Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans Page #6

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The makeup man can't do this.

It has to be real.

And Steve wanted it like this.

STEVE MCQUEEN:
As an actor,

if you get in the position

to be able to have

control, or as a filmmaker,

you must carry your project.

Carry it all the way

through, to the end.

That means you can't give up.

You can't let a thing go.

And nobody will make

a decision for you,

and nobody's smarter

than you are.

MAN:
There was really no script.

We were winging it.

In the meantime, until we

got somewhat of a script,

we were shooting just footage.

Hollywood is a

formula they like,

and they like to stick to it.

They wanted to have

more of a love story.

My dad wanted cars and realism.

MAN:
You had a mental picture

of a documentary, something that

was paired down to give you

the total experience of what

was going on.

MAN:
People like

myself felt Le Mans

would make a great background

for a dramatic story.

That debate caused

writers to come,

and go, and take a shot at the

script that would make sense.

MAN:
They were called

dueling caravans,

because they were lined

up next to each other.

Who could get the latest new

script on Steve's desk first?

MAN:
He was trying to write the

great American novel when he

was trying to write the script.

And because the first sentence

written was in the greatest

sentence ever

written, he couldn't

get himself to that point,

putting it down on paper.

MAN:
Everybody that went

to the box office back then

said, oh, he's going to win it.

He's going to win it.

So let's throw a

little wrench in this.

I'm going to give him

something different.

OK, Steve.

You walk into this caravan.

You see this girl you

haven't seen in a long time.

And she looks up at

you and says, hello.

What would you say, hello?

And he said, not necessarily.

That was the lowest

point for me.

I thought, we're never

going to get a script.

If I had written the script,

I know it would have worked.

It would have worked.

I was his boy.

I was his writer.

His favorite expression is

the son of a b*tch knows me.

I don't know how,

but he knows me.

The meeting took

place in Steve's home.

He insisted that the

character had to be a loser,

and I didn't want

to write a loser.

You have to remember,

I was also a star.

I thought I had a write

to insist on my position.

He just wanted to lose in that

movie, and I don't know why.

Steve wanted to have

something more than just

Steve McQueen doing

Steve McQueen on film.

You're talking

about something he

wanted to do that was more

important than acting.

You shouldn't argue

with a superstar,

even if you helped

make him a superstar.

I was the highest paid

screenwriter in town

when I went to that meeting.

And after that meeting,

the phone never rang again.

[cars racing]

His love of cars

were so infectious

that is screwed me up for life.

Since day one when I

got here, I'm like, dad,

can you just give me a ride

in one of the race cars?

That's all I wanted.

Must've been two months

went by, and my dad

turned the car around.

He opened his right

door, the side door,

and went like that,

turned around,

and he sat me on his lap.

And I just put my hands

inside of his hands.

For a second, he pulled

his hands out the wheel,

and I was steering the 917.

And that was pretty bitching.

Yeah, baby!

Ha, ha!

NEILE ADAMS:
Chad didn't tell us

that he hit a wall in Daytona.

He's got 16 screws on his

neck, and he's got a rod

on either side of his spine.

I broke everything in my body.

And the reason

I'm wearing shades

is my right eye

is still towed in.

I was in a coma for

three and a half weeks.

Did I say that?

Would I change anything?

No.

I wouldn't.

Pretty neat, huh?

There is nothing

better, nothing better.

I mean, motorsports is the

strongest drug in the world.

STEVE MCQUEEN:
We attempted

to show in the film,

rather than to explain it,

just to show why a man races.

The feelings that

he gets from it.

It's a great sense of freedom.

It's a high of one

sort or another.

MAN:
To drive a car in

perfect condition to the limit

was the most gratifying

thing you ever did.

It's almost like a

ballet, with the car

going in through the corners.

And it's a thing of beauty.

It is a work of art.

I went 330 kilometers per hour.

The faster I went, the

more relaxed I was.

But when it's finished,

you have the time to think,

and then you're glad that

nothing happened more.

MAN:
It overtakes drivers,

without them knowing it.

The freedom of an eagle

floating in the sky

was something that

racing brought to him.

Whatever that other stuff was

that came from his upbringing,

he could set that aside.

Death is so close.

It's right on my shoulder.

And yet, there's a peace here.

And he actually found

such joy in that, that he

wanted to give that to people.

I've always wanted to shoot

a motor racing picture,

because it's always been

something close to my heart.

I sometimes thought, well,

maybe I shouldn't do it.

When something is

close to you, you

have a tendency to become too

much a perfectionist with it.

And I don't think there's

any race driver that can

really tell you why he races.

But I think he could

probably show you.

[cars racing]

MAN:
He was not Hercules.

He was Icarus.

Steve wanted to fly so

high, and he didn't quite

understand the point where the

wax starts to leave your wings.

PRODUCER:
Through the

set, through the set.

And cars are rolling.

[crashing]

MAN:
I was rolling.

They had to pay the drivers.

They had to pay the camera men.

They had to pay the sound men.

They had to pay the people

that fed them at lunch.

[tires screeching]

And the people in the cinema

center were checking in.

How are things going over there?

Well, not so good.

We ain't got no story.

We were approximately

$1.5 million over budget.

And the studio was expecting

a Steve McQueen movie to bail

us out, and we didn't have it.

We were going to make

the most expensive

documentary in the world,

if somebody didn't talk.

Everybody was looking

for the same thing,

with one exception--

with one exception,

and that would be Steve McQueen.

MAN:
The truth is we had gone

into a rather lengthy debate

over the basis of the film.

My father went back to

his production office,

and in a fit of rage, threw

a lamp against the wall.

[glass breaking]

He said, this picture's

f***ing out of control.

MAN:
And it was at

that moment that he

turned and saw Bob Rosen

reclining on his couch,

reading a magazine.

MAN:
Wrong guy was in the room.

Bob called the studio and said,

we've got real problems now.

They're falling out

among themselves.

MAN:
I don't remember

that happening.

Could it have happened?

Yeah.

But it wasn't like a revelation.

Everybody knew the picture

was out of control.

MAN:
Cinema Center's answer was

we'll take the picture over.

Now, we call the shots,

and we make the decision.

We don't care which

script you make.

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