Russell Trades in Dysfunction for Treasure

Interview

The offbeat director of Spanking the Monkey and Flirting With Disaster talks about life, making movies and Ice Cube's eating habits

The offbeat director of Spanking the Monkey and Flirting With Disaster talks about life, making movies and Ice Cube's eating habits

David O. Russell, dapper and dark haired, sitting in his plush suite at the Four Seasons hotel with a plate of asparagus and carrots in front of him, which he was fastidiously eating with a fork, was available to answer questions, while his dapper and baseball-capped personal assistant, James, fielded the phone calls that kept coming in. Though his first two movies were 'indie' (if such a word is relevant any more) the luxury in which he reposed seemed indicative of his move to the major studios.

The Harvard Crimson: How did you come upon the story upon which you based your screenplay?

David O. Russell: I had just finished filming Flirting with Disaster and Warner Bros. invited me to come look at their logs--the logs of all their properties--and I saw this script, which actually I've never read fully, described, and I just jumped on it. I've always wanted to have a larger canvas, and I've had some experiences in the Third World, in Nicaragua after I graduated from college, and it seemed a huge opportunity to deal with a subject that had never really been dealt with, comedically or dramatically. As I researched it, I found a lot of facts that hadn't been--that I wasn't aware of. The original script took place during the war, and mine takes place after the war, which I think is an important difference.

THC: In a movie like this, it seems like you've got to take measures to make sure that you're not offending anyone. What did you do to make sure that you were accurately portraying, historically and culturally, the actual situation in the Middle East?

DR: First of all I did a lot of research, and I also got a lot of Arab advisors to help me. We had a mullah serve as an advisor during the whole project. We had a lot of people advising that were in Iraq at the time of the Gulf War, refugees that came to America, and most of the scenes in the movie of cruelty and murder, even some of the conversations, did actually come from real life. Also, I got a lot of inspiration from news accounts of the conflict. The LA Times had day-by-day book on the war--their front page every day it went on, and some of the visuals come from that. Like they had a cow standing in the middle of a burning field, and a the Bart Simpson sticker on the hum-vee, those images are from the LA times.

HC: So you tried to tell a true story in this movie?

DR: Well, true in a way. It is a movie. It's more like a composite of different experiences that I heard and that intrigued me. For example, there's one scene, you might remember, where there's these two Iraqi hairdressers. And they say, "You know, we don't care if we do it in America or Iraq. We just want to cut hair." I met those people, they were refugee immigrants, and they auditioned for the movie. Unfortunately they were terrible actors, but I added the line.

HC: There's also a pretty frightening scene of torture, where Mark Wahlberg is being tortured. Do you expect any negative reaction to that?

DR: Well, that's a pretty controversial scene, but it was exactly the kind of torture that was done during the war to political prisoners. The cell, the cot, the chair with the wires--they did that to pilots that were caught, that were shot down and taken prisoner.

HC: Did your attitude change while filming this movie?

DR: Yeah, I think I began to think about the United States, and our role in the world in a different way. During the Gulf War, I don't think I supported Bush's decision to stop the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Now I agree with that. And at the whole time, there was that whole interaction going on, that no one even knew about, with the Iraqi Rebels. And, of course, I think Bush should've kept his promise, and helped the rebels overthrow Saddam like he said he would...

HC: What was it like working with Cube, and with Mark Wahlberg, people that didn't start out as actors, but have kind of shined at it since they've given it a go?

DR: Well, Mark's a real thug. You know that, right? He had these people coming over, with names like Donkey, asking if they could take the VCR from his trailer and sell it. Mark's a funny guy. And a really serious actor. I mean, he's as serious as, maybe, De Niro. And Cube has so much charisma and confidence. Here's a story about Cube. I was sitting with him and he was eating, like, one of those Taco Bell soft tacos. And compulsively pushing out the filling, you know, the meat and guacamole and stuff, and only eating the soggy taco shell. I guess I was staring at him, because he asked, "Do you think that's strange?" and I said, "Yeah, I guess so, Cube, I think that's pretty strange." And he started eating his taco again and said, "Well, that's what makes me me." That's Cube for you.

HC: What were you doing in 1991 during the Gulf War?

DR: I was at Sundance, at the film festival, and I thought at the time that the best movie in town was on CNN, watching those fireworks go off on TV every night.