Welles interview 8 days before his death

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Le Chiffre
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Welles interview 8 days before his death

Postby Le Chiffre » Fri Aug 17, 2012 9:37 am

Welles interview 8 days before his death, from Entertainment Tonight's obituary feature on Welles (Oct. 10, 1985):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaC3Hp36 ... re=related

OW: My first picture would never have been made if the producer had lived in Hollywood, or had any knowledge of Hollywood. It was a total accident; a total piece of luck, like winning a jackpot from a quarter. It couldn't go on, and I knew that.

ET: You've been quoted as saying "We live here in Hollywood, in a snakepit."

OW: Oh yes, well I've always hated Hollywood, but then I hate almost everything in the modern world. Hollywood is simply the most pleasant place to live in left.

ET: You've been quoted as saying "I really shouldn't have stayed in this business because it's too ridiculous. What should you have done?

OW: I had a lot of options open. Everybody does. Anybody who has enough sense to make a movie can make a lot of other things, and I should have left right away because I saw right at the beginning that, like Vegas, the odds are against the player, and are by the nature of moviemaking. What's wrong with Hollywood is that it's just another marketplace, and the marketplace is always the enemy of the artist.

ET: As an artist, do you feel you have no place in Hollywood?

OW: Not no place, but if they don't like what you do...I was going to show them that they were wrong, and I've spent the rest of my life showing people, trying to prove that what is said is wrong, and that's been an enormous waste of spirit and of energy.



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Glenn Anders
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Re: Welles interview 8 days before his death

Postby Glenn Anders » Fri Aug 17, 2012 5:25 pm

Mike: His answers have an old lion's quality . . . still dangerous, still beautiful but haggard and crippled, defiant to the end.

Glenn

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Le Chiffre
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Re: Welles interview 8 days before his death

Postby Le Chiffre » Sat Aug 18, 2012 6:38 am

Yes, he sounds kind of like a "destitute king" (to burrow Jeanne Moreau's phrase), trying to stand by his beliefs, but wondering if he took the right road in that famous yellow wood.

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RayKelly
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Re: Welles interview 8 days before his death

Postby RayKelly » Sun Aug 19, 2012 12:12 pm

I would love to see the raw footage in the ET vault.
The interview must have went on much longer than that.

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Re: Welles interview 8 days before his death

Postby Wellesnet » Mon Oct 12, 2020 8:24 pm

Some of that interview also turned up in NBC's obituary for Welles. Steven Spielberg is also interviewed briefly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSl5KWYJ69s

Interesting comment concerning the aborted 1984 film version of "Cradle Will Rock":
"In the last few years I've had absolute disasters; things that were right on the moment of being shot and then not happening. That's bad luck, but you have good luck and bad luck. A couple of the things that have fallen through I now think would have been bad luck if I had done them. I'm glad that I didn't do Cradle."


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