Ridley Scott

April 2007

By Anna Carugati

When film enthusiasts go
to a movie directed by Ridley Scott, they know they will be treated to a visual
spectacle. He took the science-fiction genre to a new level with Alien and Blade Runner. He went on to direct such critical and commercial
hits as Thelma & Louise, Gladiator—which earned five Academy Awards, including
Best Picture—and Black Hawk Down. What the audience may not know is that Scott began his career in
television and also worked in commercials before making his first feature film.
Scott continues to work in television, alongside producing and directing films.
He serves as executive producer of the series Numb3rs, which is distributed by CBS Paramount
International Television, and he has executive-produced with John Calley the
mini-series The Company,
distributed by Tandem Communications. With a cast that includes Chris O’Donnell,
Alfred Molina and Michael Keaton, The Company is an intense thriller that traces the activities
of the CIA’s underground fight with the KGB. Scott talks to World Screen about making films and television programs and the
passion he has for his work.

WS: Early in
your career you worked at the BBC. What were those first television experiences
like, and how did they affect your work later on?

SCOTT: I loved
my whole experience at the BBC. It was my first real job after college. The BBC
was—and always has been—at the forefront of pretty well every form
of programming and production. It was classified then as being not so much the
commercial side of television, but was always regarded as rather classy, with
more serious subjects. I got in the BBC not as a director or producer, but in
fact as a designer. So I saw production immediately in the front trenches, as
it were, where it’s all about art against commerce. You’re always working
against a budget in tele­vision, but I loved the chase. I loved the
competitive idea of getting the most you can from a limited budget. And that
really became my absolute training ground, which would stand me in pretty good
stead for the stints I did in advertising, then as a director, and later in
feature films. So by the time I hit my first feature film, I was pretty
programmed in terms of being able to balance out my purse with my creative
output.

WS: What do you
enjoy about television from a creative point of view?

SCOTT: In the
last few years, there has been a rise in standards of television. I’m seeing
creative work, and creative thinking, and looking at things in a different way,
[to the point] where you are getting really progressive thinking in the best
level of television today. Which I think would compete with feature films. When
you are doing television, you’re almost thinking of an audience that is placed
in a different condition, i.e., they are sitting at home as opposed to going
out to the theater to see a movie. And therefore you’ve got two quite different
prerequisites—it’s how you persuade an audience of the magnitude of
network television to actually come to you that evening and tune in to what you’ve
got to offer. But you normally have more than one shot. A mini-series will be
run several times. Because you have that differential, you can actually tackle
subjects that aren’t necessarily regarded as being commercial in the movie
market. And in television, in a funny kind of way, you have a captive audience,
and if they don’t see it the first time, they’ll hear about it the second time
if it’s good, and therefore I think they are more willing and able to sit down
and have a little more patience. I find movie audiences have less patience than
a television audience.

WS: What
attracted you to the mini-series The Company?

SCOTT: The
Company was first of all going to
be a film that I wanted to do. And I was so engaged by the very extended piece,
which at that point was about 180 pages, written by Ken Nolan [adapted from
Robert Littell’s novel The Company].
I loved this particular kind of movie where your challenge is to [depict the] evolution of the story of these central characters who will age from 1959 right
to and beyond the fall of the Berlin Wall. That’s a really big challenge and it’s
fascinating to go through that period and watch these people as they gradually
mature, and of course, the change in their attitude from how they first started
to where they end. That’s great. That’s an enormous challenge for a movie and I
suddenly thought, This is going to be way better to do as a mini-series,
because I’ve got six hours as opposed to two and a half. I can tell a much
better story. The Company is ­virtually
cut, and it’s pretty marvelous.

WS: I heard
that when you were filming in Budapest, you encountered actual uprisings that
caused some problems.

SCOTT: There
are always problems. That’s part of the process of filmmaking. Fundamentally,
if you can’t take a bit of stress, don’t do it!

WS: It’s one of
those subject matters that will appeal to a lot of countries.

SCOTT: I think
so, and to quite a broad audience. The presentation reel—what we call the
sizzle reel—is only about four minutes, but it gives a pretty good idea
of the breadth and scope of what we are dealing with, and also the time period
we are dealing with. It’s absolutely fascinating, yet it’s not like a history
lesson, you are evolving with the central characters.

WS: Looking at Numb3rs, what different set of challenges does an ongoing
series present? Once you have a series on the air, and it becomes successful,
then you have to keep it successful.

