Life in L.A. Drove Kubrick to Britain
July 8, 1999 - 0:0
NEW YORK -- Stanley Kubrick, director of one of the year's most anticipated films, "Eyes Wide Shut," left America in 1968 to live and make films in Britain until his death because he hated Los Angeles, Vanity Fair Magazine reported this week. Writer Michael Herr recalled in the article his nearly 20-year friendship with the renowned director, who died in March shortly after finishing the film.
The reclusive director, who Herr said carried out most aspects of his life on the telephone, did not leave the United States because he disliked it, according to the story appearing in the August issue which hits newsstands on Wednesday. "God knows, it's all he ever talked about," Herr said. "It wasn't America he couldn't take. It was L.A. (Los Angeles)." "The only other two places he knew of to make movies in were New York and London, and New York was too hard and too expensive," Herr wrote.
"That's how he became English Stanley, and why he made all his movies there." The English work ethic drove the director "Nuts," said Herr. "He got so pissed off at their endless tea breaks that he wanted to film them surreptitiously when he was shooting "Lolita" there in 1961," Herr wrote. But he said Kubrick, a native New Yorker, retained a devotion to American pop culture and was an avid fan of "The Simpsons," "Seinfeld" and "Roseanne," the latter which "he believed (was) the most authentic view of the country you could get without actually living there." The writer, who was not among the very few people to have seen Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut," a psychological thriller starring Hollywood power couple Tom cruise and Nicole Kidman, said the director was completely enamoured with the actors despite a reputation for not treating his casts very well.
He described Kubrick, known for films including "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Clockwork Orange," "Dr. Strangelove," and "The Shining," as being "Crazy About" Cruise and Kidman. Kubrick was "impressed with their professionalism and their energy; he said they energized the crew and made his job a lot easier," Herr said in Vanity Fair. (Reuter)
The reclusive director, who Herr said carried out most aspects of his life on the telephone, did not leave the United States because he disliked it, according to the story appearing in the August issue which hits newsstands on Wednesday. "God knows, it's all he ever talked about," Herr said. "It wasn't America he couldn't take. It was L.A. (Los Angeles)." "The only other two places he knew of to make movies in were New York and London, and New York was too hard and too expensive," Herr wrote.
"That's how he became English Stanley, and why he made all his movies there." The English work ethic drove the director "Nuts," said Herr. "He got so pissed off at their endless tea breaks that he wanted to film them surreptitiously when he was shooting "Lolita" there in 1961," Herr wrote. But he said Kubrick, a native New Yorker, retained a devotion to American pop culture and was an avid fan of "The Simpsons," "Seinfeld" and "Roseanne," the latter which "he believed (was) the most authentic view of the country you could get without actually living there." The writer, who was not among the very few people to have seen Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut," a psychological thriller starring Hollywood power couple Tom cruise and Nicole Kidman, said the director was completely enamoured with the actors despite a reputation for not treating his casts very well.
He described Kubrick, known for films including "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Clockwork Orange," "Dr. Strangelove," and "The Shining," as being "Crazy About" Cruise and Kidman. Kubrick was "impressed with their professionalism and their energy; he said they energized the crew and made his job a lot easier," Herr said in Vanity Fair. (Reuter)