Article - Nick Nolte on Malick

Nick Nolte on Malick

January 19, 2003: Nick Nolte talks about Malick to Time Out:

'Terrence Malick is oblique. As I got into that role, Terry would come tome and show me a few pages he'd written, and I'd read this wonderful poem. I'd say: "That's great, Terry, but it's six pages." He said: "Yes, take those six pages and edit it down to what you would say." So I would edit it down, show it to Terry and he'd say "It's a bit long " I'd end up with one or two lines out of six pages.

'My first day on set, the actors had called a meeting and he asked me to come along. So I watched all the actors talk about why they felt so discombobulated. One complaint was that he didn't finish scenes. Terry listened to everything, and at the end said: "Thank you, this has been a wonderful meeting, you're absolutely right, and we must do what we've talked about." They're all looking at Terry like, "We do it? What can we do?" I've never seen a guy defuse a situation like that.

'So I watched Terry. He would start shooting the scene, but watch the sky. And about six, when the sky was just right, he'd say "That's enough of this scene, let's revisit the scene we shot the other day. Nothing will match, but that's fine " He was finishing the scenes in golden light. He couldn't tell the studio he was only going to shoot in golden light, they would have freaked, so he would hold these scenes off. The actor didn't get to do what he wanted to do, John Toll didn't get to photograph it the way he wanted to, and Terry didn't get to shoot it as he'd written it. All those elements were thrown out, and the only new element was this light that's what it was about.'