Ocean’s Eleven (2001) [Audio]

Ted, do you want to talk about the logos?

I think uh I think you should talk about the logo of stone.

Well it was just interesting to me that during all the discussions with Warner Brothers and Okay, go ahead. Um, the fact that I distorted the color on the company logo never came up. There were a lot of other things that came up in contracts and about credits, but nobody ever noticed that we uh distorted the company logo.

What else uh came up with contracts and credit? Can we talk about that? Not here? Okay. Okay, let's go back and start up. Um this scene was uh I just want to say written before Aaron Brokovich was seen by me. Uh in a opening shot of your main character, of your of the titular character speaking to an off screen person. And then when I saw Brockovich I thought, ooh. We're starting the same way.

This was unusual only. To me anyway, only in that uh it was actually the first thing we shot for the entire film. Mr. Ocean, what we're trying to find out is I hate the way I lit it. Uh but uh George was so good in the scene that I decided not to reshoot it. I thought about it. Yeah, I shot the parole board and decided it was more fun to uh

Yeah.

Yeah. And we're not going to tell you what it was.

Um but if you look at the uh ad you'll see it. In the trailer.

Steven Marioni, the editor, after uh my going back to him several times and saying I still don't think that scene works, uh, came up with the idea of cutting it and just starting the music.

I think I uh also came up with the idea just like probably five days after Steven did. Oh yeah. But I I like taking credit for it.

Oh okay. Well is he doing a commentary? I don't think so.

I came up with the idea first.

Thank you.

And I shot this scene. Oh wait, you're here.

Yeah, were you talking to him behind my back?

Um I was talking to everyone behind your back.

It was actually cold here. Uh I insisted well I insisted. I asked. That we'd be able to shoot uh the first prison sequence uh of the film early and the last one at the end of the shoot so that we would get actual weather differentiation. And I think it makes a huge difference. Uh Certainly in uh in the box office.

I uh I think I came onto the production about a week late. I was stuck in LA so I wasn't here for all of this, but I think the day you were filming this was the day that the Oscar nominations came out.

Uh yeah, I was having trouble shooting that shot of George uh coming off the escalator, actually, as uh the announcements uh were coming out of Los Angeles. But That's one of my that's actually one of my favorite shots, George coming up the tight shot of him coming up the escalators. I I should be compensated by George for that. It's a pretty a pretty good movie star entrance shot.

Thank you.

Dealer.

has nineteen. Good start. Alright, going on break now.

Thank you very much.

It was a year ago we were shooting this. Uh huh. Um, here's Bernie Mack. Let's talk about Bernie Mack, who's great. And who I think Is is a really good actor, actually. I wouldn't hesitate to cast Bernie in a dramatic role. I think he's got real Yeah, yeah.

Check it out on current events. As a testament to his presence I I was worried um before we started showing that this scene was the sort of the the weakest first step or script wise of um I think it's carried out.

Yeah.

So never worries about it again. And then and then the movie just falls apart here.

You kidding.

I just became a citizen again. Officer Brooks, this is Danny Ocean. I was told to contact you within twenty-four hours.

Well here's a shot that I was gonna shoot inside the White House sub shop, which is directly off screen right. Unfortunately Greg Jacobs, my A D um brought me outside and said you may want to look at the 'cause there was the f this fog and Trump Plaza in the background and it was much better shot.

One of my uh favorite moments of um of recognizing your restraint came in the scene because there's The reverse of of that angle is uh on the wall is a huge mural of Frank Sinatra up against the wall. And I think uh when I originally started writing the script, uh one Um, one thing I definitely didn't want to do is make any rat pack reference or have any character.

Oh yeah. Well we should talk about the upcoming scene because this was one that I kept saying, let's go back and revisit this and we kept pushing it in the schedule. We kept pushing it back, pushing it back, pushing it back until it finally became Literally th uh one of the last scenes uh in the film. And it was always a card game, but I guess we felt I don't know. That that that Rusty needed to sort of emerge a little more.

Looking at him doesn't change.

It was originally set like in a suite in the Mondreon and uh Uh it was sort of a it was a move a quieter scene and and I think uh you watched the first five minutes with Steven Marioni. and uh realize that you need sort of like a I guess a burst of energy w just with that walking through the club sequence. Uh th uh that was how you explained it to me. And I think it it does make a great difference because uh

Yeah.

Maybe I'm not sure if you're not sure. Actually, uh what I would like to say about this scene is this is the one time, the one night during uh during filming where I was kind of out by the the monitor watching and cursing your name because uh uh because you were uh you were improvising and um And I told everybody you were ruining the s ruining the scene. And uh I just wanted to say that I think it's still one of the best scenes in the movie. Uh despite what you're only

we only improvised in the f in that first scene though, the one that we just saw, which y you know

And

I mean it's uh i i it's actually not that much different. It's just uh it's now alive as opposed to as opposed to being dead.

Well and I shot a lot of stuff. I mean admittedly you were out there by the sound cart watching Paul's monitor because we don't have video monitor. And I shot miles and miles of footage of the first half of this card game. Because the scene as we're as we're coming to it now is um from here on out is almost word for word.

It's pretty much written. One thing just to c uh comment on about about the way you work, which I I thought was interesting, was uh there are no uh video monitors, so um I mean because you're Filming the movie, you certainly don't need one and and uh I think they're they're pretty much restricted except for Paul uh to the rest of the crew so people aren't sitting around looking at monitors.

I don't know. I nev no no, I don't have a a chair policy.

Don't let'em fool you.

Loads.

If you can move'em. But you can't.

My fence seemed competent enough.

Stealing in cash, you don't need a fan.

I like to write with a uh a number three pencil.

Really? Can you still get those?

Um in Europe.

Okay.

Anyway, back to the scene. Um

Tell me about this scene, Ted. It's what you're here to do.

I'm not sure if I have anything to say about this scene. Whether we're treating these guys, the uh the guys doing cameos as themselves as being too buffoonish. And so w whether that would have a uh a negative effect on this scene that when George and and Brad or Conningham, whether they were too much of sitting ducks or whether Uh because because th they are so idiotic in the first scene with uh as far as knowing poker. And uh and so that was actually the the night I was I was

Uh but I thought all these kids were great and I think they and I felt they came off very naturally and not you know. Oh yeah.

No no no. I I I I th I think the they write the hit the right uh comic tempo is just a matter of doing that and setting up.

I mean, I think that's a good thing.

Do we see him in? Yeah.

Is that what you were worried about?

Not too much.

This is actually we shot the interiors and exteriors at a club called Deep in Hollywood. Which I should mention. Um I was one of the investors in. Um and uh but this back room doesn't exist. We built this back room a stage. So here we are at the exterior.

Uh it's on the corner of uh Hollywood and Vine. It opens at uh ten o'clock on weekdays.

Yeah.

Uh that late, I think. And uh ask for Ivan, the manager. Um Seventeen oh seven Hollywood Boulevard.

I wanted to have all of the other um actors from the poker scene out there with tofer, but we shot this completely out of sequence and uh I'd only ordered tofu for the evening.

This is the very last shot we did of the movie, isn't it? I just wanted to comment on that, but uh like right in the middle of the film is something we did in June.

Which was a scene that I cut from the script.

And we tested twice and then just put it back in just I think just'cause of flow, really. I mean there's no inf vital information there.

No, but you were right I think in in saying that we needed uh just a little bit of a breather between the club and and this scene. And uh yeah, I think you're right. It was literally the last shot that we did. We popped it off. I'm a big believer in I've always reshot uh things on every movie I've made, including Sex Lies, and we always squirrel away a little bit of money to accommodate reshoots or uh additions.

educations I got from from watching this, uh, through production and post production was how much uh a little shot, a little detail like that adds to the whole piece, um going back and just shooting a a small scene with the car or the other scene we uh sort of a new sh not a scene we reshot, but a new scene was Carl Reiner getting dressed later uh right before the heist and it makes a an enormous difference I think in the tempo of the film and and his

Well I've become I think I mentioned this in the in the traffic commentary that I've come to believe that A large part of Boski a movie is about transitions. Literally transitions from one scene to another and whether or not You're able to make transitions that are are not only successful uh creatively um but f but emotionally as well for the audience in terms of rhythm and the release and suppression of certain information to keep them, you know, interested but not Irritated.

