The Man Behind the Throne Page #4

Wow, it's beautiful.

Oh, my gosh.

Mmm.

Whoa.

What did she give it to us for?

Uh, no reason.

Just 'cause we're neighbours.

How sweet.

- How's that?

- Oh, my gosh.

Yeah, I had to go talk to her

this morning about that...

I've lived

his whole career with him.

I mean, sometimes I think

I've been more optimistic

about what he had yet to do,

you know?

Yeah. So...

You know, in this business,

you're self-employed.

You finish your job, you don't know

where the next one's coming from.

And artists,

you know how they are, it's just...

They're never gonna work again,

they're never gonna eat again.

You know, it's gonna be

a really tough struggle.

And I've always just really felt

that at the height

of his first stage of his career,

he thought it was kind of like,

you know, "OK, I've done this."

And I always knew that there was

something bigger coming.

So, I'm gonna pour

some stuff... this in here.

Could you just hold this?

It would have been easier,

just the water, though.

No, it wouldn't.

My sister's the butch one

of the family.

Her boys don't even know

how to do this stuff.

This is why I want to retire.

- Why what?

- This is why I want to retire.

I can't see him retiring

and just doing this.

Shut up.

So I think this is just

the first and the last of the

mortar... the mortar and the rocks.

I'm gonna squirt her.

I think he needs a couple more years

to get it all out of his system,

before complete retirement.

This was Manon, the opera

that I did for Anya Netrebko -

the only opera

that I've ever directed.

It was the production of this opera

that kind of cinched the deal for

me working with Cirque du Soleil.

Oh, here I made

the dean's list in college.

I'm going back to college, you know?

They're making me a fellow.

You know, when I think of

where I came from,

you know, just this guy

who lived by the oil refineries,

and then I think that,

"Oh, my gosh!"

You know?

"They're making me a fellow

at this university."

And... That's kind of cool.

One of the things I've learned

by being around so many celebrities

is it's easy for them

to get the adoration of fans,

but when it comes back

to the personal level,

they really never know who to trust

and who really loves them

for being Madonna or Michael Jackson

or Elvis Presley.

The consequence of that, for me,

was to shy away from publicity

and NOT get my name pushed out

in The Times and the television

Entertainment Tonights,

and let it be about the work,

let it be about the work process,

the things that I really love.

I've always appreciated

and made the choice of being

the man behind the throne.

I like being behind it

and whispering in the ear, you know?

It's kind of how I've always

seen myself in this career.

"I think it's better

if you do this." You know?

"Las Vegas, September 15.

"Day one in the theatre.

"It is breathtakingly gorgeous.

"The stage is massive -

the largest in North America.

"I'm beyond ecstatic

with everybody's work.

"And I'm allowing the dreams

of a fantastic show

"to overpower any apprehension

that creeps into my soul."

This is the Jailhouse Rock set.

It's amazing.

It's so, so huge and beautiful.

But you know,

the funny thing is in most shows,

this one set alone

would be the entire show.

You know? This would be the show.

In our show, this comes out for five

minutes, and that's the end of that.

That's all you see it

in one evening.

"October 18.

"Yesterday we had a run-through

"of the first more than half

of the show.

"When we finished,

I sat down with the producers

"and their discussion

went something like this.

"'You can never forget the type of

audience we get in Vegas, Vincent.

"'Where are all the dancers?

"'The stage looks so big and black.

"'This is supposed to be a spectacle

and I don't see any spectacle.

"'This is not the show we want

for Cirque du Soleil.'

"Imagine my surprise.

"What they saw was nothing different

"than what they saw in Montreal

and salivated over."

"October 25.

"The guillotine falls daily.

"Sometimes there isn't time

to clean the blood from the blade.

"Chop! There go

my two young Elvises.

"Swoosh! There goes

some of Bonnie's choreography.

"Ram! There goes Leo

the Elvis character.

"Rip! There goes

a piece of my script.

"This is what I don't like

about this insane business -

"this frantic creative mind-changing

at the last minute.

"I thought this would be different.

"I'm baffled.

"Mamma, don't let your babies

grow up to do showbiz."

This is my first day of work.

Can you see that

that's snow out there?

Yes.

Snow.

Lars von Trier,

he was looking for choreographers

to work with him

on Dancer In The Dark.

And he had seen three things...

...Black Or White, Smooth Criminal

and pieces of

the Blonde Ambition tour.

He said, "Well, Vincent... Wincent, I

think you should come and talk to me

"because I was looking for

three different choreographers

"because of three different

pieces of work,

"and they're all yours.

"So it seems to me

"that you're the one who's

supposed to do this movie with me."

When I walked into the Zentropa

offices, I was kind of freaked.

The production was...

well, beyond disorganised.

It reminded me of the chaotic music

video productions I did in the '80s.

The casting wasn't complete,

the sets weren't built,

the music wasn't finished.

So, how's it going, Charlotte?

Ugh!

I had to keep reminding myself

that one of the reasons

I decided to do this film

was that it was NO a Hollywood studio movie.

Ah.

- Childhood moment.

- The life.

It was written in the script

that there was an older Jewish man

who ran the little theatre

where Bjork's character, Selma, was

going to perform Sound Of Music.

And I kept saying to Lars, "Lars,

we're going to shoot this in a week.

"I need to have this actor here."

And Lars would say, to me,

"Oh, that's OK.

"He's coming, Wincent, he's coming,

he's coming soon."

Well, it got down to the deadline

and I basically said,

"Lars, really, if we don't have

the actor to do this,

"I think we need to change

the schedule around."

And Lars said, "Wincent,

I have the actor. I found him."

And I said, "You did? Where is he?

When am I gonna meet him?"

"You're gonna meet him now,

Wincent." And I said, "Really?"

And he puts his arm around me

and he walks me over to the mirror

and he goes, "Here he is."

Now side to side.

- Raindrops on roses...

- Other people can sing.

"Wincent, I've been watching you

in your rehearsals and everything,

"and you're exactly the kind

of character I want in this film."

Selma will put Kathy, like, here,

like this, right?

Mm-hm.

And then Selma,

with somebody lying down here.

And then someone will

turn her around like this.

- Mm-hm.

- They'll go up like this.

And then you should imagine...

Something they're holding...

Somebody upside down

with their head down there.

And she gets pulled into

the rhythm, right?

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