Source: The Hollywood Interview, Alex Simon
Un entretien carrière très intéressant sur Hicks où il reviens en particulier sur ses débuts.
"I think being an independent film gives you more leeway in terms of being able to keep those rough edges in there. Whereas if you working with a bigger committee that was testing material or trying to second-guess what the audience were trying to hear, you end up sort of blandifying, and that’s where you fall into the trap of sentiment. "
"we did have one person suggest that we get a female writer to come in to do a polish on the script so we could have a “woman’s perspective.” And I was like ‘What’s the point of that? It’s from a man’s perspective! It’s about three guys!’ (laughs) You have to resist in those situations because it can run off the rails so easily."
"But the take-away is the idea that family is where the love is. It’s definitely not DNA, and it’s definitely not nuclear anymore. But it’s about the fact that this guy pieces together a shattered family, and that’s powerful to me."
"I remember vividly watching Max Von Sydow in Bergman’s films of the ‘50s and ‘60s, and to be able to work with him in Snow Falling on Cedars was like coming full circle. It was almost an indescribable feeling. He’s the most charming man. In that film, he’s defending this Japanese-American man who’s unjustly accused of murder. The young man I cast had never acted before, and was struggling, to be honest, and I was quite concerned. And I just watched Max sit with him for a month in that courtroom, and it was like a master class for this young man. Max was so kind to him, so encouraging, when he could have been quite disdainful, and been like “It’s all about me,” but he was the antithesis of that. People would come in just to work for a day or two, some really fine actors, to appear in the witness box, and I remember one of them just fell apart when confronted by Max, being cross-examined by him. Max was so generous and helpful to me, and the actor, in keeping his performance together. Not all actors are that generous. The best ones are, because they know that any scene is only good as the worst actor in it, so it’s useless trying to steal it. Well, when working on other people’s films, I’ve seen some very selfish actors who demand attention and ruin a film"
" I also worked on a little film of his called The Plumber, which was a telly movie. I’m actually in it. I walk out of an elevator at one point, since we didn’t have any extras, Peter cast me at the last minute. It’s a gem of a film, shot in three weeks on nothing, about $300,000. Anyway, Peter wanted to do some rehearsals with the key cast in the board room of the film corporation. He said “I need somebody to videotape these rehearsals. Are you interested?” And in those days, video cameras were the size of a suitcase, but I said ‘Of course!’ So I got to spend three days in this room with Peter and his key cast as he rehearsed them. At one point he looked back at my framing and said “You’re really getting into this, aren’t you?” (laughs) What a master class, you know?"
"[about "Glass"]But the defining moment of the film, which I won’t give away, comes early, and you see that his life isn’t all beer and Skittles. You see that in The Boys Are Back, too: the more technologically advanced we get, the more things like family get squeezed out into a tiny box. If there are prevailing themes in what I’m interested in, it would be those, I guess."
