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Christopher Lee (Part 2) Jump straight to Part 3 of this very long interview or go back to Part 1 The director you're most associated with from the earliest part of your career is Terence Fisher. "Well, my career actually started with A Tale of Two Cities, which I think was just before those. That was the first really good part I had. Ralph Thomas directed that."
"People ask me, you know, they ask me how did it come about that I was offered the Frankenstein part? Well, I think for once they actually did need a tall man. because I was always told, as you know - I've been quoted enough, and it's true - when I first started as an actor I was told by everybody I was far too tall to be an actor and far too foreign-looking to be in British domestic pictures. Had I been born in the United States, I think my career would have been different, because many of the actors out there were - and are - very tall people. But here, the average British star was considerably shorter than me, and even the taller ones were still an inch or two shorter than me. "They were the ones who were even more concerned. I'm talking about the men, I'm not talking about the women obviously, because generally speaking women are smaller than men. But that's what I was told, and along comes this character where they wanted a tall man who knew about movement and could express things without dialogue. I honestly don't know. I've been asked that question many times, and I've also been asked how come they asked me to play Dracula, because I think I'm right in saying that the next film I did after the Frankenstein film, I think, was The Mummy or The Hound of the Baskervilles. The Hound of the Baskervilles was, I think, the film after Frankenstein and I played the romantic lead in that. Then The Mummy and then Dracula, or then Dracula and then The Mummy. I can't remember, it's so long ago. "But people ask me this: 'Why did they ask you to play that part, and then why did they ask you to play that part?' I've no idea, nobody ever told me. There's a marvellous story that I can tell you, because it's true. I don't say things to the press that aren't true. It has been known to happen but not with me. Some years ago, my agent was Dennis Sellinger - still a dear friend, still a busy agent. He said to me, 'You know who Raquel Welch is?' I said, 'Oh yes, I've been reading the papers.' He said, 'Well, she's over here to do a film called One Million Years BC for Hammer with her husband, Patrick Curtis, and they'd like to meet you.' 'Fine, great.' "So I went along to Dennis' house and Raquel - with whom I subsequently made four films - came in with Patrick Curtis and they were extremely courteous and said some extremely nice things. She turned to her husband and said, 'Tell Christopher what Hammer said about me.' He said, 'Oh yes, you're not going to believe this, but we were talking to one of the Hammer executives' - whom I'm not going to name - 'and one of us said to this man, "You know this actor Christopher Lee who does these films for you, he's enormously popular in the United States, a very big name in the United States." And the answer that came back was, "Yes, we know, but for God's sake don't tell him".''"
"Oh yes, of course. And that leads me into another comment. I turned down - after the first two - every other Dracula film for Hammer because they said, as always, 'Of course we can't pay you, you know?' So I said, 'Well, if you can't pay me, then let's find another way.' I said, 'Anyway the script is terrible. It's further and further away from the character, further and further away from Stoker. You're bringing him into the modern disco age, which I think is quite wrong.' "So I said to my agent, another person who is dead now, John Breakwell, so I can say this: I said to him, 'John, Hammer wants me to do this.' This went on every year. 'They want me to play the part again. I don't want to do it, because there's nothing in the script. They write the story first and try to fit the character in, which is of course absurd. Totally the wrong way of making the film. I don't want to do it, and now they're saying there's no money. I'll tell you what we'll do, John. You tell them I'll do it for a percentage.' 'Ooh,' he said, 'I can't do that. They'd never agree. Waste of time even asking.' I said, 'John, I'm telling you. You're my agent. I want you to ask for a percentage.' 'Oh, no no no. Wouldn't dream of that. There's no point me even asking about that. You'll never get it, never get a percentage. The idea of getting a percentage out of Hammer...' "I said, 'Wait a minute. I'm not talking about Hammer. I'm talking about Warners or Universal or whoever - they all put out Hammer pictures.' He practically keeled over. And I kept on saying to him, 'John, ask! They can only say no. Ask! Blame me. Say I'm an impossible client and a difficult man who's greedy and avaricious, or whatever way you like to put it, and you tried to tell me that it wasn't possible, you tried to dissuade me. Say whatever you like so that you don't get any flak. I'll take it all, my shoulders are broad enough. I'll take all the flak, but I don't want to do it unless I am properly rewarded, and as they think only in terms of money, and so do the American distributors, this is one occasion - or two or three or four or five - when I'm going to think along the same lines because it's the only thing they understand.' "He wouldn't do it, because he felt that if he did, Hammer would have hysterics and say, 'Well, we're not going to use any of that chap's clients.' We live in an industry which is riddled with fear and ignorance, more so now than ever before. Somebody in Hollywood said out there the very air reeks of falsehood. You can actually smell it. When you go to some of these studios, it's true. A very, very important major American director said to me only last year, 'It's getting worse.' "I'll give you an instance of that: a television executive - I'm not going to name