INT: Shall we talk about casting? How do you choose your Actors? Like, how do you choose…?
JL: My best way of choosing an Actor is sitting with them and talking, and telling them about the script and the role. And when I get them talking, I know I've got an Actor or I don't. [INT: And you don't ask them to read it?] No, I never, I never read an Actor yet, ever. [INT: Wow. Have you ever been surprised that they didn't do what you had hoped?] Yeah, a couple of times. A very fine Actor with a reputation that's enviable. [INT: That you won't tell us who it is?] No. [INT: This is the Director's Guild [DGA]. We're not going to- this is just for Directors. Come on.] I'll tell you in the bathroom break. [INT: Okay.] And he could not sustain more than one line of dialogue. [INT: Was it because he was old?] Huh? [INT: Was it because he was old, getting older?] I think because he had been in the business a long time, yeah. [INT: Oh.] And I had to force feed him line for line. And if you see the material, you think he's, he's like he's always been wonderful. I got it, but it took time. [INT: Who was one of the Actors that didn't take time, that was totally professional and gave you more than you ever dreamed of? You can name that, right?] My partner, Dean [Dean Martin], you bet. There's no better than that. [INT: Really?] He was the, he was the master of comic timing. Working with him made it difficult to work with anyone else. Very difficult because everything, everyone that I worked with I was comparing. [INT: But you actually never directed him, you just acted with him, right?] No. He needed me to build something and to work it, and he needed to know I was going to go nuts in the scene but that I was going to come back and that he needed to just respond to it. [INT: So...] It's tough to tell an Actor to just watch him. [INT: So, when you were working with him, in a way you two were like working things out and showing it to the Director rather than saying to the Director, "What would you like?"] No, we'd watch him. I mean, we would show him. [INT: So, you basically were in a way directing Dean [Dean Martin] back then, in a way?] That's hard to say. It was more of a dual learning job. I would show him what I planned to do physically, and he would say, "Maybe I should be over here so that we can shoot it from over me on you, and then... And he was right. Rather than make the master, I shot it over him on me, and it was terrific.

INT: So, how would these Directors... They must have been thrilled when you would come to them with everything all worked out?
JL: Sure, of course. Of course. [INT: They never resisted I guess because it was good.] No, they wanted to know where I went nuts and how. And I says, "I'll show you." Many, many times I had the role on a rehearsal that I kept in the movie. I went nuts a couple of times. It was so fucking good, I knew I could never do it again. I printed it, and it's in the movie. I won't tell you which, because you'll go and tell everybody. [INT: What's wrong with that? This is a learning experience. This is for the Director's Guild.] I know that. I give the Directors everything I can, to a degree. [INT: Okay. Well, this is a learning experience for a lot of Directors. And, eventually this will go onto the website where people can, if they want to learn about, say casting, they can click on casting and see what Jerry Lewis says about casting.] The most important thing about casting is to know that the individual is eager to do the role, not that they're just there for an interview but that they are eager to do the role. I find that out in a half hour. Thirty minutes of chatter, and I know all about the Actor, that they're going to be right on the money, they're going to be great for the role, and they usually are. A couple of times I screwed up. I put too much, I wanted so much for that Actress to be terrific, that I made her terrific in our discussion, and that's all there was, and she gave me nothing more on the set. [INT: I see.] That happens. [INT: But you've worked with some giants, Judith Anderson...] Oh, God, yes. [INT: That must have been fun.] She was like going to the Royal Academy, just watching her. Oh, she was wonderful, wonderful. [INT: Right. Anybody else stand out as a star that you worked with that just seemed like, you know...?] Anne Baxter. [INT: Oh, that's right, in that one sequence of it...] She was incredible, wonderful. [INT: The airplane scene, right, from FAMILY JEWELS [THE FAMILY JEWELS], yeah.] I've had more letters about how was that, and why did it happen? [INT: She must have been working on another set at the time. Is that how that happened at Paramount? Was she already working on something else when you used her in that movie? No, you just called her up and said, "Let's do it."] Yeah. She was available. [INT: I see.] And she loved the idea of doing comedy, and she had never done it. I said, "You'll do it here, kid." We had a wonderful time. [INT: Right. Right.] A wonderful time.

INT: I worked with, oh, who was it, Ralph Bellamy once, and he was so professional because he had to do his off-camera stuff, you know. In the master, he followed Travolta [John Travolta] walking around. This was for BOY IN THE PLASTIC BUBBLE [THE BOY IN THE PLASTIC BUBBLE], and when we did his close-up we had to put a big white sheet there, and he couldn't see Travolta off camera, and, but he was able to do all the lines and move his eyes around without having anybody there. I mean, it was just amazing to see these pros.
JL: Well, professionals will do that for you. [INT: Yeah, yeah. It's incredible.]

INT: Okay. What about for secondary players, like... Have you ever had a Actor who froze up on you when you're shooting? [JL: Mm-hmm.]  What do you do?
JL: You sit him down and discuss his life, and you can either turn it around or not. I've been very blessed. I never ever struck out turning an Actor around. [INT: Really? It took time.] You've got to give it time. [INT: Yeah.] Remember, the Actor is coming to you just having been directed by some fucking nasty son of a bitch who was just like that, and gets the work done probably...[INT: Yep.]... Or he wouldn't get another gig. But they come from that mindset to me, and I got to shake all that shit out of there and have them see what it's really like. It's amazing.