Proven.

I guess Uh d you guys uh in the script you uh there's a cutaway to the security guard approaching and and uh did those shots not work out? I ne I never asked you about

Yeah, I shot him.

It's sort of a false suspense sequence. Yeah.

Here's another scene I wanted to reshoot because I hated the lighting, uh but I was really happy with the performances so I I let it I let it go.

not do it. Because yesterday I walked out of the joint after losing four years of my life and your cold decking teen beat cover boys. Because the house always wins. Play long enough, you never change the stakes. The house takes you. Unless when that perfect hand comes along, you bet big, and then you take the house.

Special.

Little bit.

Did I rush? It felt like I rushed. I wonder what I'm saying.

Ruben will say.

You're out of your goddamn minds. Are you listening to me? You're both of you nuts. I know more than

Okay, here we go. Elliot, go on.

And for me the movie really kick kicks in with basically with his uh wardrobe.

Well Jeffrey Curland um yeah. Uh shocked but happy uh when I saw the sketches uh for these outfits and was very happy that Elliot seemed uh uh content to wear them. Elliot was I remember driving around on a scout successful and we were trying to figure out who should play number three. Ruben and uh We wanted an actor from from that generation. I wanted somebody who was sort of uh steps close Elliot's age and

I had so much anticipation of the scene'cause it was it was my one of my favorite scenes as written and he outside of it. Um and actually I uh you exceeded it with these uh Uh the with the three greatest robberies. I uh I never imagined uh especially the Caesars one, um sort of the the three pullbacks and the uh I remember the first time I heard uh your inclusion of Berlin, I just fell over laughing.

That was a Jerry Weintraub uh special getting Caesars. This was a big deal to get Caesars to let you even pretend to shoot a guy in front of their casino. And Jerry worked that and worked that and worked that and we finally got it by shooting I think it was like one or two in the morning out there and they let us uh again we should mention that that we literally couldn't have made the film the way we made it without Jerry. Yeah.

Yeah.

Give Dominic your addresses. I got some remaindered furniture I want to send you. Look just out of curiosity which can be

This is actu this location is actually Palm Springs. We found this amazing house, uh, in Palm Springs for Rubin's palace. And um It was this was fairly early on in the shoot, as I remember. This is a fairly long take here. Um which you have to be careful about shooting oneers. That's something that I think when I was younger I was prone to doing.

My memory of of uh shooting this day was um 'Cause I I was sort of shadowing you throughout the shoot and you turned to me and said, You know, having having a writer on the set is sort of like throwing a rave and having your parents be there and I said, Well, don't think of me as the writer, just think of me as your parents. But uh it's uh it's absolutely true.

Ha ha ha.

I'm I was the buzzkill.

Yeah, but you know how you know you know how to conduct yourself. I mean you you were you know first of all I wanted you to be around because there were always things that came up that that you know, we were tweaking and And I I like having you there to to talk about that stuff and and more often than not you would come up and say, Hey, I've been looking at that scene that we're gonna shoot next week and I've got some more ideas and you would come back with a better version and I really

It it uh frankly can be pretty boring being the writer on a film set. Uh the uh the awful thing is is there's nothing to do and the great thing is there's nothing to do. Yeah. What I've I have learned about filmmaking through this is no matter how clever you are, if you take a monster truck and run over a toy truck with it, you'll get a huge laugh every time.

It's uh I'm certainly gonna use this again. Yeah. I think in Solaris. Um

We gotta talk about Casey and Scott.

Casey and Scott, I wish we could just th they should have a series, uh on on the WB, I guess. Um but they were uh they were pretty fun. They the we let them improvise a little bit within you know. Within certain boundaries. Oh yeah. Scott had a lot of good uh good insults, which w y made you wonder what kind of upbringing he had. Um'cause they were varied and uh Yeah.

Okay, Eddie Jemison who uh uh we shouldn't talk about uh was in Schizopolis. Um and then uh Uh and then was it was in Chicago. I think and uh wasn't he auditioning for something else and and uh for for uh Debbie Zayn and she said, Oh wait y you can't audition for this. You you you're one of the eleven. Like he f he found out about it.

Yeah, I think I'm actually I think I m I may have forgotten to actually call him and tell him that he was gonna be in the movie and and I th y I th I think that's right. He was Deborah Zane was Um but Eddie I've known for twenty years. He he went to Louisiana State University and Um got a d uh masters of fine arts and uh in acting. Is that is that what you get in? I don't know. He was in the drama department. And um yes. I would say best known for Schetopoulos, but nobody's seen that film, so

Nobody yet.

Yeah.

Now the h his role was written originally as British and then I think we took The British out and then I think Don put the British back. Yes. And as a consequence uh I think uh maybe all the Cockney in in his uh Uh, and his part is a good thing. Don't he had a he had a dialogue coach but But uh uh everything everything that he uh sort of comes up with which is particularly cognate is is is his so of making the role authentically.

Just search this scumbag. Booby traps on this person? I mean really serves. Not just for weapons.

I love stuff when when Brad I think is great here impersonating a an ATF officer. I love when characters get to impersonate blowhards. Um per se. He does a great job. It was actually raining in downtown LA on these evenings. Those aren't uh wet downs we just got

Yeah.

Uh well lucky I think'cause it looks nice.

Yeah.

Everybody!

Bye Wally.

Expect to that shit.

Work.

This was not shot in San Diego. That's a that's a lie. Films lie. Have you noticed that?

I don't know.

Which one's the amazing end?

The little Chinese guy.

Who else is on the list?

He is.

the list.

I don't know, it doesn't seem all that different. We got a grease, man.

We gotta grease man.

We shot this in Florida. This tent was put up in the parking lot of the dog track where we meet Carl. Uh we had The collidescape people uh put up their tent in the parking lot and uh we shot these scenes.

Carl Reiner uh what got the role five days before we shot the scene?

Yes, that's true.

There was somebody else and uh who who ended up not being able to do it, uh and Carl came in and uh which is interesting'cause Carl and I had been looking for something to do ever since the Dick Van Dyke show. Um so and then the this just sort of you know fell into place.

Finally. second. Uh yeah, literally hi he was supposed to start on a Tuesday in Florida and Jerry went over to Carl's house with a script on the Friday before and said, I have something for you to do. Jerry had produced uh Oh God, so he knew Carl really well. And Carl uh I think turned in just a terrific performance.

He's so instantly sympathetic um that and and and you you care about him and worry about him instantaneously that I I I think it it makes Uh the heist work much better when you're not sure whether he's his health is failing or not. And and uh and certainly it we'll talk about the fountain scene when the fountain scene comes up, but I think that uh I I well we'll talk about it when it comes up, but I think that's the reason to do that scene that way.

We can be non we can be nonlinear. We can no, let's not. I remember this this was a we shot this entire sequence in one day. It was a real scramble. And um We tried to the number four dog uh we tried to get to um to come in last and the uh the guy who was training the dogs um I guess misheard or there was some miscommunication and thought we wanted the number four dog to come in first. So digitally you'll notice here there's one dog trailing. That was that's an effect. Uh I added that in post.

There's some effects in this that I wanna I wanna uh want you to point out, like uh Yen's uh middle finger coming out of the the cash cart is is an effect which Uh if nobody had told me I would I would never have known.

