Spike Lee on His New Denzel Washington Film ‘Highest 2 Lowest,’ How ‘Malcolm X’ “Nearly Killed Me,” and Retirement: “I Got Some Time Left”
Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, BlacKkKlansman) took a brief break from his work as the president of the main competition jury at the fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, sharing industry and career insights during an “In Conversation With” session and talking about being in post-production on his fifth film with Denzel Washington.
He calls his partnership with the actor “the dynamic Duo of D and Lee,” the legendary filmmaker told a crowd in Jeddah Old Town Al-Balad that was hanging on his every word amid growth in Saudi production activity and box office. “We are brothers. … We just do our thing.” Despite a long “gap” between working together, namely 18 years since Inside Man, he shared that it didn’t feel that way once they were on set. “We are familiar with each other. Also, our families are very tight.”
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The new film is called Highest to Lowest, “a reinterpretation, not a remake” of Kurosawa’s High and Low, Lee said. He recalled that in film school he was introduced to world cinema and was fascinated by the Japanese filmmaking legend’s work. Kurosawa’s film Rashomon and its structure, for example, inspired his She’s Gotta Have It. “So, from the very beginning, I was influenced by Kurosawa,” he said.
Will Washington really retire as he has hinted at? Lee said the star will next play Othello on Broadway and “is going to do other things,” Lee added. “I’m just glad we did this film. We got five in.”
Would Lee ever consider retiring from filmmaking? “Yeah. Here is the thing though. How old was Kurosawa when doing his last film? Can someone look that up.” An audience member looked at his phone and yelled out a figure. “81?,” Lee replied. “Yeah, I got some time left,” he said to laughs and applause. “Whether it’s God or Allah, I am blessed. … If you are able to make a living doing what you love, that’s a blessing. … And as I have gotten older, I have realized it was my destiny to become a filmmaker.”
He then got up, saying “the Almighty” has at various times in his life pushed him and led him to sit down. He also said he is not taking this blessing for granted. Lee also called his third time in Jeddah, including the second time at the Red Sea fest, a blessing. “Ad this will not be the last time,” Lee said to cheers.
“The first time I was here in Jeddah, I was doing Malcolm X,” the director recalled. “I was here for two weeks waiting for permission from the highest Islamic court to bring a camera into Makkah during the hajj.” In the end, he was allowed to send a Muslim crew there that became the first ever to get such approval, he said.
“That film almost killed me,” he also shared about Malcolm X. “That film was under budget from the beginning. I knew it. Warner Bros. knew it.” The first cut he showed to the studio on the day of the Rodney King police brutality case verdict was four hours long. “L.A. was in flames,” he recalled. “I was told to cut the film significantly, and I said no.”
“Hell no” was his response to a suggestion he should shoot a scene on the Jersey Shore in January. Warner shut the film down after Lee had already out in $1 million, “half of my salary,” Lee shared. “I was stuck.” Given that Malcolm X had talked much about self-reliance, he said he drew up a list of prominent Black people he would try to ask for financial gifts. “Really, I was begging: This is the only film to get the film done. The first man I called was Bill Cosby,” he said. The actor gave him a check when the director showed up at his door. Tracy Chapman, Janet Jackson, Prince were among the others, with Magic Johnson and “the GOAT” Michael Jordan being last. Lee joked about how competitive Jordan is, saying he asked how much Johnson had given and gave him more.
Nelson Mandela was part of the last shooting day for the film, the director shared. “On our way to Johannesburg, we had to make an emergency landing in Nairobi because of a bomb threat,” Lee recalled. “That movie nearly killed me.”
But he called Washington’s work in Malcolm X “one of the best performances in a biopic ever,” also lauding the star for his recent role in Gladiator II, for which he was just nominated for a Golden Globe award.
“I’m not an actor,” Lee said when asked about the early days of his career. What is Lee looking for from a new actor? “It really depends on the role,” he said, mentioning how Jungle Fever was Halle Berry and Queen Latifah’s first film. “From the very beginning, I wanted to give an opportunity for new talent because this is a very tough business,” including behind the camera and “particularly (for) people of color.” He added: “I find it very gratifying.”
Lee likes to bring back wonderful talent. “Why would I work with Denzel only once? Or with John Turturro?” he said. “You want to surround yourself with great artists in front of and behind the camera.”
Plus, he offered that things often feel like family on his sets. People love to work on a Spike Lee set, he told the festival audience. “I am there to do the work and have a good time doing it.” Lee declined to mention talents he would like to work with for the first time, explaining he didn’t want to jinx things.
“My father hated Hollywood movies,” Lee also shared on Tuesday. “My mother loved Hollywood films.” What does that mean for him and his approach to films? “I would say I am a product of both parents,” Lee said. “I got beliefs, and I won’t do things I don’t believe in.”
And he talked about what advice he gives students at the start of his NYU classes where he teaches as a professor. “Filmmaking is no joke. This is serious business,” he explained. “If you are not serious, you make it harder for yourself.” And it’s work you can’t do alone, he emphasized.
Lee also shared that he is up 5-6 a.m. most days, but understands that other people like to work late. “Everybody has their own clock,” he said, adding that he can’t sit at a desk for more than four hours. His on-set days are usually also not longer than eight to 10 hours, he also shared. “Crews talk. And when the atmosphere and the working conditions aren’t right, you are not going to get your best.”
Lee drew laughs when he shared how if a camera is on a roof, he won’t go up on the roof. “I am afraid of heights,” he explained.
Wrapping things up, Lee said that he approaches his documentary work the same he approaches fiction features. “It’s still telling a story,” he explained. But he concluded that his work on Malcolm X was easy, in an emotional sense, compared to his work on his 1997 doc 4 Little Girls, calling it “one of my most moving experiences filming.” The doc focuses on the murder of four African-American girls in a bombing in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. Although the FBI figured the bombing had been committed by four Ku Klux Klan members, no prosecutions were immediately conducted.
“Many years later, a week before the film was supposed to open at the Film Forum, I get a call from the FBI, saying they want a print of the film. I gave it to them,” he said. “The FBI reopened the case and charged those criminals with murder.” Concluded Lee: “That’s the best work I have ever done, and it was hard.”
Lee received an honorary Oscar in 2015 but won his first competitive Academy Award in 2019 for best adapted screenplay for BlacKkKlansman. The filmmaker is one of several big Hollywood names making the journey to RSIFF 2024, with others including Cynthia Erivo, Michelle Yeoh, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Viola Davis, Olivia Wilde, Emily Blunt, Andrew Garfield, Eva Longoria, Nick Jonas, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and jury president Spike Lee.
“Having been lucky enough to experience first-hand the incredible filmmaking, atmosphere, and creativity at the Red Sea International Film Festival in 2022, it’s a privilege to be returning this year as president of the jury,” Lee had said when he was unveiled as the jury head for the Jeddah fest. “Alongside creating a melting pot for cultures to come together in celebration of our important art form, it’s vital to continue to platform young and emerging filmmakers who are finding their voice in the industry.”
The audience in Jeddah gave Lee a standing ovation when he left the stage, with at least one person yelling out, “Thank you, Spike!”
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