Karen Allen article

Thanks...a quick read witha couple of nice anecdotes regarding her child. Here's a snippet from a Cannes interview it reminded me of.


Ms. Allen, a couple of years ago (in an interview), you told me that you were utterly convinced that Marion and Indy had had a child together.

KA: No, I didn't tell you that. (Laughs)

You did tell me that.

KA: Years ago, I told you that?

Two years ago.

KA: I don't remember this conversation. What did it have ... In reference to what?

A phone interview for the New York Post.

KA: Oh, was I just making things up?

Yeah, you were making things up. (Laughs)

KA: There was a funny moment a couple of years ago when they did a couple of special screenings at the Paris Theatre in New York, and I hadn't seen the film in several years, and I was watching the film on the big screen for the first time in a really long time, and I remember the scene when we're on the submarine, and I wake up, and you're gone, and I remember noticing in this particular screening, my character reaches up and grabs her nightgown, and I thought, "gosh, I don't remember that!" I was thinking, I didn't remember that they had had a moment, like a romantic moment. In my mind, I was thinking of the missed kiss ? you fall asleep, and there's that missed kiss ? but then I forgot about the moment of her grabbing the... So I may have been making a joke about that moment or something...

Harrison, it seems like your attitude to the press process has changed; you used to seem as if doing interviews is worse than a root canal. Now, you seem...

HF: I've had a lot of root canals. (Laughs) I've got a mouthful of 'em. Of course, it's something you become somewhat more ... inured to. I recognize the value of the process, and hopefully, I'm not as ... impatient with it as I might have been. That's one of the virtues of the age, is becoming a little bit more graceful.

Does it help when it's talking about a film, or a series of films, that has become a part of popular culture? I mean, the impact of Indy goes beyond the individual installments of it. It just seems that it's a reference point now certainly in American popular culture, and also in world culture.

HF: Well, of course it's easier to talk about a film that you have the expectations and it's been admired rather than picked apart at the seams. But, of course, I have great confidence in this film on account of the people who are involved, which is not to say that any other people that I've worked with, I had less confidence in during the process. But this is a film that's made for the audience to enjoy, the pure pleasure of the moviegoing experience, and it's a huge, huge engine. We've seen the movie, and I think we have a degree of confidence that it'll be... an experience that people will enjoy.

And do you allow yourself to take pleasure in the idea that this has become a part of the popular culture?

HF: You know, it doesn't occur to me to think that way. It's my job, it's what I do for a living, and I'm really pleased when it's successful, when it brings pleasure to the audience, and it advantages me in the pursuit of my profession.

Obviously, you both used to work with each other. How did you both find working with Shia, and do you have any memorable moments in the filming with him?

KA: Shia's just a delight, as far as I'm concerned. He's very, very funny and ? I don't know how much I can describe particular scenes in the film ? but there's some moments where Shia has some quite challenging tasks he had to perform in the film, and there's just some very, very, very funny, wonderful moments with Shia where he was just above and beyond the call of duty. He's an incredibly talented young actor, I find him very eloquent as an actor. With his face, he says a lot... he's remarkable. I'm really very impressed with him, and I had an awfully good time with him.

HF: Me too. He's very professional, he works really hard. He had some very sort of arcane skills to acquire, and he worked really hard. He was an enormous pleasure to be around, and I really enjoy him a lot.

Did you teach him anything on set?

HF: I taught him how to act. (Laughs) Because nobody understands that except me... I didn't teach him anything; he taught me. He's been an actor for ten years or something, and he has an enormous talent. He's gonna be around for a long, long time.

You were talking it when it becomes age-appropriate to show the DVDs to our children. My six-year-old son watches the first three movies, which probably makes me a bad parent, but when did you let your kids see the movies, and the second part is, the violence in the movies isn't very graphic, it's somewhat old-fashioned, and do you think that's a good alternative, because, increasingly, we see really violent movies for kids out there.

KA: I think a little bit depends on the kid. My son, who's seventeen now, was very, very sensitive to violence in films. I mean, he would get extremely upset over things that wouldn't dawn on me as to find too violent, but he's just a kid who got very absorbed in whatever was on the screen in front of him, and he could get frightened very easily. So I waited, I don't think he saw Raiders of the Lost Ark until he was maybe 8 or 9, but I certainly know other kids who saw it at a much younger age, and the melting heads and things just didn't seem to bother them at all.