SCOTT: Well, it’s
a constant watch, which is part of the fascination. The team who are actually
doing this show—and I watch rushes and still watch the show on a Friday
night—will actually meet fairly regularly to discuss the ins and outs and
whys and wherefores and variances. You’re constantly looking at the road ahead
to ask, How can these central characters evolve? What’s their evolution going
to be? That’s really important. That’s what I love about the business. You’ve
got to be hands-on in a good way. You’ve got to let people breathe, you’ve got
to let people do, particularly when you have such a talented group as the
production team on Numb3rs and
the cast. You’ve got to let them fly with the ball, and a lot is just watching
and encouraging and having ideas.

WS: How have
the programming executives at CBS been?

SCOTT:
Absolutely great. Once you’re up flying they leave you alone!

WS: Are you
involved with other TV projects?

SCOTT: We’ve
done two pilots and are waiting to hear [if they will be picked up].

WS: What is the
most challenging aspect of feature films?

SCOTT:
Everything. The most challenging thing any time, any place, whether it’s
television or whether it’s film, is getting the script, getting the material
right. Once that script is on paper the way you want it, everything after that
becomes relatively straightforward and fun. If you haven’t got it on paper, and
you go into production, it’s a nightmare. So it’s all about your chosen
subject, your chosen idea, which is obviously the first prerogative and
priority. Once you get that, then it’s trying to find a rare commodity called a
writer—a great writer is hard to find. I can write, but I can’t write as
well as the writers I like to work with, so I won’t even attempt to. But I like
to work with them. It is actually getting that screenplay down [that is the
challenge]; making the film is relatively pretty straightforward.

WS: Do you
have a preference between executive producing and directing?

SCOTT: The
first love is directing.

WS: If you had
to name one movie or two that best represented your work, would you be able to
choose? It’s kind of like asking who your favorite child is!

SCOTT: I
couldn’t because it’s exactly that, asking who is my favorite child. They are
all my favorite children.

WS: Speaking
of which, your children are in your business, aren’t they?

SCOTT: All
three are directors.

WS: You must
have been one hell of a role model for them. Most kids want to run from what
their parents do!

SCOTT: It’s
actually a pretty good relationship. One is moving into his second film this
summer. The other two may do their first film this year. It might be
interesting. I may have all three in production this year—not with me,
with other people.

WS: Do they
come to you for advice?

SCOTT: Yes,
from time to time. It’s a pretty close relationship. They’ve always watched
with bemusement Tony [Scott’s brother who is also a director; his credits
include Top Gun] and I at it,
going crazy for all the number of years that we have been. They decided that
they wanted to [get into the film business]. I would never encourage someone to
do it, mainly because it’s tough. It’s a bit like being an actor and
encouraging one of your children to be an actor—if it doesn’t work out it’s
­pretty
hard. So you have to make the choice, which means you have to find your own
confidence in yourself to figure out what to do. It’s tricky.

WS: You have to
forge your own way.

SCOTT: Yes, and
I can’t call and ask someone, “Give my kid a film.” That’s not how it works.
First they have to figure out it’s something they want to do, or prove in their
own right that they can do it, and then gradually that evolution will begin to
happen, providing you pursue it. It’s all about pursuit. It’s pretty tough.

WS: What
feature films do you have coming up?

SCOTT: I just
finished with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe a film called American
Gangster, done with Imagine
Entertainment and with Brian Grazer. That’s for Universal Studios to go out in
November. It’s pretty good—in fact, it’s great! It worked out very well.
I was shooting with Russell and Denzel in Harlem, [re-creating] Harlem between
1969 and 1974. And we shot right through the second half of last summer and
into the autumn. It’s about two characters, and actually, both characters are
still alive today, so they would visit the set at least three or four times a
week. So that was kind of weird.

WS: Were they
critical?

SCOTT: No, they
were just fascinated. They couldn’t really quite gather the fact that someone
was making a film about them.

WS: And to
see Russell Crowe be you, or Denzel Washington be you!

SCOTT: It
was quite an interesting experience, for me it was great having two such great
talents like that to work with.

WS: You’ve
worked with Russell several times.

SCOTT: This was
the third time.

WS: What else
are you working on?

SCOTT: Starting
in August, I’ll be going to Morocco and Dubai, doing a contemporary piece which
in broad strokes would be described as the condition that we are now in [in the
war on terrorism] and looking at that carefully from a strategic point of view.
It’s quite an aggressive story. It’s from a book by David Ignatius, who is a
columnist for the Washington Post.
The film is with Leonardo DiCaprio.

WS: You are
very prolific. How do you manage to follow all the TV projects and all the
feature film projects as well?

SCOTT: I love
it! [Laughs]

WS: There’s
nothing better than that, is there?

SCOTT: It’s not
work. It’s a passion.