Original subtitles

Duende's a hard thing to explain.

It's like explaining the soul.

It's very Spanish.

Anything that has death in it...

...and wants to live beyond its limits,

that is expressive and crazy,

that hasduende.

It's a term that tries to...

It tries to express...

I, in my stories and novels,

often write about counterfeit worlds.

Semi-real worlds,

as well as deranged private worlds,

inhabited often by just one person.

While meantime, the other characters

either remain in their own worlds throughout

or are somehow drawn into one of the peculiar ones.

Shouldn't we ought to get going?

Wait till I finish my drink.

I'm getting nervous just standing here.

There's nothing to worry about.

Nobody suspects anything.

All we got to do is ride out slow and easy and keep going.

What about Mal? What if she tells about the baby and all?

By then, we'll be in Colorado.

Now forget it, I'm telling you.

Now one more, and then we'll... We'll walk.

I was doing okay up until a certain point

in that phase of my career.

And then, there was nothing.

Changed agents, whatever, nothing happened.

And so, I was going months without work.

And not able to pay the rent, not able to eat,

not able to do anything.

Impoverished, living in this little guest house,

you know, above a garage in Laurel Canyon.

And got involved with Teri Garr.

Burger!

I met her at Eric Morris' acting class.

You know, she and I didn't have a lot in common it seemed,

but I was really taken with her.

Her behavior, her person, her face, her whole...

She was a dancer, she did TV shows,

she did commercials. She knew how to make a living.

I was quite impressed with her.

We were together a lot, but she had her own place.

She was doing fine, you know, she had money,

she wanted to do things.

And I refused to do things because I couldn't pay for anything.

It wasn't very good for the relationship.

And I was stubborn about it.

I was grim.

None of our friends call us anymore!

You're out of work, you don't care! It's just a small...

Couldn't go to the movies, couldn't go out to eat,

couldn't buy things, couldn't do anything.

And she had money, "Hey, I'll take care of it."

And I said no. I don't wanna do that.

Because I'd done that before in my life,

and decided I was never going to do that again.

I wasn't gonna be a rent boy.

That was no fun.

And there was something that was eating me.

I was very jealous because she'd had a boyfriend before me

that she'd given money to.

A few thousand dollars, as she told me the story,

and that pissed me off.

Did that idiot ever give you the money back?

Me, I don't take money from her.

And this guy took money from her,

and during this period of my not working, after doing that show,

three or four months into this,

she gets a little job.

Arnie, this is my girl, Mary Jean.

Oh, hi. Hello.

It was a small movie. I said good.

And I was happy for her.

And then I find out

that that guy who had taken money from her is her co-star.

And that made me very jealous.

So, I said, "When you get paid at the end of the week,

"you ask him for that money back."

And she was kind of shy about all that.

But I was forceful.

I said, "You have to do that, Teri,

"you just must, for your own dignity,

"you've got to get that money back."

In the meantime, I'd gotten a job as a ditch digger.

I've never had a job in my life.

But she thought it would be a good idea.

So, I went out and got the worst job I could find,

because I didn't have any credentials to get any other kind of job.

And in Laurel Canyon at that time,

they were doing this excavation for a place called Mount Olympus,

which is now this huge tract up in those hills.

I knew they were hiring people, unskilled,

so I went up there and applied for the job

that only like, you know, braseroswere there.

It was like, you know, 150 wetbacks, basically.

And then one guy in the trailer, who was the foreman,

this really tough, gangster-like guy who drove a Cadillac,

was hiring these guys.

So I went up there and he said,

"You wanna work like this? You wanna work in a..."

You know, "Up the side of these hills digging holes to plant trees?"

I said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." "Have you done that before?"

"Yeah, yeah, I've done it before."

"Where?" And I lied and told him all this stuff.

So, I got the job and I was pretty proud of myself

and so I came back to my little cottage

where she was and I said,

"I got this job as a ditch digger.

"You know, don't you feel sorry for me

"and see how great and noble I am?"

I think that was a Friday.

It was my first day at work

and I didn't have a clue about what to do.

In the morning, they take you in a truck with all these other guys,

and you're set loose on these hillsides, they're very steep,

to clear away the brush and dig holes to plant trees,

so you can beautify the area for the tract housing.

It was really hard.

I kept falling, because these guys,

you know, they're agrarians, they know what they're doing.

And they didn't know I spoke Spanish so that was sort of funny

because, the Mexican guys, every time I take a tumble

they'd say, "The faggot flies again."

And I just kept to myself and kept quiet.

When I got home that night, she had been paid

and so had her ex-boyfriend.

And so I said, you know,

I was pissed off from doing that all day.

I was dirty and tired and just resentful that I had to do it.

And so, I asked her if she had gotten the money from him.

And she said, "No. He had some excuse."

And I hit the ceiling and said,

"Where does he live? I'll go get the money."

