and gave many people new faith in studio filmmaking.
"The Academy means more, both because it's filmmakers, but also because it
is the monumental thing that is in the public eye."
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Think back to the beginning of the project. Why did you decide that you
needed to make a movie out of L.A. Confidential?
It all started when I read [James] Ellroy's book, just for pleasure. I
wasn't looking for a project, but I just got emotionally hooked with those
characters. It's also dealing with a theme that I've dealt with a little bit
before [in other movies], and in this circumstance I was able to deal with
much more, which is the difference between how people appear and how they
really are. Also, I grew up in Los Angeles, so it's an opportunity to deal
with the L.A. of my memory, my childhood memory. And the city of my
childhood happens to be the city of manufactured illusions.
Ellroy said that the character he felt closest to was Ed Exley, the
ambitious, straight-arrow rookie cop. Is there a character you feel
particularly close to?
I feel close to all of them. I feel very close to [Kim Basinger's] Lynn
Bracken, even. The actors have more to play with than they often have in
pictures where it's all designed around one character and everybody else
sort of serves that character. Each of these characters in a sense is the
star of their own movie, in our movie.
L.A. Confidential is the rare thriller with room for character
development, in part because several of the main performers were unknown
quantities.
That's what we were after. That's why I wanted to cast it the way I did.
Everybody went "Oh, what about the two Australians" [Russell Crowe and Guy
Pearce], which of course was a complete coincidence. But the goal of having
actors with whom the audience did not already have an emotional history was
very premeditated, because the audience doesn't know how they feel about
these guys, and they have to figure it out as the story goes along. Who's
going to live and who's going to die?
Ellroy's been on tour with you to support the film, so he must have been
pleased with your adaptation.
I've always gotten along well with authors and actors. I have so much
respect for what they do, and came at it that way. It's silly to not
recognize that a movie and a book are very different things; and that's what
I liked so much about Ellroy's attitude. Before he knew whether he would
like it or not, it was "my book, your movie." Then as it turns out he really
liked the movie. And he still says "your movie," but it was obviously
inspired by his book and he's proud of it.
The rest of the world, of course, likes it too. You've won all kinds of
critics' awards in recent months—does the Oscar recognition feel
at all different?
It is different. The Academy means more, both because it's filmmakers, but
also because it is a monumental thing that is in the public eye. It stands
up there kind of apart from everything else. When I won the awards from the
critic groups and such, I always felt those awards were shared with the
collaborators, behind and in front of the cameras, and that's why it's so
fun now, to have them be called out individually as well.
Any disappointments with the Oscar nominations?
I was very hopeful for Kevin [Spacey] but I think he was overlooked because
he won so recently. The male performers in the film have been sadly
overlooked and I think it's due to the strength of the ensemble, that in a
sense they've been competing against one another, and canceling each other
out. It's just such a sterling ensemble. I wonder if we made a mistake in
putting [Pearce and Crowe] in for lead actor. It's new to me to sort of
strategize. Maybe we should have put them in for supporting actor, but then
they would have been competing with Kevin.
I'm also disappointed that our costume designer, Ruth Myers, was not
nominated. I feel almost to blame for it because she so brilliantly
accomplished what I wanted her to accomplish, which was to imaginatively
reinvent the period but do it without calling attention to it, to the work.
She so captured the essence of each character, but it wasn't in a way in
which people would stop to go, "look at the costume." But the costumes are
fantastic in terms of character and in terms of the story and in terms of
style, too. The dresses of Kim [Basinger] stand apart in the movie because
Kim's character is in a sense selling that movie-star glamour from the
past to her customers, so Ruth was able to do those really eye-catching
dresses for her. And then, you look at the garment in which you first see
Kim, which has become kind of an icon for the movie, Kim in that hooded
cloak. Ruth's work is just so great; I could just go on and on.
What do you make of the comparisons of L.A. Confidential to
Chinatown?
I love Chinatown, so naturally I take it as a compliment. But I think
it's an easy comparison because of the locale and the period, although ours
is a couple of decades later. What I think they're really taking about is
that people enjoy the importance of the narrative in our movie and the
complex characters. It's an enjoyment that they're not finding often,
especially in Hollywood movies. They remember enjoying Chinatown in
the same way, with the fabulous script by Robert Towne. I think that's
really what the comparison is about, more along the level of how the
audience reacts to the movie, rather than the specifics of the movie.