INT: What about rehearsal? Do, do you..? What do you think?
JL: I rehearse a lot. [INT: A lot?] Yeah, so that I can print take one. I've printed more take one's than anyone in Paramount's [Paramount Pictures] history. [INT: Do you always do take two as a protection?] No, I don't believe in protection. [INT: Really? What if there's something happens in the lab?] So, you go back to the set. You get your people back, and you do it again. [INT: Did that ever happen?] Mm-hmm. [INT: Wouldn't it be easier to do a protection take?] Um? [INT: Wouldn't it be easier to do a protection take?] Protection is negative. It would throw me into a negative... It always bothered me that I was having to cut corners. Protection. What about the Director that says, "Let's protect it. Let's go again," in the same magazine, mind you. If you were to go again in the same magazine, that's protection? No, no. If you're going to protect it, you take that magazine off, and you put another magazine on. Now you're shooting protection. I saw so many people protect by making second shots in the same fucking magazine. What's your protection? Parts! [INT: That brings up a question I have for you. Have you worked in digital photography at all?] JL: No. No. [INT: Not interested, or just haven't done it?] I'm very interested, but I just haven't had the opportunity. We probably will with this film. [INT: Okay. Good. Great.]

INT: Now, Director of Photography [Cinematographer], you worked with Wallace Kelley [W. Wallace Kelly] many times. Were there other Directors, or DPs [Director of Photography] that you liked working with, or...?
JL: No, Wally was my, he was my favorite. Danny Fapp [Daniel L. Fapp] was marvelous. I had Danny Fapp for two or three films. And I had a couple that I was going to kill. One guy I was going to kill, and I had a plan. I was going to go to his house with a 12 gauge-two. [INT: What did he do to get you so angry?] He had this incredible fucking supercilious, ignorant, stupid way of tapping you on the shoulder with a riding crop. [INT: Ooooh!] And I said to him, "You do that to my crew, that upsets me. You do it to my Actors, it makes me doubly upset. You do it to me, and I'll fucking kill you." I looked right in his face. I said, "I'll fucking kill you. And what that means, so and so, is that you don't do that ever again to anyone for the balance of this movie." [INT: But you didn't fire him?] No. [INT: Why?] Because it was a Wallis [Hal B. Wallis] movie, and he was hired by Wallis. [INT: Ah, so he wasn't the DP [Director of Photography], he was someone working for Wallace.] No, he was a DP. [INT: I thought Wallace was the DP?] No. Hal Wallis was the... [INT: Oh, Hal Wallis. I thought you meant Wallace Kelly.] No, no, no, no, no. I'm sorry. Yeah. That's my mistake. [INT: Okay.] Hal Wallis brought Martin & Lewis [Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis] to Paramount. [INT: Got it.] And he worked for Wallis [Hal Wallis] because we did films for Wallis [Hal Wallis] first. [INT: Okay.] Alright?

INT: Now, what about--Where did you get the idea of always working with an A and B camera? Was that from when you were acting and you saw that working, or did you come up with that on your own?
JL: I just, I just decided. I was getting so frustrated at getting Jerry to match, that I went to two and three cameras, and it was a joy to edit. There were times when an A, B would fuck you up pretty good because if you're in A in the headshot--If you're in A in the head to toe, and you're in B in a choker... [INT: Sound guys go crazy.] They learned. The move from A to B is too good. It's so good that you don't have room to move it. So, what you have to do is throw it out of sync. Throw the A, B so that you're running frame, frame, frame, frame, frame, frame. Throw it out of sync, and you can edit it. Only sometimes. [INT: I'm lost. What do you mean?] Can't go from A to B...[INT: Yeah.]...if it's identical. But there is a rhythm and a beat and a breath-like element that precludes you from getting to B unless you hurry and you're coming off A too soon. You understand? It is so fine...[INT: Yeah.]...that I had to throw it three frames out to make the edit. That happens at times when you're too perfect. And it happened to me twice, and Rusty Wiles [Russ Wiles], who's this wonderful editor, said, "Sometimes you're making it so good that you have to leave it alone." I said, "But I can't leave it alone. I can't play this wild physical thing in a choker. I got to go to the, I got to go to the A angle." Well, he said, "here's what you have to do." And he told me to throw it out of sync. I got two more reels, I got A and B, and I'm running them together. Son of a bitch, if he wasn't right! Two frames, and we were able to cut it. [INT: Do you remember the sequence?] Yeah. Oh, sure. It was in LADIES MAN [THE LADIES MAN], and we were doing a pan along the balcony of the girls, and then the idiot comes up and he does a dialogue scene with Hope Holiday. And the microphone is coming in because they had this television show in the house...[INT: Within the show, yeah.] And he yells into the microphone, that blows the soundman's ears out and the glasses break and all of that. I couldn't get to the glasses because I was in an A, B with him, and that was when it happened. [INT: Doodles Weaver?] Yeah. Doodles Weaver. It's very interesting, but it won't happen all the time. That's what's so scary because I'll shoot A, B all day long and cut it for you. But this was just a freak that worked by throwing it up, getting it un-perfect. [INT: Well, I think what we'll do is we'll roll that while you're describing it. You know, we'll run that little section.] Yeah, sure, why not? [INT: Yeah. It'd be kinda cool. Yeah. I love those specific examples. That's really cool.]

