INT: If you're looking at the worst and the best of the directing experience, what would you say?

RY: Well, I would say the best about directing is that I don't think I'm ever more alive than when I am really directing and it's going, when I feel in touch, and able to be inspired. I remember driving in on CAUGHT to do a scene with Arie [Arie Verveen] and I find, as a Director, lots of times I'm not even, you know, I thought about the scene but I'm not really focused on all of it. And I had just come up with an idea, some crazy idea, of a parrot that falls over because somebody--oh. Somebody makes a clap and the parrot responds and says something. And I was sort of in love with my idea. And this was gonna be a love scene that took place on a bed in this bedroom. And the Actor said to me, Arie, wonderful young guy, said on the way in, he said, "Bob, I don't know. Something about the bed. Isn't that a little bit, you know, like, you know, not private enough? Or--" and as soon as he said that, I said, "My god. The closet. The closet." And so, and so I had this love scene, they come into the closet and I'm in the closet with the camera and I shot it in one take, and it was a fantastic sexual, fantastic love scene. And that, I've never been--I mean that's when I'm most alive. And it was--and it was not just--it was an Actor, my Actor. Sensitive, intelligent guy says something and it sparks something, and then I'm beside myself, or I'm more than I am, you know. And then the sense that comes with that, of the crew and the fellowship with the Actors and the cast.

RY: On EXTREMITIES, I had a situation which, I mean it was a tough film in many ways, but it was a very--it's always very exciting when you feel like you're going along the edge and you're getting what you really want and new things are being revealed to you. And I was 10 days into the shoot and I was a couple days behind. But the dailies were great. But they were not easy to get. And then the company, Atlantic Pictures [Atlantic Entertainment Group], says to me that I have to sign the bond, because it hadn't been signed. And, oh gosh, so I look at it and I see that they've taken a week out of the schedule and I say, "I can't sign this. We'll never--we're not gonna get done! I'm two days behind right now and we're not gonna get done!" So they said, "Well, you sign it by five o'clock or we're not coming in tomorrow. I mean we can't make this film without the bond." So, I say--I call my Agent, you know, and I'm shooting and I say, "Look, I'm not signing it. I'm not gonna do it, because this picture is gonna be done and it's gonna be done right and it's not gonna--but it does not--the bond, they've taken it so that it's gonna take--" I mean, it's still a cheap movie. It came in for three million bucks, you know? And, with Farrah Fawcett and, you know, the whole cast and everything. And I said, "I'm not signing it because it's dishonest and it can't be done and then they're gonna come in and they're gonna ruin this movie. And I'm not doing that." So they said, "You're a journeyman Director. When we tell you to do a scene in a day, you're supposed to do it that day." I said, "Well, then, get somebody else to do it, ‘cause I'm not doing it that way." Well, they were furious with me and, but they loved the dailies. And they were getting, we were getting fantastic, I think great performances from Farrah and everybody else. And so I said to them, and I know they didn't like it, but Producers don't like to hear this from Directors. I said, "Look, you don't need a bond. Save yourself a quarter of a million dollars and don't get the bond and then you'll only need one other week." That's what I told them. And they swallowed it. They didn't like it. They didn't like it one bit. But they loved the movie and it bought the guy a, you know, I don't know. He'd grossed a tremendous amount of money and everything like that. And, you know, but they never talked to me and they gave me a Nutcracker suite cassette as a present at the end of the shoot, you know. Not that I cared about any of that, but I mean, that's where they were located. You know? So, but I was true to my--what I bel--and that, so that's--and the crew at that point, the crew came to me, the grips, the electricians, and they had rented their equipment, too. They said, "Bob, we're giving you a week free. Our services and equipment." And I--'cause I talked to the crew. I mean they all know what I'm trying to do. I tell them the story, I'm talking to people, and we eat together and that's the way it is with me. And that's what they offered me. They said--and they were disappointed that ultimately, they didn't have to do that. And so that, what could make you happier? I mean, I'm in a secure place where people…I love them, they love me, we're doing something together, they feel a part of it, and we feel like we're at the leading edge of our sensibilities.

