“The Curse of the Jade Scorpion”: Woody Allen Interview

The name alone connotes any number of images–neurotic New York City dweller, jazz musician, little guy wearing a fishing hat, the man that’s been linked with Diane Keaton and Mia Farrow and some other unpleasant things we won’t go into.

However, refer to him as a writer/director and a whole new image comes to mind–a formidable force. Every actor wants to work with him yet are secretly terrified of him at the same time. Terrified they might mess up some of the best dialogue ever written for the screen–or worse.

In his latest effort, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, a comic heist pic that incorporates the hypnotic power of a mysterious jade scorpion and stolen jewels, he’s collected a fabulous cast. Helen Hunt takes the lead as a feisty efficiency expert for an insurance company, Dan Aykroyd is the philandering owner of the company, and Allen himself is CW Briggs, a crack insurance investigator who unwittingly becomes the key suspect.

In talking with the legendary director, Allen not only describes his ideas behind the film but also wants everyone to know that all those myths about him are blatantly untrue. He’s just a regular Joe who wants to make a good movie with good actors and without much fuss.

You once said you have a drawer full of little matchbooks on which you’ve jotted down ideas. Did you get this story from that pile in the drawer?

Woody Allen: This was a prime example of that, yes. This was an idea that occurred to me spontaneously on the street once and I threw it in the drawer, along with Small Time Crooks and another film I just finished shooting called Hollywood Ending. These are all comedies that I wanted to get to but didn’t have the time because I was doing other films. A couple of years ago, I pulled them all out of the drawer, and now I’ve done three of them. What I do next I don’t know, but I’m hoping eventually to do another idea in the drawer.

Was it accidental or intentional to have two comedic crime capers come out back-to-back [Small Time Crooks came out last year]?

Allen: Completely accidental. Yet, [they’re] different in the sense that in addition to wanting to make Jade Scorpion a crime picture, I wanted to make it a romantic bantering picture. I grew up on those Cary Grant/Rosalind Russell or Tracy/Hepburn movies, where you knew they’d get together but you didn’t know how because they seem to hate each other so much. And they were always insulting one another and topping one another. I always loved [those films] when I was a kid.

You get hypnotized in the film. Ever done it, or wanted to, in real life?

Allen: No. I have no interest in it whatsoever. It was always this exotic thing when I was growing up. People thought of it as half comic, half sinister. But I’ve never been hypnotized. I don’t think that I could be. I’d giggle. I’ve seen it done for entertainment purposes. I could never figure out how much of it was fake or how much was real. It’s tough to tell but apparently very entertaining to people.

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How did you cast Helen Hunt and the rest of the cast?

Allen: Helen Hunt to me–and to Juliet Taylor, when we were casting–was an obvious choice [for Betty “Fitz” Fitzgerald]. I finished the script and we started pitching names. And the minute Helen Hunt’s name came up [snaps his fingers], that was it! She projects that intelligence. She’s got that great cutting sense of humor, and I’ve worked with a number of great comediennes through the years. When she walks into the room, she’s got that authority. She could come in to the office, take over and put you down no matter how many times I insulted her. Dan Aykroyd was a tougher part to cast because that character has got to exploit Helen [but] be sort of likable and funny, and attractive enough. Everything came together smoothly. It was an easy picture to do.

Why set the film in the 1940s?

Allen: It’s a 1940s-style story. Hypnosis was very exotic for that time. Now, it would much more clinical. Also the kind of banter between the men and women was very indigenous of that time. I like to do period films of the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s because I like the music, the clothing styles, the visuals and the way the women looked–the romance of the era. I like in the ’20s the gangsters with the violin cases with the machine guns in them. And the ’40s with the soldiers and the sailors, you know, kissing their girlfriends goodbye. It’s a very good visual thing. So I do a lot of period films in those three decades.

A lot of people are calling this film “vintage Woody.” How do you feel about that label?

Allen: You know, I personally never can understand any of that. From where I sit, I’m doing now what I did in 1968 when I first started making films. I just make what I feel like making at the time. If tomorrow I woke up and had an idea for a very heavy film about religion in medieval Norway, um, I’d do it. I would never make a film just to get [audiences] in. I made this film cause I wanted to get this idea done. So when people call it vintage, I’m sure that’s right for them. For me, it’s just the idea I had at that moment.

You frequently appear in your films, but you’ve been quoted saying that one of the biggest surprises in this movie was that you weren’t a very good actor. Is that right?

Allen: No, not exactly the right quote. But I’m not an actor really. I can play a few things; I’m very, very limited. I can play the sort of New York neurotic character close to what I am. I can play a writer, musician or something like that. And I can play a lowlife, well, just because I can. But apart from that… I’ve tried on many of my films to get other people [for my parts]. I would have been thrilled if Tom Hanks or Tom Cruise or Dustin Hoffman were available to do this. I would have happily bowed out. But the next film, Hollywood Ending, I’m perfect for [the role]. I really am the right person because the lead character is a New York neurotic filmmaker. I’m better for it than say Tom Cruise, more believable. But all those guys are great, it’s just they work 365 days a year.

People who have worked with you generally talk about being thrilled as well as terrified to get the opportunity to work with such a legend.

Allen: It’s funny, isn’t it? It’s part of the mythology. The pros and cons about me, which is just total mythology. People think that I’m a recluse and that I’m a formidable character. Nothing could be further from the truth. I live in New York. I walk around the streets all the time. I go out for dinner. I lead a middle-class life with my family. I’m not secretive. But all these things get built up in the press and they think they are going to be working with someone whose got all kinds of creative, eccentric habits.

So you’re dispelling the myth, then?

The film is never my first priority. It’s always either family or going home on time. Or getting to the Knicks game on time. The film is just one part of my life. I go home early–I never work nights. I’m not a perfectionist at all. I don’t like to rehearse because it bores me. If there’s a scene I’m shooting with a mistake in it, I don’t do another take particularly because I don’t have the patience. [Actors] are disabused of that notion that they are going to come in and be working with someone that is formidable or will fire them or will yell at them. Or make them to do crazy things. I never get a performance from anyone that wasn’t there before I met them. I hire top people as actors and actresses. And then I get out of their way. I tell them, if you want to change the script, change it. If you want to say these lines, you can say them. If you don’t want to say them, as long as you’re in character, make up your own lines. If you want to ad lib, you can ad lib. I give them enormous amounts of freedom. So after a couple of weeks, all the mythology gets completely dispelled.