INT: Tell me how you staged the A, B? Is it like a wide and a close a lot of the times, on you?
JL: The most important job was to keep the cameras together. [INT: Next to each other.] The mistake that young Directors make is they do this. You can't take the camera operator's point of view and not recognize that this operator's got a point of view also, and if you go here to there, there's just too much room for an audience to know you've made a cut. You have to stay close so that if you are tight in B and you're in head to toe of A, it's going to be perfect because it's identical. It's, we're talking about something that a lot of old timers will sit and argue about. How could A and B not cut? [INT: Right.] I'll show you how. [INT: What about over shoulder and single? Do you ever do that?] I love to do over shoulder and single. I love to do that if the material that the individual is doing is really important. Then go to the single. But if it's just conversational, I'll stay in a two-shot. But I love to feature a lady and put beautiful grease on the lens and flowers and things and make it a lovely single, and she's got something to say. I can't do it unless there's something there that really makes a point. [INT: Well, the way you shot Stella Stevens in NUTTY PROFESSOR [THE NUTTY PROFESSOR], that was like, those close-ups were golden.] Oh, God, what a joy! My God, was she gorgeous.

INT: Production design. Hal Pereira you worked with many times. Did you find him because he was on the shows that you were an Actor in, and you took him along when you became a Director?
JL: Who are you talking about? [INT: Hal Pereira.] Pereira did some very nice sketches for me, but I really had the best time that you could ever have with... Jesus Christ, my old age... With Henry Bumstead. [INT: Oh, right. Oh, did he work with Hitchcock, on that?] Yeah, sure. I used Bumstead in seven, eight films. As a matter of fact, Clint [Clint Eastwood] called me to ask me about Bumstead before Clint used him in ABSOLUTE POWER, I think, was one of the first films. [INT: Is he still alive, Henry Bumstead?] I think he passed away just a short time ago. [INT: Right. Did he work on LADIES MAN [THE LADIES MAN], Bumstead?] No. Ameil Curie [PH]. [INT: 'Cause that set was, like, it went down in history too.] Ross Bellah built that set for me. Jesus Christ, I can't believe I came up with that name. [INT: That's great.] Ross Bellah sat with me and my model. I mean, I spent $65,000 on a model set. [INT: You're kidding me.] Yeah. [INT: And the studio...] One-eighth. It was gorgeous. It wasn't half-inch; it was one-eighth. But I had it all, four tiers, the whole thing in my office, and we talked and I explained what I needed and where I was going and so on. And he was great. He was wonderful. I love the day that he said to me, "You know, if we eliminate the L on camera right, you can probably save $800." I said, "The set is costing me $645,000; you're talking to me about $80. [INT: Right. Now, was that hard to convince the studio to allow you to do this amazing set that took up two sound stages and was four stories high? I mean, who was running the show there?] I was the fair-haired boy at Paramount [Paramount Pictures]. I could have done anything. [INT: Ah-ha.] Barney Balaban, when asked, "How do you and Jerry Lewis get along?" he said, "If he wants to burn down the studio, I'll give him the match." It's good to have that kind of friendship, right? [INT: I mean, not many people in the history of show business have ever had that kind of power.]

JL: I got a better history. I got a better one--first time. For my 40th birthday, Barney Balaban ate all the supper and white prime cream at my home with 800 people. On the microphone, Barney Balaban says to me, "Well, you made 40." "Thank you, Barney." He said, "And we didn't know what you would like, and I thought it would be relevant if I asked you what can we give you for your birthday." And I said, "I'll tell you what I'd love to have. After you've run the normal run of my films, I would like to have the negatives as a gift." And I'm talking about 11 movies. And he said, "You got it." [INT: Wow!] I said, "Do we shake hands on that?" He said, "It's the first time for me," and he pointed to every one of the executives at Paramount [Paramount Pictures], and said, "It's the first time for them, but you got it." [INT: Wow! Now, that's never happened before, or since, right?] Never. [INT: Never.] I had the only deal with Paramount that represented $800 million on a handshake. There was no paper. I had no contract with Paramount after Dean [Dean Martin] and I split. None. [INT: How did you get this trust from Barney Balaban? What was it that...?] He believed in me. He believed in me and I showed him that I knew what I was doing when the returns came--Money was the answer. I made them a piss pot full of money, and I worked hard. I travelled with the films. I went to cities, did shows on stages. I did whatever I thought you could do to sell the product. This is a business where marketing makes the difference. If you don't market it, if you don't sell it, you can't get people to go to a theatre if they don't know it's playing. So, I'm coming from old show business brains. My dad, "Hey, you want to be a hit? Work it." Well, "what do you mean, work it?" "If you're doing a one-night stand, find out what it's about, who it is, go to them and make nice during the day, and nighttime you got friends." I wasn't sure I knew what he meant, but I knew what he meant later. I knew very well. [INT: Was Barney Balaban criticized for giving you the negatives to your film?] No. [INT: No?] Never a word. I never heard a word. Never. [INT: So, today, Paramount owns none of that, or part of it?] They are partners in seven films. [INT: What kind of partners? 50/50?] 50/50 on productions that was York Corporation [York Pictures Corporation], which was Dean's [Dean Martin] and my company, which was switched over to JAS. [INT: What's JAS stand for?] That's Jerry and Sam, and that's my production company here. Jerry Lewis Films is the other corporation, and I don't want any more corporations because the fucking taxes are a pain in the ass.

