ROMEO & JULIET Press Conference Berlinale 1997 w/ Baz Luhrmann & Claire Danes

e [Applause] stand up for moment okay good [Applause] [Music] hide behind this pleas over here to the right side pleas little more to the right side please turn for the right side [Music] okay up here up here [Music] once again once again please what about [Music] Juliet smile more closer please Closer Closer Closer Young on thank you [Music] not terrible okay okay here ladies and gentlemen ladies and gentlemen could you please sit down we're not running away sh thas take it take it easy okay yeah yeah can we all sit down okay a very good guys aren there okay can we sort it out here in the front Okay okay good night man I'd like to open the uh press conference on the film William Shakespeare's Rome and judet and I'd like to introduce our guests to us I start off with uh V lurman the director and co- script writer getting hot huh welcome to CLA Danes who played jug good and special welcome to you the production designer Kine Martin first question on the right hand side if you can see out thank you yeah uh congratulations on an incredible movie and I would like to make you to comment a bit on the stylistic side of the movie which is quite unique especially the Miss and sin if if you could comment on that and what your thoughts were on on the stylistic elements of the movie well I guess that's one for me um a actually everything in the film everything that we did came from the initial question that we asked and the question that we asked was if William Shakespeare was making a movie what kind of movie would he make now there's probably some people in this room that heard me do this little speech once before cuz it is in fact our Mantra in a way because there's a very few things that you actually know about Shakespeare that are real facts but it is a fact that he had an audience of 3,000 drunken punters and it is a fact that he had to sort of compete with be baiting and prostitution and that as a Storyteller he was absolutely Relentless in his use of device and he would do anything to actually communicate his story to an audience so we really spent a lot of time analyzing the stage of Shakespeare and trying to convert that into a cinematic language and um that's really the point from which we began and I guess if we went through different elements in the film we could then backtrack that to how that came out of that um research we have a question here on the right hand side again thank you this is to the director can you tell us how you went about casting this film as you were in the screenplay did you envision certain actors in mind and were they used in the film did you have casting approval and finally once your cast was chosen how much rehearsal time did your actors have in preparing for their roles well about approval I guess there are some Executives from Fox in here so I I I uh no no it's no they're not here well um now look in real in real truth um just in terms of the the process of it for me Leonardo was always Romeo in the sense only in the sense that about the time I was thinking about doing this project I saw an image of him and I remember thinking God he looks like Romeo I wonder if he can act and I think that that week he was nominated for an Academy Award for Gilbert Grape so you know it was it was fairly clear that he was an interesting actor and then it was about going to him and you know talking about doing the role and you know he in fact came to Australia twice to be involved in in early workshops to to explore the idea of doing the role but also to help very much with with getting um a commitment from the studio to do the film and um so you know he became very involved in the process early on now when it comes to Juliet actually I searched I've never said this in front of CLA but um I did search the world really for Juliet I I mean I I I I went to London and Australia and New York and everywhere and at the time I wasn't aware of CLA because she was actually um on American television and it was well I'm sure You' done other things tell me if i' say the wrong thing but but it was Jane Campion actually who said have you seen the Clare Bear as she referred to her I'm not sure why but um and I said no I don't know of her and um then when I returned to the US Claire and I did our first session which was without Leonardo and then I put CLA with Leonardo and it was in that moment that I realized she she really was the first actor that I had worked with who was the correct age but also had this strength to match him as an actor on the floor and um it was really a very very long journey to to find someone who could do for this in fact U peterl who at one stage was Playing Father Lawrence said to me oh you know problem of Juliet Deo you know finding a 16-year-old who can act like a 30-y old good luck you know and I mean he was really pointing out what was going to be a sort of six months Journey for me which ended in um casting CLA D which I'm was funny because Le Leo has this quote that's just been in every magazine you know out there but um you know he says well Claire was the only actress who looked you know directly in my eyes and who was really confrontational and I remember doing the audition with him and it I was like the fifth actress he had seen that day who was just really exhausted and tired and not in the mood and so I and I really needed a partner in order to do the scene well so I knew he liked to act because any good actor does and I just sort of coaxed him into