RY: That--now, the worst thing is the opposite of that. The opposite of that. When there isn't, when you have to work without the trust. When people have some kind of other agenda and they…I mean, I did a film with Eddie [Edward Pomerantz] that was, the sum of it, was absolutely delightful. And then Paramount [Paramount Pictures], the ownership got, management got changed, and they said, "No more money. We're stopping everything. You have to finish with what you have." And they didn't want the project and it was very frustrating. And then I did things on tape. I said I'd spend my own money to finish it instead if they're not gonna pay. And at first, they couldn't say no, but then they said legally they couldn't do that, so they stopped me and I, you know, I went ahead and did the scenes on tape anyway, and the rating went up 15 points. Instead of the--'cause once, I didn't exercise my DGA prerogative and the guy who came in, the head of the studio was from Disney [Walt Disney Pictures], a guy named David Kirkpatrick. And he came in to see my film on the day that they released GODFATHER III. And he bragged to me that he had just done something like 68 changes himself in GODFATHER III. He was bragging to me. 'Cause there were long lines the first day. And then, I think, it kinda died. But anyway, he wanted me to take out the romantic relationship and he had very definite ideas and I was not getting any more money to finish the film. So I don't know how this gets to be addressed; I didn't speak to the Guild, I didn't know what to do, but so I said, "Okay," thinking like I'm a nice guy, "I'll cut it his way and then he'll see that it doesn't work." And I cut it his way, we had the screening, and it didn't work, and the film went into, like, the toilet. Then they didn't care what I did, just finish it. And so that's when I said, "Well, I'm gonna do…I'll pay for these other scenes," and Paramount said, at first, they didn't say no. And then they said I couldn't do it because they could still be liable. I shot the scenes on tape, with my own money, and I did six scenes and the film went up over 15 points. And I paid for everything myself. And the head of, I can't say who his name is, but--'cause I was told I could use no overtime and any mixing, temp mixing, I had to do on my own. Anyway, somebody at Paramount, whose name I can't mention, when he came to the screening and saw what I had done, and I couldn't use it because it was on tape, you know, and came and embraced me and figured out a way so I didn't have to pay for a lot of the things that I shouldn't have had to pay for, because he was so impressed. But no one from Paramount, none of the Executives came, deliberately. And then Harvey Weinstein sees the movie on a flight across the United States and comes into Barry London at Paramount and says, "I want to buy that movie. It's a terrific movie." They had never even seen how I'd finished it.

RY: That's -- you know, I have more Hollywood stories, I suppose, like everybody does. And it wasn't--what I couldn't understand was why would people want to destroy something [referring to the business side of filmmaking]. Why isn't there the kind of positive energy and synergy that makes things really work and comes together? And but then there's this political kind of stuff, agenda, and somebody coming in and not thinking that they don't like the last regime or what they're doing or, and people--I don't know. It's--and I'm not saying I'm so open or great or generous, but more than that, you know. I can't function in that kind of thing so that's the bad thing about it. It's not about what you have to do. I mean, I did--I just did a BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. I came on the set and they'd been doing them in eight days. And they said, "Look Bob, we need you to do it in seven days." I did it in seven days. That's not the problem, you know. And I actually had great relations and the guys are very intelligent and I'm gonna be--they want me to come back and do some more. Mine got five stars in England out of five stars. I think it's on next week. And they loved it. And I was supported and it was just terrific talking to colleagues and I made a lot of suggestions. They listened to everything, they did them their own way. I mean, you know, they wrote some things different than I would have done it, but they did, they solved the problems. They did a great job. And they were--I think they did a great job producing. They did some things in my cut that I wouldn't do, but they're entitled to it. So I'm not petty about it that way. It's not like everything has to be what Bob Young wants to do.