Exit Through the Gift Shop Page #4

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but only my hands,

from behind,

and on condition that I could

check the tapes afterwards.

It was magic that this person

let me film, you know?

I felt like I had the piece

that will finish the puzzle.

It was like getting something

in the daylight

that what you see

in the night light.

He was even more

than I expected.

I mean, he was, like,

just incredible.

He was cool.

He was...

he was human.

He was... he was...

he was...

he was... he is the...

you know, he's really

like what he represent.

You know, he's really, like...

I think he's really, like...

I really liked him.

NARRATOR:
For the rest

of Banksy's stay,

Thierry made himself

indispensable,

leading the artist to some

of the best painting spots

in the city.

I mean, Thierry

was the perfect host

if you're a graffiti rat

and you're miles from home.

He had no fear.

He wanted to keep going

all night long,

and he had a massive larder.

click!

NARRATOR:
A few weeks after

their chance encounter in L.A.,

Banksy invited Thierry

to England.

I always avoided cameras,

'cause what I do is

in a bit of a legal gray area,

but I brought Thierry

over to London

because it seemed

like a good idea:

start videoing the work.

I mean, we had to,

'cause, you know,

a lot of it was starting

to disappear the next day.

NARRATOR:
But Banksy's

close-knit team

of trusted friends

was horrified

by the sudden appearance

of this camera-happy Frenchman.

The first time that Thierry

was filming Banksy,

I was like,

"What the f*** is going on?"

I thought, you know, that nobody

was allowed to do this.

I thought it was

a big breach of security.

Being the man of mystery

and being filmed

at the same time

is a slight oxymoron,

I think.

It's a very dangerous thing.

All the people

who was working with him,

they didn't understand.

They look at me like,

"Who is this?

Who is this guy?"

You know,

"What is he gonna do to us?"

You know?

And he didn't care whatsoever.

Two, three.

I guess Thierry

showed up at a time

when I realized

that the reaction to this stuff

was, you know, one of the most

interesting things about it,

because for me, it's

an important part of the job

to run away

as soon as we've done it,

but at least with Thierry,

we had someone hanging round

afterwards

who could capture some of it.

This is when I saw

that he was, like, a legend.

He was like kind of

a Robin Hood or something.

- You know Banksy?

- Yeah.

- You know Banksy?

- I don't know.

I mean, I heard about him.

He does

very, very good graffiti.

Looks a bit like Banksy,

but I know he's doing a bit more

installations at the moment.

I like it.

I like it.

What do you think of it?

Someone is annoyed

with BT telephones.

Yeah, we were, you know,

laughing like trains

at all this stuff

he got out of it.

So yeah, he proved his worth

on that project,

brought something to it

that we would never have had

otherwise.

NARRATOR:
Over the rest

of his time in London,

Banksy took Thierry everywhere,

even allowing him to film

inside his studio

as he prepared

for his first big American show.

He opened his door to me,

and it was magic

kind of way.

You ask the question,

"Why me?" in the end.

"Why?"

I think maybe Thierry

was like a bit of a release

for me, you know?

Having spent years

of trying to keep everything

completely under wraps,

maybe I needed

to trust somebody.

I mean, I guess part

of the power of Thierry

is this unlikely...

the unlikeliness of it.

Yeah, you know?

I guess he became my friend.

Oh.

It's all money.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

It is real?

It's Lady Di

instead of the queen.

It's so cool.

I made 1 million worth,

and I was gonna throw it

off a building, just like...

But I took some out,

and I handed some out

first of all,

and people spent them,

and people were like,

"Oh, yeah.

Two beers.

A couple beers. "

Nobody noticed,

because when you

got them like this,

you can actually spend them.

And they won't know.

And when that happened,

it was like, "Holy sh*t.

We just... we just forged

a million quid. "

And obviously, for that,

you go to jail for ten years.

So I have them up here,

but I don't know

what to do with them.

You find it here?

I made it.

Wow, you made this?

For f***'s sake,

I printed it.

Oh, my God.

NARRATOR:
Back in L.A.,

Thierry struggled

to keep himself entertained

after the high

of his scoop with Banksy.

# If I don't get

my i-i-i-ice cream #

I'm like a bird.

I always thought of that.

I'm like a bird.

I never want to be

locked down anywhere.

I like to fly

from one artist to another.

You know,

that's the way that I live,

one life to another.

You know, I like to be free.

You know,

my wife was worried

because, you know,

bill to pays,

and me, the only thing

I wanted to do

was, like, buy some tape

and go somewhere, you know?

I wasn't worried,

but I'm sure my wife

had a little problem

of sleeping sometime.

He was following the artists,

and he goes to here,

he goes there,

and I worry.

I worry for my kids.

I worry for everybody,

actually,

but he doesn't care.

He just goes and does.

And he forgets

he comes with a family.

You know, just...

we need him.

Bye, Gigi!

Bye, Jackie!

Bye!

I love you!

NARRATOR:
For five years,

Thierry's family

had learned to cope

with his endless trips away,

but now there was

a new development

taking up his time.

The way it started,

I took picture

of me holding a camera,

and I asked somebody

to illustrate it,

and I liked it,

so I made a small sticker.

And I made it transparent,

you know,

because I never solid,

transparent.

A transparent looked

like a little stencil in a way.

And I liked it,

so I went to Kinko's,

because I learned from "Obey"

and things like this,

and I started making

that photocopy...

I don't know... 30 feet

by 40 feet high, you know?

And I went at 10:00 at night

until 8:
00 in the morning,

and I made, like,

this image giant

of me with the camera.

That big image, I thought

it was kind of cool.

And I start doing it

kind of the same story

of "Obey,"

following the movement

of street art.

I start to make copies,

make it bigger,

and starting to put it

all around the city.

The enjoyment

of taking the glue

and making the thing

and going,

I was, like, addict.

It was like a spiral,

and I just fall in it.

I just fall in the spiral.

"Aaaah!"

I fall, like, making the art.

NARRATOR:
A few months after

Thierry had seen him in London,

Banksy returned to Los Angeles.

He had arrived with his crew

to transform

a large run-down warehouse

into the venue for

his first major U.S. exhibition,

"Barely Legal. "

Oh, my God.

It's really big.

It is giant.

Trippy.

It's the biggest elephant

I ever saw in my life.

Look at this.

It's really big.

NARRATOR:
But Banksy

had more on his mind

than getting

the show's surprise guest

ready for her big moment.

We were right in the middle

of putting the show together,

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