|
 |
Find interviews by: | ||
| | |
Jake West, Eileen Daly and Rob Mercer (part 1) This interview about UK vampire flick Razor Blade Smile was conducted at the 9th Festival of Fantastic Films in September 1998. Present were writer/director Jake West, producer Rob Mercer and star Eileen Daly. I think a few bits of this interview may have appeared in SFX, but frankly I'm not certain. Seven years later I interviewed Jake again about Evil Aliens. Jump straight to Part 2 of this long interview. You can also jump straight to Rob's comments or Eileen's comments.
Jake West: "It's coming up to about three years now. By the time it's released it will be virtually three years. I'd been working in the film industry for about three years. I left film school in 1992 and Razor Blade Smile probably started bubbling around 1995. We shot it in 1996, then the post-production took until just a couple of months ago when it was finally finished. So that's been the kind of timeline on it. And the release is on Halloween." When you started I suppose you weren't envisaging a theatrical release. JW: "When I started I wasn't sure what was going to happen with it. I shot it on film in the hope that one day, if it was any good, maybe there would at least be the option to have that. So using film was important to me. But at the time I was shooting it, I thought chances were it would probably just end up on video. Therefore I would never get to make a print of it, but as it turned out, that wasn't the case." Did you make a vampire film because the market's there in the goth/fetish crowd? JW: "Well, I've always liked vampire movies. I wrote a couple of scripts before I wrote Razor Blade. The problem was just trying to get the money for them. I wrote a zombie film first of all, thinking that would be great to get off the ground. But I budgeted it out and it came to about a quarter of a million because it needed a lot of elaborate effects and things like that. And I thought that was a fairly low budget at the time, being quite naive about it. Because it is a low budget, quarter of a million, but it's impossible to raise when you haven't got a track record. So I then wrote another script, but that was a bit of a non-starter. "So I specifically wrote Razor Blade because I love vampire movies anyway, but also a vampire movie was a very viable movie to do on a relatively low budget because you don't need mega-amounts of make-up. You just need some good teeth; blood effects are quite simple and easy to do; stuff like that. And I fused that with the action genre which I like; I've been quite influenced by a lot of Hong Kong movies. I wanted to do the kind of movie which hadn't been done in the UK, and the kind of movie which I wanted to see. But yes, I know people who love vampire movies, so vampire movies are always around. It doesn't really matter, because you can always reinvent the vampire story or whatever. It's just very appealing from that point of view as well. But the script just came out of me and I really enjoyed writing it."
JW: "When I was initially doing the notes for the script, just working out all the different ideas, I did a brainstorm where I just wrote out all of my feelings about vampires before I started writing. I was just trying to get into the psychology of what I thought this kind of character would do. Because I wanted to make it a fun character as well. So my reasoning was that basically, if you were a vampire in the modern day, you would have to blend into society. So you would want to earn money. I thought, also you would still have to kill people for their blood and by that point you would probably enjoy killing because you would have transcended any sort of humanity. You would have become a different creature. “So the idea of a contract killer: yes, that would be good because then the vampire character wouldn't have to worry about who she was going to kill a lot of the time. Or being killed as well. It gives you a great edge on a job like that, and if you enjoy killing it's a bit more of a challenge. I thought that was a great idea and I'd never seen a vampire contract killer. That was just a very appealing idea. Once I'd got that in my mind, the script just sort of took off and the Lilith Silver character evolved around this cool assassin character." At what stage did you bring Eileen on board? JW: "I mentioned the script to her when I was writing it because she'd worked on a couple of productions that I did. One was a computer game CD-ROM that we cut scenes for, and Eileen did a couple of pop promos with acting bits in. So I knew Eileen. I also knew of her involvement in Redemption and the whole scene. So when I was casting I was looking for a specific type and Eileen fitted that remit pretty well, but the role wasn't offered straight to her. I did extensive casting, seeing lots of people. I saw about forty people for that part. So Eileen only actually got the role about a week and a half before we started filming. So it wasn't offered her on a plate. The character wasn't written for Eileen, but it was written for the kind of character which Eileen would be good at playing. And she was the best person in the audition. Eileen was involved in the project. Even if she hadn't got the lead, I would have wanted her to be in it. But she did a great reading and got the part."
