I had the opportunity to participate the in press junket for the film earlier this month, and was among the online reporters invited to this roundtable interview with director Spike Lee. Here are the highlights from the 20-minute Q&A session.
So is this the opportunity to direct some action for you? Is that something that really attracted you to Oldboy. I know that the choreography is it seems like it has your hands in it. And I don't know if you did most of the fight choreography yourself.
LEE: No, I'm not a fight choreographer.
But it was the story. It didn't have nothing to do with the action. It was a part
of it though. It was the story. That was the reason why I was interested in it,
in doing a re-interpretation of this film.
What was it
about the story that pulled you in?
LEE: Revenge. Revenge. And the fact
that you had this individual who's locked up. Why don't you, yeah close it
(door closing and locking). Individual who's locked up for twenty years not
knowing who did it or why that was done to him.
Do you expect
that most people have seen the original when they see yours?
LEE: Most people have not seen the
original.
Was it easier
to adapt a foreign film?
LEE: I don't think so. Mark Protosevich
wrote the script, did a good job. But we, Josh Brolin and I, never ever sat
down and said for any specific thing like that's Korean it's not going to work
in America. We never thought like that.
When you
decided to do it, did you have the cast in mind already?
LEE: No, I just knew that Josh and I had
been talking about for years working together. So it was Josh and I went in
together and with the help of my casting director, Kim Coleman we had to fill
out the roster.
Can you talk
about how you came to meet Josh and why you always wanted to work with him?
LEE: Well for a period of four or five
years we always meet at a premiere or film he's doing here in New York. American Gangster, No Country For Old Men, Wall
Street. And we always see each other during the movie. We always end up
together, having a drink at the after party (laughter). “Let's work together.” “Okay.”
Then we see each other next year for another film. So four or five years this
went on and then finally Oldboy
happened.
Is there a
story that he needed the blessing of Park Chan-wook? You needed it too?
LEE: Yes.
True? And has
he already seen the movie?
LEE: He has not seen the film yet. But
that story is true. Before Josh agreed to do it he met with Park. Asked for his
blessing. Park gave it and told Josh don't try and remake my film, do your own
film.
Now this
movie, you know it hinges on a twist. You guys, I think, put a put a sort of a
different twist on this twist, sort of dangle in front of our face more than
the other film does. And you make it a little bit more eye opening than that
film did as far as I can tell having seen yours first. Is this something you
felt like you had to do, because it was sort of an obstacle?
LEE: I had to do what?
I'm trying to say
without saying it. But I mean the other film twists sort of never really gave
you the ability to predict it. Whereas your film I feel like, having viewed it
first, and not knowing the twist, I was like how did I not see that coming.
LEE: I don't know how to answer that. I
mean, I don't want to give away the twist. But I do think that for a lot of
people that see it they would not have heard of Oldboy. They've never seen a Korean film in their life. So it's
gonna be new to a majority of the audiences that sees this film.
What sort of
thinking went into this to give it an American as opposed to an Asian sensibility?
LEE: Like I said before, Josh and I
never sat down and said “This is Korean culture it can't work in America.” That
was never our thinking. We don't think like that. Storytelling is global.
Excuse me storytelling is global. It's all about what's gonna work for the
story. So it never came down to nationality. Ever.
You purposely
didn't really define where this takes place?
LEE: Right.
I think people
might've assumed “It's a Spike Lee film. Maybe it's New York.” You know you
shot in New Orleans, maybe it's going to be New Orleans. Talk about why that
is. It's such a dark film you really didn't want to attach location to it?
LEE: Well we just wanted to be
non-descript city. That's a very hard thing to do in New Orleans. New Orleans
is one of the most distinct cities in the United States of America. So it was a
challenge to shoot there, but not make it look like New Orleans. The reason why
people shoot in Louisiana, because the state of Louisiana has the best tax break
now. Rebate. So you have hundreds of people who left LA and moved to New
Orleans because that's where films are being made; that's where the work is.
What's New
Orleans like these days? Has it is it bounced back at all?