Well it was i uh yeah, I'll explain that. It was a slight effect. Here's a scene we shot at Musso's. This was one of my favorite sort of dry throwaway scenes. Um Brad not responding. I thought I just thought these your scenes uh between the two of them were really well drawn. We talked a lot about either You don't answer but you know what the answer is or they interrupt each other a lot because they know exactly what the other's thinking and we do that often.

Well it's something I missed in in movies, one of the reasons why this was attractive to me was to go back to movies from the sixties, which uh uh had groups of guys, uh Magnum Seven, the Great Escape, the professionals, guys who have sort of a a shorthand and uh who are not uh Uh it's not a testron uh testosterone uh fest or competition. Um and uh I don't know how much you worked with George and Brad or how much they hung out before uh

They sort of fell right into it. I mean they they totally got it. Um here are the scenes with Matt. I s we uh Stephen Marioni uh employed a sort of skip frame technique there that isn't a it isn't a a strictly uh um linear extrapolation of the the it has a it's not just simple step printing, it's something that the the avid can do and it gives it a certain rhythm. I did that because Matt

He does he does lift very fast l later on when he when he when he uh pickpockets uh Andy. My father saw the movie three times, picked it up on the third time that he actually picked Andy's pocket in that scene, which is the whole point of the scene. Right. But but Matt was uh uh very fast.

You're either in or you're out. Right now.

Thank you.

What is it?

It's a plane ticket. A job offer.

Pretty fast.

Well Bobby has a lot of faith in you.

Amen.

I don't want me trading on his name.

If you do this job, they'll be trading on yours.

Thank you.

If you don't, you'll find somebody else who won't be quite as good. And you can go back to filling up stockbrokers, can you get the check?

Please.

That's the best lift I've seen you make yet.

Las Vegas, man.

America's playground.

Here we are in Vegas. I remember shooting these helicopter shots. It was so windy that um one of the people in the helicopter uh with me after the first run uh when we stopped to reload decided that he didn't want to get back in uh the helicopter.

Продолжение следует...

Um

Who was that?

I'm not gonna say that.

Cut.

It was George. No. Um

How do you pick how do you pick the Presley, by the way?

David Holmes sent me uh a couple of CDs worth of source music that he thought might be appropriate and when I heard this it wasn't a song I'd heard before.

Yeah, absolutely.

And um I thought it was really perfect. And so David was sort of brought on really early because I knew I wanted him to do the score and he came to visit us in Vegas and was constantly sending me

Don't uh interrupt me again, right?

Absolutely.

Uh you were talking about the scene?

Just talking about it, yeah. Um no, early on we we used to go right from the door to George giving the big speech. Yeah. And um again, in terms of rhythm and release um it seemed like Well what came out of the first preview, I'm gonna interrupt myself, if you don't mind.

Can I ask you this one question?

No, thanks. Um What came out of the first preview? Frankly, that people um were more than they were more interested in the characters. They cared more about the characters than the plot. And um it it was obvious to me that any any material we had that was really character oriented that helped set up the characters or pay them off later, uh needed to go back in. And that's also why we don't have a lot of deleted scenes. Almost everything that was in the script is in the movie.

it. Well I love this scene, uh there's this moment between Elliot and Matt. There's a there's one that didn't make it between Elliot and Eddie Jameson, which I think is hysterical. Uh which is uh Uh like uh Carl Carl and Scott talking and he says, uh do you have any uh bottled water? And uh Carl uh Elliot says I had the pool cleaned on Tuesday. Or what was that? I can't remember, but it was it was uh improvised and I wrote it.

Here this was a an interesting sequence for me only because um it's hard to believe a scene of eleven people sitting around listening to one guy talk. It's the it's the scene where I discovered the glory of the twenty seven millimeter lens. This entire scene is shot with one lens.

And

What I don't like to tell actors what to do and so I didn't tell people where they should be. I just said George is gonna be here, standing in front of the screen. Everybody finds

As a result.

'Cause this was fairly ear the first couple of weeks of shooting every time uh the twenty seven millimeter became known as the Palm Springs. Give me the palm springs.

One of the tricks of of writing the film was because uh you're locked in with a title to have eleven guys in the gang. Uh there aren't many movies that you can have uh Magnum Seven does a pretty good job of having all seven guys uh distinguished. Uh dirty dozen uh you kinda know about six or seven of'em and then there's the rest. So one of the tricks was to keep each of them differentiated and in the highest active and important and vital.

Oh.

So I was I was very clever in that uh aspect.

Shout out, Quint. Yeah. It's a huge star in China.

Yeah.

Well five one.

Uh yeah. And in in Bavaria.

Oh yeah.

And down the elevator we can't move.

Chabot actually we should mention was had never acted before and turned out to be v I mean, so inst just h he had great instincts. I mean he never He had to li remember, he had to listen to this whole scene and take his own cue about where his line was, which he never missed.

He need it be mentioned, uh doesn't speak any English. No. He had a an interpreter, but uh the interpreter wasn't beside him in the shot telling what was.

And he never missed a cue and was always always gave a great performance. It was just uh we got very lucky. Because, you know, he can also fold himself into a box.

Which just was sort of a happy byproduct of casting'em. Right. I loved I love the uh the lengths you went uh in searching for the guy uh the just the right guy to play yen. I think I think y the first tape you saw, you said, Oh yeah, okay that guy can can fold himself, great. I do want to actually ask you about this shot because it It's so Unlike your style, um that or th those two cuts. I mean w was there anything in uh in mind? I mean it it frankly it kind of reminds me of De Palma.

Aha.

Most of it's a good thing.

I just well you know I was just trying to uh you know it's a it's a big montage sequence and I was trying to to Create as much of a sense of movement as I could, um in and and try and link these shots together, which when you're shooting out of sequence I mean for a most directors this is not a problem, uh, but it is for me.

Yeah.

We reshot just that shot, was that simply to get the guy walking in front of the camera? Okay.

And actually the this these three shots were were sort of figured out in reverse'cause the shot we're watching now with Brad in the room, I shot first. The um The eye in the sky was shot almost near the end of the film, and then between the two I went back and shot the exterior of the Bellagio with the guy walking by. The good news was because of the threatening strike at the time we were shooting.

All the um the cage interiors, uh all this uh security apparatus is Basically it's it's film a scene.

Yeah.

Yeah. And there's some things that are on the floor that uh Phil uh built there and the Bellagio accommodated, which is a another testament to Jerry Weintraub that we could go in and build a fake uh cashier front and leave it there for six weeks while we were filming. Uh and and and in the meantime take away probably a hundred uh slot machines.

Oh, which is

Which is revenue and quarter not uh quarter off like uh

Uh an entire pit, you know, which uh is a lot of It's a lot of income for them. And uh this this the design of this set came about because I was looking at a photograph of a a machine room and I'd laid it on by accident I'd laid it upside down on my desk. And uh I pointed at it to Phil and said, I think it looks better upside down. Can we light it from the floor? And he said yeah.

It's just uh

Um for um For those uh three of you who are interested, uh casino security is absolutely nothing like uh we depicted here. Uh they basically they have a account room and then they uh with l uh lots of guys with guns um escort the money to an armored truck and get it out of the casino as fast as possible. Uh M most of the logic between them having to have a dollar to cover or money to cover every chip at play is uh totally made up. You made that up? Yeah.

God I told people that was true. And uh it sounded so true.

And the elevator vault.

Personally? Well let's stick to the movie, but what else?

I'll get to'em. Uh the uh yeah, the elevator shaft to a uh to a vault is uh was uh actually another lift um'cause I was I was trying to figure out There there are a lot of heist movies and you wanna uh differentiate or and do something new. And I decided well, why not do something that somebody's already done?

HEY!

Drop this.

Thank you.

None of things.

Excellent.

Take care.

Thank you.

There we just saw Phil had built a little bit of a hallway to link to the actual uh casino. It was w one of the few uh shots where you see interior and exterior. It's a cheat.

We need to build an exact working replica of the Bellagio vault.