And she didn't want me to do this.

I said, "No. no. You tell me where he lives."

I wrote it down. It was up in the hills,

not too far from where I lived.

And I remember, I put on boots.

I had a big sheepskin coat

that I'd gotten in Australia the year before.

So I went to his house.

It was an open stairway up to the top

of this rickety porch where he lived.

And I didn't know who he was.

I didn't know what he looked like,

I didn't know how tough he was, whatever.

But I knew I was going to get this money.

And so... Oh, this is a terrible story.

His roommate was this huge impotent fat guy.

And I was really angry,

so I said, "Come on, tell me where he is."

He said, "What do you want with him?"

I said, "I'm gonna kick the shit out of him,

"because he owes my old lady a lot of money.

"And he just got paid today and I know he did so he's here."

He said, "No, he's not here. I swear to God, he's not here."

I said, "Okay. I'll just stay right here on the porch until he gets here,

"or until he gets tired of hiding from me."

It's like, you know, 7:00, Friday night.

And after a while, I fell asleep.

I just curled up on the porch.

And when I woke up,

there's this guy standing over me,

and he said, "What do you want?"

I got up and, you know, he was almost as tall as I was,

he was built like I am.

He kind of acted like a tough guy

but I had, you know, God on my side,

and I said, "You owe Teri money and I want it.

"And you got paid today. Let's have it."

And he said, "Fuck you!"

And I said, "Oh, really?

"Then...

"Then I'm gonna fucking kill you."

He said, "Go ahead." And I didn't know what to do.

I said, "Here? You want it here?

"You want to go inside? You want to go down in the street?"

He said, "Let's go down in the street."

And I said, "After you." And he said, "No, after you."

And it's just this long stairway, down these wooden stairs.

Oh, we're both bumbling.

But I was really furious. And scared.

And I don't know if he was scared or not.

But we went down to the street,

very narrow, slopey street, with cars parked.

And we stood there facing each other,

and I said, "Why don't you just give me the money?

"And we can avoid the bloodshed."

And we started circling each other.

He said, "Go and take your best shot, asshole."

I said, "You call me an asshole..." You know?

Then, I just lost it.

I just lost... You know, I lost...

You know, I went blind.

And I guess the upside of that

is that I can box and he couldn't.

So I hit him really hard in the face.

Bam! Just a left jab.

Like that.

I think, you know, looking back at it, he just wasn't...

You know, he'd probably never even been in a fight.

Because it knocked him down, and he was shocked.

And then I was an ape.

But when he went down,

he jumped up and started running down the street.

And I ran after him.

And I've got my hands up.

"I'll kill you!" I'm screaming something like that.

And he jumps up on the roof of the car.

And I grab him by the legs and I pull him down.

And he falls down on the street.

And I'm on top of him now.

And I'm nuts.

And, oh, I do want to kill him.

And so, I start hitting him in the head, in the face.

Well, that lasted just for a second.

And he screams, "Okay, okay, I'll give you the money!"

And I pull him up and follow him back to the house,

and I realize, I've got a compound fracture.

The bone is sticking out of my...

I wasn't hitting him in the face. He was dodging my punches.

So I hit the asphalt, with this hand, the left hand.

And so we go down the stairs to his bedroom.

And I'm pushing him ahead of me with my other hand.

And then, when we get to the bedroom,

he turns around and he says, "Fuck you!"

And one of us spit on the other.

I can't remember which, whether I spit on him or he spit on me.

You're not as fierce without your gun, Mr. Paladin.

It's dangerous to wear a gun if you can't use it.

And that wasn't it.

No, he said, "Fuck you! I'm not giving you the money."

And I start... And I knocked him down again.

And then he said, "Okay, okay." And I'm such an idiot.

He said, "I don't have any cash, so I'll have to write you a check."

I said, "Make it out to her."

You know, it's for like, $2.500, and he just gives it to me.

And I think that's when I spit on him, actually.

And Teri is horrified when she sees my hand.

And I give her the check. Turns out the check bounced.

And she's got to take me to the emergency hospital.

And I'm in the hospital all night long

with a bad fracture.

And my hand's in a cast.

And she didn't act like I was her hero or anything.

She seemed embarrassed by the whole thing

and I was glum.

And, uh... And this...

The hand, it was bad to, you know, have no hand.

No left hand.

And I go to work on Monday morning.

The guy said, "What the hell happened to your hand?"

I didn't tell them.

And he says, "How are you gonna work?

"You can't be out there digging holes with this hand."

And I said, "I know."

Then somehow, I told him,

or he knew that I speak Spanish.

So he said, "Wait a minute. I can use you.

"You can help me. You can translate things.

"You can be my assistant."

So that's what I did.

And that was up until lunchtime.

And what do you call that?

The taco wagon comes at lunch time.

And I buy something to eat.