HF: Yeah, I agree absolutely. We have a seven-year-old at home, and I think he self-censors in a way. He's very much like Karen described her boy; it's not what he's looking for, and when he has an experience with a movie, he's really not ready for physical contest because it's not something that's part of his experience. So, in his case, in Liam's case, I think it would be another year or so before I let him see this film. This film, with the possible exception of ripping out hearts ...in The Temple of Doom, which, as you know, established the PG-13 rating, I think we're gonna have a film that the entire family can enjoy together.
 

Robyn

New member
StoneTriple said:
+1. A nice interview and nice to see that they seem to genuinely like each other.

Yeah they seem to get along really well, I remember Harrison saying somewhere that Karen was the easiest person in world to work with, and I liked in one of the interviews I read where Karen said it was her first day on the set and Harrison came running up the stairs of her trailer and gave her a huge hug, I thought that was cute :)
 
Karen Allen Interview
Karen Allen first appeared alongside Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark back in 1981. She returned to the film series a couple of years ago, reprising her role as Marion Ravenwood for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

She’s in Australia for the Armageddon Expo, which hits Adelaide this weekend at the Adelaide Showgrounds. BBM’S BEN HARLUM caught up with Karen in Sydney before she made the trip to SA.

Is this your first time in Australia?

No, I’ve actually done a film here (Sweet Talker) with Bryan Brown about 20 years ago. This is my fourth time back, but it’s my first convention here.

Is there a particular question or comment that the fans here always ask?

They all want to know what it was like to work with Harrison Ford, and all about filming Indiana Jones. It’s weird because when we were filming Raiders, we didn’t know how it was going to turn out – and now by the fourth film all this attention has been devoted to the series, it’s amazing.

How did you end up getting the part of Marion for the first film?

Steven Speilberg had seen a film that I had done called A Small Circle of Friends which was set in the 1960’s, and it was my first real leading role in a film. He was also friends with John Landis, who directed Animal House, so he was just interested in meeting me while he was getting ready to cast Raiders. He flew me to Los Angeles and I did a screen test with these actors, but they had no Indiana Jones cast. They hired me as Marion anyway but they still had no leading man – Tom Selleck was originally cast until Magnum PI was picked up – finally they realized that they wanted Harrison Ford for the part, regardless of whether he had done Star Wars with George or not.

And it’s lucky you both had such great chemistry then!

Yeah, exactly. It was so fun working with him.

Do you get recognized for Animal House?

Oh yes, absolutely! It actually amazes me that I do because it was filmed back in 1978 yet I still get recognized. People always stop me in the street and yell “Katy!” – it’s crazy.

What’s it like coming down to work these conventions with John Rhys-Davies, your co-star in Indiana Jones?

We get along great, and got along just as great when we filmed the first Indiana Jones film. We also did a film together, two years after Raiders, and have done other projects together too. We haven’t seen each other for a long time though so it’s great to spend time together here in Sydney and Adelaide.

Do you have any inside word about the next Indiana Jones film?

Your guess is as good as mine – as far as I know there’s one in the works. They’re currently trying to write the script, there’s an idea that they all really like – but Harrison, George and Steven all have to approve. It has to be finished and approved but I hope it does happen. I’d love to be a part of it.

What’s next on the plate for you?

Well I have a film that’s just opening as soon as I come back from Adelaide, literally. It opens March 10th and I arrive the day before. It’s called White Irish Drinkers and stars Stephen Lang – it’s a really wonderful independent film that we shot in 17 days. I like to do a lot of the smaller independent films because I really enjoy well-written films, and they seem to be the smaller-budget ones that have the more meatier characters – the bigger blockbuster films seem more formulaic to me. But when you get the chance to do a film like Indiana Jones you just can’t turn it down.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Rocket Surgeon said:

Your guess is as good as mine ? as far as I know there?s one in the works. They?re currently trying to write the script, there?s an idea that they all really like ? but Harrison, George and Steven all have to approve. It has to be finished and approved but I hope it does happen. I?d love to be a part of it.

