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DVDFILE: The film seems to have a wonderful blend of beauty and
pathos as well as comedy and horror, how did you find a balance?
E. Elias Merhige: Well, first off I have to thank you for saying
that because that was exactly my intention from the very beginning. The
sincerity of thoughts and ideas that were happening, it's just one of
those things were you are constantly on top of it. You are always going
through scenes in your own mind and the film and the images that you are
dramatizing and bringing to life on the screen. I would be rehearsing
with the actors, choosing your actors and they were always on top of it.
That's why I chose Malkovich and that's why I chose Willem because I
knew that these guys could pull off exactly what I was going for. I could
sit down and explain it to them and they wouldn't look at me like I was
speaking Mandarin Chinese. And they did, they took to it with a great
amount of ease and actually John was very excited by it. Very excited
by my vision of the film and how I wanted to portray Murnau. I couldn't
have done it without him. He really brought a lot of passion and he brought
a lot of great stuff to the role. It was great working with him, and Willem
as well.
DF: Tell me a little about the casting process?
EM: I have been following Willem's career for a while and I love
Willem's work in theater. He's very tactile. He's a very physical and
gifted actor. He's the kind of person you can throw off the deep end and
he's going to come back with a treasure chest. The thing is, if you have
great actors like Malkovich and Dafoe you can liken it to being a painter.
The painter has been given these two rare pigments of paint and you can
use them to really deepen what it is you are trying to say in the painting.
With Willem and John I was always thinking of how to get the very most
from the both of them, because I knew how gifted and talented they both
are. My job was really just to be keeping them in focus.
DF: They were both fantastic. You couldn't have picked two more
perfectly cast actors to portray Murnau and Count Orlock.
EM: It's a very delicate day when you are casting a film or casting
a play because it is very important that everything is integrated. Not
only the faces but the height and the weight, the features of your actors,
but also who they are on the inside. Also, what kind of things they have
a propensity towards as an actor. What is it that they like to do? Some
actors like to play the darker roles; some actors like to play the lighter
roles. And that is something that I like to play with. I like to take
actors that think of themselves as comedians and put them into something
more serious. I like to take people that are considered more serious and
play the opposite. Somewhere in there you find the balance and that becomes
very compelling, very interesting and that's something that I wanted to
do with Willem. His balance was sort of this horrifying and pathetic creature
that is also very funny in it's obsessiveness.
That's something that I wanted to also achieve with Murnau. That in his
obsession he becomes, as the more you see him, you think, 'I can't believe
I'm watching this! I can't believe he is actually going to do this!' That,
in itself, is humor. Because obsession, when you're in it, when your obsessed,
nothing's funny. But everybody around you finds you funny. Obsession is
funny. But it's not funny because it's like laugh, "ha-ha."
It's funny because there's a deep pathos that is unexplainable, taking
place in another person such that (Laughing) you can't figure out what
planet they're on or where they're coming from. That is were the humor
really comes from.
DF: (Laughing) Now, speaking of obsessed, you had what, a 36-day
shoot? How obsessed did that schedule force you to become?
EM: Yes, 36 days. I shot it in 35. I did so because I loved my
crew so much and everybody that I worked with that I wanted to give them
a wrap party. We didn't have it scheduled in. We had everybody leaving,
like the same day we were finished shooting. So it just seemed so unfair.
So we shot it in 35 days so on the 36th day we could have a
civilized time maybe a drink and some food, being in normal clothes, having
normal conversation just being (laughs) that we were finished.
DF: How long did you spend in post-production?
EM: Post-production went on a great degree longer. I went right into
post-production and all the sound design work, which was a huge amount
of work. There was also a huge amount of work that went into the composition
of Dan Jones score. Dan Jones' work is amazing. I worked very closely
with Dan and the score really evolved over time. I would say "No,
that's not it. It needs more of this." Dan was just brilliant to
work with as he crafted this piece. Nigel Heath who was the chief sound
editor. Really working with these guys so you wouldn't ever say "Oh
that's music." Or "oh that's sound design" as they would
feel like one and the same. That was something that was very, very important.
DF: Other than Nosferatu, what would you say were other influences
for you on this film?
EM: All of Murnau's films. Murnau has had a big influence on me.
From when I made my first film, Begotten, I mean German Expressionism
itself is something that without it and without Murnau I don't think I
would have had been able to create it. I made a black and white silent
film as my first feature film and I talked to my actors much like John
Malkovich talked to his actors in Shadow of the Vampire. I have personal
experience as a silent film director and in that sense I wanted to authentically,
even though this has nothing to do with real life and film now, but I
authentically show the way films were made. It is very accurately displayed
in Shadow of the Vampire.
DF: Jumping back to the cast for a minute, and your mention of
playing the opposite and darker roles, Udo Keir comes to mind. (laughing)
EM: (laughing). Yeah Udo, you always see him as the vampire or
the ultimate evil guy and in this film he's like the closest thing I have
to a good guy. He was great. He created a great deal of empathy for this
character even as everything just goes to insanity.
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