Stephen Frears: An Englishman Abroad
Q: That's astounding.
A: I married a Jewish woman. Here [in the U.S.] Jewishness is talked about a lot and it's very visible and articulated. In England there's a sort of silence about it. There's many things in England that are repressed. That's the nature of English society. They just eliminate what they don't like.
Q: Have you begun to learn about it now?
A: I'm not a religious person, but I started reading a book about the history of the Jews. And coming here you get a strong sense of it which I find rather liberating. That's why, in some respects, I feel more comfortable here.
Q: But you still live there?
A: Because my life is there, and I'm English, it's everything that I know and love.
Q: Probably the question most Americans want to know about England has to do with the survival of the Royal family and whether the Queen will ever step down and let Charles have his chance.
A: No, she won't step down, because she knows the generation behind her are cripples.
Q: Maybe she helped make them that way.
A: Of course, oh absolutely, without doubt.
Q: When you were in Cambridge, weren't the members of Monty Python there too?
A: Yes. I sat in a room for three years with John Cleese. It was a law lecture, so humor was low on the list. Then one day I went to the theater and there he was being funny. I couldn't believe it. Till then, I'd thought of him as a tall bloke with a black beard.
Q: What so attracted you to theater?
A: At the time, that was where the best new writing was happening in England. It was where the most exciting things that I could find were happening in Britain. Lindsay Anderson was there, and I was sort of in his gang.
Q: You worked as an assistant to Karel Reisz. Didn't you also work for Albert Finney when he directed Charlie Bubbles?
A: Yes. That was Albert's first film as a director and he was learning how to make a film, so I learned with him.
Q: And then you worked with Lindsay Anderson on if .... What did you think of these men as your mentors?
A: I learned from Lindsay and Karel like you learn from your mother's breasts. I just imbibed. I learned values. The point about Lindsay and Karel is that they were the revolution, you know. They changed the world. They believed--if you were to ask them now, they'd say they were wrong--we are artists, and we only make films we care about, so there'd be these five-year gaps between films.
Q: What do you think are their best films?
A: Karel's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is wonderful. And the one he did about the country/western singer, Sweet Dreams. Lindsay? I suppose if .... I think they are great men, both of them.
Q: Are there any writers today you favor?
A: Salman Rushdie is a wonderful writer. I saw him the other day. I don't know how he's held up, but he's magnificent. He came very close to coming apart.
Q: What do you think about American television?
A: I don't understand it. I watch a lot of it in Britain. "Cheers," "The Golden Girls," "Roseanne." Friday night is American sitcom night. When I'm here I don't watch it, I can't work out when things are on.
Q: You made 24 television movies before Laundrette was released as a feature. Did your TV background, which favors speed and economy, help when you learned that a competing version of Dangerous Liaisons --Milos Forman's Valmont -- was being made at the same time?
A: Oh, I knew I could work faster than Milos.
Q: How often do good books make good movies?
A: Not often, but I think Liaisons is great. The Grapes of Wrath was a good book and a good film, wasn't it?
Q: How complicated was Liaisons to make?
A: It wasn't really. I mean, I never thought I would make a costume picture. I know nothing about the 18th century, it was just my way of doing something to answer Barry Lyndon. It was the first anti-Thatcher film.
Q: Who are the directors you most admire?
A: Name them.
Q: Spielberg?
A: Genius.
Q: Coppola?
A: Genius
Q: Altman?
A: Genius.
Q: Paul Schrader?
A: He's a good writer.
Q: What do you think of your fellow countryman David Lean?
A: That's a bit complicated. He's sort of too overwhelming. I'm half in rebellion against him and half in admiration.
Q: Who are the other people you're in awe of?
A: I'm in awe of everybody.
Q: Do you ever feel intimidated?
A: By everybody.
Q: It's hard to believe you.
A: Well, it's true.
Q: What are some projects you've turned down?
A: Well, I never read Thelma & Louise, but I was asked to do it with Jodie Foster and Michelle Pfeiffer. I'd like to have done that, but I was planning The Grifters.
Q: Would you have done it much differently?
A: Of course.
Q: Would it have been better?
A: [Laughing] Of course.
Q: Would you describe yourself as complicated?
A: Very. Very.
Q: How about lucky?
A: Very.
Q: Are you happier now than when you were younger?
A: Yes, much. How many people can say that?
Q: Are you pessimistic or optimistic about the future?
A: Both.
Q: And of your career?
A: I depend on getting a script that I like. I could be the most successful person in the world and if I didn't get a script that I liked it would be a catastrophe as far as I'm concerned. All I need is a script--that gets me going.
Q: Well, it's time to let you get back to work.
A: I had no idea you were going to ask me all these questions. It's taken me by surprise. It's been good, I've been kept out of the editing room. I have a very good editor, and the more I leave him alone, the better the film will be.
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Lawrence Grobel interviewed Meryl Streep for our August cover story.
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