playing with me which acting basically is so I remember seducing him to acting with me and I could only do it by you know sort of saying come on Leo get off your ass and let's do this you know so and that was the it wasn't even because I intended on you know playing Juliet that specific way or anything but I just wanted him to wanted him to work with me and be involved with me in the scene and um yeah he was he was down for it but took a little all that all that is true but I have got to say right now let's not have here but I mean no I have got to say that actually having seen that scene many many many times that when CLA came in and worked with d on it you know for the first time kind of Juliet drove the scene if you look at the piece she really drives that story you know it's you know let's get you know if you want to have sex with me we've got to be married um you know why don't we all those active things and I mean it finding someone who could be active against Leonardo was no easy task so um any case it was it was one of those moments we I mean there was no question really the moment they got together it was for me like yes that can um that can be and um we went from that point on as far as the studio approval and casting it was really it was a long journey and I I did um keep going because particular when you think of the younger actors the guys you know finding um a lot of them in New York and a lot of them hadn't done films before was really important that we kept going until we got the right people and that's what we set out to do that's a follow-up one there actually it was the third part of the question you um about rehearsal time you mentioned that you had workshops what was the process in preparing the actors for the film and how much rehearsal time did you actually have we had the early work work shops which were really about developing the idea and then um we had periods of rehearsal before we went to Mexico and some periods when we went to Mexico I mean the difficulty of the shoot made it a bit more Commando style as we uh got going through the process but um it was as much as possible about finding in the kind of malstrom that is film making um the time to just sit and deal with text that was really where we spent most of our time was I think we insisted upon no matter what else happened knowing what every word that was being spoken meant baz made a real point of having every all of our performances being as clear as possible we couldn't be too obvious because you know Shakespeare can be kind of obscure because it is essentially another language but once you understand what he's saying word for word you know it's it's very easy to well not very but um you know it's easier to to go on with your performance but we used to do these ridiculous ridiculous exercises where you know we would um do for every word we said we'd have to find a physical way to express that so like if Romeo was saying I'll meet you at the hour of nine you know he'd make a nine with his body I mean we felt just you know very silly silly I know yeah thanks CL yeah but it worked I guess oh yeah thank we've never done this before we I'll get a few for you now W okay we have a question here on the right hand side someone first one yes I got I got two questions first to miss um as a preparation for your role um did you see any classical performances of Romeo and Juliet on film and if which one did you like the most and to the director some critics especially in Europe say um Shakespeare doesn't work in movies like this one um nevertheless you made the film but is there a limit for you uh where you would say this material cannot be transformed into this kind of movie would you say everything is possible uh I I did see Zephyr Elli's version which is often called Olivia hussy's version they forget about Romeo entirely which says something about her performance um so she and I just was petrified because I thought oh my goodness could she be any more beautiful could she be any more talented I don't think so but um no so she had a really great interpretation of the role mine was really different and um so I had a few panic attacks and got over that initial fear and and decided that I really needed to throw other people's you know um sort of performances of the role or people's preconceptions of who Juliet was just out the window and start from scratch and it was very clear to me who Juliet was um immediately after I finished reading the play she and I wanted to make her as real and as accessible as possible and hopefully hope hopefully I accomplished that I didn't want to romanticize the role I kind of wanted to bring her you know down you know from the balcony and ground her a bit you know it's and it's funny because the words are so they're um they've such an amazing power to them just naturally because Shakespeare's words are so incredibly profound and beautiful but they've you know um they've been around for so long that they seem kind of um intangible and and you know this is just a girl who is just Fallen completely and madly in love and she's terribly infatuated so but she's she there new feelings for her and I remember the first time I felt that way I was just so obnoxious to be around I was an idiot I was dropping things I was couldn't stop smiling you know people just wanted to slap me so I mean the feelings were kind of immature and and I don't think I think people think with Shakespeare that the feeling should be separated from the L language and that's not true and and and