INT: Can we talk about costumes? Like Edith Head worked for you many years. She was at Universal, wasn't she?
JL: No. She went to Universal [Universal Pictures] after Paramount [Paramount Picture]. I think she went to Universal on special assignment...[INT: For Hitchcock [Alfred Hitchcock].]...Like, for Grace Kelly, and Hitchcock wanted her. Yeah. But she worked every film with me. She was wonderful. [INT: How did you first discover her?] Well, I was starting to do a film after THE BELLBOY, whatever that was...[INT: It was... BELLBOY, okay, that would be THE LADIES MAN.] Yeah. So, I go to Frank Caffey, who's the head of production, and I say, "Who have I got? I want this cutter." I wanted Rudy, I wanted Rusty Wiles. I got Rusty, and I said, "I would love to have Edith [Edith Head] do the gowns for the women," because I was dressing up a lot of ladies. LADIES MAN was some 34 women, and she was magic. She'd put on a half a dozen of her students, and they did my picture for me. She was wonderful. Then she said she never wants to work with another Director except Hitchcock because she had such fun with me, and her work was so good, and I was so positive and so up. I set a high bar, and she loved that. [INT: So, when she went to Hitchcock, you couldn't get her back?] No, no, no. She came back to me. [INT: Okay.] Yeah. After she was through with...She did, TO CATCH A THIEF. She did that and came back and did mine. Then she went somewhere with Hitch. Yeah, she was with me for nine to ten films. [INT: Did you know Hitchcock at all?] Hitchcock, I met him very briefly. [INT: Just briefly. Okay. How would you work with Edith Head? Would you just let her do what she wanted to do?] I would bring her magazine pictures. I had every magazine on women from Elle in Paris to Vogue here, and I would find the look I wanted. I would go through probably 25 fashion magazines and not always find what I wanted. So, I kept looking, but I always gave her the photograph, "This is how I want to see Stella."

INT: Sounds like you're a bit hands-on.
JL: What do you mean? [INT: Hands-on everybody. Yeah, the total filmmaker.] Just had to be. If you read the book, you'll see that I had… [INT: I did read the book.] You can't let anything get away if you're going to be total anything. If you're going to be the total doctor, you got to be in research, and you got to get with these guys. You got to be in the lab. You got to do this stuff. I don't believe you can be the total anything unless you do it. And the only reason you do it is because you love it so much and you want to be sure that everything is the caliber that you try and be. You know, it sounds strange for a Director that does the silly crap I do, but I'm very in love with that crap, and I take good care of it, and I protect it, and I give it the kind of energy that it deserves.

INT: Well, when we were students of yours we were all, all of us, were like just amazed at how much you knew and on every level. And people would say, "Well, what's the class like? Does he just joke around?" We said, "No. He knows everything, he knows how to do everybody's job," and it was just great.]
JL: I used to spend three and four hours at night before the class, and I have a shooting the next day. The class was like in the evening. But I would lay out a program, and I would--I wanted so much to get one or two out of that class that I could watch grow. And I had some pretty good auditors there. [INT: George Lucas?] Stephen King, George Lucas, Matt Robin [Matthew Robbins]. Do you remember Art Amer [PH]? [INT: No.] Yeah, I spoke to him the other day. I just felt like calling to see how he's doing. He's doing some stuff up in Pepperdine [Pepperdine University], or something like that. [INT: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Lucas [George Lucas] did pretty well.] Yeah, not bad. Peter Bogdanovich didn't suffer. [INT: Did he come and audit the class, Peter?] Yeah. Oh, sure. But Peter could get a class sitting on a plane, travelling East or West. [INT: I ran into him at Rocket Video two days ago, and I said, "I'm going to Vegas to interview you." He said to say hello to you.] You saw Peter? [INT: Peter, yes, we just ran into each other. And I see that you're going to be there at Rocket Video. They have a big poster says, "Jerry Lewis will be here May something." Rocket Video, yeah. [INT: On La Brea [La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles].] I called and I okay'd it. I don't know why. They seemed very nice in the letter. [INT: Right]

INT: Assistant Director, Ralph Axness. [JL: Yeah.] Now, you worked with him most of your films?
JL: Three or four films, yeah. [INT: How do you work with--What's your pre-production relationship with your AD [Assistant Director]?] Well, they're not crazy about me because at about 6:30 in the morning I'm in my office. I got a 9 o'clock shoot and at 6:30 I'm dictating notes about yesterday's work, and I'm having a meeting with my ADs first, second and third and telling them about the day and what I've got planned. And in that two and a half hours in the office I've got that day locked. Ralph [Ralph Axness] would go and preset everything that I'm planning to do, and that was the only way. I mean, to go on the set with three or four pages in your pocket and then become a Director, I don't know how to do that. I just didn't know how to do that, and I watched some very prominent Directors do that. [INT: Like Cukor [George Cukor]?] Yeah. Michael Curtiz, Cukor. Norman Taurog would take three pages, and he'd go on the set and shoot it. What they missed because of not giving it the nighttime preparation... [INT: Would you read the script over and over again?] Oh, I'd read tomorrow's work, yes, no question, over and over and make sure that I've got what I want to do to make it work. But every time you did one like at night, you're fucking with the whole movie, so you got to do it good, got to get it right and get everything so everybody's comfortable. I'm very conscious of my crews' comfort. Very important because mine is very important, and I don't want any of you to do anything that'll disrupt my comfort. Of course, then I'll come to your house and shoot your dog.