Sort of a a slide of hand in the uh in the voiceover is we we explain why they're building a fake vault uh you know for practice as a joke. Um something that nobody would actually do if they were just gonna practice. Uh but I think uh just to sort of throw it over uh as a throwaway line is the only way we could get away with um sort of introducing that we we're building a fake vault. Uh without giving away w uh the reveal at the end of why they did.

Well, I am sorry, but uh eighteen five apiece is the best offer that I could make.

I understand.

And they are some great looking vans.

Uh yes, sir. Top of the line.

Here's another example of a scene that uh early on in my desire to make the movie as short and as possible and move as quickly as possible, that that I cut it down and it and it made it not work. And Marioni when I said this scene's you know, and I said this isn't working, you know, would I asked Stephen Marioni to go back in and look at it and he basically restored it to its original length and inverted a couple of lines and shots and and then it worked. Um so clearly I rely on my editor a lot.

It also works because Bernie Mac I think is hysterical. Uh and the way he rolls his eyes here is is uh phenomenal. Um What uh oh the other reason why I think uh it's important to have it in is is uh while writing I was always trying to keep uh track of how long anybody had been gone from the movie uh no more than ten minutes or fifteen minutes and so

I'm sure glad they did.

Bernie I think was really squeezing his hand. That was not an effect. That guy's hand was really red. Um This is a scene I reshot uh for lighting. Um And it was a a There's a there's an expression um when you go to scout something and you're looking and trying to determine how you want something to look. If it looks great on its own, the the expression is don't step through a Rembrandt.

There is one scene we didn't film which which I Slightly a regret which is him him approaching the uh like the concierge and and saying for the first time for real introducing himself as Linus uh Zerga, just'cause I thought that was sort of the payoff for him practicing.'Cause we we uh sort of set him coming in and then we Uh lose'em.

Because I knew it.

Yeah. Well you know, I think the movie suffers for it.

Uh you may be right. Yeah. Um but no, I just knew they wouldn't make it.

Andy Garcia, uh coming in uh what, forty five minutes into the movie now, uh one of the you know the the f uh the fourth of the five above the title stars, um I guess one of the uh motivations for d for holding him um was just because so we could introduce our eleven and have them all established before we

I liked that. I mean, maybe because it was n not necessarily the norm. And um I remember we worked a long time on on uh Linus's description of him. We would we were constantly sort of tweaking that, you know, what languages should he know? What were the stories about him? This is a g but here is another example of um You know, the the familiarity uh smart between character Where is it the story is brothers?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right. I mean Andy's character is is not uh uh based on anyone in any legally binding way. Um and I re

Neither are you.

Uh thanks. Um You however are based on a a number you're sort of a

Absolutely.

We should get into that later.

Oh we gotta talk about Brad's eating except Julia's coming.

Yeah.

Okay. You want me to talk about? Yeah. I I will in a second. I reshot Julia coming down the stairs. We initially um

Brad's eating I think came out of a meeting with uh Within rent.

Go ahead. Um, she was in a sort of her hair was different. She was in a sort of grey outfit and we decided it wasn't um I don't know. So we went back I reshot her coming down the stairs. these heels on those marble stairs were kind of precarious. I mean I I fell twice. Um Anyway, Brad eating

There are very few actors who will do all their own eating in a film.

U I i I know,'cause usually it's it's a double. Yeah. You d they shoot it from behind. But he um ex wife. He ate forty shrimp and didn't bat an eye.

It's not entirely.

About that.

Russ, do you remember when we first got into this business? We said we were gonna play the game like we had nothing to lose. So I lost something. That's why I'm here.

Amen.

Okay, here's the problem. Now we're stealing two things. When push comes to show

Here's a scene that I li I I resisted the idea of doing coverage on because I like Uh wh whenever I had George and Brad, I like to try and let them uh play out in single shots because um they were so willing to share the frame and they were so generous with each other that unless I really had to, um I didn't like, you know, cutting And um'cause they knew they had a great rhythm together. This uh this is a set. This does not exist at the Bellagio, it's another

That painting is now in my living room.

Um

Is it? I hope it's valuable. I think it's not. Uh I looked up uh some Picasso uh paintings on the internet to to to choose that one and just saw the the title of it, uh Woman with Guitar and I thought, Okay, it's a painting of a woman. That'll they can comment on it and And then I saw it. I like that, you like it.

In my hotel, there's always somebody watching.

This was a scene that was actually longer that I sort of turned into a montage because of Say it for me. Rhythm and release. Um there's a an insert that took longer than it should have. The inserts, I'm telling you, the art of shooting inserts, this is something I mean I should I need to go talk to Fincher or somebody'cause he does it better than anybody I know. I I it took me hours to get that little shot of those chips. I don't know why.

He was gonna sort of do it in the scene and I went and wrote it and he gave it back to him and he said, No, no, it was like that you gotta do it, it's much different. It was ten flows up, fifteen and then I'd write that and give it back to him and then every time I gave it back to him he would change the story and sort of like the picture's bigger. And then finally he li he improvised it I think when he filmed it. And uh it's all cut.

He was not happy about that.

Well, we still write. This guy's great by the way, just for a day player. He totally sells Las Vegas in a pit boss and and um And I don't know who he is.

Uh he's uh he's terrific. He's standing next to Andy Garcia, that's who he is.

You're thirty seconds late. I was about to send out surf.

Hell it is.

What are you doing here? You're out.

The prison. You remember the day that I went for cigarettes and didn't come back? You must have noticed.

Smoke don't sit.

Now they tell me that I paid my debt to society.

These are hard scenes to write and they You know, I've read um some people have have criticized that they You know, I asked her to be really I wanted her to be angry. I mean I wanted her to be hard because

Was the the first take they they kinda they did it in cute and then you said take it all out, right?

And there's some people that I guess felt that, you know, I don't know. They wanted to they wanted it to be m s softer or or um

I think

I don't know. I all I can say is I was really happy with the way the scene ended up being written and the way they played it and it's exactly the way I wanted it played. So if anybody has a problem with it it's my

I mean I think it's important that they play it as as straight and and uh and and seriously as they do because it's it's sort of the uh For the second half of the movie it's the rock of motivation for everything that George do uh George is doing. This movie ceases it to be a total lark and it's about him trying to get his wife back and you n you need that motivation to be real and if this is

Uh.

Yeah. And a meat cute, then it's then it's um the movie is m more gossamer I mean w so gossamer than it flips. Yeah. Um

Well we got a lot of those kinds of things.

Yeah, we got a lot of that. Um again that's that was your thing and that's a good thing.

Yeah, well whatever. Um but anyway, Julia and George. The only problem with having Julia and George is that they're actually very similar. They they make me cry. I there were so many times I had to tell them to just stop to shut up and stop making jokes and stop you know, just stop so that we can work. Um'cause they both are uh you know, they like to have a a good time while they work, which I appreciate to a point. But those were fun scenes to shoot actually.

Um I I'm curious w why that is because uh when I saw the movie for the sixth time I st uh started losing objectivity of well m maybe it's better shorter or maybe uh putting that scene uh with everybody around the pool is not a necessity but uh and and uh when you start

Um I watch it a lot. I mean I'm not being entirely facetious. I watch the m the entire movie a lot, two or three times a week. I'll take a tape home and watch the whole force myself to sit down and watch The whole movie. And you become in a sense the the most critical audience you can imagine. And um

I remember uh you invited me to uh an early screening of traffic and I said one thing to you which was take Del Toro out. And uh it was I I think that was very important. This scene is I actually I remember something that didn't make an early cut and I think it's it's it's great because Both'cause you kind of get a private moment, which this movie has few enough of, um because there's so much going on, and which kind of get

Tomorrow day is yours. Do with it what you like. Call us at 530. Makeup and costume. Sol's package arrives at 704. Alinus grabs our code.

