All language subtitles for Drew-The Man Behind the Poster

that encapsulates
what film experience was
for a couple of generations.

And I think for my generation
and the generation
right before me,

Drew Struzan
was the movie.

There's images
that Drew has drawn that are
burned in my brain forever.

They'll never go away.

His posters
are modern day classics.

That's not an opinion.
It's a statement of fact.

It's not just an ad,
you know? It's the first
notes of the piece.

It's the beginning
of the story.

His artistic interpretation
of what that story is,
in one image,

really made you
want to run out
and see that movie.

He is a storyteller,
and that's what makes him
very, very unique...

and ranks him
with the great poster artists
of all time.

And when you're talking about
the best of the best,

you've got Drew sitting
right up there with those guys.

He's one of the first artists
who's become a pop star,
a rock star.

Myself and my other
artist friends, we would
just drool over his stuff.

He just got
your attention. It was like,
"Wow. I wanna go to that place.

I wanna be there.
I wanna be in that light.

Whatever makes you
look like that,
I want that shit around me."

You anticipate
the new poster from Drew.

Almost anybody who's anybody
in the film business...

wants him
to do posters for them.

He's been such a benefit
and such a kind of second sight
to a lot of my films.

Everyone.
Everyone, arguably worldwide,
knows his work.

They may not know his name,
but everyone's seen
his movie posters.

He did
the Back to the Future series.

Drew did Goonies for me.
He did Hook.
He did Batteries Not Included.

Drew really came along
for the long ride
of the Amblin years...

and just made
a tremendous contribution.

He does just a great, great job
of bringing out the best...

in whatever it is
that he's painting.

I had to almost live up
to the art...

that we later
were going to ask Drew
to create for the poster.

He will inevitably
influence every artist
that comes afterward.

- I'm a big fan of
Drew Struzan.
- It's beautiful work.

It's just great work,
and there's only one.
He's one of a kind.

- Nobody else is Drew Struzan,
I promise you.
- There is nobody else like him.

- He's the best.
- He's a legend.

- He's an original.
- He's amazing.

He's part
of the movie experience.

Having Drew Struzan
do your posters--

almost worth
making movies just for that.

We have a lot
of original art here.

You've done a lot of different
kinds of things for us,

with all different
kinds of demands.

And the fun part is
that they've been
all different kinds of scenes.

You get something like this,
you're getting into
minor characters--

Jabba the Hutt's
too minor a character,
but it's still--

That was one of the rare times
you didn't have to paint
Han, Luke and Leia.

- Right.
Or no laser swords.
- Yes.

- [ Both Chuckle ]
- Thanks for--

So you got to do
fat slugs...

and crazy little
Muppet-type characters...

and a lot of
crazy musicians.

- All of which--
They're very memorable to us.
- Yeah.

I like that picture
a lot.

and my experience
and my knowledge...

or understanding or passions
or whatever it is--

That's how I express it,
and that's how I share it.

I guess that's
what makes us human--

is that we can share
knowledge and wisdom
and experiences,

and painting
is how I do that.

They say I could draw
before I could talk.

That doesn't mean
I didn't talk till 15--

It's just what I do.
It's what I've always
loved to do.

They told me I used to draw
on the toilet paper
and roll it back up...

'cause that was
the only available paper
in the house.

So, you know,
you just take what you can.

If you don't know
what you're lacking,
it doesn't bother you.

As much as, like,
we say we need love--

If you're never given any,
you don't know
what you're missing.

You don't know
you don't have it
'cause you've never seen it.

I didn't have any
as a child.

Parents didn't love me,
didn't like me.

They were afraid of me
for some screwy reason.

When I left home
and got out of high school--

[ Chuckles ]
I said, "I want to go
learn something." So--

I didn't pack my bags.
I didn't have anything.
I just went.

I left, and I didn't
lose anything by leaving.

They didn't want me
anyway, you know.

I actually went home
for the end of one term,

and they locked me
out of the house,
so I never went back.

[ Chuckles ]

It was 1966.

We were actually
at a dance in San Jose.

And we had both
been drug there--

me by my sister
and him by a friend of his.

And I don't know--
There he was,
across the room,

and he was just...
really cute.

My life changed
when I found somebody
to love me...

and someone
I could give love to.

He and Dylan met
when they were teenagers,

and they've been together
ever since.

Actually, it started out
at the Ping-Pong tables.

And I realized
that he wasn't gonna
make any kind of move,

so I just managed to hit
my Ping-Pong ball
over to his table--

you know,
get things rolling.

I think of them
as a unit.

I think of them
as a single person, in a way.

We both didn't have
much of a home
and a home life,

and we were both lonely.

And... couldn't put words
to it at the time,

but it was two people
in need of love.

We found one another
that wanted the same thing
and did it the same way...

and it's still the same today.

That was summer break
when we all met.

And he went back to school,
back to Art Center.

And he sent--
The first letter had
a portrait of me in it.

That's-- You know.
That's pretty powerful stuff.

When you go to college,
before you go to class,
you go to the counselor.

And they ask you the question
you're supposed to ask in bars.

"So what's your major?"
You know.

I said,
"What's my choices?"

I mean, I was naive.
All I really wanted to do
was learn art.

and that school--
That's not just a couple of
little art classes.

Six days a week,
you paint every day.

but it was 100% more
than I had.

I'd go in the front door
in the day
and get some class...

and then the counselors
or the accountants
would come around...

and kick me out
'cause I didn't pay.

So they'd kick me out
and I'd come back in
the back door.

I'm gonna pay eventually.
I didn't want to miss
any of this education, so--

That's how I put myself
through college,
is just slowly.

I'd sell paintings
I did for homework
to other students...

and then
I could pay for it.

Art Center was always supposed
to be a school that teaches
you to be a professional.

And he really
learned that lesson.

He wasn't eating or anything,
so he had a lot of extra time,
right? No.

[ Laughs ]

Starving artist
that he was.

Um-- No, seriously though.
He worked very, very hard
all through school,

and I just think
he has that ethic.

I used to eat only
two days a week, when I went
to see my girlfriend,

and five days a week,
I didn't eat.

We were so poor
when we started out.

And I worked at the county
in order for him to go back
and get his degree at school.

First year I was married,
we had the baby.

He cost 1,500 bucks.

We got the best doctor
in L.A. to deliver
and care for the baby.

I made $3,000 that year.

So we lived on 1,500 bucks--
a family of three.

That was so hard.
Just so hard.

I didn't make enough money
for us to have child care
and eat at the same time,

so we spent a lot of years
below the poverty line.

So far below the poverty line,
they didn't count us,
you know, but--

We were happy
as could be.

I think you don't become
a master artist like Struzan...

without putting in those hours
and dedicating that time...

and really, really doing...

what you have to do.

Quite simply,
I just gave up eating.

'Cause that's a waste
of money.

So I spent my money on paint
instead of eating.

I know exactly what
Struzan's talking about...

when he says that
he had to choose between
paint or food.

It's-It's-- You know.

You make the obvious choice.
Unless you're dying,
you choose paint.

You use just--
Just a little bit.

[ Laughs ]

And paint on both sides
and the edges.

Unless you come from
a privileged background,

as an artist, you're going to
literally starve a little bit.

Being an artist isn't
a means to an end.
It's a means to a means.

You just-- I mean--

I can imagine--

I'm putting words
in his mouth,

but you get pictures
in your head,
you gotta get 'em out.

You can't do that
while you're waiting tables.

If Drew had a backup job...

in case the painting
didn't work out,

then 99 times out of 100,
you end up doing
that backup job.

Because the art--
Doing that,
that's just too hard.

To this day, I'll just squeeze
out the littlest amount of paint
from a tube,

and I spread it
very thin.

Poverty produced
a technique.
[ Chuckles ]

Drew found the thing
very early in life
that he loved,

and he stuck with it.

Just like, you know--

Just like he found Dylan.
He loved her,
and he stuck with her.

You know, and they
stuck with each other.

After school,

he worked very hard
at trying to get work.

And that was kind of
a difficult struggle...

because nobody wants
to give you work
when you haven't done work.

I think he was smart
enough to know
that fine art...

wasn't gonna be
right for him right
at that moment,

with a wife
and child--

It takes years to
become a recognized
fine artist.

You just don't
do it overnight.

Even though sometimes it seems
like it is, it takes years,
sometimes a lifetime.

And he needed money
and he needed work.

That's when he decided--
about a year after
he got out of school--

to take a studio job.

At that time, we were probably
one of the top three companies
in the country...

doing album covers.

Just doing album covers.
That's all we did.

With Pacific Eye & Ear,
it was in the hands of a pro.

I started
hiring illustrators,
because in those days,

illustration,
more than photography,

was really desirable
on album covers.

They actually liked unknown
new artists, 'cause they'd
do something different.

This guy calls and says,
"I'd like to come
show my book."

"Okay. Sure. Go ahead."
You know?

So guy shows up,
and it's Drew Struzan.

I mean, every time
I turned a page,

it was like, "Oh, my God.
This is like-- I've never
seen work like this."

When we got through talking,
he said to me,

"You know, I'm having
real trouble finding a job.

I've got a brand-new baby.

I've got a wife,
and I need
to get a paycheck."

He said, "If you hire me,

I'll work five days,
and you only have to pay me
for four...

until you see
that I bring value."