INT: I remember one thing you taught us… [JL: You have a dog, Jerry? Okay, good.] One thing you taught us was, when you look through the lens think about the shot that's going to appear before and the shot that's going to appear after, every time you look through the lens.
JL: You bet. Your bet. Where am I coming from, and where am I going. [INT: It really helped. It really helped. Yeah.] Yeah. [INT: The design of a picture, well, we talked about that, yeah. Would you rather build a set or shoot on location?] Much prefer a set. Much prefer indoors, much prefer the way it was done and it should be done. Location is great when you just can't build the Empire State Building lobby. Location's okay. I always felt that when I went on location that I lost some of the total control. [INT: Oh yeah. Well, what about--Do you ever do screen tests of locations? I mean, photograph them to see how they're going to look?] Mm-hmm. [INT: And what about screen tests of Actors? No?] No. Never. [INT: Never. Okay.]

INT: You know, you did something very interesting, talking about screen tests, that I saw in the deleted scenes of, I'm not sure which film, Helen Traubel, where you filmed her singing opera. That was just to preserve her, right? That's great. That was as a favor to her in a way, or was it that you just wanted to have it on film somehow?
JL: I just had to have it. You know, you couldn't work with her and not have some recollection. [INT: Because... What was your thinking? I mean, at the time there was no such thing as deleted scenes in those days, so what were you going through, or how did you do that? When did you shoot it? I mean, cause it was like...] Because I thought I had a once in a lifetime performer, and I wanted to just be sure that we had her ability and her talent, which she didn't show on the film. [INT: Right.] I wanted to see that. [INT: And when you filmed it, what did you do? Did you show it to her? Did you show it to the crew?] I showed everybody, yeah. The next day in dailies we ran the whole sequence, and she was brilliant, brilliant. [INT: Oh, great. How nice! That was really nice of you.] Yeah. [INT: You're a nice person.]

INT: How about budgets? Have you worked with budget restrictions? It sounds like during those golden years at Paramount they just let you do whatever you wanted.
JL: Anything I wanted to do, if I approved a budget of a million eight, that's what the movie would be. I never brought a film in over budget, or late, ever. [INT: Hmm. That's a very good record.] I finished the film and had two days to do nothing. [INT: Yeah.] I finished the film, had four days to do nothing. I finished the film, had nine days to do nothing. [INT: What would you do with the nothing? Would you keep the crew or let them go?] I'd keep the crew. I didn't, I never wanted to let them go. I paid them for two or three days they shouldn't have been at the studio. [INT: What would they do?] They would just do what I told them. [INT: And what would you tell them?] To hang around. It was wonderful. [INT: Hang around and do nothing?] Right. Just a relaxed two days of just do what you want to do. [INT: Like a party?] Yeah. [INT: Interesting...Wow.] And that was interesting because then and only then did they ask questions about my life, my work. Did you do that because you believed in such and such versus… And we had great conversations. They knew I didn't want to let them go. So, I spent 30, 40 thousand that I didn't have to spend a number of times, but it was my money. I like to spend my money, not yours. I don't like to spend someone else's money. But my money I like to do what I want with it. [INT: It was your money because Paramount gave you that money to make a movie, right?] Well, it was simpler than that. The deal I had was I can do what I want as long as I sign this budget and live by it. [INT: Right.] I can do anything after that, blow the budget up if I wanted to. [INT: It's kind of like Woody Allen's deal with UA [United Artists], it sounds like, where he, as long as he came in at a certain time, he could do whatever he wanted.] Right. I had complete autonomy. [INT: It sounds unbelievable to any Director hearing this, that you had that.] Yeah, it was just you had nothing to do but create. Your mind was not in a meeting of dollars, a meeting of efficiency experts, and all of that shit. I didn't have any of that. [INT: Okay. But then let's jump ahead to when that era was over and…] I was gone. [INT: You must have had that when you came back to do other films. Then you had these budget meetings and people saying this and that, right?] Yeah, pretty much, sure. [INT: Yeah, right. Like all of us.] I didn't have as much fun.

INT: I know when you were young that, you know, you're young, but now you're not. How do you keep it all up?
JL: You stay young. [INT: Yeah. It's amazing.] Absolutely. If you can be optimistic and if you can deal with everything on a positive level, it's going to help you stay young. I believe that as I sit here. I really do, because the respect I have for the mind and what the good Lord gave us... I like touching on all the stuff that's in there, emotion, sensitivity, psychological. Everything is important to me, and I treat it like it's something that's going to have an effect on the future of my life. I've always been that way. And negative is dangerous. It's also like a virus. Negative is dangerous. I don't want to hear that someone died. Go to someone else to have your fun. Because people love to--"Did you hear about Bobby?" "Yeah, I heard about it. What's so fucking wonderful? He died. He was only 49." I don't need to hear that. I ask them to please don't come to me with negative. It's not good for my system. It's not good for my mind. It's certainly not good for my writing. So, don't talk to me about that stuff.

