Everyone remembers Flashdance, the quintessential piece of Americana in the ’80s. Big hair, baggy tops hanging from shoulders and synthesizer dance beats remain embedded in the national kitsch culture. Did you know that the mastermind behind our national treasure is a Brit?
Adrian Lyne had made two films before Flashdance, but with the blockbuster dance movie, he entered the A-list. With subsequent hits like Nine 1/2 Weeks, Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal, Lyne continued to define American cinema, even though he only works every few years. Flashdance was the oft-imitated story of a girl with a simple dream, working days on the boatyard while she practiced her dance moves at night.
Paramount Home Video got Lyne to reflect on his earlier work for a new special edition DVD of Flashdance. The Special Collector’s Edition, released Sept. 18, includes five new featurettes discussing the film’s production, fashion, music, choreography and release. That final feature includes a frank discussion about the critical panning Flashdance received before hitting it big with audiences.
Hollywood.com: Flashdance was 1983. Is this the furthest you’ve looked back on your own work?
Adrian Lyne: I guess you’re right, yes. It’s always a little tough to remember, it’s so long ago. I’m very bad at talking about my own stuff. I tend to just see what’s wrong with them. Despite the sort of naïve simplicity of the story, I think it kind of holds up. The premise is always good, and certainly it still applies now, the idea of wanting something enough that if you really are passionate enough about something then you tend to get what you want, if you’re maniacal about it. I think that certainly holds up and I think that’s sort of what appeals to people really.
HW: Did you have lots of old photos and memorabilia from the set to contribute to the DVD?
AL: No, they had that. They must have got that from Paramount, I think. I’ve still got Flashdance T-shirts with mothballs I think.
HW: Did you not want to do a director’s commentary on the DVD?
AL: That’s strange because I did do one. They gave me a copy of the DVD and you’re right, I didn’t notice it on it. Maybe I couldn’t remember enough.
HW: Was it fun to talk about the bad buzz, now that it’s a hit?
AL: Yeah, that was a fabulous feeling. Right up ’til the bitter end, in the two weeks prior to the movie coming out, I couldn’t get anybody on the phone. They always say that corny thing, they say, “Success has many fathers and failure is an orphan.” I felt very much like the orphan. Then when it came out, it didn’t do huge business. I remember it did four million dollars for the first weekend, which back in those days was a hit, but not an enormous one. So one wasn’t ecstatic until the next weekend when it didn’t go off at all, or if anything it went up. The strange thing was it just sat around from March or April I guess ’til September. It made the same amount of money every week and it was nice when somebody said, “They’re wearing all those T-shirts hanging off their shoulders.” I hadn’t really noticed it and then I went out into New York and walked up and down, and they were. And they danced around in the theaters. That I heard a lot, in Times Square especially.
HW: With all the gorgeous dancers shaking around on set, did it ever get boring, like just another day at the office?
AL: No, it never gets like that, not for me anyway. There’s so much angst involved I think, for me anyway. There’s about as much nightmare as there is pleasure so it never feels like a day at the office. It feels like torture or the reverse. I find it really difficult, to be honest with you. I’m always staggered when people go from one movie [to the next]. I don’t make many of these things. I’m always amazed when people manage to cut one movie while they’re shooting another. I wouldn’t know how to do that really.
HW: Was there any pleasure to being surrounded by all these beautiful dancers?
AL: Well, of course. What was interesting was these girls, in a kind of naïve, sort of simplistic way, they did think of themselves as being dancers, not strippers. They brought their own little bits and pieces to work with, little sets and stuff and so when I did one of the sequences with, she was wearing stuff looking like a bag lady I remember. It was with a television set and I put a fan in the TV set and a light in it. It was quite effective. I think that was something that one of these girls did, as I remember it. I tried to keep it as home made as I could, conceivable things that they might have thought of doing it that way.
HW: Did you keep a share of the music rights?
AL: No, no, that had nothing to do with me. Directors don’t get that. That would be nice. No, again, I remember hearing something, this kind of chiming thing, and I remember talking to Phil Ramone who I worked really hard with actually on all of the other numbers, not the [Giorgio] Moroder one so much. But I remember thinking, “Let’s get that in as an effect into it.” And it’s fun when you sort of gradually build up stuff. When you can be that hands on, it’s a nice feeling.
HW: What’s been your favorite spoof or reference to Flashdance over the years?
AL: Well, people sort of spoofed it endlessly. I quite liked the David LaChappelle video with Jennifer Lopez where he literally reprised all of that wet dance thing. He literally did it shot by shot from the movie. In fact, funny enough, Paramount sort of got excited about it and I think threatened to sue or something.
HW: Many of your films have become cultural phenomena, and the others still have special followings. Do you sense that when you’re making the films?
AL: Not really. I think that’s very dangerous to do that. I remember with Fatal Attraction, it’s just a terrific story. I always like movies where you can put your feet in the shoes of the actors, where you can sort of live vicariously through them and suffer all the nightmares. I think that’s fun. I remember when I read the [Flashdance] script, I turned to my wife and said, “This I have to do. If I don’t screw it up, I know it’s a huge movie.” And Indecent Proposal was an interesting idea. I didn’t like the script too much at the beginning and I don’t know whether I ever really solved that but I thought it’s a very interesting idea, the idea of what you would do. Would you sleep with somebody for a million dollars? If you wouldn’t do that, would you sleep with him for 10? What’s your price? That was interesting.
HW: Are you surprised Jacob’s Ladder is your movie to be remade? Not Flashdance or Fatal Attraction?
AL: Kind of, yes. I’m always a little bit mournful that nobody’s done a theatrical thing, a stage show of Flashdance. It seems such an obvious thing to do. They’ve done it for practically everything else.