I said to him--
I swear to God, I said--

"You know what, man?
If you can do the work
like this book,

you work five days,
you get paid five days."

I thought
that was heaven,

that I could work
and actually get a check...

and count on it
at the end of the week.

And that, while it wasn't
a lot of money, it was
twice what I was making,

so it felt
like a lot of money.

And even though we didn't
have a life of luxury,

at least
we were able to eat.

He pretty much stayed
to himself.

He was-- It was all
about family.

It was about him
and his wife
and his kid.

He didn't really
socialize with us.

We'd all go
to concerts...

and hang with the bands
and stuff, but he never
did any of that.

He was always at home
with his wife and his kid,
and we respected that.

This guy was so focused, it--

He was oblivious to all of
this kind of chaos,

distractions and everything
that were going on.

We'd be having
a brainstorming session
or something.

He'd just be talking
and adding to it,
but he'd be sketching.

And by the time
we were landed
on an idea,

he goes,
"You mean like this?"

It was like,
"Oh, shit.
How'd he do that?"

A classic one
is Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath.

I only remember it
because people keep it alive.
They keep talking about it.

And I was just instructed
to draw a picture
of a man dying--

was the way I recall it.

So I said, "Let's do front
and back cover.

Let me do the front cover
a bad man dying.

And the same man if he
was good, and we'll
put him on the back cover,

and this is what it would
look like if it was
a good man dying."

Drew is the character
on both front and back.
He drew himself in there.

That's him with the snakes
around him on the front,

and on the back,
he's the peaceful guy
laying in bed.

And I remember
when that album came,

and I got it
and I loved it.

I was like,
"Oh, it's that guy
who did the artwork."

Alice was really neat.
He's a nice guy.

He used to come around
the studio where I was working
and watch me paint.

When I did
Welcome to My Nightmare,

he wanted
to change the image
a little bit, the self--

Instead of all the makeup
and the bugs
and the scary stuff,

do something classy.

So I said,
"Okay. Put him in a tux."

It's not Alice Cooper at all...

from what I know
of Alice Cooper--

the dark, sinister--

snakes and everything he did.

He's a wonderful musician
and a wonderful cover.

That's probably what
made it work. It was such
a left field kind of cover,

where he comes in
so clean and immaculate
and everything.

It was like somebody
of real quality
and a high degree of talent...

took some time to put his head
into what my head,

as a 14-year-old kid,
would be in approaching
this album.

My sense of anticipation,
my sense of, "What is this?
What am I gonna hear?"

No doubt that Rolling Stone
picked it as one of
the top covers of all time.

It's a beautiful cover.

The blessing of that job
was that...

what I was doing
was getting printed...

and it was getting seen.

I was the first guy in L.A....

to really do
creative advertising...

on a boutique freelance basis
for the studios.

Tony was--
[ Huffs ]

a huge part
of what might be termed
my success.

He really gave me big breaks
when I was young...

and unconnected
and didn't know
what was going on.

When they had a big album,

the record company
would buy a billboard
on the Sunset Strip.

One day, I was driving...

down Sunset Boulevard.

And I happened to look up,

and I saw a very striking
billboard.

And the billboard was
Welcome to My Nightmare.

I almost just jammed the brakes
to get a better look at it.

And I went right from there
to Tower Records
to buy the album...

so I could find out
who the illustrator was.

Turned out
to be Drew Struzan.

Then I went to work,
went to Seiniger's,
and I ran in.

I go, "We have to find
this illustrator."

So I called up one day--
I called up Pacific Eye & Ear,

and I go, "Hi. Can I talk
to Drew Struzan, please?"

Drew picks up the phone.

In that very kind of quiet
monotone of his, he goes,
"Hello?"

And I said, "Hi, Drew.
This is Tony Seiniger,
Seiniger Advertising.

I do movie art,
and we'd love to have you
do a movie poster."

"Oh, I don't know about that.
I'm very busy here,"
and all that.

I said,
"Let me tell you something.

I think you'd be really good
at doing movie posters."

"Oh, yeah?" So I finally
got him to agree...

to come over to the office
and meet with me.

Movie business was notorious.
They stole all the good talent
because they had all the money.

He came over after work one day.

And I asked him,
"What do you make there
at Pacific Eye & Ear?"

I can't remember
the actual figure,

but I was shocked
at how little a man
of this talent was making.

I said,
"Let me tell you something.

If you did a movie poster,
you could make as much
on one job...

as you make at Pacific Eye & Ear
all year long."

You could do an album cover
for $5,000,

or you could do
a movie poster for $20,000
or $25,000 or $50,000.

They didn't care.
They had all the money
in the world.

I think that gave him
the impetus to leave
and start out on his own.

I didn't need
the steady job anymore,

'cause people
were looking for me.

And that was the next step
down that road,
is I went out on my own.

At this point, he had left
Pacific Eye & Ear...

and was willing
to strike out on his own
as an illustrator.

We gave him a movie
called The Black Bird,
with George Segal.

I had this idea--
I was always ripping off
Norman Rockwell...

and other famous illustrators.

Not having my own style
and being very young,

I said, "I can paint
like pretty much anybody."

"Can you do
like a Rockwell style?"

I said,
"I can paint like Rockwell."

"Yeah."
He's very laid-back.

Drew nailed it.

Then the movie
industry started seeing
the work that was being done,

so there's the old thing--
you do the work,
you get seen,

and now they know
that you can do the work,

so they start offering jobs.

Once he got going, man,
it was like, that's it.

Everybody else
just grabbed him.

So Drew Struzan and I
worked together
for almost 20 years.

We started with The Black Bird
in 1975,

and I think the last painting
we did together was maybe
Hook in 1991.

Somehow he saw
my talent early on,
when I was just in my 20s,

and gave me
great work to do.

I mean, actually hired me
to do movie posters
when I knew nothing about it.

I knew how to paint,
but I didn't know the job
of working in the movies.

I was familiar
with Drew Struzan's work
before he worked on Star Wars.

I wasn't hired by George.
I was hired by a fellow student,
Charlie White.

Had to be '76, '77,
I imagine,

that I met Drew--
I heard about Drew.

He had a design studio.
He was very entrepreneurial.
Still is.

And he had that job.
So he designed the lettering...

and he designed
the idea of the poster
and everything.

Only trouble was,
he was a wonderful
airbrush artist,

but he didn't do portraits.

As odd as it may sound,
I did very few people.

So he knew me
and that I did them,

so he called and said,
"Do you want to share a poster?

I'll do the robots
and you do the people?"

Sure. A job's a job.
Didn't matter to me.

It was Star Wars.
Didn't mean anything
at the time.

It was just another job.

[ Audience Cheering ]

So I said,
"I'll do it
on one condition,

that I get to watch you
paint some of your part
in airbrush."

'Cause I'd never
seen an airbrush
in my life,

so I wanted to see
how he did it,
being the master of it.

We had, I think,
seven or eight days
to do the whole thing.

is I painted the portrait
of Luke and Leia
in oil paints...

and he painted
the rest of the poster
with dyes and the airbrush.

So it was unique.
There was two of us
and two different techniques.

We had to
really orchestrate how
we were gonna do it together.

'Cause he'd be painting in oil,
and that was just a real riot.

Had to wait till all of it dried
so I could spray over it--
It was just-- [ Huffs ]

We finished it,
they submitted it
to Lucasfilm.

They said, "That's
really a nice picture,

but there's no room
for the billing block."

Legally,
you have to have a certain
percentage of body copy--

which would be all the stars,
et cetera, et cetera--

centered to the title.

Well, I'd forgotten
about that,

and so we were way off.

We had to figure out how
to make this piece of art
this big.

It's not like today
where you can kind of
photoshop it in.

So we came up with the idea
of making it look like
it's wild posted.

the poster's been around
for a while.

and I added Obi-Wan
to the side of it...

and made it bigger
and made more empty space.

but it was a bit of
a testy time for a moment--

how to do that, to get
all that type in there.

It became George Lucas's
most favorite poster...

until I did
the Special Edition posters.

It's very unusual
as a poster.

And it's still unusual
as a poster,

and I think it's gonna stand out
as an important part.

That's one in our collection.
It's one I'm very fond of.

Because it references
the whole history...

of the way posters are used.

Film posters come from
a tradition of circus posters,
back at the very beginning,

and it's a reference to that.

It was just a fantastic
experience for both of us.

It was a great privilege
to work with them, and it was
kind of an excitement.

That was the first time
I actually had the opportunity,
I had a film big enough.

The Return of the Jedi poster
was a very iconic poster.

I think you're referring
to the poster I painted
for Revenge of the Jedi.

We did a teaser poster,
which was Revenge of the Jedi.

The poster stayed the same,
but the wording changed.

It makes an image
that sticks with you,

touches you, impels you,

and that it happened to be
objects that you're familiar
with and interested in...

just made it the more so.

The poster really wasn't
done for the title.

It was done for, in essence,
what was in the movie itself,

what we were trying to
portray in the movie.

I couldn't do much except,
"Let's feature Darth Vader,

'cause he's cool,
and the sword fight."

Or the lightsaber fight.

And that's all it is.
It's just a nice design
and powerful.

And obviously it was
portraying Darth Vader.

And, you know,
it's the-the end
of the entire series,

so it was really about
the confrontation between
Luke and Darth Vader.