LEE: There's been some progress, but
the main thing is still a large number of African-American population which is
not returned yet and probably won't. They've been forced to migrate to Atlanta,
Houston, San Antonio. Have found better paying jobs, better schools, a better
way of living. So that's still been the thing that that the city is missing.
Revenge aside
and character development, in the back of my mind I'm thinking about the prison
system. Do you think that would work maybe there wouldn't be so many people
returning back to prison if they'd went through some sort of system like that.
LEE: No (laughter).
I read that Josh
Brolin seems to think that the longer director's cut, as they say, that you
know three-hour version of this film, he sort of prefers.
LEE: He never. Let's clear this up right now. There never was
a three-hour cut. What Josh was shown was like two hours and I would say
twenty-five minutes. But there never was a three-hour cut.
My question
was going to be what caused this length seemed to perfectly mirror the length
of the original film and it also seemed like, I don't know, what could've been
on the cutting room floor. Can you start to talk about what might have been,
you know, if it wasn't a two hour, twenty minute version, what would've been in
there?
LEE: Man, all I'm gonna say is it's a
tough business. That's how I'll answer that question.
Is there
anything you took away from this film in a sense of whether it be the long one
take action sequences that you can see yourself enjoying and doing more of in
future films.
LEE: Hmm. We've done a lot of one takes
over three decades of my film-making. But it was fun trying doing the fight
sequence. We worked on that long and hard. Josh worked really hard with the
stunt coordinator, the stunt guys. Sean Bobbitt worked very hard. The great DP
because we had to not only to have to choreograph the fighting, we had to choreograph
the camera too. We shot that, if you know that the original film that was
really shot in one plane actually was left to right. Ours was on three different
levels. So that's somethingthat we had fun doing.
Since Josh was
in here, was he a little chunkier in the beginning of the movie? And then lost
weight.
LEE: Oh yeah, he gained 50 pounds.
Can you
discuss that?
LEE: Well he met with a bunch of
doctors and dietitians, and they came with state diet, the state plan, the
state program for him to gain weight and lose weight over a relatively short
amount of time. So through, the way it was explained to me most of the weight
he gained was water. So he had to lose it, lose like twenty thirty pounds over
a weekend. We made that transition from shooting in a cell to going back
outside. Josh will do whatever it takes.
How did that
affect his personality would you say?
LEE: Well, he said that, I mean it has
to, I mean, DeNiro I mean is famous here. DeNiro talked about the month
depression he had after doing the Raging
Bull and the weight he had to gain for that. Right now it's much more
advanced and doesn't take months to lose the weight, but it does affect your
psychology though. I mean you can't be happy about, uh, you become another
person with that weight gain.
And to you
what was, I mean Josh Brolin first and
foremost out of this too but, sort of the second most important casting
decision. Was it Sharlto? Who did you feel that needed to be the exact right
decision to make this your movie as far as the characters in the film the
original?
LEE: All the leads. I wouldn't put them
uh numerical order but they're all crucial. Uh, Sharlto, uh Sam's role, Liz
Olsen. Those are all crucial so they all were high priority, that to surround
Josh with the best actors we could get.
Can you can
you talk about the casting process was it was it did these, once you kind of
honed in on these performers, did the character kind of get catered to them, or
were you casting sort of Sharlto types for the villain?
LEE: No, don't we didn't cast anybody
else. That's what we wanted. And I
remember the first time I saw him I knew who he was and that was District 9. So
when I see a performance like that, I make a mental note that's somebody I
wanna work with in the future. And this is an industry where everything is
timing. So you might have a role but they're on to do another movie whatever
happens, so you have to wait until it happens. That's the case it was with Josh
and I working, cause I said before we'd talk for four or five years working
together, but that's never been presenting itself until Oldboy.
Is there a
shorthand now working with Sam? And does he give any input or is he allowed?
LEE: Sam is allowed. Samuel L. Jackson
is allowed to do whatever he wants to do (laughter). But it was great working
with him again. The last time we worked together was in Jungle Fever, which was 1991. And it's like we never missed a step.
He called me up and said “I wanna be in this film.”
Was that his
idea the mohawk?
LEE: No, that was my idea. When you
cast Samuel in film you're always thinking about what's the hair gonna be like.
