Director Taylor Hackford. TAYLOR HACKFORD:
GIMME SOME PROOF
By
Alex Simon
Editor’s Note: The following article originally appeared in the December 2000/January 2001 issue of Venice Magazine.
Taylor Hackford was born in Santa Barbara on December 3, 1944. Raised by a single mother, Hackford went to college at USC, where he graduated with a degree in International Relations in 1967. Soon after, Hackford joined the Peace Corps, and lived in Bolivia for two years. After returning home to the States, he got an entry-level job with Los Angeles' PBS affiliate, KCET, and quickly worked his way up the ladder to cameraman and investigative reporter.
After winning an Academy Award for his short Teenage Father (1978), Hackford made his feature directing debut with The Idolmaker (1980), a stirring drama starring Ray Sharkey as a Brooklyn hustler who makes teen idols out of local street kids in 1950's New York. An Officer and a Gentleman, two years later, was one of the biggest box office hits of the year, making stars out of leads Richard Gere and Debra Winger, and solidifying Hackford's reputation as an accomplished cinematic storyteller. Against All Odds (1984) was another hit, telling a modern film noir story against the backdrop of bookmaking, real estate and pro football in contemporary L.A. White Nights (1985) was a cold war thriller starring Mikhail Barishnikov as a defected Russian dancer who finds himself back behind the Iron Curtain when his plane goes down. Hackford formed New Century/New Visions productions in 1988, producing films for other directors like La Bamba (1987), as well as his own projects like the documentary Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll (1987) and the romantic drama Everybody's All-American (1988).
1993 saw Hackford's most ambitious project come to fruition. Blood In, Blood Out (aka Bound by Honor), was an epic, three hour story of three cousins (Benjamin Bratt, Jesse Borrego, Damian Chapa) from the barrio of East L.A. and the wildly divergent paths their lives take. An intimate study of a culture on the streets, as well as the subcultures that exist within America's prison systems, the film was dumped by its distributor, Disney, after the L.A. riots broke out, fearing that it would cause copycat violence in theaters. It has since found a second life as a major hit on video and cable TV. Dolores Claiborne (1995) was Hackford's filmization of Stephen King's novel dealing with family skeletons, small town repression and murder. He followed this by co-producing, and re-assembling Leon Gast's brilliant documentary When We Were Kings (1996), about the legendary Muhammad Ali-George Forman "Rumble in the Jungle" boxing match in 1974 Zaire. The film won an Oscar for Best Documentary. The Devil's Advocate (1997) was a satiric thriller starring Keanu Reeves as a neophyte lawyer who goes to work for a sinister law firm, run by Old Nick himself (Al Pacino).
Hackford's latest is the thriller Proof of Life. Starring Russell Crowe as a professional hostage negotiator/retriever who is enlisted by Meg Ryan to free her husband, an American engineer stationed in South America, played by David Morse, who has been kidnapped by a band of extremist rebels. A riveting thriller expertly performed by the fine cast, which also includes Pamela Reed and David Caruso, the Warner Bros. release is currently playing throughout southern California. Taylor Hackford, who resides in London with his wife, the esteemed actress Helen Mirren, was in town recently and took time to sit down with us to reflect on his past, present, and future.
How did you get involved with Proof of Life?
Taylor Hackford: I saw an article in Vanity Fair called "Adventures in the Ransom Trade" by a guy named William Prochnau about the kidnapping and ransom, or k & r, business that's becoming prevalent in Eastern Europe and especially in South America. It's really a business that's come about as a result of the changing world economy, and it's a multi-million dollar trade in those regions. And the amazing thing is, the people who are sent from the west to work in countries such as these, especially from Fortune 100 companies, they're automatically covered by their firms with kidnap insurance--usually without their knowledge. After all, why would you tell an employee, whom you want to keep happy, that he or she has a high probability of being kidnapped? When I read the Vanity Fair piece, I was just blown away by the dramatic possibilities there. This was a story that I'd never seen before. I called my creative partner, Tony Gilroy, who I'd collaborated with on Dolores Claiborne and The Devil's Advocate, and told him that we should really come up with a story around this, so we did.
Russell Crowe proved again in this film that he's both an actor and a movie star.
I had seen Russell in L.A. Confidential and was just blown away by his work. There was something really special going on behind his eyes. But L.A. Confidential was also a period piece, and Russell very convincingly evoked a man of that period in the film. Our film was contemporary, so I wasn't quite sure if he'd be right for it or not. Among colleagues in our business, there's sort of an unwritten rule that we can look at each other's works in progress if there's an actor that we have our eye on. At that time, two friends of mine had just finished films with Russell: Ridley Scott with Gladiator and Michael Mann with The Insider. Both let me see footage from the films while they were still in post (production). As soon as I saw how Russell so brilliantly played these two completely diametrically opposed characters, I knew that this was our guy. He's got it all.
It was also nice to see Meg Ryan playing a more dramatic role.