It combined the two things
that I really always
lean on in my work--

combining two opposites again--
power and beauty--
in the same piece.

A painting of Darth Vader,
you get the feeling
of pure evil...

and all the things
that are associated
around that.

We had done some work
with Darth Vader,

but at the same time,
nothing that was
quite that articulate.

There was
a lightsaber battle
between Luke and Darth.

I don't know
why I painted them
the colors I did.

I think 'cause I thought
it was pretty.

It's usually most of
my reasons for doing things.

And it never crossed my mind
that people would pick on
what color they were.

So it wasn't until
years later--

when everything became
so specific...

and everybody knew
everything about every
detail of Star Wars...

that they started
to recognize they were
painted the wrong color.

And it became
one of those
great Star War issues.

The iconic ones would have
to be the signature pieces...

that we've done.

Certainly all the Star Wars
Special Edition releases.

He did this triptych approach
for the Star Wars films--

three panels
that kind of describe
the entire first trilogy.

That is as iconic as it gets.
It's staggering.

That was really when he had
the opportunity to come in...

after these films had sat
in the culture for 20 years...

and take a fresh look
at how you would represent them
in a film poster.

One Christmas Eve night,

I get this call
about 9:00 at night,

and they say,
"We're coming out
with the Special Edition--

three movies--
and we'd like a poster
for them."

I always have my foot
in my mouth, as you can see.

So I said,
"You're making one poster
for three movies?"

They said, "Yeah."

I said, "You're blowing
a really grand opportunity
to do a triptych.

Do three posters
that work together as one.

It'll be really sweet,
and you can open"--
Blah, blah, blah.

"Good idea.
How do you see it?"

I mean, that quick.

So-- So I have to design
in my head,

on the spot, on the phone
to George Lucas.

The idea that they
fit together as a triptych
was also really fantastic,

because it just gives you
this epic sense of what
the Star Wars saga is about.

I didn't ever do
a drawing for them.
I never did a composition.

I never did anything.
I just started painting
the first one.

Then they picked it up
and carried it away,

and now I realize
the second one,

I have to match the color,
the intensity and the design
to the first one.

But I don't have it here!

So I had to do it
from memory,

and then the same thing
happened on the third one.

So that was designed
on the telephone,

painted without
any drawing or comp
or design,

and I had to match
three paintings
to each other...

without seeing
the other two
at the same time.

To put that all together
in a very poetic way,
it takes some doing.

And of course, he followed
that up with all the posters
for the prequels.

So then I wound up
with that design
with the frame,

with the things
breaking out of the frame
so they look bigger and grander.

Well, they're grand,
but they don't lose human scale.

They feel more human than--

I mean, some of these pictures
get so big...

that you lose sight
of the humanity of the thing...

and it gets lost in scale.

While they don't work
as a triptych...

in the same sense
that the Special Edition
posters do,

it continues the style,

so you've got
this very consistent set...

that spans six films
over a 30-year period.

So now he has
all six of them in a row,

and they look like they were
all conceived at the same time.

We went with what we call
"the mountain of people"...

in order to show all
of the characters that are
gonna be in the new series,

because they were
very different.

The same characters,
but different actors from what
had been in the previous series,

so we wanted to
expose that reality
to the fans...

as the first image
they see.

It's not just a question
of what will that poster
tell you about the film.

It's how will it match up
to your expectation
of what you want to see.

How will it kind of
feed that excitement?

Episode I, George--

When he turned my artwork
into the poster,

he said that it would be
the same in every land.

Everywhere it was advertised,
that image would be the one
they had to use.

A lot of releases
are now day-and-date--

That's one of the things
that we pioneered
with the Star Wars prequels.

It's in everybody's face
all over the world,
all at the same time.

From a marketing
point of view,
you want one image...

that identifies
a campaign for the film.

And with Star Wars,
because they're so...
universal,

it made sense
to have the one image...

be what the image was
worldwide.

all at the same time,
and that was unusual.

That has never happened
before in history.

Indiana Jones.

We've also used
a different style with him
with Indiana Jones.

Sometimes we've done
the pyramid,
but a lot of the times,

we've just done
an iconic depiction
of Indiana Jones--

of him standing
in a particular position
with his whip, with his gun.

And that's
always very effective.

When I first began
working with Drew...

on all
the Indiana Jones movies,

you know, the art just
brought out a kind of--

a kind of "B" movie sort--

But without being
a cheap "B" movie.

but he also showed
that our film was based on...

many of the old
Republic serials...

and all those old-fashioned
adventure movies...

that used to be made
decades ago.

And he brought--
He revitalized
that kind of tonality...

with the drawings
and the paintings
he was doing for us.

Especially the way
he would capture faces.

Especially the way he captured
Indiana Jones's face.

When Drew came along
and started to do the work,

it really made
a big difference.

It focused attention
on that character,

gave him a nobility
and a heroic nature.

And frankly,
made me look good.

You know. So I--
I was a happy guy.

I have to confess,
when I think of Harrison Ford,

I'm often thinking
of Drew Struzan's...

image of Harrison Ford...

as much as the actor
himself.

I know what the actor
looks like. I've seen him
in almost all his movies.

But he's captured somehow
in my mind...

by that rendering
that Drew Struzan has done
and variations on it...

and all those many, many posters
and images that he's painted.

He's done a lot of
video box art for us.

And he's done book covers for us
and other illustrations
for licensed products.

So it's wound up being
a very broad involvement
in everything we do...

in marketing
these franchises.

It's been enormously valuable...

to the selling of
the movies that I'm in.

I think you got the sense that
this was being taken seriously,

but there was
a true sense of fun
to all the daring.

So when you look at
Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones,

you get a feeling
of a rush inside you,

that there's some action
in this movie, that there's
romance in this movie,

that there's excitement,
there's mystery,
there's danger--

All from a piece of paper.

That stuff made me
wanna go see the movie.

It got us excited.
It gave us a tone.

It gave us something,
something to cling to.

While the pieces
have a consistency,

they all have
their own flavor...

according to the film,
according to the things
that we find fun in that film.

Drew's original poster
for Raiders--

I know they used
the Amsel image primarily,

but Drew did one
of Harrison Ford
and Karen Allen,

and it's one of
the best poster images
I've ever seen.

I believe they used it
for the overseas markets.

I really do believe
the first time he had
the freedom to create,

to be really creative,
was the Indiana Jones piece.

The Temple of Doom poster
is one of the great posters.

I wasn't set
as the Indiana Jones artist
at that point, so--

In Temple of Doom,
the second movie,

they had another artist
do the painting--

I don't know his circumstance--
and they opened with his poster.

But within that first week,

they called me and they just
wanted to try something else
for whatever reason.

So they asked me,
"Do a drawing of what you'd
like to do for this film."

So I did one comp
and sent it to them.

They said,
"That's great. Paint it."

So there were no changes,
no other ideas.

That was straight-up
my idea.

No interference of any kind
from anybody.

So I just painted it freely
and with the confidence,

because I had designed it,
that I could make it nice.

Sent it to 'em,
and that's what the
Temple of Doom poster became.

And that's when
he developed a lot
of different techniques...

for the visual effect
of the poster.

And that was--
To me, that was a really big
turning point in his career.

There was a whole thing
with that movie--

Is it PG-13? Is it for kids?
Is if for adults?

And as a kid,
we all wanted to see it,

and that's really due
a great deal...

to what Drew did.

You had this sort of
terrifying image
with fire everywhere...

and this guy with a horned
helmet holding a flaming heart
above his head...

with this maniacal
glee in his eyes.

And in the middle of it,
Harrison Ford...

giving this look backwards
like, "I got this."

That was the one
where they said,
"Gee, we like that design.

From now on, that's Indy.
That is the look."

And from then on,
it was the Indy look.

Every little
line, every
little stroke...

is pushing
the feel of
the entire film.

Those strokes, those--
It's almost like war paint.

Just like three strokes here
and then a white here...

and something across
the brow, you know?

It's just really--
You can't do that
with a computer.

You know,
that whole feeling of texture
that he brings into his art,

the feeling that you could
almost reach out and touch it,
you feel like there's--

You get a feel of the smoothness
of the face of one of
the heroines in Indiana Jones.

You get a feel
of the gruffness
of the villains.

And just the fact
it's so tactile, his art.

That's because he paints.
He doesn't keyboard.

It's just polished.
I don't mean polished
in the sense of being slick.

It might be
that little pencil stroke
that's still in there...

or that not quite finished
highlight stroke
he did with a white.

You might say,
"He could have
rounded that off a little.

He could have made that conform
a little bit more to the line
of this collar or whatever."

But he didn't.
It's just perfect.

And I know--

When Drew did the last one-sheet
for Indiana Jones and the
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,

and I saw that early picture--

I showed it to Janusz Kaminski,
my cinematographer, and I said,

"Now you've gotta make sure
that Harrison looks
as good as that picture."

look as good
as Drew Struzan's artwork--

with a little help
from Harrison himself.

Some people accuse me of
making him look younger,
but everybody has opinions.

I painted him as he looked.
He just happens to look okay.

He looks more than okay.
He looks better
than I'll ever look.

It was an ambition of mine
that we acknowledge
the age of the character.

We were completely recognizing
that 25 years had passed...

and Harrison Ford
the actor had aged,

and Indiana Jones
the character had aged.