I remember this this scene where w this was back in Palm Springs and we were four in the morning filming all day.

Yeah, we had shot the entire scene with George telling everybody about the plan and then we still had that shot to do, which took a while.

And uh and I came up to you before you were gonna stage and I said, Do you mind if I watch uh your staging it?'Cause I was sort of there to shadow you and learn how to direct and you said, uh yeah, in a minute and then I I didn't see you again. So um there were a lot of points where I wanted to ask you w about what you're doing as a director, but because you were photographing it as well.

I don't remember it.

By the way, I like this shot a lot.

This we we brought out this crane with a a device that um you hold in your hands and you and you m there's these two handles and you You move the handles and it moves the head, which is on the end of a remote arm, in any direction that you move the handles. And it made that shot of Chabot getting out of the Yeah.

co excellence to back the main line, have they? They've only noised up the mainframe couplet, noised it right up.

I thought Don was really great in this scene. Um he he had a lot to say and he came in and nailed every take. I mean I shot a lot of coverage of it and he sort of blew through every one of them without uh a single mistake.

This is also a set, uh for anyone who's interested. Um shot on Warner Brothers. This scene I always thought because there's so much he has so much speech that um later on when he's describing the pinch that we were always talking about what can we cut away to? Like uh uh a visual demonstration of what it does or I think we did a shot of

I shot a shot of the pinch or of a what was supposed to be a pinch. I it had a it was a shell I don't know. I mean the shot the shot wasn't good and I pulled it.

Yeah. But there's also no like scientifically I d uh I was an English major, so the pinch was all right, that'll do and if it sells itself, I I think

No, but we should mention that there is such a thing as a pinch. That's not a joke. It's the size of you know a twenty by twenty room, but there is a pinch, it does do what they uh describe. So that wasn't a total pin makeup.

But I think because Don is such a good actor that you don't need to cut away from this, um in what what is uh admin a f is a fairly dry speech um uh informational. Uh the worst thing you can give an actor is a lot of exposition.

No, he he pulls it off. Um And then we uh we have a nice little transition coming up. Remember it's all about transition. Have somebody ask a question, answer it with the cut. That's that's uh Griffith invented that.

Um

Were you related to him?

He called me Greffer throughout the movie.

Thank you.

Uh Matt does a I think inserts a little bit of an impr impression of him later in the movie, but we'll get to it.

Oh, I didn't notice that.

That's a horrible thing to say. Uh yeah.

Here we come.

So this uh Casey and Scott um banter is really sort of based on uh my brother and me and a lot of long distance car rides when we were little stuck in the backseat. Um I don't know who's who. Uh whoever you think is better looking, I'm that guy.

Oh really? Yeah.

Who do you think is better looking about?

Your brother.

Yeah.

This was uh, you know, cut as it was uh d I I knew this was what I would do is shoot a little bit of the guys and then do these jump cuts uh of Matt. Um As he goes insane. This sequence I wasn't. This is a tough sequence. It was one that I mean we felt we needed I just directorially I never felt I really got a handle on this sequence. It's not one of my favorite things to watch. Um

Even in the script, I I think uh in an early, early draft before I think it it it got to you, there was a really elaborate and card chase steal the pinch from a moving vehicle which everyone said it's too big and it's i incongruous with the film so it kinda wrote this quickly to replace it and and I was always thinking that there's something better, there's something better and and uh Uh where's the I I open I feel like I wish I could have come up with some better for this too.

Well, but I remember saying I don't you know, I remember us having these conversations'cause initially we went inside the building and all that stuff and I said, I don't wanna do that. It's that's not what the scene's about. And so I was happy conceptually with with sort of what you ended up with. I just don't feel I got a handle on it uh visually. Um but if if it

This was the first thing we shot after leaving Las Vegas, six weeks of Las Vegas, and I think maybe half the crew uh was coming down from um sort of working late nights and and living that lifestyle. So I I remember half of everyone being under the weather. I don't know if you were too.

Uh.

That's how I th that's how I explain uh the sequence being weak because I was under the weather.

Stay in the band. Stay in the band. You gotta got it. Who's focusing on this game for one second?

I got it gets hurt.

Where are you? And and didn't leave it, um, you would find yourself sort of in this psychological space where you actually thought you were in a hotel and at one point um Somebody picked up a menu that was on the table and started looking through it and reached for a phone to try and order something from room service. I mean it's a weird it was weird. Oh, you know, I gotta ask about the one outtake that I think we should put on the DVD. It's the super fast version of the scene.

This shot.

Yeah, it was. We decided to do I said let's do one really fast and um

No.

They did one so fast and the person who picked it up and hit his cues better than anyone was Carl.

I remember Elliot also being pretty bad.

But um we did the whole scene at triple speed and um it was it was it was like a thirties movie, it was really kinda fun.

Let me ask you about some choices you made here because this scene really, as we find out later, is a big con on Matt. Everybody everybody's in on the joke that George is getting fired, but Matt. And and you did some some shots some reaction shots to sort of put in later of them kind of Covering up laughs. Um and I uh did you ever cut those in or

There was a version where when George and Matt are on top of the elevator and he says, What was all that about? We we cut back to these shots of George and Brad outside immediately after this scene having a giggle and everybody sort of not Uh yeah, suppressing laughter. It just didn't work. It was just a weird sort of stylistic thing in the middle of a scene that you know, at a time in the movie where we needed to sort of keep going and and it just

Uh more about rhythm and release, I would imagine.

That's what I was gonna say.

Tess is with Benedict now? She's too tall for him.

Yes. No. The only time this l uh scene got a huge laugh was at the premiere, which happened to be the day that uh uh Joe Le uh Levin Levin uh uh retired as uh chairman of of

Well now it's even funnier.

Yeah. Um I do. We he calls. I pick up.

Again, this was a scene I think in the first preview that wasn't in that I put back in'cause I felt we needed uh you know, we needed a moment with her, we needed a sort of transition um from the last scene to the scene that's coming up now. This is a scene actually that or the idea for this scene was something that Lorenzo uh uh Demon Ventura um suggested which is a scene in which somebody gives Matt pointers and we talked about doing a sort of schizopolis like monologue

No, I think uh there were there were two notes I remember uh during the h the whole movie that Lorenzo gave and they were b they were both uh utilized and made a lot of difference and which is a testament. Uh I'm gonna blow a little smoke here. Uh to to to Lorenzo just because sometimes you get notes from studios saying, Can we make it more uh

It's time.

And this uh this scene grew out of a comment that he made that I sort of uh early on.

My idea. Totally mine. Oh sorry. Lorenzo made it too.

Okay. Um which was early on, he said, gee, I don't feel like there's a moment where we go, okay, it's starting. That combined with I always felt that I wanted one more scene to set up Carl's, you know precario potentially precarious physical state to set up the fake Heart attack. And uh I know we had talked about that and and I I put it off for a long time and then late late in reshoots um

And again it was uh w the thing I believe in is th these sort of small private moments which make a a big difference uh in a in a film where you get a character alone uh and you d just sort of have a moment with them and uh we needed that with Carl because Uh I think uh i his story is one of the like if there are four primary stories which is

And and it is very emotional.

Thank you.

Uh we're so we're getting into the heist now and my the only thing that I was uh thinking about was literally the only thing. Um in watching other films that I thought had a had a

Amen.

sort of nice physical uh visual style to them was that they very rarely repeated shots. So you'll if you ever care to, if you go back to the point at which from the scene where Carl says, you know, let's do it. From here on out I don't repeat shots very often and especially when when action starts to take place, my whole idea was try not to repeat shots, try to design shots that link from one to the next. Um, because that's how the people who do these sorts of things well shoot, I noticed. Um

What sort of preparation did you do for filming this? Because i this is a different thing.