him, and I'm not going to name the network - asked for me to do a series. Because I've turned every single one down, during the time I lived there, ten years. I was always asked to be Guest Star or Special Guest Star. I said, 'I'll be one of 15 special guest stars, and knowing the industry they'll say, "Oh, he's given up movies. He's now TV."' Because you're either films or TV, generally speaking. They won't accept the fact that you've proved them wrong by doing both, any more than some of the producers and casting directors, to this day, won't accept the fact that I've proved them totally wrong for a very long time. I'm not on their lists. Anyway, they asked me to do this, and for various reasons I declined, and that same person who has ultimate authority, he is the person who says yes or no. Even if the rest of them all say yes, he is the one person who says yes or no. My agent in Los Angeles, in the course of discussions about me to do this, he said, 'This executive asked me if another one of my clients, by name James Coburn, had ever done a feature film?'" Makes you wonder, doesn't it? "It doesn't make me wonder because that's the way it is. The sheer ignorance, the fact that they don't do their homework, the fact that they don't see the rushes, they don't see the finished product. The fact that casting's now done in terms of salary. If you get 15 million and the next person gets twelve, you'll get it. If you get five million and I get four, you'll get it. You must be better, you get paid more! You must have a bigger deal! The lunatics really have taken over the asylum, they really have, and it's been the case like that for many years."
"Well, there isn't one!" You've done a couple of low budget movies in the past few years. "And one of them was one of the best pictures I've ever been in." A Feast at Midnight. "It's a completely enchanting and delightful film of which I am very proud, and everybody should be who was concerned with it, because everybody worked for nothing.This is one attempt by a group of people - technicians and cast - to make an impact with a picture which can be referred to as a film made totally in Britain with British money, British technicians, British cast, and it's good! And we can make more and more and more. Let's roll over and make another one. "But the London press; there were four reviews that I shall never forget. And these are reviews! One said the budget was so low, how could a British film with such a low budget possibly compete with the equivalent made in the United States for young people, with enormous budgets like Jurassic Park. In other words, how could we hope to compete with Jurassic Park? That is a review!" But it's not trying to compete with Jurassic Park. "I'm still saying: that is a review! Another review was: the production qualities weren't all that good. We shot it in a real boys' school. Oh no, the production values weren't good enough. We shot it in the school. That's a review. I'm not suggesting that because it's a British film, the British press - 'critics' if you want to call them that - should all say it's the best film ever made. What I am saying is that they should point out the positive aspects of the film, rather than what they think are the negative aspects. To say in the review that the film wasn't expensive enough - which is effectively what somebody was saying; that the budget wasn't big enough - when the idea is to make it as cheaply as you can, so you make a profit and can then make another movie, is not a review. "The other one - to say that production values weren't very good - is not a review, when it's shot in a real school. You begin to think that we don't deserve to have an industry if the critics - these were London critics, who gave me an award, the year before last. I received an award from the London critics. And yet the next year, three or four of them come up with reviews of a film which aren't reviews at all. Nothing about the technical work, nothing about the performance, nothing about the script, nothing about the director, nothing. Those were reviews! "How are we ever going to have an industry? How are we ever going to make a picture that's successful, which then rolls over into another one and another one, and gradually builds up the industry from scratch, if this is going to be the reaction of some of the critics. I think it's inexcusable, I think it's unforgivable. They're perfectly at liberty to say that they didn't like me or my acting or something like that, but that isn't a review of a film either. Somebody else said the boys weren't very good. Well, I've got a quote from Joe Dante: 'The kids were terrific!' "What do they expect? As long as they continue to knock British pictures, we will never have an industry. Again, I am not saying that they must say that everything we make is wonderful. The real reason we haven't got an industry is for far too long, for far too many years, we have made far too many films which cost far too much, and which have not been successful. As long as we concentrate on the domestic market and domestic stories, we will never have an industry. We have got to make films with international appeal, in terms of the story, and we've got to put people in who are more known outside this country. We've got to! Or we won't ever ever ever have an industry. "Four Weddings and a Funeral was one movie, and I honestly wonder what would have happened if that had come out here first instead of America. One of the other reviews, which I've just remembered: 'Let's face it, this film is all about privileged people, and who cares?' That was a review! So when I read this, I asked the PR people - and you can quote me - 'I would be very interested to know what that particular reviewer' - I won't call him a critic - 'said about Four Weddings and a Funeral.' Because logically he had to have said the same thing, exactly: 'Let's face it, this film is all about privileged people, and who cares?' Oh no, he didn't because by that time the film was a huge success."