I also believe
in truth in advertising.

If he was good enough
to make the film, he's surely
good enough to paint.

He's idealized Harrison Ford,

and in the best possible way.

It's not me. I'm just acting.

It looks like me,
but it's invested...

with the nature
and the character
of Indiana Jones.

I've drawn him many times,
on many occasions,

and there's not always
reference materials
for the movies...

that are appropriate
for the concepts.

I get into his character
when I design
one of the posters.

I have his hat and whip
and his coat...

and his pants and shoes
and all that stuff...

because I often
pose as Indy myself.

So I have authentic costuming
so that it looks good.

What he says about posing
for the subject is true.

A lot of people do that. Um--

But he does it especially well.

Drew has done
Harrison Ford's portrait,
like, a hundred times?

Like, I don't know
the exact number,
but it's way up there.

I've never met Harrison,
as many times as I've drawn him.

About time you guys met.

Glad we had
the opportunity.

- You've always been so nice.
- You've been very good to me.

Very good to me.

Well, not half as good
as you've been to me.

- Who are you kidding?
- You've done very well by me.

Nice to
finally meet you.

Thanks for
the good work.

Thank you
for all you've done for me.

Thank you.

He's become
as critical to the mix...

as John Williams,

as, uh, many of the other
important collaborators...

who come together and pool their
talents to make these films...

as successful
as they have been.

He's one person
that can just take
a portrait of a person...

and turn it into
something really special.

Oh. The Thing poster.

Which I think
Drew did overnight,
back in the day.

He did it in one night,
he told me, which was insane,

'cause it's one of the great
science fiction/horror
poster images... ever.

[ I saw that poster,
and the sense of menace
and the sense of madness...

and the dimensions
of that thing, with the light
coming out of the head--

It completely encapsulated
something that made
the movie bigger.

It doesn't represent the movie.
It makes it bigger.

It's such a simple image too.
It's the man in the parka...

with the light shining
out of the hood.

These terrifying kaleidoscopic
shards kind of coming
out of this guy's face.

[ Laughs ]
You can't quite see
what's here.

It's kind of blinding,
and you don't know why.

He hasn't defined it.
He's just suggested something.

And it's such a great image.

I had nothing.
They called on the phone
and said,

"We have a job.
We need it really quick.
You want to do it?"

"Sure. What is it?"
"Remember the movie The Thing
from the '50s?"

"Yeah."
"That's it."

That was what I had
to create with.

So I couldn't show an actor
or a location or anything.

I couldn't show a monster.
There was nothing to show.

So I had to find a way
of making nothing
into something.

So I did one drawing.
They called and said, "Good.
We need it in the morning."

You know, he could do
a thing like The Thing
overnight,

and it'd be
completely successful.

How he does that overnight?
I don't know.

You'd have to ask him.

All I thought about was,
"Well, I won't get to sleep
for two days."

It's a knowledge
that allows him to do it,
you know?

You're getting
a Drew Struzan--

It doesn't matter
if it took him one day
or 70 days.

I lived a hundred miles
from the studio.

They sent a messenger up
first thing in the morning,
like they said.

I handed in the painting.
And it was in acrylics,
which dry, like, that fast.

Because there was kind of
a watery effect and stuff.
It was kind of wet.

So I said, "Be careful.
Don't put anything on it."

They called when they got it,
a hundred miles later, and said,
"The painting's still wet."

That's how fast
it left the studio.

So they had to wait for it
to dry to put it under the glass
to shoot it.

He turned it in the next day,
and that's it.

I was young too.
Couldn't even do it today.

I'd just fall over dead.

You really get a sense of...

not only the skill
but the kind of magic at work...

when you see
his Muppet movie posters.

and that's what Jim Henson
did when he made
the first Muppet movie.

Jim Henson and his in-house
art director, creative director,
Michael Frith,

came in to visit me,
and they wanted to see
some of the work we had done.

He says, "Walk around
and write down the names
of the posters that you like,

and we'll call in those artists
and you see their portfolios...

and pick one to do your poster."

So he went around,
wrote 'em all down
and came back.

Tony looked
at the list and goes,
"Hmm. This will be easy.

They're all
by the same guy."

So I got the job,
straight away,
from Jim Henson.

Drew and I went to New York,
to Henson's creature factory.

Being the poor sucker I was,

I'd never been anywhere
but L.A. in my life, so--

He was like a wide-eyed kid.
It was really cute.

When you got there, there was
always lots of bustling going--

puppets being built.

We sat around the table
and we decided
what we wanted to do...

about the kind of
Gone with the Wind theme
and the guys in the car.

Jim Henson, after I did one,
basically said,
"You are the Muppet artist."

Says, "You make them look
exactly like I feel about them.

Photograph them, they look
like puppets on a stick."

When I draw 'em,
they look like
living beings to him.

So for many years thereafter,
I had constant work from Jim.

Jim really loved
Drew's work.

I know that for a fact.

We went on to do, I think,
about four or five more
Muppet movies together.

"This time, let's do
something different.

Let's make it new.
Let's make it fresh.

I know. Let's do it
photographically."

So they posed
all the puppets on a stick
and photographed 'em,

and they looked like
puppets on a stick, so--

"Hello? Can you please
draw our poster for us?"

Says, "We already have
the photograph.

We already have the concept.
Just draw it and make it--"

Which became
almost the call word for me.
"Give it your magic."

Drew has this ability
to make things
jump off the page...

and put so much
more drama and passion
into the appearance of them.

So there's no argument
that anybody with a camera...

could quite do what Drew did
with his posters.

Idle, just a still, it's hard
to sense that same kind of life
and vibrancy.

You photograph 'em,
and they're balls of--
They're socks.

They're stuffed socks
with buttons sewn on 'em,
basically.

so they fool us,
but they're--

Yeah, they're stuffed pieces--

But interpreted
through Drew Struzan,

you believe,
for God's sake.

When you see his renderings...

of Kermit and Fozzie
and Miss Piggy and
all the other characters--

in those different groups
that he's assembled
for the posters--

You know, they're
incredibly appealing...

and just as alive
as if they were in motion
and in action.

I actually just
copied the photograph
with my taste.

Jim was a very serious guy,
despite all his humor.

I always felt he was
the man with 12 ideas being
developed at the same time.

He was incredibly complex...

and a true, true genius.

A sweetheart, kind guy.

He couldn't have made
the Muppets without actually
being that guy, and he was.

He was just wonderful.

I don't know
if there will ever be
somebody quite like him.

No. It won't be.
Too bad.

But anyway, I'm glad
he gave us so much of himself
for so long.

But it just wasn't
long enough.

So it was really
one of those grand experiences
in my life.

One I recall very dearly.

Which is why I still
let Kermit hang out here
when he wants to.

I just like him. He's fun.

He's done so many
posters and things.

Things that aren't
my movies, like Steven's--

The E.T. poster
I think it very iconic.

He was like George.
He knew the work,
so he called personally.

I went over to see him,
and we did the same thing.

We played a little pinball
and laid around
and talked about movies.

Says, "I'm making this movie
about an alien."

Actually, what he wanted
was a painting...

for a trade ad
to run in Daily Variety.

And they didn't have
the creature yet
or the kid cast,

so it was kind of
a generic kid
and a generic creature.

But it got me connected
with him, and then
when the movie came around,

I didn't get it.

So I did
the second poster...

and a number of other things
after that.

Did a lot
of E.T. work.

Steven didn't want
to use photography of E.T.,

'cause he was
just bits and pieces and--

Again, kind of like
the Muppets, you know.

If he's moving
and talking and lit and stuff,
he looks pretty cool,

but just him standing there,
he looks like, you know--

ugly little Martian.

He gave E.T. a beauty
that really even
surpasses the movie--

in the sense that people
have to go out
to see the movie...

or they have to put
the DVD on in their player.

But all they have to do
is see a picture, and E.T.
comes to life in one frame.

Not 24 frames a second.

Drew can bring E.T.
to complete life
simply at a glance.

We're the same age,
so we got along well.

We communicated well.
We understand well.

Like I say, we both
wear jeans, T-shirts
and tennis shoes.

When you think of
the Back to the Future movies,

you can't imagine
the movie without it.

I think of Back to the Future
and say, "Hey.
Remember that poster?"

I think everybody
remembers that poster.

It's a single image, but it says
everything you need to know
about the movie.

It made you say,
okay, this is a comedy.

It's about time travel,
but it's a comedy, which is new,

and yet, it's not goofy.

I find that to be fascinating
that he created
such a clean concept...

for such a movie
that is wonderfully cluttered...

with all kinds of things
shaking.

Just feels like
you're catching a second...

and it's gonna move on.

But it's not necessarily
a frame from a film.

It's something
much different.

Just a piece
of a dream, you know?

Spielberg saw it,
and he said--

My recollection is
at least--

He said, "We gotta
give this to Drew.

Drew will know
how to make this
into what it ought to be."

no pun intended--
when it jumps out at you.

I think it's worth it
to look at it and say...

what is it about this
on a bottom-line level...

made people go,
"That looks cool.
I wanna go see that"?

Because it worked so well
with the first movie,

when we went back
to do the sequel,
it was obvious--

What do we gotta do?
We gotta put Doc Brown
in the poster as well...

and reprise
the exact concept
of the image.

We set up a photo shoot
with Michael J. Fox.