INT: Continuing a little bit about the budget situations that we all go through as Directors and you didn't have to go through at the beginning of your career, but then later on…]
JL: No, I committed to a budget, and I signed it. [INT: Right.] And I had to stay within that budget. [INT: But I mean, like when you were doing the movie say for Warner Bros., like WHICH WAY TO THE FRONT?] Different. [INT: Yes, I know. I know. That's what I want to ask you about. Didn't you have all the executives sort of trying to second guess you and tell you how you should do it, and... I mean that's a whole other world.] So, I said to them in one meeting, "If any of you, eight people, can stand up and do ten minutes, I'll hear anything you have to say. Until then, mind your fucking business." [INT: Really? You said that?] "Because you don't know what it is to perform. You don't know what it is the joy and the ecstasy of seeing something happen on the screen. You don't know anything about that. You only know that we're using your facilities. Fuck you and your facilities. This movie is being made the way I believe it should be made, and if you don't like it, get someone else. Replace your leading man and replace your Director. Do what you have to do, but I'm not going to fucking bow to the bullshit you're coming up with." It was wonderful, wonderful. The head of Warner's [Warner Bros.] at the time I think was Hayman, Hyman...[INT: I'm not sure.] What was his name? [INT: I don't know.] I don't want to remember. [INT: Right. So, did they try to put any budget restrictions on you, or...?] No. We had a meeting, and we agreed. [INT: What it would be. And you stayed within that budget?] No. [INT: No, you went over?] No. [INT: No, you went under?] Under. [INT: Good.] Just to screw them. [INT: Okay.]

INT: So, we talked a little bit about how you prepared the night before. You read the script for the next day, and you start your process. And what about storyboards?
JL: Oh, I always did that, always. [INT: Did you do them yourself, or did you hire an artist?] No, I had John Jensen, who was one of the best in the business. He was with me for eight or ten years. But I know--See, the sequence I'm shooting tomorrow, I wrote it. I just need to refresh what I had in mind. See, my screenplays... What you know as a screenplay, and what we have all been told is 120 pages, and that would give you a motion picture. And... Where did I get lost just then? [INT: You were talking storyboards and prep...] So, I am looking at the material I've written for tomorrow, and I know--Oh, my screenplays ran 100, I'm sorry, ran 230 to 235 pages because I wrote everything, including props and how to build them and how I wanted them made. And the head of the department would say, "Can we ad lib you?" I said, "I don't care. Just so you follow this." And they were great. And I would write, take the pin, inject the pin into the round ball. When you inject the pin, and I don't see it, I can put the balance of the ball into the camera lens, and the pin will be facing me, and then I can do the trick by sliding the small wire into the pin. I'm explaining all this to build it, and that's what I did with everything. The chair in THE NUTTY PROFESSOR, the chair that he sat in that died. And then when he sat and it came up and he was--If you look at the film you see that was, that was magical work. And I [PHONE RINGS] wrote exactly how to build that chair, the hydraulic, [PHONE RINGS] offstage power, make the chair work. It was marvelous, wonderful. These people were wonderful. They came to the script, they felt like they were working on someone in their own department because I was telling them, you know, what to do.

INT: How would you work with Actors when they'd come to the set? I mean, they, if you have not--Well, you said you rehearsed, so...[JL: Yes.]So they sort of knew what they were going to do?
JL: Mm-hmm. Oh yeah. I had, I never had the Actor/Director trauma. I might have had it once or twice because I didn't--You know, when you have a mindset of positive and uplifting and all of that stuff, it can get lost sometimes, and sometimes you're not feeling well, or sometimes you're hurting from another fall you took. [INT: Right.] You're not always that solidly in control. [INT: Sure.] So, when times like that happen, I try to do simple stuff to get through the day. I would do simple stuff that hurt me because I knew I could do better. [INT: And what about if you're in a bad mood, or you're feeling pain and all that, and you have these 300 people sitting in the stands?] Adrenaline sets in. You don't hurt. [INT: I see.] I've been hurting since the last bad fall I took at the Copa [The Copacabana] in 1950. So I've been hurting 62 years. Every morning that I get up I have to move one leg off the bed first, and then my wife comes over and gives me pain pills, and then I move the second leg. I've been doing that for 62 years. [INT: What about the '80s [1980] when you did the movie SMORGASBORD [CRACKING UP], and you did all those falls onto the hard floor?] I thought they were terrific. [INT: Well, I know, but I mean if you're having...] Adrenaline ran me. Adrenaline. I walk on stage Saturday night to 3600 people, and I'm in deep pain standing in the wing. I hear my name, and I stroll out, and I'm like a 26-year-old kid in heat, ready to fuck anyone that would stand still. That's the excitement of walking on stage. And then I walk out there and do two hours of everything that an entertainer can do for an audience, and they stand up--When I first walk out they stand up, and I say, "I can't work to a starting ovation for Christ sakes," and I'm on my way. Pain goes away when you step on the stage. [INT: But you can't be on the stage 24 hours a day.] And that's what Dr. DeBakey [Dr. Michael DeBakey] said to me, "You cannot be on the stage 24 hours a day." I said, "Well, Michael, then the times I'm not, I'm hurting." [INT: Now, you got an electronic thing in your spine, is that right, that helps you?] Yeah. It helped and then it went away. So, I'm getting no--As a matter of fact, my clock tells me that in order for me to continue, I got to take that, and it's been that way for a long time. Can't do anything about it. I see some falls that I took on film that I can't fucking believe that I got out of it. [INT: Well, I can't believe you did it in the '80s [1980] where you were like late ‘60s, and you were doing those slips and landing right on your back on a hard floor.] Yeah, I did about 48 falls in that main title. [INT: Yeah. But you wrote it.] Yeah. It was worth it. [INT: You could have maybe done something else with a pie or something.] That's cheating, Randall.

