Tonight, an A-Zall over exclusive interview with the director of Outland, running scared and 2010, the year we make contact, here, high ups and now, your hosts, Drew Mcie and stunt Whiteberg. Hello and welcome to another Patrons episode of 80s all over. I am very excited. We have a great guest today. But first, let me introduce my co-host, Mr. Drew McQueenie. Hey, Harry Sir, I am equally excited. This is one that I've been waiting for for a while. It is with much pleasure and much anticipation that Drew and I are pleased to announce Mr. Peter Hayams. Hi. Hey, sir. How are you? Okay. 1977 Capricorn won. Then throughout the 80s. Outland, Star Chamber, 2010, running scared and the Presidio represent his 80s output. But he also made many other good films beyond that that I quite enjoy like Narrow Margin.

Stay tuned.

I'm a big fan of busting.

Yeah. And one of the things that it feels like your work has always had going for it is you have a real affinity for these big dent supporting cast. Do you have so many great guys in that movie like Sid Hague and Alan Garfield and Michael Lerner? seem to let actors really live and breathe on a set. Can you just talk about putting together

a cast in the first place and sort of your approach?

My approach, which I have achieved many times, is to be the dumbest person on my phone. The job of a director is literally to create a place where actors feel good, actors feel free, and where actors will take chances. I've said many times the saddest days that I have ever experienced filming, although those days where I stagger back to my hotel room or my house, having shot what I expected. I believe directing is creating a corridor for controlled accidents. If you get really talented actors, you're not telling them how to act. They know how to act. That's why you want them. You just want to see what they bring. Also, it'd be very honest with you, I love people with texture on their face. Texturing their voice. There are a lot of times when you turn on your television set and you see a network television program, you can tell the actors from a network television program they look a certain way. They don't have a lot of wrinkles, they don't have a lot of gravel, they don't have a lot of whatever that is that makes a Joey Panthaliano interesting. So I like, you know, I look for actors who I just think you're really good. Because you, I think, came up in the 70s and it was an era where there was a willingness to let films be shaggy and have sort of some of that textured to them. You were able to work with big movie stars, but in films that felt more like ensemble films. And I think that's a real strength of your work. A Capricorn one is a great ensemble. I love that you worked with Harrison Ford when he was just becoming Harrison Ford in Hanover Street. Well, I actually thought that Harrison Ford was going to be Harrison Ford. I just thought he was going to become huge. The thing that has made Harrison such a kind of ganzostar has always been the ability of Harrison to have his feelings, a centimedra below the surface of his skin. You just empathize with Harrison. He makes you feel what he's feeling. And he also projects a kind of Gary Cooper like decency about him. Just rewatched Witness a couple nights ago and was struck by exactly that. He is such a low-key humanity to him. And by the way, it's real. It's not fake. He is a truly decent guy.

Can you talk for a little bit about how you decided that for most of your films, you would be your own DP? And if that caused any trouble or problems for you in Hollywood? Yes, and yes. My background is as I was an art student from the time I was seven years old. I studied photography from the time I was 12 or 13.

I studied it classically.

I studied monorail photography. I studied Chan fluke techniques. I studied breaking down and repairing portrait cameras. I was a pretty well trained photographer when I came into the business. The union was crazed about barriers and making it difficult to be a cinematographer. I'm actually the first Hollywood director to ever be admitted into the cinematographer's union. It took 10 years of lawsuits and it was very, very acrimonious. The union actually had, at the time they put me in the union, I was actually resigned to the fact that couldn't get in the union. And I remember on Star Chamber I hired a guy named Richard Hanna who had done one episode of Not's Landing and my deal was, listen, I'm gonna do it, you'll get the credit and I won't say anything. I'll say you did it. And then suddenly this guy Richard Hanna who would sit very

quietly, he would seem very nice and read his Bible, he evidently complained which I didn't know. And the union came swooping down like a bunch of crows and said you can't do that. I said I can't do what? He stammered. He said well you can't have a light meter. I said of course I can have a a light meter. They said, well, you can't talk to the grip of the gaffer. I said, of course, I can

talk to the gaffer. I have, of course I can have a light meter. They said, well, you can't talk to the grip of the gaffer.

I said, of course I can talk to the gaffer.

I have an idea, I'm calling the director's skill,

my Randall phone booth and call the directors' bill. And I said, let's settle who can say what on a film set? And they refused to go to arbitration. They actually tried to sue 20-70 Fox myself and the producer,

man named Frankie Blondes, and the judge said,

well, have you gone to arbitration?

They said, no, we don't want want to and the judge threw it out. The next one I made was 2010 and I said here's the deal I was okay doing what I did and letting other people take the credit. I'm now gonna make 2010 and I'm not gonna make it in America I'm gonna make it in England because I can't take this crap from you guys anymore. So tell it to all the members of the IA and while you're at it, why don't you tell the teamsters? And about 48 hours later, I got a call said, uh, you're in. You know, I understand why that the unions would be so, uh, uh, protective and so stringent, But in a case like yours where you're clearly a professional D.P. and a director, you're not a director

trying to steal credit from someone, you would think in cases like this they would just

make an exception and let it go.

They actually said to me, you can join the union except you got to start as a loader.

And I said, well, is it kind of interesting, Kyfynet, you got there, writer, director,

loader. I don't think it's gonna work out.

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