I had lights and cameras--
just like this--
and I was directing.

I remember vaguely
sitting for Drew...

and knowing I was
sitting for Drew
and how pumped I was.

I said, "Michael, please move
to the left a little bit.
Chris, do that"-- You know.

So, it's like--
I was nervous.

What am I doing
directing movie stars?

And then of course,
the worst thing happened,

right in the middle
of me telling them
what to do.

Michael throws up his hands
and says, "Hold everything."

Of course, my heart dropped.
"Oh, great. I've pissed off
the movie star.

I'm really in shit creek."

W-Walks over,
walks straight up to me
and goes,

"Are you the Drew?"

"I'm Drew." He says,
"I'm your greatest fan!"

It was all the stuff
that I loved.

and the texture
of the jeans.

Those ugly '80s Guess jeans
never looked so good
as in that painting.

It was a thrill beyond
just being involved
in the movies--

to be a subject
of those works.

And of course, I got to
do it three times, so it was
really, really grand.

Drew actually did
a version of Part Three
that was just Marty and Doc.

And we all looked at it
and we said, "You know what?

Uh-- One has
one character.

Part Two
has two characters.

Let's put Mary Steenburgen
in the third one,

and put her in there,
because it's perfect."

It's one of those experiences
that you would hope your
whole life would be full of.

But I had one or two of 'em
now and again.

That was
one of the sweet ones.

And a neat
series of posters.

and to be
identified with that,

and to be the subject
of those posters is--

I mean,
I still can't believe it.

It just-- Pow.
It's in there
as much as the movie is,

quite honestly,
and that's what great poster art
will do for you.

It really becomes part
of that film's history,
its iconography.

To this day--
This-- I go like this,
and people get all tripped out.

It's so awesome.
His image of Jack Burton
in that is wonderful.

So much more evocative
of Kurt Russell than a picture
of Kurt Russell would be.

I had done, I don't know,
maybe eight dozen...

different compositions
and drawings, and they did
the typical thing.

You know, "We like this,
this and this."
Put 'em together.

And the composition came out
of all the choices
the people made.

And I just made it work
as best I could.

To get me
in a theater, to get me excited
about seeing that movie--

It's so much more effective
than if it had just been
a photograph of Kurt Russell...

- or a picture of his face.
- As a matter of fact,
it is me.

[ Laughs ]
I was younger then.

Kurt was never posed like that.

That's me in the water.
That's a friend down the street
that's the girl posing there.

I recall that I didn't
particularly like it that much.

I'm always surprised
that people do.

Maybe it's just the subject
matter, which is what most
people concentrate on anyway.

'Cause the subject is fun,
you know. But I thought
it was a bit busy, for my taste.

I mean, cluttered
in the best way.
I mean, really busy.

Things going on,
and people running at you.

In the middle of it,
Kurt Russell being a bad-ass.

Yeah, Big Trouble
is such a great poster.

Fuck. Does he have
the original art to that?

- I don't know, actually.
- Ooh.

We should find out and drive
over there and beat the guy up
and take-- and take it.

[ Men Laughing ]

That trippy perspective
of looking down this chain
of-- of kids.

An art director did
at lunch one day.

He did a little sketch
on a napkin, literally,

gave me the napkin,
and said,
"This is what we want."

So-- It was difficult...

in a design sense...

to have-- whatever it was--
seven kids or something
going down in perspective...

but hanging off of each other.

"I wanna be, like,
hanging onto somebody's ankle
in that picture!"

I remember all the neighborhood
kids dangling out
the bedroom window,

and trying to take
that photograph,
that's what I remember.

to hold on to seven kids
all hanging on to him.

That was really hard.

He did a piece for Blade Runner
that's one of the best things
I've ever seen.

Drew's posters
for Blade Runner--

that re-release
of Blade Runner--

I know that he did it for the
original release of the film,
and it wasn't used.

And the fact that they
would return to
Drew's work for that...

is some kind of a testament.

It's fantastic the way it
captures the tone of that movie.

Drew's Blade Runner
for the reissue is the movie.

It's just soaked in mood.

There's not anything in there
that I saw that I would say,

"Hmm. Mm-mmm.
I don't know.

That doesn't look like--
Mmm, that's not gonna cut it."

It's got texture to it.
It's more visceral.

To me, portraiture
is something that just--
It happens or it doesn't.

And... that's Harrison.

It makes me look good.
That's a good thing.

I think it's the best art
on Blade Runner, period.

We got to work together
on a project.

I was working at an advertising
agency. And that was the job
we were workin' on.

And I guess all the
cards came together...

in the few times
that we've, you know,

had the opportunity
to work together.

He says, "I want my poster
to look like Indiana Jones."

My son goes,

"I think I can get
the guy that did that
to do it for you."

It was nice after years of
watching him do it, you know,

growing up watching him do it,

and then going to school
and gettin' a job
and growin' up.

And then one day
you call your dad with a job.

"Hey, I got a job.
Wanna work on it?"

I painted it. He loved it.

He wrote a personal letter
back to me, and he says,

"I think this is the best poster
of all time."

He loved what he got.
He knew what he wanted,
and he got it.

most beautiful likenesses
in a movie poster...

that I've ever seen him do.

it's like an honor roll...

of big hit, widely acclaimed,
popular movies.

Plus Police Academy.

The painting I spent weeks
standing in front of.

And I love the work I was able
to do for it.

Police Academy 3
is one of my favorite posters.

It's a perfect image
for a comedy--

and with all the actors
looking wonderful.

And it's a perfect joke.

You know exactly what
the movie's gonna be about
when you see the poster,

and you can read what it's
about from across the street,
so it's the perfect poster.

Police Academy 4 was
the same way, with the balloon
and everything.

It was just fun to do.
I loved drawing the characters.

And I couldn't pick a favorite.

I'm just feeling grateful
that he was able to do it
with me...

and for me
and about me.

Maybe I love 'em so much
'cause there was no pain
in the ass.

no movie studio
bugging me about it.

I just-- I remember being happy
doing the work.

Drew, you gotta do the poster.

That's just a request and a beg.
You've gotta do the poster.

I think Drew's work often
surpasses even the films...

that he was depicting.

In a lot of cases,
Drew's posters,
they're better than the movie.

How do we make people think
that this isn't a turkey?

Well, you hire the best guy
on the planet to do your poster.

Oh, yeah, sometimes that poster
has almost captured
the filmmaker's intention...

better than the filmmaker
managed to do with the film.

And it's better
if I not name
those films.

I won't say which films, though.
You know what I'm saying?

We will cite no examples by name
because, you know--

Why be--
Why be rude?

Masters of the Universe. Okay.
I wanna see this movie.

- Why be ungracious here?
- This movie, I wanna see.

I'm not a fan of the movie
Masters of the Universe,

but damn if Drew
didn't draw you
into that concept.

I'm still waiting
to see this movie.

If somebody took the trouble
of painting it that good,
it must be worth it.

I probably never will see this
movie. That ain't the movie
that the studio made.

He may not care equally
about each film or each actor
that he's depicting,

but it always looks that way.

Part of Drew getting into
the business by himself...

was learning
the business side of it.

The business part of it,
I had to learn as I went along.

Because it's never
taught in school.

So if you do
go to art school,

at least in my experience,
they don't really tell you
how to run a business.

Eventually,
you get wise
to what's going on.

As I went along, I learned
what was necessary to do,

and what part of it
was the parameters
of understanding a poster,

what it was for,
how to accomplish it,

how to work with the studios
and the art directors
and the people.

So then he started to do it
himself, you know,

and learn that
what he'd been running away from
all his life, he ended up doing.

I just don't find a whole lot
of interest, 'cause it's
a diversion, I suppose,

to what I really want
to think about.

'Cause you're so focused
on that creative part of it.

You know, how do you--
You just can't split
your brain that way.

Which side of the brain
is that? The left side?

The left brain thing,
you know what I mean?

It's you're-- we're all on
this other side
of the brain, working,

and you're all
focused over here,
and you're not watching all...

the so-called real world--
the so-called real world
over here.

You're obsessed and compelled
and driven, and all this
is all fallin' apart.

Because you're into the work,
you don't know how
to keep track of that.

If he had to do
all those other things,

he could have never done--
he could have never accomplished
what he accomplished.

People kinda consider artists
kinda dummies in a funny way.

You know,
"They don't know.
They're just art guys."

And it makes you vulnerable
to the people that want
to prey on that,

'cause they can see
how they can exploit that.

Well, there's a shady side
in all businesses.

Whenever there's money
to be made, there's gonna be
a shady side of it.

That just goes hand in hand.

Drew got taken advantage of
in the early part of his career.

We didn't have a lot of guidance
from wise elders.

But we did find some individuals
who were more than happy to
take advantage of our naïveté.

He went into supposedly
a partnership-- turned out
to be not a partnership--

with a couple of guys,
a father-son team,

who basically ripped him off
for eight years.

And they were collecting the
money and sending the invoices
to me and to the studios,

and basically keeping most
of the money for themselves.

In fact, Drew told me that the
best year he ever had with them,
he made $50,000.

Well, we were paying
$50,000 per campaign.

Drew and I were just
incredibly naïve about all
of that business side of life,

and we tended to trust
way too much.

It turns out that
one of the partners, the son,

had taken about 100 pieces
of Drew's original artwork.

