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Mr. Cranky Asks
E. Elias Merhige
11 Stupid Questions
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(Warning: This profile may contain objective information.)
Director:
- Begotten (1991)
- Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
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Biography:
Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1964.
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Mr. Cranky:
I was reading your last film referred to as a metaphysical splatter film. Your most recent film, 'Shadow of a Vampire' was made nine years after that one. So, is filmmaking a career thing, or just something you do when you're unemployed from your real job?
- E. Elias Merhige:
When I made Begotten. First of all, it exhausted me completely. It was like one of those fever dreams and when the fever broke it was over. It passed. I went back into theater for a couple of years and I really enjoyed that. Making the transition back into film was really very, very difficult. I moved out to L.A. six years ago and I had projects that were in development that were about to happen then they would fall apart like a house of cards. There was a lot of disappointment and a lot of frustration, but in time when I look back, I think it made me a much better person. It taught me to that it's really a privilege to make films.
Murnau made Nosferatu was back in 1922 and now you're making a movie about the making of that film eighty years later. Do you really think anybody cares?
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Interesting question. There was a period of time after finishing the film where I though nobody cares. As a matter fact, when I took the plane ride back to New York City from London - it was the first time I was back in the U.S. for almost 17 months, I go through customs. I clear customs and amazingly, they donıt ask me any questions. I'm about to leave and this customs officer runs after me and says 'Excuse me, sir. Do you have any fruits or vegetables or live animals in any of your suitcases?' and I said 'no' and he said 'What do you do for a living.' These non-sequiturs just came out of nowhere. I said Iım a film director. He goes 'oh really that's why I asked.' It's sort of like that music video with the fruits and vegetables in it. You know, the Peter Gabriel one. He was being sort of a smart ass about it. I thought that's it, these guys are going to rip apart my suitcases. But then he calls over the other guy. What ended up happening, which was remarkable, was that they asked me who was in the film and then they asked me what the title was and then the guy who stopped me originally says 'do you know what the greatest vampire film of all time is?' not knowing at all what my film was about and he goes 'there was a film made in 1929 called Nosferatu made by this guy F.W. Murnau.' I figured if this real Brooklyn guy with his NY Yankees hat has this deep love for that, I thought maybe there's a chance for this film.
Where did you get the idea that Max Shreck might have been a vampire? Did you just make it up?
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It's just the idea that when you look at Nosferatu that this creepy guy is for real. I saw the film when I was eleven and thought my god, this is a documentary. This is a part of the world I never want to visit. It was very creepy. It just launches the imagination.
How did you get big stars like Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich to do what most people would consider to be a little movie. Why do these guys do little movies?
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I think it's really a passion. I think that they responded to the script. They responded to my first film 'Begotten.' When we met it was like meeting old friends. There was no effort in explaining what I wanted to accomplish and there was no effort in understanding that these were the people who could take my vision so much farther then I would have ever anticipated. So, it really was the right timing. They're both very busy and they work all the time, but it worked.
If you give a knife of the same size, one each to Willem Dafoe and one to John Malkovich and you make them fight to the death, who wins?
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They would both win. They'd both be dead. There's no question about it. They'd both be dead and I think, surprisingly, John would have a few more savage gouges and marks on his body than Willem would even though Willem would be so dead - you know the knife would be right through his gut and through his heart. But John would look more gruesome. I think somehow Willem would do something.... It's not a testament to their dark side as much as it is a testament to their creativity. They're both so morosely creative that it's scary. So, in a way, taking this exercise of killing one another as a sculptor would and trying to hone a great piece of stone into something magnificent and they would do a horrifyingly brilliant job at it.
I think both of those guys are really goofy-looking. Which one do you think gay men are more attracted to?
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I don't know. I think Willem has sort of a graceful... I don't know. I think if you dress either one of them up as a woman they both could be pretty scary. I think gay men would find them both attractive. I think intelligence and that creative kind of fire is something that's attractive to any sex.
What kind of name is Merhige? (pronounced 'marriage')
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I am American but fourth generation Lebanese. My great grandparents came from Beirut. Half the family went to Florence, Italy and half the family came to New York.
How far would you go as a director to get your film made? Would you kill somebody? Would you hire somebody to kill somebody? And are you living vicariously through this movie?
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I think all of art is one of those things where it's a safe place to play the what if game. I think that with imagination and art you can go as far as you want. I don't put any limits or constraints on that, but I think that's what's beautiful about making art, you can do anything you want. I really wanted to explore and make a creative portrait of obsession and ferocious creativity taken to it's ultimate extreme and see where it goes. It's sort of like staring into a volcano. It's neither good nor evil, it's just awesome and terribly powerful and you can either tap into that energy in a way that's beneficial or you can tap into it and destroy yourself and anything around you.
You kind of avoided the first part of that question. How far would you go?
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As far as what I'm doing, I don't know what the limits are, in terms of the story. Would I hurt people? Never. Because I hire people and work with people because I want to get the best out of them. I don't hire them because I want to hurt them or humiliate them. I come out of a very strong theater background which taught me to create a very familial sort of ground with which ideas could flourish and blossom.
Well, what if you got on a project where you didn't like anyone?
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You know what, I'll tell you. I'm lucky because I have a very powerful ability to communicate my ideas and because Iım able to communicate them through speech, gestures, and drawings, I don't have to resort to manipulating or fooling an actor into something. At least not yet.
What's the deal calling yourself E. Elias Merhige. Are you trying to catch some of M. Night Shymalan's fame? What's your first name and why are you embarrassed by it?
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My first name is Edmund.
Okay. That's probably good then.
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