hopefully I sort of married those two things and um once I embraced the language and really figured out what I was saying the words were real Keys into um the feelings I don't know if that's clear but um yeah yeah I think I answer question actually a lot of people say what a modern Juliet CLA is but it is in fact I think that Juliet in the text you know the character is always modern you know she is an active character she drives the scene and I think the thing that I was very happy about myself that CLA achieved was that Juliet wasn't this kind of you know bird in a tower waiting to be saved she was a very active character who affected the story well I think because Juliet has become such an idol um that people feel feel that they can't really embody this kind of Godlike person and she wasn't Godlike she was just a chick you know who well I she had an rather extraordinary life because she was so wealthy but um she was just a girl and and um really dramatic things happened to her in a very short period of time and she was forced to deal with them um but but if I could be Juliet anybody could and that's kind of what I wanted to get across we have a question here on the left hand side in French is that right just speak French for Mr no take number two channel number two channel number two yeah I have it mrman Richard well the the answer really to the first question is I haven't seen um Ian mela's Richard III so I you know I can't really comment on that except that I mean when you're making a film about Shakespeare there's a lot of the ones I haven't seen you tend not to go out and watch them just because um you like to do other deal with other things at night but um so I haven't seen that now that second question is that to the production designer Katherine Martin it was actually to the producer it was about the fact that how do you justify spending the money that was spent on Romeo and Juliet how did the studio you know well that is an interesting point I mean the studio did not want to make this film uhoh but I mean there wasn't this you know immense in you know Hollywood discovers Shakespeare yes let's do it and it was a great struggle to to show and to to reveal that the notion would work and that's why we in fact made these little video workshops that Leonardo for no money came down and worked with me on and it wasn't until actually they sort of saw these guys get out of cars and walk up and say this does not forgive you you boy for the injury you have done me that people kind of said oh yeah I get it it's kind of like gangs you know that's good gangs is good you know so it was uh it was really a having said that once we kind of pested them enough they very bravely and absolutely said yeah here's the check for 15 million go away and you know you know let's whatever I guess we can take think that it was a fat compete that there was a ready-made audience for this kind of Shakespeare that was more something that I suppose we believed believed in that that that we believed that making a Shakespeare in this way would find a new audience for Shakespeare I mean that was part of the reason why you made the movie B yeah well I mean the cue for us was to deal I mean look when the guy wrote These you know plays they were for everyone you know I mean the notion of sort of tragedy in a quiet little room where everyone sat down you know lovely lovely fantastic isn't it you I mean like it like like the audience for whom this was written was everyone and really our interest was to claim it back for that audience now the idea that we could do that wasn't wasn't something that was easily accepted and it was a great struggle but um and I mean the studio was surprised and I have to say we were to when it went number one and opened in the US that was a great surprise so I hope that answers your question further questions they on the right hand side uh this was a question to the director I I enjoy the film very much but let me ask you this provocative question uh most of us uh whether we're we're um English speakers German speakers we've read Shakespeare as a text as literature on the page uh my question is um um and in the time of Shakespeare when he performed his plays he performed his plays the Globe Theater on a very simple stage with very um AER um um U set design and people were able to savor the the language as it was spoken on stage or we Savor the language as we read it in the text was there any uh concern on your part uh with your fast visual images that the images would would overwhelm the power of the language of shakespare and was that a concern to the producers or the studio as well well uh the the end of the question is no that wasn't a concern to the studio but you know when we talk language the better well when we talk about the um when we talk about actually the STA Shakespeare stage I mean what we do know about what happened on that stage was that he would do absolutely anything to engage the audience in the telling of the story so for example we have you know standup comedy one minute a pop song the next and then we have tragedy right next to it and so it's a very eclectic mix and in fact people are very keen on saying oh well it's an MTV you know that eclecticism is MTV I mean if it's like anything it's kind of like a Hindi movie I think you know when one of those films where you have a Busby Berkeley moment and then you have tragedy right next to it but the real point is this is that the question was if Shakespeare were making a movie what would he do and we can't