They didn't return 'em.
Or at least I thought
they never returned 'em.

This guy always had a story.
"Oh, yeah, well, you know,
the client's still got it."

Or "The printer's got it.
And by the way, here's
three more things to do."

So he kept him busy
all the time. Meanwhile, he's
collecting all this artwork.

Well, it turned out
that they did return them.
I just never got them back.

They end up with nothing. You
turn around, and it's all gone,
this thing you thought you had.

The artwork, it'll come
and it'll go, and Drew
will create another piece,

because he's always
got that going.

But faith in humanity--

um, learning to protect yourself
by being cold to people
you'd rather be warm to--

I think
that's very hard.

And I think that that's how
people do such a big disservice.

But the great thing is when
their money is gone, it's gone,

but your talent is never gone,
so you'll be able to
refresh and renew.

Yeah. It's constant. People
who you wouldn't think that
it happens to, it happens to.

Why? Because they're obsessed
and dedicated and compelled,
and they're over here, focused.

And they're trusting this person
to handle all that stuff.

I stick no matter what.

I stick to my principles
and my character and my ideals,

and I stay with people
and wish the best
and hope the best in them,

until they cross
a line of abuse...

that goes beyond
what I can forgive.

And he did that,

and I just said,
"Okay. Partnership's over.
I can't do it anymore. I quit."

At that point in our lives,
we thought we were
facing the loss...

of everything
we had worked for thus far.

Our home, you know.

I mean, really, it
was sheer desperation.

We knew we had
one really good contact
that had never much liked...

dealing with
this other guy anyway.

I said, "Don't worry.
I'll take care of you.

I'll make sure you get enough
work so you'll not ever have to
worry about this again."

Thank God for him, because
that gave us the work...

and the confidence
that we needed
to move forward.

And everything blossomed,
honestly.

Years later, these pieces
end up at Christie's
in New York for auction.

- All at once.
- All at once, and Drew inquired
about the source.

He calls up Christie's
and he says, "Hey, wait.
Those are mine."

'Cause this guy had kept
all the work, and now
he was gonna sell it.

So Drew put
a cease and desist on it.

And consequently,
he was slapped
with a lawsuit.

- I was slapped
with a lawsuit.
- Yeah.

And of course,
it was our friendly friend...

coming back to haunt us
18 years later...

and suing us for everything
we had accumulated...

or ever would accumulate,
from the point
that we left him, forward.

- Drew sued him back.
- And the minute I stood up,

it just shocked him so badly,
that the best thing
in the world...

ever happened to the world,
and to him.

- The guy had a heart attack
and died.
- Scared him so much, he died.

So, you know,
a dead man can't sue ya,

and once the court took a look
at what was goin' on, they just
gave all the paintings back,

'cause they realized
they were never his,
they were always mine.

So 20 years later,
I got everything back.

He got back 100 pieces
of original Struzan art.

We don't get
a lot of these, actually.

I think maybe because it's you
that it's--

It has a little tinge
of Indiana Jones in it,
which is the pose,

where he's kind of a serious,
ready to go, iconic,
tough guy look.

- Yeah, well, he's the same guy
in alternate universes.
- Yeah.

and standing with his legs
spread apart, sort of--
kind of ready to go.

- You know, it's--
- You use a word I really
feature in a lot of my work--

- "Iconic."
- Yeah.

And I really like
the simplified,
iconic figures...

that emphasize their heroism
or their beauty...

or whatever
main characteristic they have.

- I like the Chewbacca
in this one too. He's very--
- Yeah. Looks handsome.

- Yeah. He's also got
a very good, handsome look.
- Yes, he does.

He's got a wet nose.
That's all you need.

Each job came from
a different place,
a different person,

a different movie,
a different circumstance,
a different concept,

a different idea,
a different setting.

So I got to be creative
every time I got a new job.

He can work
in any kind of medium
that he wants to.

It doesn't matter
if it's watercolor
or just a pencil drawing...

or if it's oil paint
or a mixture of things...

or things that aren't
supposed to go together.

It's the end product
is all that counts.

He knows every trick
in the book.

Pushing a brush
instead of pulling it.

You ever see a house painter
paint like that?

No, he always has it like that.
Do it that way, you get
a whole different look.

Maybe not good for a house,
but cool for a painting.

It's a very
über-realistic style,

but as a result,
it's rather stunning to look at.

Drew kind of stands alone
in terms of his ability
to capture likenesses.

His illustrated stuff
is so good,

there's been times that
I've mistaken it
for a photograph.

It looks absolutely
photo-real, but if you get right
close to it, it's not at all.

You can't buy that camera
that will take that picture.

If I use the tools I have,
all those tools
we've been taking about,

I can bring
more understanding,

more emotion,
more personal understanding
and feeling to it...

than just a photograph.

A picture of Sylvester Stallone
as Rambo in First Blood...

would be fine.

But the image
that Drew Struzan creates...

just heightens it somehow.

So his version of Rambo,
his version of Hellboy,

his version of even Tom Hanks
in The Green Mile--

Those are all
idealized renderings.

And that's, I think,
why they have such impact,

why they're so much more
effective than a photo would be.

There's a power.
And there's a--

There's a direct contact
between that character
and the audience.

They recognize the virility
of the character
in those portraits.

You know, there's always
that iconic moment,

that iconic look
that the character can have,

and Drew knows what to use.

With Drew, Drew works from
photography, but he can take,
like, seven heads...

that are from
totally different scenes,
completely different angles,

and he can compose them
into this amazing composition.

And he can put in, you know,
storytelling devices...

where there's action
or romance
or some sort of magic,

and he can take
all of these elements...

and make them feel
like they're cohesive
and they all belong together.

You get the whole movie
in looking at that one image.

He never arranged anything
on the page unless
it had a reason for it.

There's always priorities
in movies that people
don't know about,

like if you're doing a portrait,
what size it can be.

And then,
if there's a second person,

they have a percentage
of a relationship
to that first one,

and they have to be
higher or lower
or full face--

So there's a lot of necessity...

and contractual agreements
and stuff that you
have to conform art to.

You have to have a conversation
in your head, a special vision
for seeing that.

And to take all
those demands and parameters
and contracts...

and then turn them into
a piece of art that looks like
I just did what I wanted,

'cause it would be pretty--

This is really the job.

I love that combination.
The drawing and that
layering of airbrush...

and the photo-realism,
then that abstract--
the splatter and texture thing.

I love that, you know?
But it's not just
that one thing.

You're not just
only dripping shit
all over the place, you know?

But it's a merging
of all those elements.

He has a very distinct
way of working...

with the color
and with his line.

Powerful, clean,
sharp drawing.

Artists have said, "How do you
get it so sharp? How do you
get your line so sharp?"

Says, "Well, you'll never
get it sharp like that."
You know.

Use a pencil,
the longer the line gets,

the flatter the point gets,
and it doesn't stay sharp.

If you draw on the side of it,
it stays sharp forever.

'Cause you're drawing
on the round, so you're just
on that apex of the circle.

And I do it like this.
I do it like that.
I do it like that.

And I do it like this.
And I do--

It's whatever kind of line
I want, I can create.

It looks effortless,
but it's completely
the opposite.

He has a very studied,
incredibly mannered,

incredibly precise style.

He has a definite style,
but the style doesn't
get in the way...

of the subject
that he's painting.

I can make it more serious.
I can make it funny.

Just in the design
or the composition
or the color...

or choice of gestures
that the people in the--

You know, all those things
add up to a feeling.

I just pick those things...

and make that feeling.

I really like what he's done
for Frank Darabont's films.

Green Mile being one
of the standouts to me.

He's gotten an opportunity
to paint on a broader canvas,
if you will,

because each one of those films
has a different signature.

So it's been a chance for him
to express a lot of different
elements of his style.

You know, The Mist
was completely different
from Shawshank Redemption.

As we were prepping this movie,
the main character,
played by Tom Jane,

was, in fact,
written by Stephen King
as an artist--

a fellow who's done
all that kind of
illustrative art,

has done movie posters,
etcetera, etcetera.

And I thought, "Well, let's see.
Who do I know who's
a really great poster artist?"

- [ Clicks Tongue ] "Drew!"
- Being a fan of my work,

Frank decorated
the whole set
with my artwork.

So Drew was very kind in
letting us borrow a whole
number of things for that set,

for that opening shot.

And we proposed that Tom Jane
was fundamentally Drew Struzan.

'Cause if the character's
gonna be a poster artist,
make him a great one, why not?

He told Thomas Jane to come over
to my house, to my studio,

and have me show him
how I paint, so that he could
look authentic in the film.

I've learned a few tricks,
so I didn't look like
a complete idiot...

when I portrayed,
basically, Drew.

Obviously, I'm taken with
the fact that there's this
wonderful actor in my studio,

and I'm showing him
how to do something.

And I remember trying to imitate
him with my brush,

and him just going,
"Oh, no, no, no.

You're touching the canvas
all wrong. You can't do that.

Other artists will laugh
if they see you do that."

He was stupid,
like everybody else.

"Is this how you draw?"

"No, I hold it differently."
And he says,
"Oh, well, go like"--

"No. Push it. Pull it."
You know.

It was really funny, you know?

It was almost like learning
how to play baseball
when I played Mickey Mantle.

It was, like, really hard.