Translatation: I have no idea. They made such a mess of the last one that they don't know whether to do another. Nobody tells me anything so I just repeat this double-speak. I hope they don't kill me off.
 

DocWhiskey

Well-known member
Montana Smith said:
Translatation: I have no idea. They made such a mess of the last one that they don't know whether to do another. Nobody tells me anything so I just repeat this double-speak. I hope they don't kill me off.


Quite true.... unfortunately.
 
Raiders of the Lost Ark with Karen Allen ? Part 1

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'Indiana Jones' Star Karen Allen Gives Us a Reason to Love 'Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'

Hollywood: When you first got involved in Raiders of the Lost Ark, did you think it would be as huge as it was?
Karen Allen: I was an admirer of Steven [Spielberg] because I had seen... honestly, Jaws kind of just scared the crap out of me. I can look at it and see that it?s a really, really well-made film, but I?ve never been able to enjoy going back in the water ever since. (Laughter) I loved swimming in the ocean, but he sort of ruined it for me. But I had just seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind and I was very, very inspired by that film. I had grown up in the era where everything that came from outer space was evil and wanted to like eat us and blow us up or do something horrible to us. And I loved the story of something coming from another world, another planet, another galaxy and actually being something that had a desire to communicate and not be destructive. And I was very excited by the film and the message of the film. And I was a big fan of George Lucas? too.

So the thought that I was going to get to work with the two of them in their very first collaboration was fantastic and I had read the script. At the point that they had asked me to be in the film, they gave me a copy of the script to read and I was quite fascinated by the script ? It?s interesting. Usually, I?ll be given a script and then I can really study it for a while, you get a chance to really read it, and read it, and read it, but this one was messengered to me while I was working on a film up in Northern California. I was allowed to read it one time and then it was taken back. It?s funny I haven?t even thought about this for a very long time, but I think, I almost woke up the next day and I wasn?t quite sure what I?d read. I thought, what was that? I read it. I was engaged in it. And I though wow, this is such an interesting film and an interesting character, but I almost couldn?t remember what it was about. And there was a period of time before I was given back the script, because everybody was so secretive. I had to say ?yes? and they had to say ?yes? and all that.

I?ve always seen Marion as an incredible female character. She?s not typical, she?s got this unique way about her. Have you ever considered or noticed the impact her character has had on other female characters, if any?
I know, talking to younger generations of actresses who?ve kind of come up to me and said, ?You know, that character made so much of a difference to me? in terms of suddenly seeing a broader spectrum of the kinds of characters that were possible, the kind of roles they wanted to play. They felt they were reading a lot of films and television scripts in which the female characters were being channeled into this very narrow idea of what a woman was and what a woman could be in a film. And suddenly, Marion and other characters around that same time sort of broke that all open. I think actresses really wanted very much to embody characters who had more to them than being the girlfriend or the foil of the male character ? [characters] who were more refined.

That?s what makes the romance between Indy and Marion so classic ? the fact that Marion isn?t just some girl. Do you count their romance among some of the Great Love Stories?
It certainly is a very poignant love story. There?s a huge gap in it between Raiders of the Lost Ark and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and I find myself really interested in knowing what went on in between ? how they went their separate ways and what really happened. I feel like there is something, because Indiana Jones is the character that he is, he?s so in his own world. He is, in a sense, resistant to romance. He puts up such a fight, and I think that there is something very ultimately sweet about him suddenly realizing that he?s in love with her.

Unlike a lot of really romantic stories where we get to see the core of the relationship, I think it is a much more, I don?t really have the right word for it. We kind of miss all the really intimate pieces and somehow or other, we end up believing that they?re destined to be together. And sometimes, you?ll see a love story where you?ll see a lot between the characters but you don?t really feel that they?re destined to be together. So I think that?s kind of ? there?s something that works there.

Was completing that love story part of your decision to be a part of the fourth movie?
I?m not sure I would even say, I guess I did make a decision, but I was so quite moved that they had written my character back into the story and written her back in this particular way, that I don?t even think it ever occurred to me that I could say anything other than ?Yes.? I wanted to be a part of it, for sure. I can?t imagine what they would have done with my character that I would have said, ?Oh gee, I don?t think so.? I can?t think of a scenario in which that would have been possible. (Laughs) But fortunately, that wasn?t at all the case. I was just delighted to come back into the story.