Meg is a truly gifted comedienne, but that's also sort of typecast her as America's sweetheart, and when that happens, it's tough to show your true range as an actor. I've known Meg for a long time, and knew she was anxious to do more dramatic work. I think this is the best dramatic work she's done since When a Man Loves a Woman. Meg really crosses the spectrum here: she's vulnerable, she's tough, she's smart, she's romantic, she's volatile. It was a tremendous experience watching her work and grow into her character.
Let's talk about your background.
I was born and raised in Santa Barbara by a single mother, who was a waitress. My mom's been my biggest inspiration in my life. I grew up very blue collar, but being blue collar in Santa Barbara wasn't so bad! (laughs) I was always very active in sports and student government at Santa Barbara high, then I went to USC and graduated in '67 with a degree in International Relations. I was very active in student government there also, and was Student Body President my senior year.
When did you fall in love with film?
My senior year at 'SC, I started hanging out with a lot of film students, and really started thinking a lot more about movies, and in a very different way than I had previously. That's at a time when there were about a dozen arthouses in L.A., most of which are gone now, and I saw films by people like Truffaut, Kurosawa, Godard and really realized what the medium was capable of achieving. Prior to that, I was never one of these kids that grew up in a movie theater, because I had so many other interests, so it all changed for me then.
After graduation, you joined the Peace Corps.
Yeah, I went to Bolivia for two years and really fell in love with Latin culture. I'm of Scottish descent, but I think there must have been a Latin in my bloodline somewhere. I also hung out a lot with Latino kids growing up in Santa Barbara, so the interest in the culture had been there early on. Then I returned to L.A., to go to law school at 'SC, but after two weeks, I dropped out, lost all my tuition, and realized that I was supposed to make movies. I didn't have any film school background, so I went to the PBS station, KCET, who knew me from when they'd done an interview with me as Student Body President at 'SC. They gave me a job in the mailroom and I worked my way up to cameraman and eventually investigative reporter. I was there for several years, won a few awards for investigative journalism, then left toward the end of the 70's when the emphasis was shifting from hard news to "human interest" and "happy" news. Then I did a short film called Teenage Father, which was an educational film for high school kids, and it wound up winning the Oscar for Best Short Film. That's how I got my first agent and was able to get my foot into the door of Hollywood.
Then you did your first feature, The Idolmaker, starring Ray Sharkey, who died of AIDS in 1993. What was he like?
Ray was a wonderful guy. He was incredibly smart, incredibly talented, but he had very dark roots. He came from Brooklyn, and I went back with him to his old neighborhood when we were researching the film. Ray insisted we travel in a limo, which I didn't want to do, so he could arrive in style. At one point, Ray screams for the driver to stop, and he jumps out of the car, starts talking to this guy in his car. It turns out that this guy was the football star of Ray's high school and an old pal, and he'd just come from court where he'd been sentenced to Attica for dealing heroin. And here Ray's telling him that he's starring in his first movie, living in Malibu with his beautiful girlfriend, and so on, and I'll never forget the look on this guy's face. He was this really handsome Italian guy, and you could just see him thinking "Wait a minute, I was the star. I was the big man on campus. How come Ray is a movie star and I'm going to jail?" The Idolmaker did well critically, but didn't make any money, and Ray had a lot of powerful people blowing smoke up his ass, telling him that he was going to be a big star after the film hit. Well, he never was, and I think that really tore him apart. I've met a lot of people over the years who have been destroyed by drugs, some like Keith Richards are able to beat it. Ray didn't. I miss Ray every day. He was a great friend.
An Officer and a Gentleman was the film that really set your career in motion.
Yeah, that was a script that had been around for over ten years, that nobody knew what to do with. In those days, Paramount was led by these very type-A people who were all in competition with each other, and here I was stuck in the middle! Don Simpson, who was head of production, gave me the script. Jeffery Katzenberg, who ran the studio itself, wanted me to do White Dog (eventually directed by Sam Fuller, 1982). I liked Romain Gary's novel much more than I liked the script, so I decided to do An Officer and a Gentleman, which I thought was a terrific script and a really hard-edged, blue collar love story. It's so funny to me know when people tell me how tender and soft it was, because it's not! It was full of sex and profanity and was about very gritty, edgy people. It was a tough film to make, with all the strong personalities involved--Don Simpson actually tried to fire me two weeks into shooting--but we stuck it out and I'm very proud of the final result. I think it still holds up.
Against All Odds also holds up well as a real touchstone film of the 80's.
I was a big fan of Out of the Past (1947), which is sort of viewed by many people as the ultimate film noir. (Screenwriter) Eric Hughes and I wanted to make a film noir in the sun (laughs), and we used that film as a model, so it's really not a true remake in that sense, although it would be fair to say Against All Odds was inspired by Out of the Past. I loved the idea of doing a detective story where the protagonist isn't a real detective. In this case, he's a pro football player who's saying "What do you mean you want me to find this girl? I would never do something like that." And he's forced to become a detective in order to survive the situation he's in. That was also a time right before all the sports books became big in Vegas, and people were betting millions on pro football through bookies every weekend.
White Knights is notable for being one of the only films shot (partially) in Russia at the height of the cold war, and also as the place where you met your wife. What was that first meeting like?