I showed him how to paint
with the airbrush...

and how to draw
with the pencil
and how to hold it,

and he picked it up
immediately.

He said,
"Don't put it down and move,

but already be moving
as you put the brush down."

I had to show him
how to use a pencil
and a brush.

He wouldn't let me leave
until I just got it
just... perfect.

I had utter confidence
that he was gonna look
real professional, 'cause he--

he picks up on it
faster than
most art students.

At the premiere
of the film, one of the first
persons I see is Drew.

And I had a big smile
on my face, and Drew
just comes up and goes,

"No. No, no, you, uh--
That wasn't right."

It's like, "Oh, my God."

He absolutely ignored
everything I showed him,
and he did it all wrong.

"No. No, no, that wasn't--
That wasn't it."

Yeah, he had it down
when he was in the studio.

I play Mickey Mantle, you know.
And I really--
I had months to practice,

and I really nailed that.

You know, I played a guy
with a South African accent,

and I really worked
on that for a long time.

But I play Drew Struzan,
working in the studio,
for literally, like, 30 seconds,

and I-I-- I couldn't.
I couldn't do it.

[ Thunderclap ]

I was so nervous
at meeting Drew.

And, you know,
Drew is on the outside
the way I am on the inside.

So for Drew it must have been
a shock, there's this fucking
caveman coming to his house.

[ Chortling ]

Pow. Pow. Pow.
You know, this--

This bull
in a china shop,
entering the--

I'm saying "fucking" this
and "fucking" that...

and "shit" and "piss"
and, you know--

And he was like--
[ Mutters ]

I don't know if he was shocked
or amused or whatever it was.

But it was out of nervousness.
I was really crapping my pants.

One day I got his number from--
actually from Steven Spielberg's
office.

I called up and I said,
"You have Drew Struzan's
number?"

So they gave it to me,
and I called Drew
out of the blue...

to ask him about the Shawshank
art that I wanted done.

And I found out he lived,
you know, 15 minutes from here,
and went over and met him,

and, you know, totally--
totally hit it off.

On the first Hellboy,
I talked to Drew,
and he said, "What do you want?"

I said, "Whatever you want."

I said,
"I'm not gonna tell you."

And I said, "I'll look at
your sketches, and then I'll
tell you which one I like,

but I'm not gonna direct
what you do."

Drew is very collaborative.
He'll, you know--

When we did the--
"We" did--

he did the Shawshank art,

there was definitely
some conversation with him...

about what the elements
should be in the image.

You know,
"Well, let's grapple for what
it is about the movie...

that we really, you know--
that people really seem to dig."

On the first Hellboy poster,
he captured the character,

you know, the same way
he would capture Indiana Jones.

He took images
that had been sort of
becoming iconic anyway...

over the decade that
it had been, you know, released,

and he just nailed that sort of
iconic quality to the wall.

It's like, "Oh, gosh!"

And he said,
"What do you think?"
And I was just, you know,

crying on the inside,

and I couldn't say anything.

He loved it.
Everybody loved it.
But they didn't use it.

Some of the stuff that
Guillermo del Toro and I...

have had Drew do
in recent years...

have wound up being, um,
considered specialty posters.

To me that artwork is--
is special.

So when it's not treated
special, it's kind of,
you know, bothersome.

They didn't use the poster.
I used it as a limited edition
for the fans.

You know, I just felt
it was a horrible waste
of a great, great image.

When he finished
Pan's Labyrinth--
He'd worked on it,

spent all his money
and all his soul and all
his heart on this masterpiece.

They refused to pay for Drew
to do the poster, so I said,

"Okay, I'll pay for the poster
out of my own pocket."

He goes, "I know the studio
will never use what you paint."

'Cause it had gone that far.
He just knew they
weren't gonna do it.

Drew said to me,
"What do you want?"

I said,
"I just imagine the faun
embracing the girl."

I painted it,
and he loved it. He bought it.
Hangs in his house.

I really scratched my head,
and I don't understand it.

So when I did Hellboy II,
it was the same way.

He says, "I know.
They ain't gonna use it,
but I want you to do it."

I love the idea
of a massive robot
and a red poster,

and Hellboy this big--
that's the movie.

The tragedy is that all
the posters that he's painted
for me have not been used,

except in limited editions
that I forced down
the studio's throat.

'Cause the film industry
is in this very weird state
right now.

It's in this weird flux
in a lot of ways, and one
of the things that I've noticed,

particularly as it pertains
to Drew,

is how much they've gone
to this sort of...

photoshopped kind of approach
with their poster art.

In a lot of ways,
what Drew has done
is becoming a lost art.

A whole generation of people
making their living by doing
hand paintings--

I-I don't see it--
I don't see it happening.

There's nobody
that does it anymore.

I mean, there's some guys that--
Yes, there's illustrators,

but that as
a main, major force--

contributing force
in advertising and such--

It's--
It's essentially dead.

These days, movie posters
are basically, um,

"Hey, this guy's in it.
And he's kind of
angry about it."

That's a movie poster, right?

Or if you're lucky, you get,
"This guy's in it,
and he's angry about it.

And she's in it too,
and doesn't she look great?"
And that's-- that's it.

Two big heads. Two big heads--
look at any movie poster,
it's two big heads.

It's a picture of this actor
and a picture of that actor.

They're photoshopped, you know,
and they put the title on,
and that's the poster.

The other approach, of course,
is the hip young cast standing
in a line, like it's a Gap ad.

You know, giving the camera
saucy looks.

And it's like,
"Okay, that's all--

There's another movie
I don't wanna see now."

And that's a weekend thing.
You get a weekend boner,
and then it's forgotten forever.

This guy was, you know--

This guy was creating
a love affair
that lasted a lifetime.

The other shit
is a one-night stand.

You've got
these computer jockeys...

slapping these posters together
on their Macs,

and that's what
the studio wants.

Why should there be painted
posters when you can make
everything on a computer?

Who the heck needs artists?
This is just art.

They have their reasons.
And they have their marketing
and their research.

They test everything.
They test it to the
lowest common denominator,

and they ask questions,
I'm sure, based on people's
perception of the art...

that has nothing
to do with the art.

They probably say,
"Does it make you
wanna eat more popcorn?"

Or whatever dumb-ass questions
they ask that have to do
with the bottom line.

"Which one makes you wanna buy
popcorn more?" And you're like,
"Well, neither."

And they're like,
"See-- no difference!"

They don't reach out
to people's imaginations.

They're just reaching out
for their wallets.

That's the difference.
The difference is money.

It's all become a big
economic crunch, especially
in the entertainment industry.

The first thing they
try to do is save money
in the marketing area.

It's just expediency,
and it's boring,
and it's really a shame.

Let me put it like this.
I had always--

Whenever they made
changes, I made the changes
to the original art.

When the computer came in,
they realized they could
push a couple buttons...

and make changes
and move things.

Yeah, I look at the Photoshop
today, and I go--

You know, it can just change it
at a click of a button.

I hate when the technology
becomes the thing,
rather than the tool.

And that, I'm afraid,
is, at least for now,
what's happened.

I'm not a big fan
of photos for movie ads.

I like to see a painting.
It has more quality.

I love handmade stuff.

I love it when it isn't perfect.

You know what I mean?
That it's not totally
cleaned up.

The poster art that is
photographic--

all you're getting is
essentially a still frame
of the movie,

so it's a lesser representation
of what the movie
is going to be.

I think people do appreciate it.
Whether they know it or not,

there's an appreciation
of that kind of thing,
that something is handmade.

Do something by hand, you got
an original. Do it digitally,
you don't have an original.

There's one painting,
the original.

There's only one original.

But a digital file,
in order to be physical,
has to be printed,

and there can be
thousands of 'em.

But if I do a painting,
I got a painting.

When they see an original,
they go, "There's--
I had no idea"--

the difference and the life
that's in the original
compared to reproduction.

Well, you know, his art is done
with paint. It's not done,
you know, with pixels.

And it's wonderful
that he's maintained
that kind of integrity,

and I have a bond with him,
because I still shoot
on 35 millimeter film,

and I still project
on 35 millimeter film,

and I'm still cutting
on 35 millimeter film.

And so in a sense,
we're both Luddite
in that sense.

There was a time, it was art.
They trusted artists.

They trusted people with
the training, the experience
and the accomplishment to say,

"You do this. You do it well."

Now people just go,
"Well, I have an opinion.
Why not do that?"

It's a process
with a lot
of people involved.

And so things kinda usually
get shepherded to the middle.

Asking a studio about movie
posters and Drew's art is like
asking the pope about condoms.

It gets so confusing,
and I get so many
separate people telling me,

'cause they think they have
the power, that I have to
call an end to it and say,

"You know, tell me who
I'm supposed to listen to."

You have to please
so many people,

and other people are in charge
and paying for that work.

It was like painting
in the middle
of Dodger Stadium,

with everybody
having an opinion.

It's a guy that is driving
a school full of screaming kids.

At one point, he says,
"You know what? Fuck you.

I'm gonna stop the bus.
I'm gonna get out."

It was just too much.
Like I say, maybe the reason
it was too much...

is I'm older and tireder
and just don't want
to do it anymore.

So-- Didn't draw any other
conclusion than, "Well,
that's it. That's enough."

And just quit.
Retired is a gentler word.

Well, I groan every time I hear
that he's going to retire.