"I've heard that many times. I've no idea. Hammer basically consists of one man." Roy Skeggs. "Yes. He is Hammer, as far as I know. I had lunch with him. We talked about The Devil Rides Out, and he said that they were going to remake some of their films. I said, 'Well, I hope that you do not consider remaking the ones that really made you famous. In other words, Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy.' 'Oh no. We wouldn't do that. I think we might consider remaking Quatermass, because of the advances in special effects.' And of course The Devil Rides Out would be a huge hit! Because it was pretty good at the time. Think of what you can do with special effects now in a story like that which is all about apparitions and hallucinations, possession and evilness and Satanism. But all I've ever heard is talk, and all I've ever seen is, 'Yes, we're going to do this,' and, 'Yes, we're going to do that.' But to the best of my knowledge it's never gone any further. Certainly, nobody's approached me." What about this Edgar Allan Poe TV series that you've made? "I was asked if I would host a 13-episode series. There's always thirteen. I've never really found out why, but obviously there is a reason. I was asked by the South Africans if I would go to Croatia, where I'd already made a film with Pierce Brosnan which was on last night on Satellite. It was called Death Train by Alastair Maclean. I spoke only Russian in 99 per cent of the picture. I was watching it last night because I couldn't remember having seen it. When it went out in America, the producer told me that it went out on the USA Network and that they had subtitles for all the Russian I was speaking, which was very important in terms of the plot. I watched this film last night; I can't believe what I'm looking at. "Because there's the film, there I am, speaking Russian, non-stop; no subtitles whatsoever. How is anyone supposed to follow it? The only people who will follow it are people who speak Russian. Extremely important, vitally important, because it explains everything that I was doing. No subtitles. Amateurs, amateurs. "Anyway, I was asked to host or introduce thirteen - well actually twelve - classic stories of Edgar Allan Poe. Because ‘The Masque of the Red Death’, in which I actually appeared was two episodes because it was very long. So I went to Croatia, I did all the introductions, and then I left. Then they made six or seven films in Croatia with British actors and actresses: Freddie Jones, Susan George, Simon MacCorkindale (I think). The remainder were made in South Africa. I actually did do ‘Masque of the Red Death’ last April. I've no idea what's happened to it." I'll chase up what's happening on that, try and get some stills. "I wouldn't mind some too. I was promised some stills of ‘The Masque of the Red Death’, which I was not very happy about actually. It was all very well performed, but the real star was the cameraman, Rod Stuart, because he made it all look so good. But when you find yourself shooting in a house in Johannesburg, and you suddenly realise that there are doors behind you with glass windows and doorknobs, and this is supposed to be around 1200. And heavy, Dutch, dark wood furniture. I thought, 'God, I hope they don't show too much of this.'" Another project you've done recently is doing the voice of Death for the Discworld cartoon. "Oh yes, but I haven't finished that. I've got two more recording sessions. There are three books, I understand, and I've been told that when I've completed the voice - it's very amusing, by the way, extremely amusing. When I've completed the voice of the first book, which I'm doing in three sessions, that I'll be asked to do the second book and the third book, provided that various questions can be resolved as to who owns what, in terms of rights and things like that. Very amusing indeed." Had you read any of the books? "No, well I have to say I hadn't but I have now. And Death is very amusing, and of course he's in all three books." He's in every book in the series; they're up to 18 now, and he's in all of them. "Oh, well it looks as if I might have a good future then!" Continue to Part 3 of this very long interview, where Christopher Lee discusses Space: 1999, The Return of Captain Invincible and The Wicker Man Or go back to Part 1 where he talks about his association with Dracula, playing Fu Manchu and working with Jesus Franco | ||
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