CraveOnline: There’s a scene of yours I’ve always loved in Body Double, which is the “Relax” scene. It’s very fascinating because it’s such a dark film, we’ve already had a horrific murder in it and it’s about voyeurism and then when we actually enter the world of pornography, it’s very heightened and very artificial and elaborate. It’s almost comical. I was always kind of wondering what your thought was because that scene just comes alive, really suddenly and it’s this great oner and I was wondering if you could talk about that and your decision to film that sequence.
Brian De Palma: Well, it was a combination of things. It comes right down to a lot of research with a real porn star and I sort of based the Holly Body character on her. And the thing that you discover with porn stars is that they have a hysterical sense of humor. I mean, they’re very funny. So, when we got to the point of, the so-called, the actor goes into the porn film in order to get close to Holly Body, so he can find out what she had to do with the murder… This is at the point where people are starting to direct music videos. I think that’s also the year I did Bruce Springsteen’s first music video.
“Dancing in the Dark?”
Yeah, and I think the Michael Jackson ones were first coming out. This was like, the era of the music video, I said to myself, “Why don’t we make this into like, a music video? A porn music video, nobody’s ever seen that before.” Then I think one of the executives at Columbia came up with the song and then I heard the song and said, “This is perfect!” They were very unhappy with the video they had done, so I shot the video and put it in the movie, then gave them the video for them to use but they were not very happy with that, either so they went on and it turned into another video. So, I think there are like, 3 videos of Relax. We shot it way after the principle photography. I’m trying to remember how this happened but we went and shot it almost 6 or 7 months after the principle photography. We went back and shot the “Relax” video, then I put it into the movie so I’m trying to remember, what was in the movie before we put this in? [Laughs]
I’d be very curious to find that out.
I don’t quite remember.
I found out something and I couldn’t find a source on it, so I’m not sure how true it is. Is it true that you wrote or at least co-wrote, the opening title crawl on Star Wars?
God, I’ve been answering that question all morning. Now, I’m trying to remember something that happened a long time ago… If I recall, when Jay Cox I saw the crawl, it was establishing this whole world and I think I said to George, “George, you’ve got so many scenes going on here, this is hard to follow. Maybe there’s a way to make this clearer,” and Jay and I rewrote the crawl and that’s what was ultimately used. We just basically simplified it because it was so complicated, what George had initially put up there.
Are you interested in this remake of Carrie that they’re putting out, later in the year? Does that interest you or are you just not…
No, no. I’m interested. I know Kimberly [Peirce]. I’ve known her for years. We used to hang out in New York together. She called me when she was making the movie and we talked about it. You know, what was going on and how the script was going and I’m fascinated like anybody else. I think she’s got an excellent cast and I’ll be there the first day to see what the hell it looks like.
You started a solid franchise, with the Mission: Impossible movies. You did a great one and it went on without you. Have you kept up with that franchise? Have you seen where it went, after you started it?
Yes.
What are your thoughts? Everyone seems to be bringing their own take on it. I’m just curious what your thoughts are. Would you have wanted to stay with that, if that had come together?
Well, Tom [Cruise] asked me after the first one if I wanted to do another one and I said, “Another one of Mission: Impossible? Isn’t one enough?” [Laughs] So, no, I think each director has brought something different to it, you know? It’s sort of evolved with the technology. Tom’s always trying to do more and more audacious things but I’ve never quite got behind this sequel stuff. I don’t think it’s very interesting for a director to make one movie after another, and needless to say there are many talented directors doing it but when you spend a decade of your life making sequels, I just don’t get it. It seems to me, the only reason to do it is financially, and that doesn’t make any sense to me. How much money do you have to make in this business?
All of the money. What have you got coming up? What do I have to look forward to from Brian De Palma?
Well, right now, I’m working on this Paterno story for Al Pacino. So, we just got a script and now we’re figuring out how we’re gonna shoot it.
Everyone’s opinions on that are so strange to me.
I know. They’re all over the place.
Do you have a specific take on it or are you going to try to keep this accessible for everyone?
I don’t know. It’s a very difficult story. All kinds of conflicting testimonies. You know, it’s a terrible tragedy but we’re going to try to make… It’s strong stuff. What can I tell you? It’s very strong stuff and it’s very sad stuff.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
