Woody Allen Press Conference
How did you handle the fans hanging around the shoot in Barcelona?
Woody Allen: "Yes, there were huge crowds hanging around. It was no problem at all. They were the most polite, sweet people. They would hang around, they didn’t bother us, and before a take if I needed quite I would go like this to them. They would all get very quiet. They were totally cooperative and nice. We had an enormous amount of cooperation from the city in every way. If you look at the end of the picture you see all the credits of people that participated. People were giving us things for nothing left and right. They couldn’t have been sweeter."
"I was able to make the picture and, because of all the freebies, I could make it for the small budget that I had. I never had a lot of money. I make my pictures for approximately 15 million dollars. Some go to 16 and some will be 14, but that’s the ballpark. We were able to make the picture for that, and the picture looks healthy because we got so much cooperation and free things. The town was great to us. The museum would open up for us. The crowds in the street, which were enormous, it was not like shooting in New York where you get a couple of drifters that watch and they are jaded and don’t care. We really got hundreds and hundreds of people. They could not have been sweeter or more cooperative."
At least one of the actors in this film said they were nervous when they learned they were working with you because you are such an accomplished director. Do you have a technique for putting your actors at ease?
Woody Allen: "The actors should not feel ill at ease. I am the one that feels ill at ease. It’s maybe my ill at ease personality that makes them feel that way. I’m nervous to meet Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. Also, there is a lot of nonsense that circulates about me, that they come to believe, that I don’t like to speak to anybody. They say I’m reclusive. There was I think in the New York Times magazine section last week, they did a feature on Matthew Goode who I worked with in Match Point. He said, 'I came into the audition and someone said, 'Don’t shake hands with Woody. He doesn’t like to be touched.'' So, where these things originate I can’t imagine. I’m not incredibly social, but I’m not forbidding. I’m nervous around them. I don’t really have a way of putting them at ease. I think what happens is that they are nervous before they come in, but after they meet me for one minute and they see I’m not threat and not anything they’ve conceived, they see I’m a push-over and they can handle me effortlessly, they become relaxed. It’s nothing I do to make that happen. They see it, but I think my nerves, my shyness, could read as something that it is not."
You said that Scarlett Johansson could do anything. That’s a high compliment and it’s rare. Is there a role you haven’t written for her that you want to see her do?
Woody Allen: "As [far as] Scarlett goes, I never think in terms of there is something I would like to write for someone. I will say that if I ever have a part that she could play, I would always go to her for them. I hope that she would be available. I do think that she is capable of anything. If you need dramatic, she’s dramatic. If you need a laugh, she can get a laugh. She can sing if you need it. She’s sexy, she’s intelligent. She is a great ace in the hole to have and there are a lot of things she can do. And that face on the screen…she is so photogenic it’s paralyzing. I would always try and use her if I could. There is no limit for her."
"I now think there is no limit for Penelope either. She’s learning English much more. She is getting very, very fluid with her English. When I started with her she spoke it pretty well. Now she is really getting completely bilingual. They will be writing more and more parts for her in English speaking pictures. She will be able to score very heavily because she is a very charismatic actress."
Rebecca Hall’s character seemed a little like the roles you have played in the past. She is the voice of reason. When you were writing the character of Vicky were you thinking of your voice?
Woody Allen: "It’s funny that you should ask me that. You are the third person that has asked me that question. To me, it seems so outlandish. Apparently it's not though because you are the third person to ask me that question. Years ago when [a friend] saw Interiors she insisted to me that I was the Mary Beth Hurt character on the flimsy evidence that she was wearing a tweed sport jacket that I liked to wear. I was saying, 'No, it’s not true because her problem in the movie is that she can’t express herself artistically. She’s full of feeling and can’t get it out.' I’ve always been able to write a little bit, or make jokes, I’ve never had that problem."
"As the years went by people would say, 'John Cusack is you,' or, 'This one is you…' So when I did Match Point someone said that Jonathan Rhys Meyers was playing my role. I’m thinking, 'How can someone possibly come to that? In my wildest incarnation I couldn’t play that role, be that character, or think that way.' The same way, not for a second would I think of myself, in any relation to Vicky."
"I would have thought myself, and I don’t mean this because he’s so charming and charismatic, in Javier’s role. I could see a funny scene of me getting up in a restaurant and trying to pick up two attractive women, then not being successful at it, or getting in over my head. I could see Javier’s atheistic, existential point of view as one I’ve expressed many times. No one has said, 'Javier was kind of talking for you at times.' They think that the girl is speaking for me. I see it as absolutely not so, but it’s interesting that it keeps coming up so I can only think I have a blind spot. It's not like you’re the only crazy in the city. I have a blind spot and I don’t see it, but apparently it's there for other people to see. Now it’s come up again and again. I don’t see it in any way, but I can’t honestly say that my perspective on it is correct. I’m starting to lose confidence."
