Joel Schumacher: Radiance and Shadow
Q: Are there actresses out there you've not worked with who you find sexy?
A: I'm dying to work with Cameron Diaz. As hilariously entertaining as the Farrelly brothers were with There's Something About Mary, Cameron was the glue that held the movie together. You buy the whole movie about every man being in love with her because you're in love with her, too. I think that some of the European actresses, Irene Jacob and Emmanuelle Beart, are beautiful. Lauryn Hill is a world-class beauty, and she's also so smart. Jennifer Lopez, Liv Tyler, Helen Mirren.
Q: You spent your childhood and teens watching every movie you could. Which films were instructive to you in how to make people indelible on-screen?
A: I grew up during that era of James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift. They were still making Rita Hayworth movies. Imagine being a poor little kid in Queens, no TV, going into a huge movie palace and watching Marilyn Monroe in Niagara, walking out of a bungalow in that pink dress; Marlon Brando in The Wild One, Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor in A Place in the Sun; John Garfield and Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice ; Brando and Anna Magnani in The Fugitive Kind; Silvana Mangano in Bitter Rice, James Dean in East of Eden-- the narcissistic mortification that has to do with his mother being a whore, him outside the hall watching; Patricia Neal and Paul Newman in Hud; the original film Les Liaisons Dangereuses with Jeanne Moreau and Gerard Philipe. In fact, all Jeanne Moreau's early movies--like The Lovers, where she keeps her pearls on during sex. I borrowed that for Ally Sheedy in St. Elmo's Fire.
Q: Warner Bros. seems to have snuffed your movie Dreamgirls, which would have given you an opportunity to put some gorgeously sexual images on-screen.
A: It's a big disappointment. The first screenplay I wrote was Sparkle, and it was made at Warner Bros, for $750,000. It was always my naive dream to direct Sparkle because I grew up watching those shows in the Brooklyn Paramount. When David Geffen called me up two years ago and asked, "Would you direct Dreamgirls for me?" it seemed like a dream come true. I leapt into it and have spent the last two years preparing it. I still don't know what happened, but as far as I know right now, it's canceled.
Q: Do you take that personally? Warner Bros. indulged Clint Eastwood on Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Kevin Costner in The Postman. You've put out as many hits as either of them.
A: I think it would be extraordinarily unenlightened to take a business decision in a corporation personally. If they fired me as a director and hired somebody else, I might take that personally. But I don't think you should make movies because the director made a lot of money for you on other movies. I'd rather a studio pull the plug because they're not excited.
Q: What's going on with Batman? Rumors have Kurt Russell as the next Caped Crusader. Are you coming back, and if not, does that mean Howard Stern has a shot at playing the Scarecrow?
A: [Laughs] Part of the agony and ecstasy of inheriting the Batman franchise is the gossip/rumor Internet. There was a rumor on the Internet that with Superman being canceled, Warner Bros, was rushing me to do Batman Five with Kurt Russell as Batman. No one at Warner Bros, knew about it, I didn't know about it, I don't think Kurt knows about it.
Q: You were credited with reviving the Batman franchise with Batman Forever, then taken to the woodshed by critics for Batman & Robin. Would you have done anything differently?
A: I thought we were doing the right thing then. I think the mistake I made was in trying to please everybody. On Batman Forever, I tried to please myself. And my godson, who was five. On Batman & Robin, I tried to please the studio, the Warner stores, the manufacturers, the licensees, everybody who'd been very supportive to me on Batman Forever. But I don't have any regrets.
Q: Batman & Robin was supposed to be the film that elevated George Clooney from TV to movie star. Is he a movie star?
A: Only God knows. I don't know, the studio doesn't know and the press doesn't know. The public will tell you if someone's a movie star. But is he a handsome, charming actor with chops? You bet your ass. I think that because of George's looks and charm, and the basic stigma that people put on TV actors, George is overlooked for his acting chops. That will change.
Q: You just shot Flawless with Robert De Niro back in New York, where you once ran wild. Ever go back to that place in Central Park where you buried all your drug equipment?
A: I buried all my syringes and all my works in January of 1970 with a friend of mine who died of AIDS years ago. There was a very heavy snowfall and we dug under the snow and buried everything. I wish I knew exactly where it was because it would be nice to go back there. But I don't live in the past for regret or nostalgia very much. I've always been afraid I was going to miss something, so I'm pushing forward.
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Michael Fleming interviewed Drew Barrymore for the April 98 issue of Movieline.
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