Werner Herzog is a Frugal Filmmaker

[via Macphilia on DVXuser]

DGA Quarterly: How does your frugality affect your cast and crew?

Herzog: Hollywood has a tendency to throw five new crew members at everything that comes as a slight problem. So I say, 'No, stop! We have to sort things out. We have to be intelligent.' More people just makes everything clumsier. For example, on Bad Lieutenant, Eva Mendes asked for a fairly large entourage. I told her that I had waived my right to a trailer, a personal assistant, a chauffeur, even a director's chair. (The director's chair saved the production 65 bucks, but I despise them anyway and have never had one.) After all that, I told her, 'It would be nice if you wouldn't show up on my set with a psychiatrist for your dog.' She laughed so hard, and then, all of a sudden, she arrived with just a very essential makeup artist and a security guard. Actors know I want to take them where they have not been before and make them the best that they can be. I said to Eva, 'Nobody in my movies shows up on my set as a star. But whoever is on my screen, down to the smallest, shortest moment of an extra, will be treated like royalty.'

Read the entire interview

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