really speak for him on many things but I think we can be fairly safe in saying he would engage every possible asset he had available to him to clarify and tell that story and so I mean language I mean the man made up one quarter of the English language you know language was a great weapon of his but he also staged some of the most you know horrifying um you know stage and and violent scenes he also put in music you know he would use anything to tell story and really that's the cue that we took um there was another question on the left hand yes please uh what have you done to the Nightingale or uh did I miss it no um you know it's an interesting thing about the text because we've done a cut I mean most Shakespeare are cut we've cut about a third to a half I mean people do kind of refer to the Zephyr relli as the traditional production interestingly enough I mean zephi changed words and added additional dialogue this is a cut of the Shakespeare text but it is an absolutely accurate version of that text it is William Shakespeare's words um I think in terms of Nightingale there's certainly a cut there there there are Cuts right throughout the piece but um I think uh cutting was about really driving the story forward so what I've done with it is I cut it question on the right hand side Mr lurman you still haven't answered my second question is there a limit for you where you would say this material cannot be transformed in such kind of movie oh do you mean that do would would other pieces by Shakespeare be able to be TR look I think you can I think you could do it with any piece and in fact on the stage they do it all the time I mean we did a mid sumite stream at the edur festival set in you know India in the time of the Raj excuse me but um the point is I mean I think it's wrong to set out to do that I think that the process that excuse me we follow is to say here is the story how do we convey this story how do we reveal this piece and it may be that the next Shakespeare we do we do as an absolutely accurate you know execution of the Elizabethan stage you know in in the dress as far as we can um ascertain of that time but can you do it yes I think there's no limit here has a question here in the middle this question is for Claire um I understand that you studied that the Lee strawberg theater Institute in New York and I was wondering how that influenced your development as an actor and perhaps your preparation for the role of Juliet I was about 11 years old when I to Le strawberg for half a year and in the Press it's been written up like I was was his Apprentice for 10 um no I mean I loved it but most of the kids in that class were dropped off by their parents it was either that or tennis class and and um they were more into looking at themselves in the mirror than anything else um but I was really trying to you know feel the wind and I remember we had this exercise where you had an egg have an egg imagine an egg cracking down on you and everywhere the Yol touched your body just would relax automatically and I was really into that yes yes but no I use very little of that I think most of it um you know I try to I wish I had a process because I'd feel much more secure if I did um basically I I daydream a lot once I've committed to a character I spend a lot of time um doing a lot of work unconsciously um and then once I'm there on the set I once I'm surrounded by the Ambiance of whatever location we're we're shooting at um and once I put on the costumes and wear the wig or talk to the other actors things automatically feel much more real um yeah but and but you are you are really meticulous in your preparation yeah I am and I really need to if I feel shaky about what kind of person I'm uh portraying I'll feel insecure and it won't work but um and I would die if it didn't work uh yeah I guess I'm maticulous I I'm a really I guess I'm a reflective actor more than an active one you a tricking me Way by any chance what do you think I am what do you think my process is my method you did hours on the text no I did and I'll go home and and really my my most brilliant moments are in the bathtub I should have hidden cameras all around my house because I do really great stuff when I'm alone and then when I'm on set it just all goes to pot but um B is rolling his eyes over here ter ter Terri terrible I'm terrible we are going to reshoot Major sections over the film no God no there's another question there if you could get up thank you I've noticed in some of your movies uh you this is for um Claire uh your fashion sense is pretty incredible and I'm curious if you can talk about that and also about your other projects I know you have leay Miz coming up and you're in an Oliver Stone and a Francis Ford Copa film um yeah I don't have much to say uh with my wardrobe I basically trust everybody who's working on the film and I don't try to meddle and um with their job I haven't loved all the costumes I've worn but I did actually love my my wardrobe in this movie and Kim Barrett the designer is just just a genius and um you know I I just remember looking at the the costumes at the ball and thinking oh my Lord how did she come up with that uh they're so colorful and wonderful but um um yeah I'm doing lame as Rob in May in Prague which should be great with uh director bil AUST and it's with a wonderful cast Jeffrey Rush Le n and with Thurman so it's pretty cool and it's yet another classic story and we are telling it in a more traditional way uh no I I wouldn't want to torture you um no it's