DI : too soon in your career , you serve as Dennis Hopper ’s editorial consultant onEasy Rider , a courteous break for you . What did you ascertain on the moving-picture show ?
HJ : OnEasy RiderI learned how to edit . Coming to it from havingmade nothing more than a 5 - minute foresighted 8 millimetre documentary shot in Israeland the Occupied Territories in the aftermath of the Six - Day War , I wasgiven the exceptional opportunity by Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson ofworking alongside Jack Nicholson - in adjoining redaction rooms , each withan editor of our own - and pick up how to help give flesh to DennisHopper ’s bright and timely film . Under the ultimate supervising ofSchneider - Rafelson , Hopper , Nicholson and I crafted the net picture . Its winner gave me the opportunity to make my own film , A Safe Place , for the same company and , despite being wide attacked for it at the clip , launched my directing career . I ca n’t even imagine what my life mighthave been like without this having bechance .
DI : In your directorial launching , A Safe Place , you scram the prospect to directOrson Welles , who you became good friend with . What was it like workingwith him ?
HJ : It was thwarting working with Orson at first , because he tried to directme , my actors and even my gang , counter my instructions and generallybeing a infliction in the ass . Also , he insist , at first , on endless - and I do meanendless - retake of every scene he was in , tell to me : " You ’re the one whois conk out to decide which take to apply at the end , so I want there to be at leastone decent take in shell you should accidentally slip up over it . However , when I took Orson apart and enounce to him : " Okay , I ’ll let you do as many takesas you wish of every scene you ’re in on one shape , he looked at me wearilyand say : " What condition?“ I told him that the deal would require him to notdirect my actors , not lead my gang and not in any way criticize me in front ofthem . In brusk , not to manoeuvre my movie . He say : " Do n’t bury , Henry , that thisis your first movie . “ I said : " Do n’t forget Orson , ' Citizen Kane ' was yours . “ Hewas delighted and became a tight adviser and ultimately a very , very closefriend and - by the way - he never asked for more than three or four takes onany give scene after that .
DI : In 1976 , you got a chance to conduct Hopper inTracks , who spiel asoldier dealing with animation after Vietnam . What was that experience like ?
HJ : Not unlike the situation with Orson , Dennis seemed very difficult to dealwith at the start of the shoot , even though we were close-fitting friends andknew each other quite well . But that quickly vanished as the filmingprogressed and he came up with the most extraordinary originative ideasand acting choices , include the very last speech he has at the " funeral"of the American soldier come home from Vietnam , during which he toreup the gilded speech I had write and instead ad-lib a magnificentinarticulate rage much more suitable to the character . I was never certainhowever whether the rage was directed at America for sending him toVietnam , as intend , or at me . But this mostly have giving birth to my career - longaddiction since then of letting actors throw out fain dialog inexchange for heartfelt expressions of their own , especially if I have cast themcorrectly .
DI : There seems to be a set of Fred Astaire and Edith Piaf recordings inyour pic . Are they just two of your preferent recording creative person or isthere something more to it ?
HJ : There is not a lot of Edith Piaf , but there is a lot of French songs , many by Charles Trenet , and I certainly am addicted to Fred Astaire , Judy Garland , Frank Sinatra and all that . The Gershwins and Rodgersand Hart , Cole Porter and Jerome Kern , you experience , the song of the 30’sand 40 ’s - the so - called " Great American Song Book" - capture theemotions that I attempt to deal with in my films more profoundly , and certainlymore romantically , than does most contemporaneous music .
DI : What advice do you have for aspiring plastic film Almighty ?
HJ : Trust yourself . Do n’t mind to anything anyone order you that suggeststhat you ca n’t do something . You last in the very best metre to be anindependent movie maker thanks to widespread statistical distribution and endlesslyexpanding engineering . Go for it with all your heart and do n’t consider anyone who tries to limit you in any way of life .
