Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans Page #4

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attractive on the screen.

And as a woman, that's something

that I want to get to know.

I don't know who cast her.

Think Steve had an eye for her.

She appealed to him.

She was an attractive lady.

My respect for him was

not as big as his for me.

We shared this thing

about the accident.

I had worked for

Steve about two years,

almost, before we did "Le Mans."

I was involved more

with the car racing

and other personal matters.

I had dinner

together with Steve,

and the count and the countess

from whom he rented this castle

in which he was living.

He would drive me home.

It was like 12:
00,

1 o'clock in the morning.

And Steve comes into my

room and says, come on.

We've got to go.

Where are we going?

Why don't we go tomorrow?

I'm tired.

I haven't slept.

He told me to screw

myself and said,

what are you worried about?

You're only 21.

You'll sleep when you die.

I never knew her name.

I never got introduced.

And it wasn't just any night.

It was my first night

arriving in France.

I sat down next to

him in the front seat.

Steve was not driving a Porsche.

He was driving a Peugeot,

or something like that.

MAN:
He was driving like a

maniac, and it started to rain.

And I keep telling

him to slow down,

and he keeps telling

me to shut up.

Suddenly, there was a curve.

[brakes screeching]

[cutting noise]

He drove at the side, and

we rolled over the field.

[clunking noises]

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-- I remember

them smashing their heads

into the windshield.

I went flying.

I remember looking at my arm,

holding on, as we're crashing

down, and it just broke.

I could see it snap.

I was just out.

[whistling]

Tss-- And I

remember reaching up,

and opening the door, and

pushing the door open, and cut.

Steve thought that I was dead,

because I was lying there.

The water, the light

rain, woke him up.

And he said, what

the f*** happened?

Holy sh*t.

What have I done?

Oh my god, she's dead!

Is she dead?

And of course, my

arm's like this.

It's just hanging.

And she comes to.

She seemed OK, not too bad.

He didn't have a scratch.

They didn't call an ambulance,

because they didn't want this

to get official, of course.

We saw a little farmhouse.

Steve says, there's a car there.

Let's go hot wire it.

And all of a sudden, we

hear the dogs barking.

And this French guys

comes out in pajamas,

and he's got a shot gun, and

old, big gun in his hand.

And he's screaming in French

something-- [french speech]

Pow!

[gun shot]

My makeup, early in the

morning, she didn't know.

She asked me why I had bruises,

but they were not too big.

And I said, ah, well, you know.

The production team, so to

say, must have known about it.

Well, I know that

there was an accident,

but I don't want to go there.

I don't want to go there.

I took the wrap for it.

They said that I was the

one who caused the problem,

but the fact that Steve was with

the girl was never revealed.

You just have to protect

Steve, and it's no big deal.

Nobody got killed.

Don't worry about it.

It's part of our jobs.

What would have happened if

it'd been on the headlines

just before we started shooting

the movie saying, Steve

McQueen, the great

driver, he had an accident

with a young actress.

[clacking tongue]

Could you imagine?

He was so afraid.

I could see how scared

he was that I would

ruin him and his production.

He said to me, I'd appreciate

it if you don't talk about this.

So I said--

[pops lips]

no, I won't.

no, I won't.

[train station noises]

NARRATOR:
The cars pass

through the sleepy French towns

and countryside.

Strange, slow parade

of muttering monsters.

PRODUCER:
Rolling.

MAN:
McQueen were trying to

achieve something that hadn't

been done in mainstream

films about a sport

that he had a true passion for.

Cars underway.

MAN:
He really wanted

to break through

and do a film that

was as authentic

as you could possibly get.

MAN:
He wanted to put the

person in the theater, put

them in the seat of a race car.

He wanted them to feel what

he felt as a driver himself.

That was always his intent.

Wes, I think this is the first

time this sort of a production

has been undertaken.

Yes, it is.

This is the first time anything

like this has been filmed.

[cars racing]

The things with this

car and the mounts on it,

and the cameras on

it that have never

been used before--

they're entirely new

mounts, entirely new concept of

the way to shoot a racing film.

So far, everything is

going so beautifully,

it's almost unbelievable.

STEVE MCQUEEN:
They were

able to achieve camera mounts

on automobiles that never before

had ever thought of being used.

To be able to get the feeling

of speed on film, helping us

crash which we call

the film barrier.

When Steve talked about

breaking the film barrier,

he was using language

that Hollywood didn't use.

Nobody ever thought

of doing it that way.

What he was trying

to do was give

the total visual experience.

I'll tell you, Steve was ahead

of his time with his vision.

STEVE MCQUEEN:
As far as

reality film's concerned,

that's where it's at.

That's where it should be.

MAN:
He wanted it

shot at race speeds.

STEVE MCQUEEN:
If you're

going 20, 40 in the race,

we're doing 240 in

every shot we do.

[racecar vrooming]

Every driver that

was on that picture,

I mean, they were risking

their lives every single day

they were there.

MAN:
These scenes that they

shot were choreographed.

You had to do a ballet

out on the track

and do what the director

had asked you to do.

MAN:
The making of

film was, in many ways,

a lot more dangerous

than the race.

And Steve did also not have

much of a sense of danger.

So everything was

pushed to the extreme.

Now, we're going

220 miles an hour.

Now, we're dicing.

Now, we're setting up a shot.

Not what might

happen consciously

to a driver in his mind.

At a certain spot, we're

asking drivers to do this.

It's death.

[people talking]

NARRATOR:
Dereck Bell

is the first driver

to experience a narrow escape.

MAN:
Get out the way there.

Get the men out of the way.

Steve and I were doing a shot.

Suddenly, the car

sort of just exploded.

It sort of went up

in flames in my face.

[fire burning]

STEVE MCQUEEN:
And

it appeared that he

took to unfasten the seat belt

and climbing out of the door.

It's when I got burned.

Oh, I just got very

burnt around here.

STEVE MCQUEEN:
It could

have been a lot worse.

I could've been dead,

just as easy as that.

MAN:
Steve was committed.

He put his but on the line.

Let's put it that way.

Every day, we shot

with him in the car.

MAN:
How can I get this shot?

That's Steve McQueen.

That's the loner with the dream.

If you have this unlimited film

barrier that you want to crash

through, you're going to

be worried about if you're

going to die in the process?

[cars racing]

In the film, I played

a race car driver.

I drove for Ferrari.

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