The problem is I hate the problem is I hate storyboarding and s and didn't storyboard. I mean I started to and then and then stopped. And so and I also don't like to dictate where the actors are gonna go or how they're gonna You know, what what their physical uh movements are gonna be. I like to see it I like to be on the set. I want it th I want it want them to play it the way they think it's gonna work. And then I like to decide.

Deep breaths. You'll do fine.

Thank you.

No sweat, you're a natural. But don't screw up.

Security center, where we oversee all gaming in the casino as well as our vault. Yeah.

Yeah.

Was there any other uh quick uh yearbook question, any any other sort of master plan when you're filming the heights as far as lenses you were using or w how you were

In general the l uh the idea was as the film went on Um at the beginning of the film I'm using longer lenses, things are a little flatter and as the film goes on the lenses get a little wider and the camera drops a little lower. There's a lot more movement like we see in these, you know, sort of shots, whether with dollies or pans.

How tough was that shot to pull off by the way? Well now it's gone.

Well now we have the finger shot.

Which is a special effect?

Well, it was a special effect because his hand was turned sideways on the on the original take. And so you couldn't tell that he was giving the middle finger. So we went back in and added uh d I don't know, I don't know how they did it, it looked really nice. Uh they they rotated his hand and added a knuckle So that you could tell he was actually giving us the finger. And it's that kind of attention to detail that uh audiences appreciate. Plus the fact that the the joke didn't work.

Ever.

Not until then.

Okay. I think I heard a couple of laps. Um not like a monster truck running over a toy truck. That's that's uh that's null coward funny.

Yeah, it is.

Not since he died last year.

Shooting in the casino here. Available light, believe it or not. Um we uh the casino lights on the floor are usually at like forty or fifty percent and we just had we replaced uh a lot of bulbs that were in the ceiling and then we had'em lift all of their lights up to a hundred percent.

With his uh quote unquote nieces. He's got a couple of uh call girls for the evening. He says, Come on, the meters running here. Um that was Jerry as Elliot in that scene, by the way. Yeah, thanks. Um it's like Tony Curtis doing Kerry Grant. Right. Jerry Weintraub as Christopher Walken.

Doing Ted Griffin. Um all we should mention all these these scenes were shot in the actual Picasso restaurant at the Bellagia.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Or at least.

They have a couple of my drawings up in the bathroom.

George and Julia. Uh so Julia was was uh in for two weeks and um it was her third film in Las Vegas and I

Actually that's right. Have you met her yet?

Uh Miss Roberts? No.

You should, she's great.

Mr Ocean, Mr Benedict would like to see you.

It's Uh in the the couple of screenings that I I'm not one to sit through uh my own films unless I have to, but uh certainly during the previews this scene got the biggest response of any scene in the movie. And it was certain even in the script it was Uh one of my favorite scenes and Bernie and Matt just sort of hit it out of deep left center.

I love the way Matt plays it. I mean B Bernie steals it because it's it's it's his scene. Everybody gets their moment. This is Bernie's and and his Uh his uh that you want me to dance, you want me to smile at you is improv. The the I I'm I'm proud to say the white jack is my line but uh but he he really uh uh sets it up. Um I think Matt's imitation of Jerry is right up here.

Okay.

Listen.

Mm-hmm.

Thank you.

Sorry, Mr. Bennett. I just resent the implication that Horrible thing to say.

There it is.

That's a Jerry.

It was a horrible thing. I hit a home run. I think that's Matt's throwing it in. I don't know if he says it in his commentary. But it was worth waiting for. Anyway, that pickpocket goes so fast uh that I I I was I'm often worried whether people are picking it up and realize that's the point of the whole scene.

Deliver the package.

I experimented with skip framing, you know, Matt's picking Andy's pocket and it just didn't it looked funky. So here's an example of a perfectly simple scene that it took me a good hour and fifteen minutes to figure out how to shoot. I set up three different versions of it. Uh all of them sucked. And it was getting late. We were about to um

Even as the writer I sort of drifted off because when you start seeing things Uh that locked image in your head of what the movie is becomes unlocked. And and so there were some scenes I remember watching uh

Ja, genau.

Uh yeah That's such a chain, that's such a handcuff. Just be free, you know.

That's right.

Magic now.

Actors just make up all their dialogue anyway until

Georgetown.

Uh you you can't see them here, but George has his lines written on these two guys' stomachs because he can't remember anything.

Um actually I uh there may be a lot to say about the scene, but my favorite thing that's about the scene is the prank that was pulled as uh

Oh and we had Timothy.

It was five three and about a hundred and twenty pounds walk in. Uh it was one of the grips and uh everybody broke up laughing.

No, he was in the camera department.

Thank you so much.

Yeah.

This was again this was an extra shot that very late uh in the process, one of the last things I did, uh I just felt like Well comments. Uh, from somebody at one of the friends and family screenings. Somebody said, um, you know, well when they get through that door, why do they have to blow up the d you know?

I think we had this argument about whether Brizzer should hit George or not. You wanted him to uh wanted him to hit him. And I said uh I think I said

No. Really? Yeah. When? Um I don't know.

Again, it's sort it's sort of the thing that I at at some time I was at an event and now when the movie's sort of made I go what was that like

Why are we hanging on to that? Yeah. Okay, where's your dad?

He's he's a little later on when when when uh

Is that him on the left? Beside Andy.

Uh Tim in the blue robe uh is the tall one.

Right.

Um He eats nothing but soy.

Well that it works. Uh these were an intense couple of days. A couple of thousand extras and uh Fortunately we had to do that. fighters who were really easy to deal with and and amenable to whatever we needed them to do. But those are always nerve wracking and

In in hindsight, we origin we were originally gonna get um Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson. Uh but I think there was some concern that it wouldn't be terribly amicable while filming. Why why we feared that. Uh the strange thing about building the the uh filming the the boxing match is y we only had about what, two thousand extras. Yeah. And a and maybe like an arena that held ten thousand. Right. So the extras kept on

For every shot.

Every shot. So you uh I think there are two shots that were taken at an actual fight to establish that the whole arena is filled, but the rest of it is the same people move from side to side with Trey Batchelor's D A D saying, All right everybody, can we go to the left?

That's right. Everybody in section three got a section eight. Yeah. Half halfway into editing um uh Lennox uh lost about and then fortunately had the rematch just before the movie was about to open and uh won, which I I had a feeling he would.

Talk about this shot this wig.

You get here.

Please.

Yeah. Well the problem was that we're We hadn't really prepared anything. I mean Br I to my mind, you know, no doctor on call at a Las Vegas casino looks like Brad Pitt. So we're liter literally standing there and I said, Well we can't he can't we can't just have him walk up like himself. And um Somebody said, Well, we have this wig that Mike Myers uses when he rehearses Austin Powers. Uh, I said, That sounds great. So they went and got it and stuck it on Brad's head and he

Why is George wearing two watches?

Uh because one is broken. That was in the screw. Uh because one's is dress watch.

Thank you.

Because he's gotta get back into his thing.

Uh Danny Ocean is uh stickler for decorum. Um if you're pulling a heist, uh a watch to fit it.

Olivia sitting.

That makes him worse now.

Here comes one of those mat shots you were talking about here with the big crowd um stuck in.'Cause if you look closely up in the rafters up there there's no one Uh but Lennox and and Vladimir were such good sports. I mean to to get two guys who are probably gonna fight at some point uh into a ring to do fake fighting Uh without there being an incident. I mean it takes two grown ups to do that and they were really terrific.

I've never asked you how you uh how you uh took the lights out of Vega.

We uh we shot we shot Vegas at dusk w from the same position as night and um and then Cinesite, the visual effects company sort of

But I should say those are in the casino, those are actually the lights going.

Yeah, in the casino and in the the MGM arena we actually threw the lights.

There's my father, by the way. Can we stop for a moment? And point out my dad.

Oh, the guy pulling Lennox away? That guy right there?

