With Jude Law in place of Michael Caine, this "Alfie" follows along the same basic storyline as the original. Law, as Alfie, talks to the camera, as did Caine in the 1966 film. And Alfie's still a lothario, a confirmed and committed womanizing bachelor who enjoys a freewheeling lifestyle. But there are differences between the two films, particularly in the way women are portrayed.
"It's almost 40 years later, though, and of course, women have changed. What they'll put up with today and what they've learned since the '60s changes the tone of a film like this," explains Jude Law.
INTERVIEW WITH CHARLES SHYER:
How did you decide when Jude Law would look at the camera?
He looks at it a little bit less than he did in the screenplay. And again, so much of directing is gut instinct. So much of it is when it feels right and when it feels wrong. One of the things that I didn’t realize when I was writing the script was that when he turns to look at the camera, you have to occupy the other people on the screen or they’ll be looking at him and saying, “Who are you talking to? What are you doing?” And you can’t just have them doing little stupid business, folding a piece of clothing or something. You have to have it be organic to the scene. So it, in a way, complicates your directing and your blocking because that’s a whole other layer that I never thought about. But it kind of became second nature.
We rehearsed a lot and we did a lot of shooting of our rehearsals, of [Jude] talking to the camera. Then he and I would go into the projection room and look at them and say, “Well, now you can look in the mirror here. You can do this there.” So by the first day of shooting, he had it down. He was very comfortable with the technique.
Were the signs he passes on the street that have just one word on them in the script?
No, that was something Sophie Becher, the production designer, and I came up with. I liked it because I thought it was very graphic, very ‘60s kind of feeling. Our conceit was that it was an advertising campaign of some big corporation that they were doing through New York, and I thought it reflected kind of an alternate desire. It’s kind of what he’s thinking, what he needs but maybe isn’t aware of it sometimes.
The thing that I’m proud of, I didn’t have to do it. It would be such an easy thing to cut out of the movie or not do in the first place and play it safe. This was a movie I just didn’t want to play it safe with. I didn’t want to say, “God, I wish I would have done that.” I wanted to do everything that I really thought would work and believed in. Coming off a movie that wasn’t successful and coming back and writing myself out of that knowing I’ll exist in Hollywood, I can make it, gave me the confidence to just do the movie I believed in.
Do you think Alfie would be so successful with women if he weren’t so fabulous looking?
Yeah, I do. Jude doesn’t dine out on being great looking. That’s not his thing. He’s the kind of guy who wakes up, doesn’t shave, doesn’t look in the mirror, throws on a T-shirt, sportcoat and goes to work and looks great. I’ve never, ever discussed his looks with him, ever. And I know him really well now for a long time. The issue has never come up. It’s almost like a perk. It’s not like the essence of the character. It’s a perk that he looks so great. I think it’s his attitude. [He’s] cocky and I think it’s a cover up. No matter how cute you are, you’re still insecure. You don’t think Brad Pitt’s insecure? Tom Cruise? We’re all people just out there trying to make our way. So I think, yeah, he’s got one more bullet in the chamber, but I don't think it protects you really that much. Maybe it protects you a little bit more than if you’re a nerd.
How did you decide when to freeze frame?
Gut instinct. Some of them were in the script. Usually, when you make a movie, for me, I have certain rules. I have color rules. I have all the things that I set up just for myself so the movie stays cohesive. With this movie I knew that I wanted, number one, to have this whole retro kind of feel, the inspiration being “Georgia Girl” and “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Darling” and “Morgan” and the French new wave. That kind of very splashy opening so I’d have a place to go color-wise at the end of the movie also, when it got colder, when his world got colder and more blue.
PAGE 2: Charles Shyer on Handling Manic Depression on Film and Recognizing Good Stories