Oh, he retired?
Oh, he looks like he's about 15.
I don't know-- How old is he?

First of all, I feel old,
if he's retired.

Great artists never retire.

They always want to work.
Now, he might want to sit back
and do a little fishing.

And I think he'd like
to maybe sleep late.

Maybe enjoy
his grandchildren,
or something to that effect.

But a guy like Drew won't be
like my friend who works
for the town of Oyster Bay...

and at 65 retires
and goes to Florida...

and never drives
a cement mixer again.

Um, I don't think that that's
the way it is with artists.

If I don't paint,
I don't know what to do.

I mean, I can go on vacation
for two weeks, to get the
business out of my guts,

but I take my drawing board
and pastels and draw every day.

That's how I express myself.
That's how I fulfill
my reason for being.

You know, I don't stop.

I don't have to answer
to people anymore.

So-- It's kinda nice.

- I wish it for everybody.
- [ Both Chuckling ]

I'm gonna do everything within
my power to keep him from being
retired all the time.

'Cause that would be a crime.

Like all of us,
when we're--

when we have decided
we've had enough of that...

and wanna leave room
in our lives
for something else,

we make room for somebody new.

Maybe I'll be
an actor after this.

"There was that boring guy.
We need a real boring guy
in our film. I want him."

He really just has moved on.

But it's a loss for us.

You know, it's not a loss
for him. He's still an artist.
He's painting.

You know, he's painting
every day. He's creating
beautiful stuff.

But for our medium,
it is a loss
that we don't have him.

- Well, it's the end of an era.
- It'll be interesting to see
what he does.

But obviously that means
the quality of the
film advertising...

is going to drop a few notches.

I just think maybe he'll
maybe do some stuff
he's always wanted to do.

And then all of a sudden it will
be, "Wow, Drew. Why didn't you
do that 20 years ago?"

And he'll probably turn around
and say, "Well, I was busy
doing a poster."

I guess he's retiring to paint
his own imagery that he wants
to paint now,

as opposed to doing work
for other people.

And that's incredible.
I'm looking forward to see
what that will be.

I can't wait to see
what Drew's doing. I would
love to see his fine art.

He's gonna put together
this trove of
"post-retirement work."

It's gonna be amazing stuff.

And I hope
people start to...

see the other work that he does
that he's passionate about.

The stuff that Drew has done
that isn't commission work
is jaw-dropping.

It's, you know, phenomenal,
phenomenal art.

so I was painting
while I was illustrating.

If I had a day off,

I practiced my hobby,
which was the same thing I did
for a job-- I painted.

And these
are the result of that.

To sum it up, I would call it
art for art's sake.

It's not for advertising movies.
It's not to explain
some philosophy.

This exists for itself,
in itself, 'cause it has
a value as itself.

And you have to look at it
with those eyes
and with that heart...

to really understand
what it's trying to give you
and say to you.

I willfully try to paint
open-endedly,

which is to say
I'm not telling you
what to think.

I'm setting up a circumstance
that asks you questions.

They'll turn out to be
your own questions,

and they'll turn out to be
your own answers.

Sometimes I paint part of it,
and I leave it for six months.

And one day I walk in and I go,
"Ha-ha, I know why I like that."

I do it,
and I don't like it.
I change it again.

I've changed this. I had her
with no hair, black background.

This was orange once.

This was red,
which you can still see.

She used to have
a gun in her hand.

[ Laughs ]
I just kept changing it.

"Oh, it's too illustrative.
Oh, it's not open-ended enough.
Oh, it's"--

It has to grow to have
that kind of depth.

And because it's not
just an illustration
of an existing thing,

it's an invention.

It's like writing a novel
or writing music or dance.

You do the basic thing,
and then it changes
and develops.

It has its own organic,
creative nature.

So painting
is the same way.

When it sings and dances,
then I know it's done.

It's still the same Drew.
Yeah, he's just learning...

to focus on painting what he
wants to, which was a difficult
adjustment for him.

Yeah, it's pretty much
whatever I want, but it's not
whenever I want.

Life seems to be
full of things to do.

- He's still trying to learn
how to relax.
- [ Chattering ]

and spend time
with our family.

We have our grandson
that we take care of
every day now.

And he's-- He's just--
It's delightful to be able
to do that.

He's the center of my life
at the moment.

He and Dylan, my mother-in-law,
have fun playing with Nico
every day.

And I think he paints
on the side,
and he paints what he loves now.

But then he takes time
to go outside...

and take Nico to Griffith Park
for pony rides
and to the zoo,

and maybe that influences
his paintings too.

new opportunities
and whole new lives.

I feel like
I'm starting over again.

And I like being young again.

I mean,
it's a great composition
and everything,

but I like the fact
that the rings
around the flare...

almost look like paint,
oil paint.

The rest of it's very
articulate, and it's much, much
finer detail than oil paint.

But this sort of has
an oil painting
kind of ring around it...

that is textural,
as opposed to the rest of the
stuff, which is not textural.

And I think that's
a brilliant move
of mixed media.

Oh, thank you.

Well, George, as a guy
that appreciates art
and painting,

he understands a lot
of the qualities
that make it so wonderful.

Between the movies and his mind
and heart, this is what
comes out of it for me.

- I enjoyed doing it.
Darth Maul-- what a character.
- Yeah.

What a marvelous design,
the whole concept.
We want more Darth Maul.

Drew Struzan is awesome.
He is the pinnacle of what
I think of when I think of...

film posters, film marketing,
and also just
the kind of artwork...

that I wanna have
in my own home.

Movie poster art is
one of my passions.

And Drew is a big reason
that I have such love for it.

- I love Drew.
- Drew is the last real
poster artist for the movies.

I enjoyed his work
on movie posters.
I think it's really fine art.

I've about three or four
of the those posters.

I have them hanging up
in my room.
My mother just rolls her eyes.

In a way, his art creates
instant nostalgia...

for something that you've never
been introduced to before.

Every time I looked up
one of his posters, I'm like,
"That's my favorite poster!

That's my favorite poster.
No, that's my favorite poster."

Only Drew can do what Drew does.

I think you can tell
he puts his heart and soul
into creating it.

When Drew arrives at the show,
I think he's gonna be
a little surprised,

because he's gonna be like,
"Oh, I don't know if anybody
really wants to come see me."

Meanwhile, the Convention Center
is gonna tilt as everybody
heads for his signing.

Any illustrator
in this room...

is going to acknowledge
what Drew has done...

as an artist
and also to the industry.

He draws faster and more
accurate and realistic than
anybody else I've ever seen.

You just sit there
and just go through his books,

and just kind of, like,
break down his compositions,

his use of color
and all that stuff,

and kind of art-gasm
all over it, you know?

People flew here to do the show
to get Drew's book.

People realize,
"Here's an artist
that's going into retirement.

This could be
my only opportunity to
get him to sign something."

And when I'm sitting
next to a booth
selling his brand-new book...

that they only have
500 copies of,
and it sells out in one day,

then you know Drew
has some impact.

We're selling
stacks of books.

So, yeah, this is
a huge release for us.

Drew rules.
The dark side loves him.

Drew, you cannot leave
the industry. Gotham needs you.

- Drew's the man.
- Drew's the man!

- How great is this artwork?
- [ Fans Cheering, Applauding ]

- Drew Struzan,
ladies and gentlemen.
- [ Cheering ]

When I heard he was doing
this Walking Dead piece,

I was just, like, so ecstatic.

I love this. This is beautiful.

Drew Struzan doing zombies?
Oh, my God! That's cool.

[ Fans Chattering ]

Wow, yours is a lot of work.
You wanna see mine?

- Yeah, but yours is
so much more graceful.

- I'm such a huge, huge fan.

-
Oh, thank you.
- It's really an honor.

and that's the movie poster.

And this man, who is
one of our special guests
at Comic-Con this year,

has kept it alive
for the last 30 years or so--
Mr. Drew Struzan.

[ Applause, Cheering ]

And before we get started
with the interview portion
of this program,

we have a special presentation
for Drew that he's unaware of.

For all the joy you've brought
all of us in this room...

with all your iconic
images over the years,

I'm here on behalf of Comic-Con
to present you with
the Comic-Con Inkpot Award...

for achievement in illustration.

[ Audience Cheering,
Whistling ]

[ No Audible Dialogue ]

I'm speechless.

This is really hard for me.
I'm a guy that sits alone
in my studio all the time.

And I see more people now
than I've seen in years.

This is amazing.

I thank you so much.
You're so generous
just to show up,

and to be here
to see little old me.

It just--
It's beyond words. It's--

[ Cheering ]

- I am his biggest fan.
- [ Laughing ]

- I just wanna say thank you.
- Thank you.

were lookin' at my stuff
and remembering it and
collecting it and enjoying it.

An artist's dream
was coming true.

It was neat to paint it,
and that's self-satisfying.

The real reward is that
other people see it,

look at it, enjoy it,
and it does all those
marvelous things for them,

'cause that really is
the purpose of art.

And when I became attuned
to the fact that it was working,

that it was really helping
people and making the world
a better place,

then I really was,
again, honored.

Finally, I feel like
I had some value.

You know, that--
That what I was working at
and dedicating my life to...

really was doing
some nice things for people.

Something peaceful,
something beneficial.

Damn. I couldn't do anymore.
I mean, I think--

I think I'm a success now.