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Exclusive interviews with Billy Wilder, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and others
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Jack Lemmon: Billy felt that the writing was ninety percent of the film and as he once said, the ten percent is just the drudgery of getting it done and putting it on film, which of course is ridiculous, he was belittling himself as a director that way. But at any rate it kept he and Iz on their toes because it meant that at the end of the day they had to keep working on the future scenes, they had them blocked out but they didn't have the dialog and they hadn't finished it.
***
Dan Auiler: Did you have many films that were very different from the finished script?
Billy Wilder: No.
Audrey Wilder: He's first and foremost a writer, you understand that you don't have to change what you write.
Billy Wilder: There's a certain place that you get into and then when you write dialogue for pictures you make it brief, you make it short, you make it incisive because every line counts.
Dan Auiler: Do you think that the fact that you were the co-writer on the screenplay made the actors come to it with a little more care?
Billy Wilder: They are very respectful. They learned the dialogue because they knew that I was going to insist on it, on the dialogue. Not improvised, but written and then acted.
Dan Auiler: During the course of the filming of Some Like It Hot did you ever come across a scene where you just admitted to yourself or to Mr. Diamond, this is not working?
Billy Wilder: Not once, not once...
Dan Auiler: What's the difference for you when it comes to approaching a film like Double Indemnity, which is not a comedy, to approaching Some Like It Hot?
Billy Wilder: It's a different method of shooting it. I'm not a comedy director, I'm not a serious pictures director-I'm a director.
Audrey Wilder: Very good Billy, I like that.
***
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Jack Lemmon: Billy felt that the writing was ninety percent of the film and as he once said, the ten percent is just the drudgery of getting it done and putting it on film, which of course is ridiculous, he was belittling himself as a director that way. But at any rate it kept he and Iz on their toes because it meant that at the end of the day they had to keep working on the future scenes, they had them blocked out but they didn't have the dialog and they hadn't finished it.
***
Dan Auiler: Did you have many films that were very different from the finished script?
Billy Wilder: No.
Audrey Wilder: He's first and foremost a writer, you understand that you don't have to change what you write.
Billy Wilder: There's a certain place that you get into and then when you write dialogue for pictures you make it brief, you make it short, you make it incisive because every line counts.
Dan Auiler: Do you think that the fact that you were the co-writer on the screenplay made the actors come to it with a little more care?
Billy Wilder: They are very respectful. They learned the dialogue because they knew that I was going to insist on it, on the dialogue. Not improvised, but written and then acted.
Dan Auiler: During the course of the filming of Some Like It Hot did you ever come across a scene where you just admitted to yourself or to Mr. Diamond, this is not working?
Billy Wilder: Not once, not once...
Dan Auiler: What's the difference for you when it comes to approaching a film like Double Indemnity, which is not a comedy, to approaching Some Like It Hot?
Billy Wilder: It's a different method of shooting it. I'm not a comedy director, I'm not a serious pictures director-I'm a director.
Audrey Wilder: Very good Billy, I like that.
***
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Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon lounging around the set, p. 259 (United Artists - Courtesy of MoMa)