You?ve undoubtedly come across lots of fans since the film came out, have any interactions resulted in something that was meaningful or impactful, or even just memorable?

One of my favorite little moments with a fan was when I was here in New York at the Paris Theater. They wanted to show Raiders of the Lost Ark on the big screen and the Paris Theater decided they wanted to show it three nights in a row and they asked me if I would come to New York and do a Q&A after the screening all three nights. And I said, ?Yes, of course. I?d love to.? I was sitting in front of the audience one night and this little girl raised her hand, she was probably around seven. And she said, ?I have a question!? and she said, ?Is it hard to act when there?s music playing that loud?? (Laughs)

That?s adorable!
And I thought, now that?s one the best questions I?ve ever heard. [Laughs] I didn?t have the heart to tell her that they add it in afterward.

My last question is actually to settle a bet. We have a debate in the office over what you were actually drinking in the drinking contest scene in Raiders.
It?s supposed to be whiskey, I think. And he even says, (whispers) ?Whiskey,? not that that necessarily meant it had to be whiskey. But I thought it was whiskey that we were drinking. I remember we colored the water so that it was sort of a whiskey color, and in fact sadly enough it was just dye or tea or something. (Laughs)

Thank you! You?ve just helped me win a bet.
(Laughs) You?re welcome!
 
Six questions for 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' actress Karen Allen

Actress Karen Allen was in New York to promote the Blu-ray release of "Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures Blu-ray." She sat down with CNET for a brief chat.

For the launch of the "Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures Blu-ray," Karen Allen, who played Marion Ravenwood in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and then returned for the fourth installment ("Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"), was in New York to promote the release. Normally, we don't do too many celebrity interviews here on CNET, but when Paramount reps offered a very short chat, I thought, hey, it's Karen Allen, why not?

As for how the Blu-ray package is, the short answer is that the first three movies have undergone a very impressive restoration and they clearly look a lot better than the DVD versions that came out a few years ago. Of course, whether you want to drop $65 on the whole set will depend on how much of an Indiana Jones fan you are. Eventually, each film will be available separately, which may be the way to go, particularly if you don't feel like owning "Crystal Skull" (or already own it).

But back to Karen Allen. If you're wondering what she's up to today, she's in rehearsals for a play in New York called "Summer's Day" and has been directing theater the last few years and acting in films "Whenever there's something interesting," she said. (So far there are no plans for a fifth Indiana Jones movie).

Here's the quick Q&A.
CNET: Have you watched the Blu-ray for Raiders yet? And what's it like seeing yourself in 1080p 30 years later?

Allen: No, I actually haven't seen it yet. But I was at the IMAX screening the other night. It's sort of very strange to watch yourself 30 years ago. Sometimes it's quite fun, but other times it's just strange. It's interesting because it's the same film -- the film hasn't changed -- but my perspective on it changes. I am very happy that they've done all this work on the film because over the years I've been at events where they've screened the film and I've seen some truly terrible prints. Just awful.

I have a hard time watching films the first few times right after we finishing shooting them because I don't think I really see what's on the screen. When I'm watching the first few times I'm remembering what I think I did in the scene and how I saw the scene in my own mind when we were doing it. When I read a script I visualize it -- I make my own movie in my mind. And then when I see it for the first time it's a jolt because it's usually not what I visualized. Sometimes it's a way better movie I had in my own mind, which was certainly the case with "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Not that I didn't have a good movie in my head when I read the script, but I had a different movie in my head. I thought we were making "Casablanca." I've been saying this for years and it sounds like a joke but that's what I thought. I didn't have the same references in my head that Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Philip Kaufman, and Larry Kasdan, had in their heads. They had grown up with these Saturday-afternoon serials. I had mostly grown up on the old '40s movies. So my reference to something being set in that time period was more like "Casablanca." Or more like "Treasure of the Sierra Madre." It was that sort of adventure. Not as heightened as it turned out to be.

CNET: One would assume your favorite Indiana Jones film is "Raiders" and not "Crystal Skull"?