He's the mustache gentleman behind uh

There was some funny footage of me getting batted around the ring when I was shooting that'cause I just sort of threw myself into the mix.

And once again I think a crowd response you and you and Greg Jacobs, the A D got into the ring to like a little bit of a little bit of a little

Greg put me in a death uh spin and then threw me on the ground. It was pretty intense.

Uh there's dad, mustache on the left.

Oh yeah, right behind Elliot.

Happy birthday.

Mr. Griffin.

Thank you.

We did this in two days, yeah. I think.

Yeah.

And this this one shot took I think about three days.

Oh at least. Um These are you know, this was late in the shoot and again you can see Like I said, the the lenses are sort of getting wider, action's playing closer to it. I'm s uh things are getting a little more stylized, the angles are a little more extreme. Um but again, all a set, all designed by Phil Massina. This took a while, these little

Six people I think took a shot at throwing the disc.

Yeah.

Uh I d I did not win.

What what exact what's coming out of there? Do you know? Can you say that?

Uh not on a PG thirteen D V D, no.

ways to uh you know, do things obliquely, having the guys drop off screen instead of on screen.

Another desire in starting this project was to have no moment of uh real violence. So uh wanted to take out the the guards with you know happy gas. Or or uh n there was there's never a a a uh a gun pointed really at anybody or or or fired and um

No, and I mean that really was a conscious choice on our part. We really uh I I didn't wanna I didn't want to make a violent film, I didn't want to make a profane movie. It really was light entertainment to me and I certainly felt um you know, that it would be a challenge to make a movie that wasn't um it's not an edgy movie. It's the the the word that I kept using with everyone is elegant. I want it to be elegant. And um these days Um

I I I actually did that stunt.

I know. You and that Leotard was something, especially'cause you were using his size. But I uh Yeah, I I thought it would be a real challenge to make a a movie that wasn't um most days if if you're making something that's supposed to be viewed as cool or hip, it's got some sort of it's supposed to be really edgy and I don't know, mean or uh violent and I I very much wanted to go in the opposite direction.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Where we at, boys?

Pins and floor sensors now.

Blinder.

Here we go.

This was I I think I know This doesn't this sequence doesn't work quite The way I think it should and I think I know why now and it's too late. I had uh I have or had a shot of Chabot um tumbl like sprinting across the tops of the cabinets and and you know, falling off um the other into the other side of the room back behind them.

I do like the way that it goes off. Sort of without any uh without any lead in just sort of such a'cause every

Something that came up when we were rehearsing it, uh which was funny, but I think I I think I undercut it by not Overcutting it.

Um to blow some smoke and and to uh to to r r retract the knocks I gave him before, George is really good at at coming up with moments like that in in the movie. I mean there there are some things that are hysterical that are his. There's one later that I'm gonna

We're all waiting on that.

Um uh Some things take time.

Uh some of these scenes of people watching monitors I went back and reshot because of eyelines'cause in theory there's this array of monitors in front of them and and in some shots I had them splitting their looks from left to right. And um when I put it together I realized it was really confusing that that even though there are three monitors

Yeah. Not everybody makes uh two movies a year, uh Captain Remake.

I just I am the remake king. It's my gig. This is one of those things that's a lot of not entirely happy with the way I lit this, but we were it was a a l uh you know there was a lot going on in the shot and I just had to uh live with it. It was fun shooting here in the eye in the sky'cause it was almost entirely pre lit and we had you know, I could point in any direction really and shoot whatever I wanted, so these scenes went really quickly.

I don't know w whether it's uh worth pointing out but there's sort of there are the Soderberg players uh sprinkled throughout the movie, uh guys who've been if if you look closely in Schizopolis and traffic. And one of them is uh David Jensen, who's right there. Mm-hmm. Mike Malone gets his uh pocket picked in the subway and uh who else is there? Um it shows up in this.

I am...

I don't know. Uh Julia, I think. Oh th there she is. Yeah. So that's right.

Here's a little flashback. Again, a real uh cheesy uh T V seventies effect there going out of focus. Um and into the dissolve.

Did you have a point around you? I don't know if we talked about this, but but it feels like the movie goes through slightly different film eras um as it goes along. Like it it it kind of gets more classical as it goes along. forties um Love you, hate you r uh romance scene.

Yeah, I asked.

How you expect to leave?

Do you believe it, to my mind The film goes I mean once once the heist is over, um the film sort of moves bag in baggage back into the thirties and forties. I mean to what I consider to be like Classic studio romantic. You know, grand hotel kind of emotional moments, which I thought was kind of fun. Um some people didn't, but I liked it.

Uh those people are jerks.

You know what, then they can just they can just buy something else.

Yeah.

Make the call.

Nine one one.

Where standing?

And he's fine. He's in good form. He requests that you go upstairs and watch T V.

We uh o of of course at the edge of every frame when we're shooting on the casino floor there are velvet ropes separating hundreds of people. Uh From our actors. But they were really well behaved. They were quiet. They didn't take

I don't think there was ever an incident. But it was a unique education in in sort of celebrity in a in a public place because that you don't get Las Vegas Casinos are a unique forum for sort of people from all over the world and all over the country.

The van is away and the money is secure.

Again we're being given the uh W they've you know, this is the front of the Bellaggio Hotel, the valet area where ev you know, VIPs come in, ever and the hotel shut the whole thing down for us, rerouted everyone uh to a side entrance uh in the parking structure. And um, you know, it really again it resulted in me being able to design shots where you see you know, I pan around sometimes two hundred and seventy degrees to see

Mr. Benedict.

Our guys say that man is headed toward mechanic.

I want my vault back before.

And there's uh I mean we can talk about a a lot of the small changes we uh there's a lot of the the sleight of hand of the sequence of w how much do you think.

Okay.

Yeah. How much do you do you do you show the SWAT team? How much do you focus on not seeing their faces? Um

And in an early cut I had more shots of the SWAT team getting into position, getting ready, but whenever Whenever you showed shots of them in which you were shooting them from the front and they had their hoods down.

Yeah.

Well it was also you were tipping your hand because it didn't seem natural. And so you had People wondering why when they were walking through hallways they had their masks down and so I cut all those shots out um and really trimmed back the sort of SWAT team getting into position montage.

I also cut out all the dialog dialogue where they uh talk to each other by name. Rusty, get in there. Or, you know, Saul. Uh fire.

Yeah. Which again is the fact that you were willing to cut it.

Yeah, you gotta kill your babies is you know what they

And find that honey hooked into my-

Yes, sir.

Oh God, we're out on this airstrip um near McCarran Airport. Are we? Is this yeah. Well it's a it's the charter section of the airport, and McCarran Airport's across the runway. Um and uh

Yeah.

Yeah, a lot of activity, I remember. We did all this all this stuff out here we did in two nights and I was very concerned about us making it but we did. And whenever you have uh squibs and stuff going off, it's uh It I don't know, it makes me anxious. I'm not a big fan of shooting guns and things.

There was a great line of uh Jerry's in a I think a press booklet where he said, you know, this isn't like other big budget movies. We don't blow up any cause or anything. Which is the one thing we do do. Yeah that's we do up a b we do blow up a van.

Yeah, but sort of you know, in the background. Yeah. Uh for this very for the reason of of tipping the SWAT thing because we ha we showed in the previous version of the shot, we showed the guy talking to him with his hood down and it it it tipped I thought it tipped our hand. So I went back and did it again.

It's a very difficult thing to watch with a test audience and trying to figure out uh can you can you hear them realizing what the uh what the reveal is. Um because I I always think I hear titters in that shot of oh it's Brad, it's br uh that's his voice, but um but I'm I'm never quite sure. Um but I think they're tittering at me.

That's been my experience. But

I should I should wear pants to test screenings'cause uh that didn't that didn't work out.

Why start now? Again, wish I could have uh there's a whole movie to be made of Casey and Elliot driving around in a town car, I think.