it's a dramatic version um and I I had a little Cameo roll in Oliver Stone movie and I I had it was a comedic part and I basically spazzed out I don't know what I did I haven't seen any dailies I'm a little frightened but we'll see and it's called um well it's in between names it may be called U-turn maybe call stray dogs I don't know uh and then the FR for Copo one it's yet another gisha movie It's called The Rain Maker and I play an abused wife I know it's strange I'm really young and I'm getting married twice now on film um uh so yeah it was kind of interesting to to discover what the um psychology of an abused person is what was the side effect what were the side effects well sometimes I I for would forget to take off my makeup and I'd wander around the streets and I'd have big bruises on my face and people would be like you know giving me these very strange looks I'm like what are you looking at you know and I'd realize oh I have bruises I know that's not what you meant but no actually it was more of a peripheral role it wasn't as intense as Juliet was certainly so I I pretty much played the love and Trust which was a little frustrating but but the time the chance I did have to act I really enjoyed and I did it with this guy Matt Damon who's terrific he's young he's hot yeah he's cool the next Leonardo de Gabriel no that's not true no gosh why keep rolling your eyes I'm a director we do that Miss Martin was it very difficult to con convert his ideas in the production design when I think about the ballroom for example yes he's a torturer um no it's actually it's just a process of collaboration I mean baz collaborates with everyone the actors with me with the costume designer with hair and makeup so it's a it's it's a hard process because he is very exacting in what he wants and it's a it takes a long time to actually come to the definitive thing but at the end even though you may have rolled your eyes in torture and pain and you're saying oh please don't make me do that you realize at the end that he's pushed you beyond your natural boundaries so you've actually done more than you could possibly imagine you would ever do by yourself so um it's it's a long process and a hard one but a satisfying one one question in the middle as a young actress Claire I'm just wondering if you can share with us your viewpoints on how to basically remain focused on your job I know that a lot of actors and actresses uh who you are how old now uh 17 17 my god um sorry um just give us some insight how you stay grounded how you don't how you avoid the Pratt Falls I mean this these are those years where you you know Rebellion a lot of things no um well I've wanted to act since I was five I I couldn't tell you why necessarily I mean nobody in my family was in the business um just was always really driven to do this um and um no I I'm I'm really focused on the work I I enjoy every minute of it I can't imagine anything more dangerous than actually being truthful to a character and um and being honest in the scene and and just trusting that it's going to take you to some really strange sometimes sometimes Dark Places um there's no more powerful drug and so I I don't need that and I have a really wonderful family truly truly truly fantastic and they've instilled very good values in me I think and um they don't let me get um too big for my britches um yeah and i' I have great friends I've just been very lucky in that I have a a fairly strong base already um and a lot of young people are not so fortunate question you on the right hand side could you please stand up thank you um question to the director did the editing follow the script or did the editing follow the material that you shot it is interesting I think our process we take a long time to make things and we do work in a very collaborative Manner and for that reason when we write a script it really is an accurate map of what we set out to do so although there were some Corners there where we we Mis misjudged it and we had to adjust that in editing it's quite remarkable I think that a lot of what is in this text in our script is really very close to what we ended up with so for example a lot of those rhythmic devices that we use in the beginning where it's just so relentless and so fast you're begging it to stop please you know that's in the script and then when Romeo looks to Juliet you know we breathe and it becomes a movie you know up to that point it's that kind of device of it being an assault really is is something that we plotted into the text so um having said that I think you know Jill is just a remarkable person to work with and you know the team that we' we've always worked together as a team for a very long time we actually don't take jobs you know we're not really for hire in that regard further questions question on the right hand side my question is to director um in your film some symbols ancient symbols of uh of love and peace for example hard and cross turn to uh ornaments on weapons or violent bodies what was more important for you uh the ancient or the overtime story in in Shakespeare language or the symbols or the ornaments of contemporary time and contemporary world I mean the religious iconography is simply plot Point really it is a crucial plot point that when father Lawrence says well Romeo okay I'll marry you because if I marry you in the eyes of God no man the families cannot pull you apart now it's absolutely crucial if that's going to work that everybody in that world believes in religion it's a very