Well I had been a big admirer of Helen's work for a long time, although we hadn't actually met until White Knights. I thought her work combined incredible depth, intensity and unmatched sexiness. We met on the set, became friends, and then the relationship just progressed from there. We've been together fifteen years, and there's nothing quite like finding your true soul mate. I've been trying to find another film for us to do together, but so far, nothing has come to fruition.
Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll is one of the best documentaries ever about a rock musician.
Thank you. I loved doing that film and it was fascinating watching Chuck Berry and Keith Richards interact. I mean, Keith was so sweet and deferential to Chuck, saying "I stole every lick he ever played," and Chuck just shits on him through the whole thing! It really gave me a lot of admiration for Keith, I mean he is the backbone of the Rolling Stones, no question. Mick Jagger is a great performer, a very smart businessman, but without Keith holding things together, that band never would be what it is today. Chuck Berry is a very complex, very brilliant guy who's been through some hard knocks, but has endured. I loved going back to my public TV roots and doing a documentary. I had a great experience putting When We Were Kings back together, also. I hope to do more documentary work in the future.
Everybody's All-American was a heartbreaking portrait of the American dream collapsing, another terrific film.
I loved Frank Deford's novel and it reminded me a lot of guys I had known who all peaked in high school or college and the rest of their lives could never measure up to that one brief moment of glory they had had as kids and young adults. Dennis Quaid was really brilliant in the lead, I thought. It was also about a much simpler time that's now past, although that football fever in the south still very much exists.
Blood in, Blood Out is an overlooked masterpiece. How did the project develop and why did the studio dump it like they did?
Floyd Mutrix wrote the original script but it was really Jimmy Baca, who's one of our greatest poets, that contributed the most to the story. Jimmy's from the streets, he did time, and he really knows that world inside out. I really saw it as a story about the birth of a crime family, but unlike The Godfather, this family is born within the prison system. We got permission to shoot inside San Quentin. The warden there was a Latino, and he thought we were telling a really terrific story that ultimately had a very positive message for young Latino men. I was very lucky to get a great cast: Benjamin Bratt in his first major role, Jesse Borrego, Damian Chapa, Delroy Lindo, and Billy Bob Thornton in his first movie role.
Were you ever scared, shooting inside Quentin with real inmates playing roles?
Sure, there were a few moments initially where we were all a little nervous, but I was able to use that in a lot of the work that the actors did. We literally took each of the actors, Billy Bob and Tom Towles went over to the white guys, Damian to the Latinos, Delroy to the blacks and we said "Here's your guys," and we left them there. Everyone knew that we were there to make a movie and that the warden supported us, so it was fine. It's the warden's house and his rules, and the cons know that. As far as what happened with the release, it came out right after the L.A. riots, and Disney refused to release it, fearing that gang violence would break out in theaters. I understand why they did what they did, and I'm not bitter about it, because I got to make the movie and it's out there, but I think it really would have been a successful film had they given it a wide release, especially based on the huge impact it's had on cable and video. It was originally supposed to be part one of a two-part film that I started, but wasn't able to complete after what happened with the first. So I've got hours of great scenes that would be great on DVD, where Jimmy, Jesse, Ben, Damian and I could do a commentary track. It was one of those great life experiences, making that film. That's why I do what I do. None of my films are in the same genre and I want to move into new territory each time because I view each film as a two-year odyssey of new experience where I can keep growing.
You were raised by a single mother. Was Dolores Claiborne your salute to your mom?
Absolutely. My mother was very independent, very tough, very strong, certainly the overwhelming influence in my life. Tony Gilroy adapted the book and did an amazing thing. The Jennifer Jason Leigh character didn't exist in the book. Only the past existed in the book. It opened with Dolores going into the police station, saying that she hadn't killed her employer that day, but she did kill her husband 20 years earlier, and the remainder of the story was told by Dolores in flashback. Tony realized that wouldn't be a very interesting cinematic story, so he created an original screenplay for half the film, and the other half was already there in the book, especially the character of Dolores, which was all Stephen King's. She's a brilliant character.
Any advice for first-time directors?
The important thing is to listen to everybody, and then make your own choice. You're so often humble in the presence of those who have more experience than you: your whole crew, the actors, everyone has more experience than you when you're first starting out. On the other hand, it's your movie. I didn't do this until my third day on the set of The Idolmaker. At the end of the second day, I looked at the dailies and said "I don't like this. I'm not going to be able to sit in the lobby and say, as people walk out, 'Well that wasn't my idea, it was the D.P.'s, or the A.D.'s.'" I finally had to go in and say "I'm sorry, I have to make this movie my way. That's why they hired me to make it." Billy Bob Thornton, who's a good friend of mine, called me a few years ago and said that he was directing his first movie. I said 'That's great! You must be really excited.' He says, "Taylor, can you come down to Arkansas to the set for a few days?" I said 'Billy Bob, the last thing you want is an experienced director standing around while you're doing your first movie, because everyone will be looking to me, not to you. You have to make it your movie.' And we all know how Sling Blade turned out, right? (laughs) So that process of having to finally face yourself and having a very talented group of collaborators around you asking 'What's your vision?' is what it's all about. Know what your vision is, and follow that.
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