HAD NO REGRETS ABOUT LETTING JULIE SALAMON ON SET - WANTED "TO SHOW WHAT REALLY GOES ON"
Following yesterday's post about Raising Cain, here's a video of Brian De Palma being interviewed by Bobbie Wygant during the press junket for that film. This was the year after Julie Salamon's The Devil's Candy was published, and Wygant brings it up by jokingly asking De Palma if he allowed any reporters on the set of Raising Cain. Keeping a straight face, De Palma replies, "Absolutely not." The conversation continues:
Bobbie Wygant: Do you have deep regrets about letting Julie Salamon on the set?Brian De Palma: Oh, no, no, no, not at all. I mean, my idea was to show exactly what... See, I got asked so many questions over the years about how movies are made. And I used to get the impression from the press that it was like we were living in, you know, Hollywood of Louis B. Mayer. I mean, the way we were making movies, and what we had to go through, was something that they had not been able to see, basically, in the way that they talked to us or what they read about. So I said, well, somebody, you know, you've got to really make a movie and really show what goes on and be as honest as possible. And, it's...
Wygant: She was!
De Palma: Yeah, she was as honest as possible. And, though I've not read the book because it's such a painful experience for me, because it was such a difficult movie... but, I think it's important that people know how the contemporary director works with the studio and the writers and the actors and how movies are made. Right down to the press junket!
Wygant: [laughing] Indeed. Well, I'll tell you, I've been hanging around movies for 25 years, and I learned a lot from that book. I really did.
De Palma: Great.
Wygant: And I enjoyed reading it.