INT: Hey, I want to ask you about when you directed Ed Sullivan because you were on his show, and then you directed him playing himself. It's the only time I ever saw him doing all the clichés of Ed, an Ed Sullivan impression. That was on purpose?
JL: Yeah, of course. It was wonderful. He was fun. He had no idea what to do when I--I took him and I force fed him and all that. He was quite a nice guy too, Ed, very nice man. We had fun. [INT: But you know so many comics had done him, and then it looked like you took him and had him do an impression of himself.] The comics. Of course. I thought it was great. People loved it.

INT: What do you say to Actors to get a performance out of them? What are some of the tricks, or some of the techniques that you do if they're not getting what you need?
JL: Well, I think you have to take an Actor and get him to shake loose all the crap that he brought with him. You see an Actor, and he's trying too hard, and you say to him, "Look, if we all did what you are doing now, we'd bump into one another. You have to relax. You're going to be fine. The reason that we push or force is because we want so much to do well. I'm telling you in front I'm so glad to have you doing this, and I picked you because I believe you to be perfect for it, and if it sounds like horseshit, you're going to love it. It's not horseshit. I mean it." [INT: That's great. Wow! I love that.] And they are enamored by the simplicity. "I'll do anything I can to get this movie made, and you're a part of it. If I had to go and whatever it was I had to do, I'll do it to give you the best possible day on film." That's all, you know. [INT: Well, you love Actors.] I love them. Oh, God, yes. [INT: Yeah, you can tell.] I love them, and they know it. [INT: Yeah.]

INT: Well, has an Actor ever resisted what you're telling them?
JL: I've had Actors who didn't want to buy into my positive point of view. [INT: So, what would you do?] I had one Actor, very good character Actor that I had seen for years, who said to me, "Look, you know what I'm getting. I got to do what you want me to do and then I get that, and it's over. I don't carry any dreams of future remembrances of today." I said, "Well, that's very sad. You mean, you're going to work here, pick up your check, and then wait for another gig, and that's all it is?" "Yeah, that's all it is." I said, "Could I be so fucking wrong? Could I be so blind that I can't see that I should be like you? Uh-uh. No. Better you be like me. If that doesn't work, then just practice, learn your lines. I'll get you through it as soon as I can." And that's how I usually fix it. [INT: And did that person change at all, or not?] They tried harder. They tried harder. [INT: Yeah. And you can't tell us who that was?] It's very, because he came in not giving a shit in the first place, and you can see that. You can see it in the potty language. He's here to get paid and then he's gone. "You are here with the birth of a child. You are contributing to the birth of my baby. You can't think in terms of getting paid and then leaving here. You have to have, you got to commit some emotion to it, for me. Do it for me because you're embarrassing me. You are embarrassing me that you are allowing yourself to be embarrassed at your conduct." [INT: And you can't tell us who that was?] No. [INT: Okay. All right. Well, I'm going to have a long talk with you in the bathroom.] I'll tell you in the bathroom. [INT: Okay.]

INT: What about special effects? You've done quite a few.
JL: I very rarely use special effects, very rarely. I hated them. I hated to wait six weeks for a fucking blue background. God, I hated it. And there were times when I had to use it, you know, to help a joke work. But the effects team had gone from Paramount [Paramount Pictures] when I started directing. That whole segment of filmmaking was moved over to George Lucas. And I hated green, blue, traveling mats. I hated that shit. I hated to watch two people walking this way on a 6 inch, and they're walking for about seven hours. They never get to the fucking finish. I don't want shots like that unless it means something. [INT: Right. Well, you've seen what could be done today. Anything could be done.] Oh, it's unbelievable, unbelievable. [INT: Unbelievable.] But that's not a filmmaker. [INT: I know.] That's an electrician that they sit at a fucking editing panel, and they got 700 switches to make the lady eat the Chrysler building and then wipe her mouth and she's swallowed it. I don't want that. That's not a joke. That's not funny, and if they used it in the creation of the ninja toilets, I don't want, leave me alone. I don't want that. [INT: Yeah, yeah. It also takes away--The kids today who see movies, they no longer have the excitement of seeing a crowd of 300,000 people in GANDHI, because now they know it's all, just digital. It's just pixels, you know. I think the first time that I noticed that was in LORD OF THE RINGS when they had all those people and they were all just digital.] But you know what it is. [INT: I know, but it's sad because the kids today who watch movies, they're jaded. They've seen it all. Nothing's real, and they don't get the magic any more.] They have to see films like KILL A MOCKINGBIRD [TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD]. [INT: Yes.] They've got to look at THE STING. They've got to see CHICAGO. They've got to look at the product that tells them they've got a prayer. The product that tells them, yeah, their creative juices are working. My God, CHICAGO was a miracle! The beauty of that fucking handsomely mounted film, music and performances the likes of which I'd never seen. [INT: Wow!] Goddamn brilliant! Billy Condon should have been given a mansion.

INT: I think I know the answer to this. Do you have a favorite film? If so, what is it, and why?
JL: NUTTY PROFESSOR [THE NUTTY PROFESSOR] would be my labor of love. [INT: That's what I thought. What's your least favorite project?] The least favorite film was a film I made at Columbia called, RAISE THE BRIDGE, DON'T GO OVER THE WATER ... no, RAISE THE WATER, DON'T CROSS THE BRIDGE [DON'T RAISE THE BRIDGE, LOWER THE RIVER]. Can't even remember the fucking title. I hated every minute of it. [INT: And what was...? Why?] It was trite. It was written because it needed to be made, and it was scheduled. It was dumb. It was, they gave me a piss pot full of money to get me to go to London and do it. That should have told me everything. [INT: That's awful.]

