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From the "People" Archives:
by Anthony Kaufman/indieWIRE
Shot by award-winning cinematographer Lisa Rinzler ("Three Seasons"), produced by Jon Kilik ("Do the Right Thing"), Fred Berner ("Vanya on 42nd Street") and executive produced by Interview Magazine publishers Peter Brant and Joseph Allen (executive producers of "Basquiat"), "Pollock" was adapted from the Pulitzer Prize winning book "Jackson Pollock: An American Saga," optioned by "Pollock" producer James Francis Trezza when he was only 19. It took all these forces and many more to bring Harris' powerful story of America's first "art star" to the screen. Harris speaks here about the physical demands of production, editing, distribution and balancing art with family. indieWIRE: So you have an interesting array of producers on the film. How did the film come together? For instance, Jon Kilik's got an impressive track record.
Ed Harris: I don't want to take anything away from Jon, but he wasn't really involved in the day to day of it. He was a liaison between [executive producer] Peter Brant and his partner Joe [Allen] and Fred Berner and I who were doing the day-to-day stuff. iW: So did it really start with Peter and Joe? Harris: It started with this guy James Trezza, who optioned the book initially in '91 and that's when I got involved with it. And then we hit a roadblock with the script and the money, financially, and that's when I talked to Peter. iW: Did you have any prior relationship with Peter Brant? Harris: No, I met Peter Brant through David Salle ("Search and Destroy"), who at one point wanted to direct the film, who got pushed aside. (laughs) Perhaps not. I was never quite sure what was going on there, but there was a period of time where he was working on the script with Barbara [Turner] and myself. iW: It is hard enough to put a film together on a low budget; how were you able to do this for the first time and deliver the kind of powerhouse performance that you deliver. And produce on top of it? Harris: Believe me, that second week of shooting we had to shut down because I just collapsed. That was after six or seven weeks of pre-production, non-stop preparation. I just ran out. I remember that night we were at the Guggenheim gallery, and all these shivers came over me. I saw a doctor on Wednesday; we took off Thursday and Friday. So by the next Monday, I had gotten some rest, and started taking more care of myself. I was driving myself into the ground. As for the acting part of it -- I had a really dear friend of mine Candy Trabucco -- she's credited as an Associate Producer -- who was really my right arm, or the right side of my body. She'd be behind the camera while I was working, so I wouldn't have to do a constant dialogue about what we were doing. She's also a wonderful acting coach. She's got a great eye and a sharp bullshit barometer and she really knew what I was after more or less, so it was great to have her as a sounding board. iW: How easy was it for you to shut on and off, to be Pollock and then go behind the camera? Harris: It wasn't really so much shutting on and off; it was all kind of this one effort. There was delineation. Because I know I would be busy getting the shot ready, talking about props, constantly working with the set directors about what we're seeing -- paintings, the right paintings, what kind of paint, as well as rehearsing with the actors. So I would just take my few minutes, and go to it. iW: What was the most surprising thing you discovered about directing a movie? Had you directed anything before? Harris: No. Just actors in workshops, scene stuff. The most surprising thing I think was the non-stop barrage of decision-making, that just went from morning into the night. You get 3 hours sleep and then you have to start all over again. What was surprising to me was how relentless it was. Particularly in pre-production, it was almost harder than filming. You're running downtown, then updown, having auditions, going to the sets, I was all over the city every day. It was really exhausting. iW: Was it a struggle for you as to how you were going to get this film out into the world? Harris: I was more concerned with making the film work. We had a version, about 12 minutes longer, that we actually mixed. And I went off to Germany on this Jean Jacques Arnaud film for five weeks, and during that time, they showed it to some people. But nobody wanted it. They weren't entirely negative, but nobody was willing to take a chance on it. Some people though it needed work. I sent it to Walter Murch, the great editor, and at that point, I was ready to hand it over to him, if he was willing to work on it. Which he wasn't, because he had another job. But he did give me some thoughts about it and some things he really did not like about it. There was a three-week period where I didn't look at it, at all. I had been living with this thing for years, and I had been in the editing room, every day, and the first few weeks in Germany, I didn't even look at it. And then I popped it in the TV one night and it was a real eye-opener. And I really felt where it needed work. And that's when I sent it to Walter. Then I went back into the editing room for three or four months. We just started re-working it. I was much less precious about certain scenes. And then it started working.
Then we showed it again, and the response was more positive and the Sony people became very interested in it. And the business decision was made to go to them. I had some trepidation about it, because I wasn't very pleased the way "The Third Miracle" had been handled, which is a film I made with Agnieska Holland. They had some problems with the producer, in terms of their contract needing to get it out before the end of the year. It's tough, because it is an independent film and they're a very classy organization, but they're not known for spending lots of money. I'm having a meeting this afternoon, where I'm basically going to try to goose them a little bit, because you got to advertise the damn thing. I think the film is obviously not a commercial vehicle, but it's accessible enough that I hope it has life out into the world other than just the two coasts. iW: Would you liken your experience on Pollock to your theater work? Or to your Hollywood films? Harris: It was its own animal. It really was unlike anything I had ever done before, in terms of how it consumed my life, but in a good way. It wasn't really comparable to anything. For "The Truman Show," for example, I worked for a few weeks, do my gig, work with Peter Weir and then I was done. You're totally committed to what you're doing, but you're just working as an actor. That's your responsibility to do your job as an actor, and all that that entails, which is pretty all-encompassing, but it doesn't compare to being responsible for the whole gig. iW: So do you think you'll continue to be an actor? Harris: I feel like I will for awhile. I am not one of these guys who works job after job after job, who doesn't have a family. I have a tight family group that's really important to me. I don't want to work all the time. But as far as being something in my life that I care about, I hope that I want to keep doing it. If I decided I didn't want to do it, or if there was something else more important to me, that would be fine, too. I trust myself. iW: And directing? Harris: I would like to direct again. I certainly didn't begin this to begin a career as film director. But I don't want to do direct just to direct. iW: What about painting? Harris: I haven't painted much since the film. Just small stuff; it takes a lot of time. You really have to give over to it, the days and hours that it takes to really do it. Having worked on "Pollock" for so long and being consumed by it, I'm still living with it. With the time that I'm at home, I'd like not to be in the art studio painting; I'd rather be hanging out with my wife and kid. But I think I'd like to get back into it, sometime. I've been dabbling a little but, but it takes a little bit more than that. iW: Now that the film is done, 10 years in the making, you must feel like a burden has been lifted, yes? Harris: Even if the film never saw the light of day, I'm very rewarded by the experience and it's something I'm really proud of, and I met a lot of great people doing it. It took me a long time, something I didnąt know if I was going to do it, and I shot it and edited it and made it whole and I feel really good about that. In the past 10 years, I've looked at life as this "Pollock" stuff. And now I'm almost in the post "Pollock" phase. It's just a labor, you know what I mean? It's like something you care about that you accomplish. | |
