We made our way to veteran actor Joe Turkel (Lloyd the bartender in Stanley Kubricks The Shining, Dr. Eldon Tyrell in Ridley Scotts Blade Runner) to hear stories about the making of The Shining. Kubricks legendary and infamous attention to detail led him to replace the films ashtrays because they were not the right year (which Kubrick recognized on sight), and he stopped filming to fire the original out-of-focus background jazz band because they did not look like they were playing the instruments properly. Turkel said Kubrick had The Eye and knew when every detail was right and when any were off. The jazz band of non-musician extras was then replaced with the best actual musicians the production could find locally, even though no music was actually played live—all this to achieve authenticity and the “correct look” for the ballroom scene in The Shining. As Kubrick once said of his seemingly inexhaustible attention to every minute element of his films: You either care, or you dont. Turkel asked me, of all the films he’d acted in, which was my favorite? I replied that Blade Runner had the most influence on cinema and what could beat playing Tyrell? (“I want more life, Father!”), but if I had to choose, it would be The Shining, an obsessively-wrought artifact of perfection, like most of Kubrick’s work. Speaking about his old friend Kubrick brought a tear to Turkel’s eye. He misses him every day. (Heather Buckley — Read more: tinyurl/pc5w9o7
Posted on: Wed, 02 Jul 2014 14:07:41 +0000
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