Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner Page #6

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...devil-may-care smile and attitude.

And he has a wonderful presence,

he's a good athlete.

Harrison's naturally laconic...

...dry wit...

...and smart.

So you better be ready.

When we were casting, and Ridley

was looking at different actors...

...I made him sit down

in the screening room...

...and look at Katie Tippel,

Soldier of Orange and Turkish Delight.

And I said. "This is Batty.

I mean, you've got to realize that."

And he said. "Absolutely."

And he actually cast Rutger

without ever having met him.

He came in... Because he was always

a weird dresser, this guy.

He was a big man, and he was wearing

a puce nylon jump suit...

...it was a one piece zip-up.

A Kenzo sweater that had a big fox

across the shoulder with two red eyes.

He had already cut his hair

the way he thought Batty should look...

...which was the short, short,

pointed blond hair.

And he was wearing green, floral

kind of Elton John sunglasses.

We're so happy you found us.

I could literally see

Ridley's heart stop.

"This is gonna be my tough guy?"

And I...

And I said. "Ridley, I can assure you

that the guy is Batty."

And, of course, obviously, it was, you

know. Rutger playing a joke on Ridley...

...or maybe he wasn't.

Then I had a meeting with Ridley. You

only have that a few times in your life.

You talk about all kinds of stuff,

and you're having a good lunch.

And you never get to the subject,

and it doesn't really matter that much.

But I think at the end I said, "Ridley,

so, what about this Blade Runner?"

You know.

"What does it look like?"

And he said. "Well, you know,

one of the major influences for me...

...is Bilal."

which is a cartoonist in France.

And I happened to know

that cartoonist, and I went:

The talk about character was... I think it

was almost in the second talk we had...

...before I got signed on,

where I explained to him, you know...

...what I thought would be interesting

for the character...

...and basically saying, you know:

"Can I put in all the things

that don't belong there?"

The things that are so amazing

about people, you know?

Sense of poetry, sense of humor.

Sense of sexuality.

Sense of the kid, sense of soul.

And Ridley said.

"You know, I like all of them.

Keep them in. We'll work with them.

When we'll find a way to get...

...you know,

get them out in different scenes."

In those days,

different from today...

...we actually did

real studio screen tests.

And they were quite elaborate,

and they were quite expensive.

And you had a short crew in

to shoot them.

And obviously.

Ridley was not convinced...

...that any one of our young women

was the girl to go with.

We wanted somebody

who nobody would recognize, frankly.

Somebody completely new.

My agent called me

with a strange request. He said:

"There's this director. Ridley Scott.

He's doing this sci-H picture

named Blade Runner...

...and he wants you

to be Harrison Ford."

I said. "What do you mean

be Harrison Ford?

What are you talking about?"

He said. "Well, they need

to test a bunch of girls...

...to be his love interest

and another girl in this picture...

...and he thinks you bear

some resemblance, or something.

And so I agreed to do it.

And it turned out to be

a lot of fun. Met Ridley.

We went to the Warner Bros, stage...

...and he had blocked every girl

for the same thing...

...so that I was, you know,

basically feeding them...

...so it would be an equal treatment

kind of deal.

And I'd be Harrison,

pretty much the same way each time.

The only girl who departed...

...from the blocking and everything

right away was Sean Young.

Young says.

"We're not gonna do it this way."

And I said. "Oh, this is great."

And Ridley, you know, indulged her.

And I indulged her, I said:

"Fine. Do you want me

to play with this girl?" He said, "Yeah."

I met her in a casting session,

and she just reminded me...

...funny enough, of Vivien Leigh

for some bizarre reason.

And I always thought that acerbic

toughness that Vivien Leigh had...

...apart from being extremely beautiful

and quirky, was...

An intelligence

was what she needed.

I think he recognized that he could

make a classic-beauty type of picture...

...you know, with me in it.

I like what she did a lot.

They were less enamored.

She looked beautiful...

...but I wasn't absolutely convinced

about her as an actress.

Sean Young was cast because she was,

in Ridley's eyes...

...the perfect Rachael, visually.

As soon as he cast her, he told me

that he wanted me to work with her...

...so that she could...

Her performance could match her look.

I remember being a little freaked out

when I heard that I got the part.

I remember being, like,

almost depressed...

...a little bit, I know that's

kind of a strange reaction...

...but I think that it was

because when I got the part...

...I realized I'd have to live up

to the responsibility...

...of playing the part,

and I was pretty young...

...and it was very unknown to me

what would be expected of me.

So I was probably a little scared.

She just came across

so perfectly superior and so right.

And utterly beautiful.

I mean, she could be an android.

She may still be an android,

for all I know.

And I remember the first audition

was in a small trailer...

...on the 20th Century lot.

Originally, in the screenplay...

...Pris was supposed

to be sort of dangling on these rings.

You know, the gymnastic rings.

And there wasn't any kind of gymnastic

stuff incorporated into the fight.

It was just taking place

in a gymnasium.

And so I had been a gymnast

as a kid in school...

...and so I suggested to Ridley

that I could do gymnastics...

...and that maybe I could put that

into the fight sequence.

And so I remember he asked me

to show him what gymnastics meant...

...and what that was.

So I did a back walkover or something

like that for him in the trailer...

...and that was it.

I'd met Daryl,

and Daryl was pretty well it.

I liked Daryl immediately

on meeting her.

She's kind of, you know,

perfect physically.

She's bright.

She's got this quirky side to her.

We were called

to do screen tests...

...and there were four other women

who were testing for the part.

All completely different from me.

What's your name?

Pris.

Stacey Nelkin,

perfect, tiny, you know?

Like, little curls

and the most beautiful face...

...and this, you know,

Va-Va-voom body...

...but, like, small

and perfectly proportioned.

I do remember the set

being exceedingly smoky.

It's not like being in a bar, it's worse.

At least in those days.

Ridley must have said

that was part of it.

The environment had already started to,

you know, break down the lungs...

...and all of those things.

Everybody who was screen testing

got to create their own character.

You know, had days

to meet with the Makeup team...

...and the Wardrobe team.

And I remember I had found that wig

in a basket full of stuff.

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