The_Film_That_Changed_My_Life

Touch of Evil
273
To me, I thought a lot about the childlike innocence that Jim Henson and
Orson had. Certainly, they’re both iconoclasts, but in that there’s this childlike
innocence in both of them, and that struck me. I don’t think it has any
bearing on Touch of Evil, but it struck me that two great men like that had
that same kind of feeling.
We were talking about people who were naturals for big characters.
Welles was lucky in the fact that he was always the most forceful, charismatic
guy in the room. He was the one who could drive the train.
But I know you had disagreements with Marlon Brando on The Score.
What did you learn from that? Is there something that you took from
that experience about dealing with big personalities on the set?
Oz: Yeah, I learned how to be a better director. I learned that even big
personalities like Marlon were scared, and I should’ve nourished them,
that Marlon needed support and I was trying to be ultrastrong because I
wouldn’t let him do in my movie what he did in The Island of Dr. Moreau. I
was not going to let him do that. He tried but I stopped him. Unfortunately,
I stopped him in a way that was adversarial instead of supportive. I certainly
learned from my mistakes from Marlon there. Not to say that he was the
nicest guy in the world. [laughs]
Yeah, we’re saying big personalities and all that that implies. . . .
Oz: Nevertheless, he taught me that even the biggest of actors are always
scared. I learned to be more supportive as a director.
Do you think, and we’re getting a tad off topic, but do you think ultimately
that served the movie, that tension?
Oz: No, he wouldn’t let me really direct him. I think it was one scene he let
me direct him. I had to really make choices; I had to have different camera
angles and make the choices in editing. That’s what I had to do. Thank God
De Niro was there. Bob was a tremendous help. I unfortunately kinda had to
break Brando down. I mean, in the sense of, “Stop playing a character.”
I went over to Marlon during the scene with Bob and I said, “Gee, I really
like that.” I knew he couldn’t give a shit what I thought, and he said, “I don’t