I think there's a there's a series uh series for Elliot too, the uh the Ruben Tishkov Chronicles. Uh Young Ruben Tishkov.

Maybe you should write eleven.

Fred Sandwich.

One for each character.

And

Mm no I don't know

But you have a checkbook, don't you?

I do I'll check.

So that's good. Uh

Cue up the tape to the robbery.

Yes, sir. I'm looking at the tape now.

the one

Oh it's been mentioned to me.

With the flyers? Yeah. Okay. Um but it it took a year and a half for anybody who was working on the project to realize oh wait, how do we get how do

You and I talked about it and we just decided to to blow it off.

'Cause it's actually a non essential part of the highest but but the uh the whole is how did they get six bags worth of flyers into the vault to then have them carried out. Everything else I can rationalize or sort of Explain away. In movie logic, uh the there's no way the flyers got down there. I kiss David Holmes for this track. I think uh this is a great piece of music. Um And um but uh I mean on the cheek.

Oh, okay. Um here in during this little flashback I'm doing a forty five degree shutter effect, which is not too extreme, just a little something to make it seem Different.

Should we talk about how much I wanted to shoot this film in black and white? Mm-hmm. And Warner's Warner's said that I could if I could reduce the budget by eighty eight million dollars. Um so I but I backed off on that.

Was that all uh how do you how do you like that by the way, the the explosion? I like how that's all played off screen.

That was a big old uh Xenon uh lamp that we just and w I was shooting at such a low light level and we were using such sensitive stock. I was pushing everything two stops that um it didn't have to be that Actually it's probably seven or eight stops over expensive.

I remember standing right in front of it with my eyes wide when they did it.

Is that

Wasn't that war?

I love Andy's walk here.

Well what's great about Andy is his You know, these two shots of him walking were were photographed you know, weeks apart and yet his rhythm is so precise and so exactly the same that we were able to I mean it feels like just one continuous Walk. I mean he he established this walk for this guy, this rhythm and and he could recall it uh at will, which I thought was pretty impressive.

Thank you.

Alright.

Thank you.

Do you have a hand in this?

Did I have my hand in what?

I'm gonna ask you one more time. Did you have a hand in this?

Benedict, I have no idea what you're talking about.

Okay. You're free to go.

Hello. Turn to channel eighty eight.

Who is this?

Benedict you get robbed or something?

I'm gonna give you one last chance. Where is my money?

What if I told you I could get your money back? If you give up Tess. What would you say?

Looking back from the movie, this is the p uh the romance is the part that I question, could we have done more? W was there another scene to establish their romance? And I really can't think of one and It works for me and I don't know if it works I I that's the one part of the movie I I don't know if it works for the audiences because I I

I you know, I've had people say both. I've had people come up and say that was my favorite part of the movie and I've read people don't usually come up and criticize you. So I've read, you know, things where people said they didn't like that part of the movie, didn't think we earned it. The um but here is what you know when I mentioned before that the the movie starts to in a sense move back even to this very classical studio style. This is where it starts.

By the way, that cut from the black doors closing on Andy to that, the w which came first and which was planned? Because

The elevator. Well here's the thing. The the elevator came first and I insisted that we we tent behind me for the doors shutting. And I didn't know why. I just said I think it should go to black. Mm-hmm. Then um w weeks later we were shooting uh the scene here at the uh warehouse and uh tr I was trying to figure out how to bring the SWAT vehicle in and remembered that the elevators had gone to black so we should come out of black and I came out with that tilt up.

Also I lo just the the uh the power of Jerry Weintraub off camera in that last shot there was a guy on the phone saying now With uh to trigger the fountains. Um

Yeah, here's the shot of Julia. It's just one I just think she's Like I said, a great sort of movie acting uh moment.

speeds. I can't imagine actually uh it's tough to imagine somebody else in this role because she has to come in halfway through the movie, be an enormous presence because she's the reason the movie is happening. She's the reason George is doing all of this. And uh so you need somebody as a p a powerful presence uh to come in and and rationalize the whole thing.

And she dies.

Wait, that's my husband.

Again, here I'm going handheld for I don't know. Just felt like the appropriate thing to do. To g give it a little Something.

One of the supreme displeasures of working for you was uh kinda coming on the set and uh seeing things you had set up that I had no idea was gonna was gonna happen and and uh and this was the supremest most supreme displeasure because I showed up with a distinct idea of what the scene was about. Showed up you had done something entirely else and it was so much better than what I had in mind, um, that I uh

Well what happened was in the in in the script it was written they're all walking down the street and they sort of peel off and I was I was having real difficulty figuring out how to stage that. And in the midst of trying to figure it out I wandered off over to the railing and was watching the fountains, uh, and thought, Well th that that would be that would be great if they were as a l like a last hurrah if they were all lined up here.

When did you uh come upon the Claire de Lun?

Um I s it's always been one of my favorite pieces of music.

Well, I mean in in the script I was cross cutting between this and Chuck Yeager um breaking the sound barrier. So I think that may have inspired

Maybe that's what triggered it. Yeah. There was some discussion about ending the movie after that sequence. I had a couple of friends come up after uh some screenings and say you should end it after the fountain. And um I think you could have, but I I still feel like that would have been dissatisfying somehow.

Yeah.

Plus we wouldn't have gotten to see Brad and

Yeah, which is important. I'm not gonna talk about this exchange. Uh it gets it gets it gets the biggest laugh. It's it's Brad and George. I th Brad and George came up with these this exchange here. I had something else which is n not as funny, but uh but didn't have pop pop culture references. which I was trying to keep away from in this uh film. And so I uh I tried to talk you into uh going back and and you uh

But I'm just... I know. I pander to the audience, everybody knows that. I told you that when we started this. Yeah. That I wouldn't hesitate to uh to betray you in order to get a a a reaction.

So it cost me an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, I'll tell you that much.

I don't know, it just you wanted a breathe you wanted a moment. I don't know, you just wanted a moment before between him seeing her and these lines here, which were fun.

Back row, silver sedan, ten o'clock.

There was a lot of discussion about this ending, which uh I stole from one of my own films, The Underneath, uh which nobody saw. And In turn I'd probably st stolen that from someone else. I really felt like to have them get away without any consequence whatsoever was really excuse me Ted a kind of

What I regret about this is is not that they're they're ch chasing him, but I thought we could have worked harder to have some sort of flip in where m um maybe the Malloy brothers have like taken out their car engine or is th that there's some kind of They know they're being followed and then there's a flip on that or something that kind of I didn't think of it until like the week it came out.

Oh god, see we could have done that and then

I think it would have been like a big uh sort of sent him out on a on a smile instead of a uh oh. Um,

I don't know. How much of an O do you think that is?

It's more of a scratch of the head, like w wa are they gonna what are they doing? Are they like follow him or are they gonna c whack him or what? That that's uh everyone who who've talked to me about it said I'm confused. Yeah.

They knew who they were, obviously.

Yeah, yeah, they recognized him. Um But what sort of what?

Did it make sense to them that Terry Benedict would be following these guys?

I think w what exactly they were were they following him, were they w were they gonna kill him or w you know, what's what's that next scene? Or is it a shameless uh plug for the sequel? Oh. Um, which it wasn't at the time.

Uh no it's not. Um Well that's odd. I mean I thought it was fairly s I mean I didn't mind the question mark of it, like, gee, I wonder what's gonna happen. I don't mi I didn't mind it being open ended like that. But I didn't know that people would get upset. So should we do this again? I mean like do it over. Sure.

Do you have any concluding thoughts?

Concluding thoughts. Um No, it's a it's a I think a classic case of um forgetting uh uh the the hard stuff. I mean I just remember during the shoot being in I don't know if displeasure is the right word, but I never I just felt like every day I was sort of hanging on by my fingernails and it was very rare that I walked away from a day shooting feeling comfortable, feeling like I got everything we needed.

Can I dad?