From the moment we arrive in France, it’s like being in a movie. A convoy of jeeps collects us from Emerson’s Gulfstream jet and whisks us to the location in Beynac, a riverside tourist town dominated by a Disneyesque castle. When we arrive, a cast of hundreds is re-enacting a savage battle – the film is set in the Middle Ages. Emerson, having sacked no fewer than three directors, has assumed behind-the-camera duties himself, as well as being the producer and leading man. Still, he takes an hour out of his frantic schedule to join us for a working lunch, served al fresco in the castle’s keep. Wearing a sword and a tunic drenched in fake blood, he fields questions with a confidence that surely disguises the enormous pressure he must be under.
Guardian: British audiences will be keen to know what happened to Annalise Palatine. I interviewed her just before she started and she was so excited, so full of hope.
Emerson: It’s very sad. We thought she’d be perfect for the part, but it didn’t work out. Annalise is a great actress, but sometimes these things happen.
Guardian: Like Harvey Keitel in Apocalypse Now?
Emerson: It’s a very hard thing to have to do, to tell a leading player they’re not right for a part.
Guardian: Yet the word is that her previous film, Popular Delusions, might be in the running for an Oscar.
Emerson: I didn’t know that. Who told you that?
Guardian: A pretty good source who’s usually right about such matters.
Emerson: I hadn’t heard that. Jeez… all I can say is that I’ve been around the movie business a long time and I gotta tell you, it’s like life: stranger than shit.
Guardian: There was a huge rash of publicity about you and Palatine being a romantic item. The newspapers even had you tying the knot, then all that stuff about a kidnapping.
Emerson: That’s the press for you – it was the summer, the silly season. Don’t take this personally, but large sections of the media publish gossip without ever checking it out or, better still, they just make it up. You kinda get used to it. What happened was that an ex-employee of mine was peddling gossip to the press, purely for money. She even smuggled out a few stills from some scenes we filmed, then, next thing, me and Palatine are supposedly getting hitched. The culprit no longer works for me. So I’m sorry to disappoint everyone, but the relationship was always entirely professional. And the stuff about a kidnapping – that must have been Palatine’s PR guys, laying down a smokescreen. It’s never easy to admit that you’ve been fired.
Guardian: It must be horribly expensive, having to reshoot all her scenes.
Emerson: It sure ain’t cheap, but we got this fantastic young actress from San Diego, Holly Spader, and, I gotta tell you, she’s stepped up to the mark and is doing a fantastic job. The world is in for a big surprise when they see her performance – we’ve written in more romantic scenes, some of them are very full-on. Holly Spader is gonna be the next big thing, I promise you.
Guardian: Three directors, two cinematographers, one female lead – the casualty rate on this film has been very high.
Emerson: I won’t apologise for trying to make the best movie that I can. I’m a perfectionist and I need people around me who share my vision, one hundred and one per cent, twenty-five hours a day, eight days a week. That’s the sort of guy I am; it’s what made me what I am today. So in one sense, me taking over the director’s chair is a natural progression.
Guardian: But you’ve never directed before.
Emerson: Believe me, if George Clooney can do it, then so can I.
Guardian: Isn’t it true that the studio financing the film has pulled out?
Emerson: That’s not what happened. What happened was; I fired the studio and put up more of my own money, because it was the only way to maintain the artistic freedom that I need. I’m an artist, first and foremost.
Guardian: What do you say to critics who think that the sword-and-sandles epic has had its day? The genre has seen a lot of high-profile flops over the past few years, even from top-class directors like Wolfgang Peterson, Oliver Stone and Ridley Scott.
Emerson: What I say to the critics is: shut your mouths until you see my movie. I can see my movie in my head and, I gotta tell you – it’s gonna be great.
Darling Sweetheart Page 39