JW: "Oh definitely, yes. At the time I was doing that I already thought she was a bit of an icon anyway because of the Redemption stuff, and I know Nigel Wingrove quite well as well. Eileen's always loved horror and she's never looked down her nose at it like certain actresses do. So that was one of Eileen's strengths as well. To actually be involved in that whole scene, I think Eileen is a very positive person for the genre and has been doing good. A lot of the things that Eileen has done over the past couple of years, her profile has risen. Also because of the kind of coverage that you've done and the fact that Eileen's just got a few groovy parts and stuff, like Archangel Thunderbird and the Redemption Bravo stuff and those kind of things. I think I was just lucky really. So hopefully Razor Blade will be another great thing for Eileen so she can do her next project, so hopefully somebody offers her loads of money to do something else." How did you get David Warbeck involved in the film? JW: "I was looking for a cameo star to play the role that his character plays. I wrote that part because it could just be done in a day and it could be done by somebody who was known to the fans. The original idea was to get Christopher Lee for that part, and I tried for months to get him. His agent, Jean Diamond, she's a [expletive deleted - MJS] and she's only interested in money. You can quote that if you want to. I'd love to work with Christopher Lee. I've got no problem with Christopher Lee, but because I didn't know anyone who knew him, I couldn't get past his agent. She wouldn't even take pages of the script for the character. She wouldn't pass them on to him. I approached her the correct route, legitimately. We could only have offered him a very small sum of money for doing it because we just didn't have any money. I understand that he doesn't want to be associated with being a vampire and stuff like that, but the role in that part was quite an affectionate character, just a friendly scientist who doesn't believe in vampires or the supernatural. So I thought that might have appealed to Christopher Lee's sensibilities. I've seen him in interviews and he does like helping film-makers out. I don't think he's got any problem with that, but basically we couldn't get through his agent. "So I was left in a bit of a problem because I'd been trying for so long to get him and I'd actually started shooting and I still didn't have anybody in that role. So it looked like I might just have to get anybody to do it. But because Eileen had worked with David Warbeck on Pervirella, and also I'm friends with Alex Chandon as well, I asked them both if they thought David would be up for it. I got David's number and gave him a call and he said, 'Yes, let me have a look at the script and I'll let you know.' And a day later, after I got a copy of the script off, he gave me a phone call and he said he'd love to do it. Which was wonderful. Also at that time he was going through a lot of trouble. I don't know if you knew. He was going through a court case and also he was ill. I didn't realise any of that at the time. He had this court case going on." I believe he was under house arrest for running a brothel. JW: "That's correct. That was still going through and he actually had cleared his name, so he was a bit worried because that was all coming to a head and he'd had a hearing. So there were a few factors. But he said, 'I'd love to do it.' He came down for the day and it was just wonderful. Working with David Warbeck was phenomenal. I now feel very privileged because at the time nobody expected him to pass away a year later. It was a shock because he was 56 or 57. But it was wonderful to work with him and I feel very lucky. He was such a charming and gracious man and an actor, I hope it inspires other actors so that as they get towards the end of their careers they'll help young film-makers as well. What he did was very positive. He didn't just help me, he helped a whole bunch of young film-makers. He was in Pervirella, he was in Sudden Fury. He's always been on the scene, he went to all the fan conventions. He would always be there for the fans, and for the film-makers as well. I can't sing his praises highly enough really." What about the rest of your cast? JW: "The only other known person in the cast is probably Christopher Adamson, the guy with the scar. He was Mean Machine in Judge Dredd and he's been in a lot of stuff. He was in The Fifth Element as one of the airport guards who blasts down the thing. He was in Cutthroat Island, he was in Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves, he did Mad Dogs and Englishmen and he's currently doing a film called Lighthouse which is being made by a friend of mine. It's a sort of serial killer, slasher-type movie and he's playing the lead killer in that. So Christopher's been around and he's one of those faces that you sort of know but don't. “The rest of cast: I put all the casting details in Production Casting Report which is a thing that gets circulated through all of the actors and all of the agents. You put the synopsis and details of all the parts. And for the next couple of weeks, we got literally thousands and thousands of CVs which I had to sift through and look at what people had done. Also there were a couple of parts where there were a few actors I'd worked with before. Like the Jim Pilgrim guy, the American bloke on the internet, he's a guy I've worked with a few times before and I asked him specifically to do that role. But on the whole there was only about seven per cent of people and they were in smaller roles. So that's how that came about really."
JW: "I'd been making films since I was about 16 on video and then I went to film school and I had a chance to work on film. So obviously all of that was experience and I made lots of weird stuff which I wanted to do. Film school got a lot of shit out of my system - and I also made a couple of good things as well. When I left, getting a job in the industry is quite hard and my primary skill was as an editor, so I sold that skill, using that to get directing gigs. Then managed to get some pop promos and the CD-ROM stuff. What was good about that was it was giving me the chance to shoot film. Unlike a lot of people, I wasn't just writing a script for three and a half years and having not done anything. I'd done more since I left film school than I'd done at film school, really, in a more professional environment with people who would then help me out with this. So that was just a way of honing my skills really and just keeping on the boil. I was just lucky. Filming anything is good; you always learn stuff when you film." Rob, you were the producer on this film. Robert Mercer: "Co-producer with Jake. I came in quite late, basically just before Jake was going to start shooting. Jake had really pre-produced the whole shoot. On the shoot I was more helping out, line production, running around, nuts and bolts. Constantly just running into London and getting more blood basically. Then when it came to the post we both shared responsibilities. I basically post-produced, set up all the deals for that and organised where tape was supposed to go and made sure everything was going right. Then when it came to dealing with Manga, we both again worked together. I was more dealing with the contract side of things with the solicitor and with the American solicitor to get everything right. Generally, that was about it." You've got an American release? RM: "We've got an American theatrical release which comes out on 16th October. They've managed to secure in LA, apparently the most prestigious independent theatre over there. As a result, they've decided to bring the American release forward to match that. They're looking probably about a week or a week and a half after that to release in New York and Chicago. Then to release in London on the 30th. And hopefully, fingers crossed, they're thinking is: if it does well in LA then they will spread it out to more towns across the States. They've had a couple of test screenings and everything was very positive for that, so fingers crossed for that one." Are you going out there to promote it? RM: "Yes, we'll be going out for the release on 16th October. I'll probably only be going out for the release there. Then these guys hopefully will be going from LA to Chicago, then to New York. But that is still to be confirmed." Continue to Part 2 of this long interview where Jake and Eileen discuss Eileen's contribution to the film and their previous work together. Official sites: www.jakewest.com, www.eileendaly.com | ||
| | |
