Billy Williams - Orson Welles' make-up on 'Voyage of the Damned' (87/172)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 25 сер 2024
- To listen to more of Billy Williams’s stories, go to the playlist: • Billy Williams (Film-m...
Born in London in 1929, cinematographer Billy Williams shot more than 40 high profile films throughout his career, being nominated for an Oscar for ‘On Golden Pond’ and ‘Women in Love’, then winning the Oscar for ‘Gandhi’ in 1983. He received an OBE in 2009. [Listener: Neil Binney]
TRANSCRIPT: The next picture was 'Voyage of the Damned', another true story. In 1938 an ocean liner called the 'St Louis' left Hamburg with about three or four hundred Jews fleeing the Nazis, bound for America to seek sanctuary. When they got to Florida the coastguard turned them away and they went to Cuba, to Havana, where they were allowed to drop anchor for a while and a few people, including some children, were allowed off, but no more. They were then ordered to leave. They went back to Hamburg and very few people survived the war, the Holocaust. That's a true story. The ship was called the 'St Louis' and the original title of the film was 'Voyage of the St Louis', it was changed to 'Voyage of the Damned'. It was directed by an American called Stuart Rosenberg. It had the biggest cast list I've ever worked with. The captain of the ship was played by Max von Sydow. His cabin boy was Malcolm McDowell. Among the passenger list was Faye Dunaway, Oskar Werner, Lee Grant, Lynne Frederick, Sam Wanamaker, Wendy Hiller, Maria Schell. In Cuba we had James Mason, Fernando Rey and Orson Welles. Now we'd been shooting for a few weeks and everybody was sort of waiting with some expectation for the arrival of Mr Welles. We were in Barcelona at the time. ‘Cause he had three big scenes to do, and I remember he arrived and there was a restaurant just opp... opposite the hotel where we used to have dinner and I... I sat at one end of the... of the... the restaurant with my camera crew, and at the other end, was Orson Welles with the director and some of the other actors. You could hear every word that Orson Welles said at the other end of the restaurant his voice had such resonance and projection. Everyone called him Mr Welles except the director.
So we come to his first scene, which is an interior, and he turns up on set with an incredible amount of make-up on. I mean like the old Technicolor make-up, very thick and heavy and dark... reddy-brown. So I called the make-up man and I said, ‘What's happened with the make-up?’ He said, ‘Ooh, Mr Welles did his own make-up’. So I went to the director and I said, ’Look, you know, we've got a problem with this make-up, it looks so theatrical’. And the director got a... he said, ‘Ohh’ he says, ’I can’t... I can’t... we've.... we’ve got to shoot’, he said, ’We can't do anything about it, he's ready, we've got to shoot’. And so, we had to shoot. So we did the day's work. Now, they had... the three scenes that he had were quite separated in the script, so I thought: well, I've got to do something about this. So at the end of the day I very politely went up to Mr Welles and I said, well, you know, ‘Excuse me Mr. Welles, but do you think tomorrow you could wear a little less makeup?’ and he gave a great big belly laugh and he said, ’Listen son, if I... if I don't wear all this makeup’ he said, ‘I look terrible, pale and washed out, I look dreadful’. I thought, that's it, you know, I've been put in my place. The next day we come to... to the second scene, he comes on set and the makeup is perfect. He'd done it himself and it was perfect. So, nothing said, we shoot and we're shooting on exteriors and we get to about five o'clock and we're in a courtyard in Barcelona and the... the light was dropping and I was actually wide open. And at that point, he looked at me and he said, ’Are you okay for light?’ And I said... I said, ’Yes, we can... we can just get this scene’. He said, ’Ok, ok, as long as your happy’. I thought that was... that was nice, that he understood my problem and he was giving me a little bit of backing up, you know, and there were no hard feelings kind of thing. And then the third day, his makeup was perfect again.
![Portrait: Orson Welles [Eng Subbed]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dWvVJKYdR4I/mqdefault.jpg)
Loved Orson Welles, and really just a great artist, one of a kind.
Pleased to hear that Orson Wells took the make-up advice and made ii a point to show his respect and appreciation.
Lovely Cinematographer... Lovely man.
Great story!
Orson Welles really seemed like a sweetheart. Also as a filmmaker, he was able to take direction professionally and not be a diva about makeup. Billy Williams had the patience it takes to be in this profession.
Welles respected people who were good at their jobs.
Jeanne Moreau told a story about Welles hiding his makeup kit as filming got underway for The Trial, which he directed. He kept making excuses for not beginning his own scenes- he played the Advocate. Welles claimed he couldn't locate his kit, intending to do his own makeup. She finally found where he'd hidden it. For all his seeming confidence and bravado, the man had gotten cold feet when it came to his performance on camera. I always found that little anecdote touching.
Very moving storey ,touched my soul
story
@@HansDelbruck53 from above
Welles devout perfectionist. Team player totally. Hero
Perhaps he was more empathetic because he remembered directing a film and working with Gregg Toland.
It was 1939, not 1938, when the St. Louis left Hamburg for Cuba.
: Welles had some days when he wasn't totally on, but when he was on... he had no equal as a consummate pro.
Apparently he could turn up at the
Radio studio a couple of minutes before the play started - and with no rehearsal - and do it straight
off the page.!
@@2msvalkyrie529 He was so busy in his radio days that he bought an ambulance to get from one New York studio to the next. Picture Orson Welles in his pomp dashing for the elevator from a siren-blowing crate just as someone thrusts a script into his hand and tells him which part he's going to play.
VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED -- sounds like the honeymoon cruise my ex-wife and i went on