Baz Luhrmann: All That Baz

Q: You're suggesting that you needed other qualities?

A: In the film, what this character looks like on the outside is not what she is internally. Since she sells love, her one rule is that she can't fall in love. She plays that character, but she's not that character. She's servicing the guys, but underneath, she's actually a full-of-life, energetic, fun, kooky, wacky thing. I felt Nicole really embodied that, particularly in the comedy.

Q: What did you see in Kidman that made you want her so much?

A: The incredible quixotic quality she gave off in The Blue Room on the stage in London had to come from the very heart of her spirit. That excited me.

Q: What is the price of harnessing that quixotic quality? A: I wouldn't put my name on many guarantees, but I will guarantee that audiences will discover her in a way they couldn't imagine. Until you see it for yourself, you won't really believe it because she's belonged to that kind of "Royal Family," distant thing. I'm not passing judgment on it, but it is a very real thing to be part of Hollywood Royalty, which has made a particular image for her. You want to be that which you're not, and she's been drawn to the roles of a refined, complex, distant ice queen--probably the one thing she isn't. I've known her for 10 years, and that image is a very minuscule slice of the Nicole Kidman pie. She's a comedienne with this fabulous, kooky, musical comedy side to her. She's funny and loud, in a really nice way.

Q: What's her essence as a person?

A: Everything about Nicole is totally paradoxical. On the one hand, she's the girl next door. On the other hand, she's completely crazy--in a really good way. You cannot tie her spirit down. In one moment, you could be having the most normal conversation with her and the next moment, you're having a mad, champagne-induced, Edie Sedgwick-like moment with her. And yet, particularly in a crisis or crazy moment, you find her the most sane person you could imagine. That paradox makes for unbelievable screen magic. This is not a pedestrian person to work with at all.

Q: Did you two bump heads, as we've been hearing for months?

A: Fights? I don't have fights with actors. In absolute honesty, I've never fought with any actor ever. Nicole is no saint. We had crazy mornings. Were there tears? Were there times when I felt this very faint whiff of a desire to murder her? Yes, but if this was a circus high-wire act, she walked that wire without a net. I'd love to say we screamed, we yelled, we got into all sorts of theatrics, but I never yelled once at Nicole. And I never yelled at Ewan. I would say, "Why are you yelling? What is going on? OK, let's sort this out because, whatever happens, you're going back in front of that camera and we're going to make a great moment of drama." I understand that anything actors are doing, good or bad, is motivated by fear. I'm not allowed to be frightened--though, of course, I am.

Q: How do you manage your own fear?

A: It's a technical thing. I feel fear coming on and I'm not allowed to succumb. I have to face it. So, I say, "Whatever happens, we're going there. I'm leading all these people that way." I clear my mind, think about a plan and do it. That's the job. You have to live in extreme absolutism because you almost have this religion that you've built, which goes like, "We know where we're going. We have to believe." Anyone who is an absolute religious zealot grapples with faith and with blind waves of insecurity. "This will never work. We're all doomed." I'm the captain of process, so I can never show that. But do I feel it? Absolutely.

Q: Heath Ledger, who has a strong musical theater interest, told me how much he wanted to play the part Ewan McGregor got.

A: Before I knew that Ewan could sing, Heath was so very close to getting it. I've got these fabulous scenes on tape of Heath and Nicole Kidman rolling around on the floor in New York. I think the rest of the world is pretty much onto Heath by now, but this was three years ago when he had done just about nothing. He's got this incredibly paradoxical mixture of being a boy and a man. But, in the end, he was only 19.

Q: So why did you go with Ewan McGregor?

A: I had auditioned Ewan to play Mercutio in Romeo + Juliet. At the time, he was completely unknown. He hadn't even done Trainspotting. What you get out of Ewan in this film is the tense emotional depth he is so capable of. He's seen for the first time as a truly romantic hero. Ewan is also a deeply romantic person, but the emotional depth you see in him is truly remarkable.

Q: Was Nicole Kidman pretty much decided on before Ewan McGregor?

A: My philosophy was that I had to get them together because it was about the chemical equation of the two actors. But for a very long time, I was unable to get them together. The problem was that Nicole was in The Blue Room on Broadway and Ewan was doing Little Malcolm in London. Eventually I just went with Nicole.

Q: And the chemistry worked out?

A: At first, they were like a mad honeymoon. Whenever you're doing romances and relationship films, by degrees, there is a relationship. Some of the greatest relationship films of all time, the two stars have hated each other, but mostly you see that chemistry. There's a certain kind of order, but you can't spend all day playing lovers and having fun without there being something in the air. We all work in the business of illusions, so we recognize and enjoy that. But we also recognize that it has a border.

Q: There have been rumors that the border might have been crossed in real life.

A: When you're in theater or the circus or film--to me it's all one--affairs happen. People fall in love. It's much like a circus for us at Iona, because we travel with a lot of people who are all freakishly gifted in one way or another and also complex. We're all in the show. Sex, relationships, drugs--it never changes. But the truth here is, Tom [Cruise] was around. Of course people said, "Nicole and Ewan are having an affair. They're inseparable." People love stories like that. I'm not surprised by it. It can happen. But as far as I know, there was a line. It just didn't happen. But it was very close. I mean, look, they're two gorgeous-looking people. I just remember the early days being about a lot of rehearsal and fun. We put on a lot of dinners and I remember one where we all drank absinthe, got wildly crazy and saw lots of green fairies. I'll always remember the first four or five weeks of rehearsal. Those days were quite magical.

Q: When you were shooting, were you aware of particular problems between Kidman and Tom Cruise?

A: During the period we spent shooting in Sydney, Tom Cruise came to the set a lot. He was intensely supportive of this project. Tom and Nicole live in a unique spot because of the nature of who they are. The extraordinary stress they both were under was clear. At the time, though, it just seemed part of the not-ordinary existence they lead.

Q: Are you concerned about the publicity surrounding Nicole and Tom's divorce impacting negatively on the public's interest in your movie?

A: You consider that as you would anything that potentially relates to something that's very precious to you. But Nicole is revealed in this movie as so new, refreshed and reborn that where she is in her personal life can only be part of that story. I know that the publicity you're talking about will have some effect. When it was announced that the film was going to Cannes, there were 25 TV cameras coming down to cover it. Of everything I said about the movie, the only thing that appeared was, "Nicole is very strong." OK, I accept it. Maybe later something I said about the movie will get used.

Q: How do you propose to put this movie over with people who have the absurd belief that only gays like musicals?

A: That's a big, fascinating subject to me. It's probably true that football or sports are more popular than musicals with some heterosexual males, but the key thing is great story. It wasn't that long ago that musicals were bigger at the box-office than the action flick and, presumably, not every male that rushed off to see all those musicals was gay. Men make music. The love of music has got to be pretty huge and deep for someone like Eminem, you know?

Q: Are you nervous about how the movie's being marketed?

A: Well, they're behind the picture, but they also fear how to communicate it. The movie is a comic tragedy, and comic tragedy is not normal fare. You have a ridiculous joke so that you can have very direct tragic emotion--high comedy and high tragedy.

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