Werner Herzog: The Movieline Interview

I know you had fun provoking Nicolas while he worked. Did he provoke you?

Well, we had a wonderful platform of complete trust before we even started working. Nicolas crafted a character where he knew I would allow him wild moments. Much of it is disciplined work, but very often he knew he had complete liberty, like in jazz where the instrument plays solo and improvises. I don't even know how we created all this, but it's just wonderful to work with someone as imaginative as Nicolas Cage.

You often ask your actors to go out on a limb for you. Do they ever freak out and second-guess themselves?

No, no, never any freaking out. I wouldn't say that, but I would say that when I was so convinced a scene was wonderful, I would stop it after two takes. The crew would ask, "Where is the coverage?" And I would say we don't need it, it's so perfect. Nicolas said, "Finally, someone who knows what he's doing!"

Eva Mendes told me that she loved how often you used a two-shot. She thinks the close-up is overrated.

Probably, however there are always close-ups when we are really fascinated by the moment of what's going on inside a person. It really depends. I think the film is well-crafted and has a good balance. I don't even know how I'm doing it because I do not plan in terms of storyboard, for example -- it would have been a useless instrument here in our case. Very often, I'd rather move in close with the camera for a detail that fascinates me instead of cutting to a separately shot element because I want to set the rhythm, the inner flow of the film, while I'm shooting. I do not delegate it to editing. I do not delegate it way down into post-production.

You cut back on some of the drug culture in the film because you dislike it so much. Has Hollywood not inured you to that by now?

Well, I do not like the culture surrounding it whether it's Hollywood or the streets of Hamburg, Germany. Of course, it often happens that I am sitting in a round of people and they pass a joint to me, and I immediately pass it on without comment to the next one. I don't mind that they are doing it. I'm not in the mood of policing it or adopting a moral attitude about it, it's simply that I do not like the culture surrounding drug-taking. There's not a single friend of mine who's close and important to me who takes drugs.

Were you very familiar with New Orleans before the film?

I'd never been there before. I had to hit the ground running because there was a very short time for pre-production. I had to cast 35 speaking parts and find 40 different locations. I had to put a crew together in a very, very condensed amount of time. I tried to avoid all the cliches of shooting at Mardi Gras, French Quarter, jazz clubs, voodoo ceremonies. However, New Orleans, in a way, is one of the leading characters in the film.

Your first introduction to the city was post-Katrina. Can you feel the history there, the sense of how it used to be?

I think a city like New Orleans will never lose its spirit, this musicality and fluidity. It's surprising -- you think, "This cannot be the United States! This is almost like a different place, almost Caribbean, French, African." It's a phenomenally vivid culture there. A hurricane cannot wipe it out, and that's a wonderful thing. I didn't expect what I found.

Pages: 1 2 3