"[Lynn Bracken] is the one character in the movie who knows the truth about
herself, and consequently, she's the emotional anchor of the movie."
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I've never been a Kim Basinger fan, mostly because she's been in these
terrible roles, but I really liked her in this. You've said that you cast
her specifically so she could work against the typecasting she's had in the
past.
What surprised me was the ability that she has to just give a naked
performance without apparent technique. I hoped to get that from her, but I
really wasn't prepared for the degree to which she was ready to do that.
It's a brave thing for an actor. It's a lot easier for an actor to have
something there that they could hide behind. I think the reason people
respond to Kim's performance so much is that there's a truth to her as an
actress that also happens to fit her. She's the one character in the movie
who knows the truth about herself and sees the truth of the other people,
and, consequently, she's the emotional anchor of the movie. And that's the
way it's designed, but she as an actress more than meets it halfway. She
really just delivered that in spades.
Perhaps ironically, since she's been in so many bimbo roles before this,
she's never looked more beautiful. She really looked great.
Great to see in a woman, as she's getting older. We're so used to seeing
older guys with younger women.
She is actually older than Bud, in fact.
She is older than Bud. But, so what? She's older in her life experience as
well. That's why when you meet her, she's wiser than he is. He's still
struggling with what he's all about. She's already gotten there.
I've read that you had the cast study old movies and photographs to get
into the period.
I showed them some old films, like Don Siegel's The Line-up, and
I had fifteen photographs that represented how the movie would look and feel
and even what the characters would look like. And within that I had
photographs of a couple actors from the time, off-camera publicity
shots. One of them was Aldo Ray. And I deliberately had pictures of actors
that most people wouldn't know who they are today because I didn't want them
imagining a movie star even if it was a movie star from the past. And Aldo
Ray just embodied in a physical sort of way, and actually in an emotional
way as well, in just the essence of what you got from him at times, this
sort of Bud-like quality. So when I showed it to Russell I said, "This,
by the way, is what Bud White looks like."
"The audience doesn't know how they feel about these guys, and they have to
figure it out . . . Who's going to live and who's going to die?"
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This is one movie where you don't notice the period. Once the story's
been set up and you realize it's a period piece, you concentrate on the
characters and forget all about the period. You're never saying, "Wow, look
at the cool car."
Nothing could make me happier than to hear you say that. Because that was
the number-one goal. And I said that to all my collaborators: The
number-one thing is, let's create the world, and then push the details
into the background so that none of the scenes are about the period details.
In fact, let's try to make the audience forget they're even watching a
period movie. And consequently, and again the point of these photos, we'll
be accurate to the fifties, but we'll do it very selectively, putting the
accent on those visuals that were modern and still feel kind of contemporary
today. As opposed to putting the emphasis on things that look quaint today.
Tell me about the Formosa Cafe, which you used in the film. That's a real
Hollywood landmark from the 1950s, isn't it?
The Formosa actually dates back to the twenties. It's very much unchanged.
All we did was move the newer celebrity photos out. And that's where I chose
to meet Kevin Spacey and Kim Basinger for the first time. In terms of
explaining that I wanted the movie to feel contemporary, I was able to meet
them at a place that is contemporary, even though it's old. And I was able
to say, oh, by the way, we're going to shoot a couple of scenes right here.
So is it a favorite place of yours?
It's a place that has personal meaning for me. When I first worked as a film
journalist, I did interviews across the street at the old Goldwyn studios
and drop into the Formosa; drop in on a date now and then; same with the
Frolic Room, up on Hollywood Boulevard, next to the Pantages Theater.
"L.A. Confidential was, for me, the payoff for the pictures I had
done before."
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Any idea whether your next project is going to be another adaptation or
an original screenplay?
No. My feeling is it will be a story about men and women. I've spent a long
time in the world of men and also in the world of period and I think the
next picture will be contemporary with men and women in today's world. And
my idea would be to do that with humor.
L.A. Confidential was, for me, the payoff for the pictures I had done
before, for the commercial success of the pictures I'd done before. The
amazing thing is that going into it, I was spending my capital of
credibility, to get this picture made and what I find is that this labor of
love has been so well received, that my capital has been undiminished. So
instead of regrouping, I want to do another picture that I believe in as
much as I did with this one. I treated myself as my own benevolent studio
head and said "Okay, you've done well with these, and here's your reward."
— Sharon Knolle