religious world it's a world where you know religion and religion iconography is kind of dripping from the walls the idea of religious symbols I mean we created Verona Beach which is a fantasy City out of a very accurate analysis of the Elizabethan World so you know religion tied up with politics everyone is armed um and converted that to 20th century images I mean Verona Beach is not Miami or Mexico City or or Los Angeles it is a fantasy City in which we play out this world but the the idea of the world being absolutely believing in God and religion is very very important I mean there's a resonance there you know the idea of weapons with with religious symbols on them I mean it's not hard to think of a city which is adorned with religious icons and yet people are shooting each other because you belong to the wrong brand of religion we were shooting in Mexico where that's true religion pretty much formates every aspect of that society and we were on this the sound stages and there the the workers you know the Mexican workers would have um shrines with of Maria a Mary I mean it's they you know and and around that that Shrine would be images of you know Playboy bunnies and women without their tops on and I just went I don't get that that's terrible I and it was so obvious and it was so hypocritical and I thought my gosh you know that's exactly what we're those are almost the exact same images we're using in the movie so that was just one example on the set you went around interviewing people in Mexico City why did you do that can I can I hear that again sorry I'm sorry that's all right you went around interviewing people in Mexico City before a pre-production stage not in Mexico City no no no what in fact we did was this the process was to once we had established the idea of researching the Elizabethan World like the stage of Shakespeare and converting that into a sort of cinematic language the next question was how do you you sort of Steal images and Notions from the 20th century and make up this kind of Patchwork world so we wanted to be in a city when we wrote the screenplay that we felt could help us identify the sort of dominant Western culture now the sort of dominant culture whichever way you look at it in terms of films and television is predominantly American so we being a bunch of Australians and and it and it really is a predominantly Australian team that evolved the film we went down to Miami and it's in Miami that we actually interviewed lots of uh young kids in schools Etc just to find out whether the the the big idea in the piece had real truth and relevance and also to understand sort of contemporary um Youth and so that perhaps we the situations that we were creating had some grounded reality uh we have must be very brief now uh we have you first and then you and then we must finish Helen bow from Australia um hi I actually come from Sydney and I have also been to Miami actually for the film festival there and I I couldn't help but feel that Miami was very much like Sydney and that maybe there's a bit of Sydney in this film would you like to comment on that well what culture yeah now what I will say is that is that whatever way you look at it the film is I mean we are a team that's worked together for for a very long time and we contined to work together and in fact I think there were maybe 16 Australians on the film it was sort of the international colors of film making I mean we had Italian hair and makeup and you know French and Germans and Mexican Canadian Americans some Americans just a few but it really was a very international team having said that I think that the kind of film that it is whether you get it or you don't get it whether you accept our style or you don't it is our style and I think that that style is Australian in a sense it is um particular to the way we see things and more important The Way We Tell story so I think there's a little bit of that in there as to Sydney and Miami they're similar but different too last question on the right hand side far answer yeah just following up on the last point I mean can you get up thank you um how do you see your do you regard yourself as an Australian filmmaker first and foremost and will you continue making films in America or or will you go back to Australia yeah I didn't make this film in America in fact as a team other than the fact that we travel lot we are based in Sydney Australia and I'm happy to say that I'm continuing my relationship with 20th Century Fox because they are in fact building a a studio down in Sydney and had we had a studio down there the right kind of Sound Stage we more than likely would have made the film there I mean we are an Australian team I it's fantastic to work but but all the world is a stage for us we work with Talent from all over the world and you know the reason I cast CLA Dan is not because she's was an upand cominging Great American Star it's because she was the best best Juliet I could find in the world and that so don't you give me that about pres but I mean in truth but we do see ourselves in everything that we make and we don't just do film in fact I don't think of ourselves as kind of filmmakers or Opera makers or election campaign givers we we we decide on projects that we think will make life interesting and Rich so um we did work with a big studio in terms of financing and distribution it is technically on paper and a Australian Canadian co-production okay well thank you very much for spending time with [Applause] us this this side please for for