeeming himself he was coming home, and doing this not only for himself and his family but for the Czech people. Like, This is what we can accomplish. This has nothing to do with Communism it has to do with us and our art and what we can do. I think it fed the work.
The only time he ever gave me a compliment [laughs] hes not very easy with compliments, rest his soul was about halfway through. He said [stern Czech accent] You know, the guy whos running the editing of the film, he said [pause, reluctant] you are a good actor. [laughs] And then when I won the Academy Award, I said some very nice things about him [in my acceptance speech], but the only thing he ever said to me afterward was [stern Czech accent] That was a very good speech. [laughs] Its not a question of saying, Thank you. That was the man he was. And its okay with me I owe him.
We didnt stay in touch hes not sentimental at all that way. We tried to give him a surprise birthday party once [during shooting]. He came into the party and turned around and walked out. [Laughs] He didnt want anything to do with it. That should give you a sense of his sentimentality. We had nothing to do with each other after the film was over. When I separated myself from the company originally, that separateness hung over.
But we would communicate. He would ask me to show up at events for fundraising that had to do with Amadeus, and he would be there and we would say hello. It wasnt until some anniversary of the film I published a full-page ad in Variety thanking the producer and Milos for giving me the break of a lifetime. And when that happened, I began to hear a hello from them every once in a while. When he won an award from the Directors Guild, he asked me to present it. That, to me, was the farthest hed ever gone in a gesture to our friendship, which was fine with me. But hes dear to me.
His death was expected hed been suffering for a while, so I thought the end was near, but I didnt know it was this near. And Im saddened by it. I would have liked to have let him know how much he means to me. I did that long-distance, through publications, and I think thats as much as he ever wanted or would allow. He wouldnt allow any fawning, I think.
Its interesting I wanted more, because I owe him so much. I wanted to show him how much I appreciated what he did. He had some balls, you know: Casting me and Tom [Hulce]? He could have had anyone he wanted, and it would have been guaranteed box office. But he was right, because you would have never connected [to] a prominent star in the role you would have only thought about the actor. The lesson the business should have learned from Milos Formans courageous casting of two unknowns in these plum roles has not been learned.
Ill always remember how his total command of all the elements of the film sucked you into his concentration. Hed intensely argue with his cinematographer, intensely talk with his camera operator, look intensely through the lens for a while, shout for some changes. But then, when he was ready to shoot, hed perch on an apple box and become very still, elbows on knees, chin on hands, with his face as close to the lens as possible, like he was trying to see exactly what the camera was seeing. But it never distracted me his childlike pose seemed to encourage me with its innocence and its trust.
Milos Forman was as tough as nails, but he had a nose for the truth. Its what separates a really great director from just a mediocre director its someone who is really trying to find in you the best thing that you have to offer. And there arent many like that.
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