Allen: Oh, yes, "Raiders." I have to say I have an incredible love of that film. It was the first one and I really love the story. And I fell in love with my character when I was working on that film.

CNET Do you get recognized more for Indiana Jones or "Animal House"?

Allen: I get recognized for "Animal House" a lot. That film is huge, too. That film has aged very well. People are still watching that film. I saw it not that long ago. It's just one of those films that seems as much fun now as when we made it. There's a whole huge "Starman" contingent as well. Believe it or not, there are people who have a little obsession with "Starman."

CNET: I saw on IMDB [in the trivia section] that you were considered for the role of Princess Leia in Star Wars? Is that true?

Allen: I think that's not true. I don't know where that ever came from. Because when Star Wars was being made I had never done a film in my life. I was either still living in Washington, D.C., working in the theater or had just moved to New York and working in theater there, too. I had heard that rumor but I just can't imagine anybody knew who I was.

CNET: But you could have made a good Princess Leia?

[Laughing] Yes, I could have. But I was not a known person at all. "Animal House" was my first film. Carrie Fisher wasn't known either but at least she was in that Hollywood community. I was in New York until I got cast in "Animal House." And there was actually huge resistance to casting me in "Animal House." It was like, "Who's this? What's she done? Oh, she's done nothing. I see. She's done some obscure theater in Washington, D.C. Why would we cast her?"

CNET: How did you get the role?

Allen: I just saw a little 3-by-5 card on a bulletin board at the Lee Strasberg Institute, one of the places I was studying at. I wrote down the address and stuck a picture and a resume in an envelope and sent it off, thinking I'd never hear anything back. And then I got a phone call and the casting director for Universal decided based on my picture and resume to come and meet for the role of Katie. I walked into a room and met with John Landis for the first time without ever having done a film or knowing anything about film. And he just saw me as Katie. I think I auditioned five times for that role. And nobody but John Landis and the casting directors wanted me. Well, I think Harold Ramis liked me, too. But nobody at Universal wanted me because they wanted someone with more experience, someone who had more credits. Someone they could point to as more of a star.
 
Exclusive Interview: Karen Allen Reflects on "Raiders of the Lost Ark"

Originally posted by Anders Nelson

Ten minutes may be a long time for most interviews, but it?s certainly not enough to cover the cultural impact of a film like Raiders of the Lost Ark more than 30 years after its release, and probably not enough to hear everything Karen Allen has to say about it. Currently appearing off-broadway in ?A Summer Day? at the Rattlestick Theater, Allen took some time to talk to us about the Blu-ray release of the Indiana Jones series (on sale today), which gave her her most famous role as Marion Ravenwood, maybe the only character in all of moviedom able to put Harrison Ford in his place. She was friendly and effusive enough that in those ten minutes, I only got to ask a few questions; mostly about Indy, and one that, being a film nerd, I just had to ask.

After outing myself as a super-fan (referencing the original French release Raiders poster I have in my living room), I asked about the ongoing popularity of Raiders and what made it so unique upon release: ?I mean, I think the thing that occurs to me the most is how, I think a lot of times the films of that period, they had this much more conventional structure where they started out and you really went very slowly into the telling of the story?and that you kid of very slowly kind of built into your story.

?And all of a sudden, it?s like boom! All of a sudden, we?re right in the story. You don?t know anything about who this person is, but somehow or other, they were able to do it so that you just didn?t question any of it. You know, suddenly, he?s running and this boulder is coming after him, and he?s leaping onto the plane?it?s giving you all this information. You get a sense of the humor. You get a sense of his courage. You get a sense of his awkwardness. You get a sense of all these things about the character but without, what was I guess at the time a very kind of conventional approach.?

Way back when I first started writing here, I compiled a list of the most under-rated female characters, and put Marion towards the top, citing her strength and, once again, ability to stand upon to Harrison Ford. I asked her to speak to how much of this was her contribution, and how much of that was already in the screenplay. ?Well, I think they had written Marion pretty much with all the strength and all of the lack of impulse control?but I did feel like I made a contribution more towards the center part of the film. I felt that once I got out of the bar in Nepal and once we got into the world of the character?once I was sort of on his adventure in a sense, I felt sometimes the script really failed the character. Like there were periods of time? where she appeared, in terms of the script to be passive?.Like she wasn?t being given anything to do.?

