Ridley Scott happily answers to “insane” to describe his emergency retooling of All the Money in the World.
“I love ‘insane!’ ” the indefatigable British director says from Los Angeles. “I don’t ever think about it too hard. I just do it, you know?”
I’d asked Scott to describe in one word the experience of rush-replacing the scandal-shamed Kevin Spacey with the acclaimed Christopher Plummer, in the role of oil baron J. Paul Getty for the already wrapped hostage drama.
Reshoots with Plummer began Nov. 20 in London, later moving to Rome. Scott and his team re-edited All the Money in the World on the fly. They had a new print ready for a Hollywood Foreign Press Association awards screening three weeks later.
The gambit paid off. Not only did All the Money in the World make its Christmas opening, it also received three Golden Globe nominations: for best director, supporting actor (Plummer) and actress (Michelle Williams).
“I’m very chuffed, because while you’re doing it, you learn what you’re doing as well. I tend not to rehearse, and I’ve discovered actors like that. They like just flying.
“Logically, it’s no different than theatre. When that person is standing in the wings, ready to go on, they may have rehearsed for two months, but they haven’t rehearsed that day. When they walk on, they’re going on first take. That’s it.”
Scott believes that Plummer’s extensive theatre experience helped him glide through the 22 scenes and 300 shots required to replace Spacey in a significant role in the film.
“Christopher said, ‘I hope I can remember this stuff!’ But he remembered it because of his theatre background, I think. They have a trick of learning (lines). I don’t know how they do it, or whether it’s just simple repetition.”
This movie makeover is all the more impressive when you consider that Scott turned 80 and Plummer 88 during the process. But as far as Scott is concerned, he’s still too young to even think about slowing down. He’ll soon make another Alien movie and he has thoughts about Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner sequel and also about rival franchise Star Wars:
Is this experience going to change how you make movies in the future?
Well, I move pretty fast anyhow. I do big films in short spaces and time. The Martian was 72 days. And Alien: Covenant, a huge undertaking, was about 74 days. All the Money in the World was originally 42 days, so with nine days of reshoots added it was 51. It’s to do with efficiency and making decisions early on to enable good people to do their work. You learn that with advertising, which I used to do. When you’re doing advertising, you get the job, you’re then on your wallet . . . That second hand ticking has got a dollar sign on it.
Looking at how strong Plummer is in All the Money in the World, I’m inclined to think he may have been a better choice all along than Spacey. And you did originally consider Plummer for the Getty role.
You know, Kevin was honestly very good. One is different than the other. Kevin was colder — by choice. But he is that kind of guy. If you look at him in American Beauty, the beauty of the film is his comedic cynicism. He’s good at that. Whereas Christopher has this innate elegance which you can’t get rid of, because it’s physical. And, of course, that’s his thing. This makes him charming, and when he’s meant to be a bad guy like Lear or Hamlet, he’s dangerous.
I was amazed to see that you also had time to make a bust of Plummer, to replace the one of Spacey in a key scene in the movie involving the character played by Michelle Williams. How hard was that to pull off?
Oh, it was easy with my skilled guys. We did that in a weekend. But I had to do another take for that scene, because we both felt, Michelle and I, that she was enigmatic in the ending I had with Kevin, but now, she gave me more. Which, I think, had to be construed as frustration and anger. Because in essence, if you analyze it, (Getty) has ruined her life. By bringing her husband and her family to Rome, that was their undoing, it was the undoing of her family relationship. And out of that follows tragedy.
While you were busy making this movie and Alien: Covenant earlier this year, Denis Villeneuve was making Blade Runner 2049, a sequel to your sci-fi classic from 1982. What did you think of his work?
Denis was a great “get.” I was one of the producers on it, and I was very much a part in the writing of the original screenplay, and it was meant for me to direct. But I couldn’t, because things just got in the way. So I think the choice of Denis was absolutely perfect, fantastic.
You’ve obviously been too busy to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi. But what did you think about the fan uproar over changes the film makes to Star Wars lore? Do fans have a right to demand how the story goes?
Fans don’t like changes, and I think, in a funny kind of way, that if you’re in the (movie) business, you have to take that seriously. The problem is, the frustration from the filmmaker’s point of view and the writer’s point of view is, when do you say “Stop!”? Should Darth Vader die?
When I saw the original Star Wars, I saw it in Graumann’s Chinese Theatre (in Hollywood). I was f---ing depressed for a month, because it was so good. The highest accolade I could give it was to go into a deep dive of depression. And then I came out of it, horribly competitive, and the next thing I had gone into was Alien. So, the best way of looking at it is inspirational. Good work is inspirational.
This interview was edited and condensed.