INT: What is the worst part of directing?
JL: The worst part of directing for me would have to be the someone who doesn't hear me. The Actor or the crewmember that's not hearing me. If they're not hearing me, they are going to continue to do inferior work. When they hear me, they either are going to buy into what I believe and join me, or do exactly what they're doing, and I just get other people to help override that. That's the most difficult thing for me, and that's--That's the Director that has to deal with studios, efficiency experts, people that don't know what you're doing. And I've never had a problem with someone who loved the movies. Someone who loves the movies, loves the way I work with the crew. And I would spew all of this stuff I'm telling you to anyone that'll listen because I believe it so strongly, and I think, I think that... Look at this gift we're given to direct a movie. It's such a gift. [INT: The best part of directing?] The best part of directing is getting the gig. [INT: Yeah.] Get the gig, honey, and it's something you believe in and something you want to do, and you're a child again. See, I've been nine all of my life. And although I just had my 83rd birthday, my daughter gave me the best card in the world: To my 9-year-old dad, who just turned 83. [INT: That's great.] You know, you can't get better than that. [INT: That is great.] You can't. And to bring that, I always brought my childlike excitement to the stage. I do it now in my concerts. People write me letters about, "We couldn't believe how up you were. We figured 83, we're going to see an old man on a cot." Well, that's not quite the way it works. And everything I'm talking to you about in terms of the Director on the set, I do when I do my concert, or when I play here three times a year. I give it so much attention. Example, I wear a $5,000 tux, and I have it made for that price so that you, the audience, sees it's a $5,000 tux. So that when I hit the stage in a fall, the dirt on the tux makes it that much easier. [INT: You still are doing falls?] Oh, sure. I can't help it. It's part of my... [INT: Can't you at least get a floor that's like soft?] We talked about that. It doesn't work. [INT: It doesn't?] But if I don't take a fall during the entire performance, they're disappointed. [INT: Really?] But the point is that my dad had told me when I was a kid--He came to see Dean [Dean Martin] and I in Atlantic City. We were wearing street clothes. He said, "First order of business, dress like you're serving your audience. You can't be dressed the way they are. You have to be dressed unlike them, and wear a tux. And when you hit the floor, it's dirtier than hell. It's funnier. You can go to the Bowery all day and see guys in grey suits leaning around the fucking gutter."

INT: Do you remember who sponsored your application form for the DGA?
JL: Who what? [INT: Who sponsored your application form for the DGA when you first…?] Joe Mankiewicz [Joseph Mankiewicz], I think. [INT: Really? Really? That's cool!] I would love to find out. They would know. [INT: Yeah, we'll find out for you. We'll find out. How about the Academy, did you join the Academy?] Oh, sure. [INT: Do you remember who sponsored you for that?] No. No. [INT: Okay. I got George Cukor and Robert Wise to sponsor me.] Oh, that's not bad. You could have gotten me, you little prick. [INT: I guess I could.] Sure. Do you know how many times since I've seen you... So we're talking about over 30 years, right? [INT: Yeah.] You know how many times I have mentioned you? [INT: No, I didn't know that.] Well, I would say... I'll give you a ballpark, okay. I would say I talk about the people in my class twice a week for the last 30 some years, never do I ever say anything about George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Peter Bogdanovich, and Randal Kleiser. Never one without the other. Ever, ever. [INT: Well, thank you, Jerry, it's nice to hear that. I didn't know.] Yeah, who knew? I also got a print to make sure that you did a good job on GREASE. I had to be sure you did good. [INT: Well, that was very inspirational, a Paramount movie, a comedy set at Paramount. It reminded me a lot. And did you see that I put you in it?] Of course. [INT: That was my...] But I was so fucking proud of you. I mean, I should have written you a letter after I saw it because I was so relieved that he's not running around with my fucking reputation in his hands.

INT: How would you advise a young Director who asked you--asked you about joining the Directors Guild, and why?-- "Why not?"
JL: You can't get a job unless you do. You got to be in the Guild [DGA]. You got to be proud of it. All of the Guild rules that help us do our job, I'm very proud of. I think that the Guild has handled themselves impeccably over the years, protecting and defending the creative talents that are members of that Guild. I am just... I've been in 13 guilds. I watch what's happening, you know. I hear what's going on. Nothing has ever happened with the Directors Guild that made me embarrassed or felt ashamed. Everything they do is right for us, and it's great to have. And that's what every Guild should be. But, you know, I'm the dreamer. [INT: I'm on some of the councils, and an alternate member of the Board, and I see that. I see this Guild as very, very classy. And the way they handle everything, nobody's fighting. I mean, you look at the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild, they're all fighting.] Yeah. It's different mentalities in those guilds that I believe. And if you pay attention what's going on you'll be like I am about it, very proud and stoic. I will not change my opinion of how the Guild works and what it is. [INT: Very good.] That's it. [INT: Well, thank you very much for this interview, Jerry Lewis.] You're welcome. Well, I mean, you haven't even, you haven't even scratched the surface. [INT: Well...]