?And I kept saying everytime we got to a moment like that, I would say, ?this doesn?t feel right. I feel like I would grab a frying pan or didn?t feel that I would sort of stand there sort of like, help me, Indy! Help me!? I felt like there was a much more active role that she would always take.? Referring to the way that the character behaves when first seen in Nepal, ?I feel like that was the character that I embedded in myself. And then suddenly I had the whole script in front of me and I wanted that character?that seed had been planted in me, and I got very protective of her....This is Marion. She?s not taking any bull**** from anybody.?

Particular challenges of filming? ?I had to really work on the Nepalese stuff, because that was certainly not a language I have at my fingertips.? And working with Ford? ?I had to work on throwing a punch, and I have to say, I clocked him a couple of times.?

But since I knew I?d never have the chance again, I had to ask about Cruising, the film she starred in with Al Pacino that?s been mired in controversy since it?s original release. Why, you might ask? Because a good deal of the film, the plot of which involves Pacino looking for a serial killer in the gay leather scene of the early 1980s, was trimmed in order to get an R rating, and James Franco is now trying to recreate that footage (caution at that link, there?s butts). ?I didn?t even know there was a lost 40 minutes.? Ah. ?It?s a film that I saw once. I saw it one time about one time about two days after it opened?I literally walked into a theater with one of the other actors that was in the film, bought a ticket, sat down, and watched the film, and I haven?t seen it since. And I don?t know why we didn?t do publicity for it, maybe because it had been so controversial.?

And the film?s mysterious ending? ?It?s a mysterious film. People ask me all the time, what did that mean at the end when you put on the hat? And I say, I have no idea. We were just on the set, I think it was my final day on the film, and we were shooting this scene where Al Pacino comes back home, and at the end of the day, William Friedkin said to me, ?Karen, I want you to do this thing. So I want you to just, he?s gonna be there in the bathroom, and I want you to just walk out there and I want you to put on the jacket and I want you to put on the hat.? Both of those props were key components of Pacino?s undercover work.?

?I have absolutely no idea what the significance of that is. We did it. I thought this is really funny. He?ll never use this. I thought it was kind of a joke. I thought we were kind of playing a joke on Al or something. I thought it was very light-hearted and then he used it in the film! And I thought, ?I have no idea what that ending is.? People are saying, like, ?am I really the killer?? It?s like, ?I don?t know.??

Hopefully, that clears that up for everybody. Plus, she autographed my copy of Indiana Jones mad libs, so she's pretty much the coolest.
 
FIVE MINUTES WITH KAREN ALLEN

Karen Allen is best known for playing Marion Ravenwood in Raiders Of The Lost Ark and Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. Here she discusses those films and why she feels that working on a small movie with Paul Newman is one of her career highlights

DOES IT FEEL LIKE 30 YEARS SINCE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK WAS RELEASED?

Well, no - it doesn?t. I suppose one of the reasons it doesn?t is because I went back and did the last one, The Crystal Skull. That kind of reunited the group and made it feel more recent in my life, both the reconnection with those colleagues, Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, and the whole world of those characters.

WERE YOU PLEASED ABOUT BEING ASKED BACK?

Absolutely. I was really quite delighted that they decided to bring my character back into the story and for Marion and Indy to have had a child together... I loved what they did with the story. I was quite touched by it.

HOW HAS FILMING CHANGED IN THE YEARS BETWEEN YOUR TWO INDIANA JONES MOVIES?

I think they very much wanted to try to keep it in the same vein. The way that films are shot has changed enormously since then, because there is so much CGI being done. You can do almost anything on film now, which is both extraordinary and a little upsetting to me because I don?t always find CGI very compelling. It can be quite startlingly beautiful and take you into these other realms, but I feel I disassociate from it sometimes.

IT?S NICE TO SEE THE CRAFT INSTEAD OF THE IMAGE BEING ALMOST TOO SLICK, ISN?T IT?

