Props to Movieline’s Mike Ryan for doing his research on interviewees. He asked Tom Hooper, director of John Adams for HBO and the upcoming Oscar lighting rod The King’s Speech, what it was like to direct Right Said Fred. Mr. Hooper’s reply:
Well, it was a very surreal moment. I was doing an extended essay at Oxford University on James Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. I’ve got a 12,000 word essay and bunking off without telling people to direct a commercial staring Right Said Fred and some dancing fat grannies for Sega, the games company. And I just thought that never again in my life will I have the strongest disjunct between high and low culture. But the short answer is: Right Said Fred is extremely nice. And disappointingly uneccentric.
First you direct a Sega commercial, then you hit the big time. I couldn’t find the commercial, but if you know of it, please link it in the comments below. The rest of the interview contains some interesting insights on script research and Oscar buzz, so check it out over at Movieline.
[Source: Movieline]