Adrian in the A.M.

"Well, I loved the book. I loved the idea that this woman-- this strong independent woman--totally gave herself over to someone else. But then you cast Mickey Rourke! Are you out of your mind? Who would want to surrender to him?"

"So," he asks, not the least bit offended, "who would you have surrendered to?"

"Let's see," I say. "Jeff Bridges. Yeah, I would totally surrender to him."

"Oh, Jeff Bridges would have been good. Yes, yes, he would have been wonderful. Well, go on, what did you think of Fatal Attraction?"

I figure I'm on a roll now, "What is it you were trying to say, exactly ... that if you have sex with someone who's not your spouse you wind up in hell? I don't buy that for a minute. And that women who like sex are predatory bitches who would boil your baby's bunny?"

"Slow down Martha. Jesus Christ."

"I guess this means you won't be taking me to the editing room."

"Do you know the story of Indecent Proposal?" he asks, trying to get us onto solid ground. "It's about this couple that are down on their luck [Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson]. They go to Vegas to see if they can make a little money. And a very wealthy man [Robert Redford] offers them a million dollars for a night with Demi. It would solve all their problems, and it's not like they haven't been with other people before they were married. It's not like they're being offered a million dollars to blow someone away. They're being offered a million dollars to make love to someone. Which, on the face of it, isn't so awful. But in this country and in England, too, if you talk to someone about that idea, some people get so outraged and so angry that you would even contemplate making a movie about this subject that you get the impression that they would find it easier to take the million dollars and shoot someone anonymously."

"I know," I say. "Some newspapers asked people if they would shoot their own pets for a million bucks, and a lot of them said yes."

Lyne laughs, although I'm not sure he sees the parallel.

"You know how prudish we English and you Americans are," he says.

"Of course I do. That's why your films have been so successful, Adrian. We get to see your characters doing all the stuff we can't."

"There's not too many genuinely sexy movies, are there?" he asks rhetorically.

I shake my head, no.

"Last Tango in Paris was sexy, at least I remember it being sexy," he says.

"BORING."

"Really?" he says. "I'm so disappointed. So what's sexy?"

"Don't Look Now," I venture.

"Oh yes," he agrees, "that cutting was fabulous."

"Is Indecent Proposal sexy?"

A frightened look appears on his face. "Yeah, I think it is. I sure hope so. It's funny, the areas that you think will be sexy ... sometimes it's the unexpected areas that are so much sexier. There's this bit in the movie where Demi comes back after her night with Redford, and she comes back with lipstick on, and Woody looks at her and takes his finger and smears the lipstick all over her face, as if to say, 'Get rid of him.' And that wound up to be really sexy. Because it was full of jealousy, which is a giant aphrodisiac. That moment of wanting to reclaim her. The problem with the movie, and it's a huge problem, is that if we don't do this right, it's like Woody is the pimp and Demi is the whore. And that's a very big problem that we had to work out. Hopefully we have. You'll see."

"When?" I ask, already gathering up my things.

"Redford is fabulous," he says, trying to distract me. "He was annoyed with me because I wanted to do so many takes, but if you gave him a hint about another way to do it, he would think of 10 more. I wasn't prepared for how inventive he was. I hope people like him. I was excited just to work with him. I swear, I was pinching myself."

"I heard that you saw everyone in town to play his part."

"I saw everyone in town for all the parts. When I'm casting, I want to see everyone. I saw Brad Pitt for quite a long time for this film. For the part Woody plays. I saw Isabelle Adjani, but it didn't work because she would have been working in another language. She's a wonderful actress, we wouldn't have known she wasn't American. But when the other actors started to move away from the script, she was thrown. In the end, this combination worked out great. They all did a great job, so if the thing fucks up, it's all my fault.

"I'm going to do Lolita next," he continues. "I think that fucking novel is brilliant."

"That's funny," I say, "because when I watched all your films, one of the notes I made was that there was this borderline pedophilia in your work..."

"Nice, Martha. Very fucking nice."

"So Lolita, how perfect."

"Borderline pedophilia, huh? And I'm supposed to show you part of my film? Am I a f*cking masochist, or what?"

I do believe the man has just invited me to the editing room.

"God, I hope you like it," he says on the ride over to Paramount. "What if you don't?"

"Well, I haven't liked the last four. Maybe five will be lucky."

"Even Jacob's Ladder?" he asks. I shrug. "That's the only one I really like," he continues. "I guess you always like the lame duck, the one all the critics hated. God, I really must be crazy to be taking you to see this."

After a while he says, "I never liked the film they made from Lolita. James Dearden [Fatal Attraction] has written a script, and the last draft I thought was very good. I'm trying to be real faithful to the novel. I want to use voice-overs and whatever it takes to get it right. Kubrick's film was ... I don't know, it's not really faithful to the book. I'm very excited about this project."

As we pull into the lot, he turns to me and says, "I'm kind of neurotic, as you can see. I'm so worried that you're not going to like the film."

"Adrian, you're beginning to annoy me."

"I'll show you the bit in the bed when they make the decision. I think that'll be good for you. This is after Redford has made the offer, and they're just tossing it back and forth. And Woody doesn't say yes, and he doesn't say no. And I think she's kind of waiting for him to say no, but he never does. And the idea is that these two people, who love each other so much, that they could handle this, pretend that it never happened, or that it happened before they were married, and they can go on with their lives. But remember, it's long, it's too fucking long, okay?"

The editor and Lyne give me the "it's too long" speech for another 10 minutes, and then Lyne shows me some notes he had made in his script. "There's this scene in Breathless ..." he begins.

"The real Breathless?"

"Yeah, where half the scene is like them talking under a sheet. Do you remember that? Well, I wanted the scene where Woody and Demi decide whether she should go with Redford to look like that. Just all this white, from the sheets, and them rolling around under it. Oh, God, just watch the thing."

And here's the amazing part: Indecent Proposal looks great. The scene with Woody and Demi in bed is funny, touching, sexy, and opens many questions about the nature of jealousy, trust and sexuality. Redford and Demi Moore look fantastic together. The production is lavish and beautiful. Call me crazy--call me a moron--but I can't wait to see the finished film.

"Okay, Adrian," I call on my way out the door. "Don't muck it up. It looks like you got something great."

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Martha Frankel wrote "Everybody's Doing It ... Or Are They?" for the January/February Movieline.

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