Yes, and you get to a point where you don?t feel the danger. You feel as if you?re seeing something that?s distanced. I know that in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, those were all real stunts. The stuntmen were putting their lives in jeopardy when they were doing them - like that extraordinary one where Indy goes down underneath the truck. Now it wouldn?t be done that way, it?d be done all with CGI, I imagine. On the one hand, it?s certainly safer, there?s a lot fewer stuntmen getting injured, but on the other hand, I think for the audience, we somehow know there?s no real jeopardy. I?ve sat in theatres and I know I should be feeling compelled by the supposed danger on screen, and I?m just not. I know I?m watching something that was put together on a computer and they?re just manipulating images and backgrounds. It?s got a different feeling for me.

COULD YOU TELL, WHEN YOU WERE MAKING RAIDERS, THAT YOU WERE ON TO SOMETHING SPECIAL?

I think there was this feeling around it from the very beginning because it was George Lucas and Steven Spielberg working together for the first time. Both of them had had early successes, so there was this buzz around the film, the secrecy around the script... But I was a young actress; I?d made maybe three or four films before that, so I didn?t really have a sense of how successful a film can be, or what that experience was going to be like - it?s hard to anticipate something you?ve never known.

WAS IT A LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCE?

Yes, it was quite amazing to be in that film. I had started out working only in the theatre for a number of years before I ever did a film. Afterwards I was at a point where I really wanted to go back and work in the theatre, which everyone thought was an odd thing for me to do. But after I did Raiders I think I just worked on stage for about two years, which was something I did for myself, but other people didn?t understand that.

WHICH OF THE MOVIES YOU?VE MADE ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?

Oh gosh! Certainly Raiders is one to be very proud of because it had such an incredible reach out into the world. I?ve found myself walking down a street in Argentina, and somebody would come up to me and go, ?Oh my God!? and talk to me about it. To have been involved in something that seems to be so beloved by so many people is wonderful.

On a more personal front, I did a small, low-budget film of Tennessee Williams?s The Glass Menagerie with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, who were both people I had grown up admiring so profoundly. And I had always been a true passionate fan of Williams?s writing, so to have the opportunity to do that, it was just an extraordinary experience. It was a very, very special time.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
But since I knew I’d never have the chance again, I had to ask about Cruising, the film she starred in with Al Pacino that’s been mired in controversy since it’s original release. Why, you might ask? Because a good deal of the film, the plot of which involves Pacino looking for a serial killer in the gay leather scene of the early 1980s, was trimmed in order to get an R rating, and James Franco is now trying to recreate that footage (caution at that link, there’s butts). “I didn’t even know there was a lost 40 minutes.” Ah. “It’s a film that I saw once. I saw it one time about one time about two days after it opened…I literally walked into a theater with one of the other actors that was in the film, bought a ticket, sat down, and watched the film, and I haven’t seen it since. And I don’t know why we didn’t do publicity for it, maybe because it had been so controversial.”

And the film’s mysterious ending? “It’s a mysterious film. People ask me all the time, what did that mean at the end when you put on the hat? And I say, I have no idea. We were just on the set, I think it was my final day on the film, and we were shooting this scene where Al Pacino comes back home, and at the end of the day, William Friedkin said to me, ‘Karen, I want you to do this thing. So I want you to just, he’s gonna be there in the bathroom, and I want you to just walk out there and I want you to put on the jacket and I want you to put on the hat.” Both of those props were key components of Pacino’s undercover work.”

“I have absolutely no idea what the significance of that is. We did it. I thought this is really funny. He’ll never use this. I thought it was kind of a joke. I thought we were kind of playing a joke on Al or something. I thought it was very light-hearted and then he used it in the film! And I thought, ‘I have no idea what that ending is.’ People are saying, like, ‘am I really the killer?’ It’s like, ‘I don’t know.’”


Karen looked cute in Pacino's 'leather bar' cap and jacket.

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Couldn't find a ready-made screenshot of her with the jacket, but I just watched the film.

So Friedkin never told Allen the reasoning behind it? He spilled the beans in his commentary.

It was a nod to "symbiosis", and of crossing the border between role-playing and reality. As Pacino stares into the mirror, he no longer knows who he is or what he wants. The relationship with his fiancée is changed forever.


A minor curiosity that the following year Allen would be cosying up to another man who put on a hat and leather jacket to act out a role at odds with his 'day job'.
 
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