Ridley Scott to Direct til He's Dead, Tells Tarantino to "Shut Up", and More
Ridley Scott Will Never Stop Directing: "Shut Up and Go Make Another Movie" https://t.co/2dsM7GFZBy
- The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) November 7, 2024
With Gladiator II releasing later this month, director Ridley Scott sat down with The Hollywood Reporter for an interview where they talked about his passion for filmmaking, his age, other directors, and his brother, the late Tony Scott. Other topics like his past films, Paul Mescal, future projects and more can be found at the full interview.
While he notes that directing is "my passion and therefore my pleasure. I think it actually keeps me going", it's not the place where he feels most at home. That would be his actual home where he enjoys his weekends painting.
On how he feels when he stops working even though he's working more now than ever:
"I always envied being an actor and you can do two or three movies a year. They don't have to do any prep except learn their lines. I've got to have it written, budget it, cast it, shoot it, make it, edit it, and deliver it. The actor just has to turn up and do his fucking job."
If he'll stop directing when he's dead:
"When I go [makes croaking noise]. I mean, Clint is 94." When the interviewer points out that Juror #2 is most likely Eastwood's final film, Scott replies, "Well, yeah, but he's fucking 94! I'm 86 now, so I've still got a few to go."
On Tarantino's claiming to retire after his tenth film:
"I don't believe it. [...] I don't fucking believe that bullshit. Shut up and go make another movie. Quentin wrote a few things for my brother. They got along great. I'm not sure I've met him."
On if it was weird to watch Top Gun: Maverick as the original film was directed by Tony Scott:
"No. They asked me to [direct] it and I said, 'I don't want to follow my brother.' Tony was always interested in today. A lot of my stuff is either historic, fantasy, or science fiction. Tony didn't like fantasy."
In response to never winning an Oscar:
"Well. I've been knighted twice. [...] Look, my reward is being allowed to do what I do. [...] Pauline Kael in The New Yorker killed me stone dead with her Blade Runner review. It was four pages of destruction. I never met her. I was so offended. I framed those pages and they've been in my office for 30 years to remind me there's only one critic that counts and that's you. I haven't read critiques ever since. Because if it's a good one, you can get a swollen head and forget yourself. And if it's a bad one, you're so depressed that it's debilitating."
On if there's a movie he thinks should've received an Oscar for:
"Not really. There's always a reason why not. I don't know how the award system works other than we are voted on by our peers, right? I think there are 19,000 'peers' in the Director's Guild. Are they 19,000 directors? I'm not going to comment on that. I don't do a film thinking I'm going to get an Academy Award. I haven't been to the awards since Gladiator."
On who his current competition is:
"There's not one, really, because we're not in competition anymore. Everything is such an island of investment and an island of expectation, and no one fucking knows. There've been a couple of films this year that baffled me that they were so successful."
On Gladiator 2:
"I think [Denzel] was a bit shocked by the scale. How could he not be? Of course, I'm used to it. My unit was 1,200 personnel and you run it like an army. You have to. [...] I use eight-to-eleven cameras, which means we're moving eight-to-eleven times faster." Though he also claims that he's "trying to be funny. Always," on set so that everyone laughs (and therefore everyone is a target).
To conclude the interview, Scott is asked if he has anything else to add to which he simply replies, "I miss my brother."
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Full interview HERE