So I asked if he ever wore a Mohawk before? He said “no.” I said you can wear
one in this film if you want to. And he said “Let's do it.”
And but a
blonde one no less.
LEE: We had two different colors, so
there's one when Joe's locked up and then the change when he gets out. But
passes the time.
Some of some
of the visual choices in the film. One that jumps out to me, and is sort of because
you guys gave out the umbrellas to the press. So that in particular was the big
change between the two films. Who came up with that? There's just the look of
the umbrellas, the colors, the vibrancy that type of thing.
LEE: Well that color is one of Nike's
most popular colors now (laughter). It's called Bolt. And I we wanted something
that, again story, he's been locked up. We had to have something visual that would
grab his attention. So I mean a black umbrella? He's not looking for a black
umbrella. I mean he's gonna look at something that blares out “look at me.”
Cause we had to think like Sharlto's character. This is a plan. He spent years
putting this plan into place. He's thought about every single thing. The color
of the umbrella, where we're gonna drop him off, who’s the person handing the
umbrella, who I'm gonna cast for all these people we're showing on television. All
that stuff, all that plan was thought out. We had to think like, think like
him.
Was that sort
of then your nod to Nike? To have the Bolt color?
LEE: Imma do more than that (laughter).
Are you going
to do another commercial for them anytime soon?
LEE: Well you gotta ask Michael Jordan
(laughter).
Anything
specific you like to do on all your films techniques that you were still able
to bring to Oldboy just to make it more your own?
LEE: Just do what I do. Do what I've
been doing since 1986. To be honest there was really no extra. I never came to
a situation where “Oh God, I've never done a film like this before. What am I
gonna do?” It was never that thinking. It's another film, it’s a different
story. It’s still storytelling.
Do you have a
preference for shooting, uh, film versus digital? Or any opinion about that at
all.
LEE: It depends. When you have money
you can afford to shoot on the film. We shot some 35. We don't have money. My
new Kickstarter film, which is called Da Blood of Jesus, we shot this on this
new Sony Camera called F55 which was wonderful. We can afford to shoot on 35mm
with the amount of money we raised on Kickstarter.
You must
really love Kickstarter, because I know when you started you had credit cards
paying for your movies.
LEE: That was Robert Townsend, that wasn't me. I aint even have a credit card (laughter). But what the point I was trying to make a lot of times with these criticisms I was getting was the principles of Kickstarter I've been doing since before there was Internet, before there was Twitter. Social Media was me calling people up, writing postcards, pens to paper, writing letters, so the principles have not changed it's the technology.
You yourself invested
in other people's Kickstarters? Or you sort of just using it for your own
purposes.
LEE: Oh no, no,
no. I've invested in at least eight or nine projects since I got on Kickstarter.
And can people
I mean do you sort of tweet it out there, I mean fans of yours that sort of
trust your you know your work can they see what you've invested in and be like
this may be something I wanna look into as well?
LEE; Oh yes. If you go, if you go to
Kickstarter and look under “Spike Lee,” you'll
see a listing of film and the names of the films and filmmakers that and I
think the amount of money too that I've contributed you can check it out.
What's been
like the coolest giveaway you've done through Kickstarter?
LEE: Well that's really the most
expensive one, where you get to sit with me courtside at a Knick game. And go
to dinner.
How much is
that?
LEE: That was $10,000.
Wow.
LEE: And we sold 36 games. But I gotta
pay for tickets too so it's not really. Tickets are $3400.
Can you talk a
little bit about Da Blood of Jesus?
LEE: Da Blood of Jesus?
Yes.
LEE: This, Da Blood of Jesus title of
my new film. Uh, it's about people addicted to blood but they're not vampires.
It's a temporary film. We shot it in New York City in Martha's Vineyard and
we're editing the film now. It's starring two relatively unknown actors but
great talents. Stephen Tyrone Williams, who was in Nora Ephron's Lucky Guy with Tom Hanks. And a young
British actress, her name is Zaraah Abrahams. So they did a phenomenal job.
And is that a
comedy?
LEE: There's humor in it, but a lot of
blood and sex too.
Cool
(laughter). Thank you.
LEE: Thank you.
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