And I go by myself up this hillside.

And I'm sitting there eating alone.

And I see a cop car

drive up to the trailer where the foreman is.

What's the matter? Cops.

Squads of them, just, uh, waiting.

And I see the cop talking to the foreman.

And I see the foreman point up to me.

The cop walks up to me and arrests me

for assault.

This guy, this prick,

her ex-boyfriend had filed charges against me.

He handcuffs me, and my hand's in a cast.

He handcuffs me in front, I think.

And we walk back to get in the car.

But he told the foreman what had happened.

Why he was gonna arrest me

was because I had beat up this guy.

The foreman liked that a lot.

I remember, as I was being driven away, he says,

"You come back, Fancher. You always got a job here."

I was taken to the Hollywood Precinct.

And Teri bails me out.

I was mad at her, because she had told the cop where I was.

Because they'd come to my house and she was there.

I go to work the next day. I'm there, and the guy likes me now. He says,

"You're more than my assistant.

You're gonna do all my real stuff."

Like, you know, get his laundry, whatever.

"Here's the keys to my Cadillac."

The next couple of days, I drive around and do that.

I got a cushy job there.

And he treats me affectionately bad.

He likes to make fun of me. Gives me easy jobs.

He wanted me to paint some posts that they were gonna put up,

and signs all along this tract.

Fifty posts that needed to be painted white.

And I'd never painted anything before.

And so I took a long time painting just a few posts.

I did a really good job, I thought.

He came back, like, after lunch

and he said, "You're not finished yet?"

And he was outraged.

And I said, "No." I said, "Look at this. This is good though."

He says, "Stop using your dick and start using your brain, Fancher!

"Look at this guy, what he's doing." You know?

I came to work the following Monday.

Everybody's like this.

I mean, this guy is your foreman.

So those people were, you know...

The gangster-type guys were kind of, like, awed by my presence.

And it turned out, that they'd seenBonanza the night before.

They all loved that show, they all watch that show.

"What, Fancher, you're a movie star!"

I worked from like 7:00 in the morning til 3:00 in the afternoon.

And the phone was literally ringing when I walked in the door,

and it was head of casting at Fox.

He said, "Hampton?" I said, "Yeah?"

And he said, "I'm so-and-so." And I said, "Yeah?"

And he said, "Can you come out? We'd like to have a talk."

I don't think I even had an agent at that moment.

And so, they signed me.

So then I was back in the chips.

It was very clever of you to romance me.

Soft lights and music just to promote a receptive mood.

Then I suppose you've always been an opportunist.

Especially in your dealings with women.

All you men are all alike. Skunks! Skunks!

- You're all alike! - Stacy!

You didn't have to come down to the train just to say goodbye.

But what about that poor girl's heart in the meantime, huh?

What about her in the meantime?

Oh, come on, now, don't make a scene. Stop crying!

Sixty bucks. Come on, Grandpa, where is the rest of it?

They have these names,

Klaus Kinski, Broderick Crawford.

This is 1969.

Lionel Stander.

These guys are paid a lot of money to be in this movie.

So I get a call from my agent. There's this movie about an American cheerleader,

What's a Girl Like You Doing in a Business Like This?

with Barbi Benton, Hugh Hefner's girlfriend.

And she's the lead, and she plays a prostitute, or a girl of the night,

but an easy-going, American, kind of cheerleader-type.

And she has these affairs with these men.

And they want me to play one of the men.

And I said, "No way."

And then they said, "Uh, a lot of money."

And they said, "You can pick whatever part you want."

I said, "You pick it for me. I want the smallest part.

"I want a part with, you know, two lines, if that's possible.

"And I don't want to be in the film."

They come to Los Angeles to talk with various people.

I guess it could be just me, but it was at the Chateau Marmont,

and the director and the producer are there.

And they were saying, "Anything you want. We want you."

And so I said, "Okay, what I want is, I want a little part,

"and a lot of money, and a little time.

"I want to work as little as possible."

They said, "What about a day?" I said, "A day is perfect."

So, I become the most expensive day player in German film history.

Um, I think they gave me $10.000.

In 1969, that wasn't bad.

It turned out to be several more days.

And so, I was having to go to Berlin, to Rome, to the Riviera,

you know, Saint-Tropez or Monte Carlo.

So I made a lot of money.

And the money, by the way, was in cash.

And I carried it with me.

And I lost it all.

I hid it, and after I finished the film, I went to...

Oh, that's another story.

Um...

I don't think that film was ever released.

It's just a dumb film.

And I never saw it.

And around 19...

I don't know. It was maybe '72 or '73, I'm in trouble.

I'm living in Laurel Canyon in a place that cost $175 a month.

It's a cracker box, against the code.

You know, someone just put it up on top of a hill.

And it's made out of plywood.

And I can't even pay the rent, I'm in trouble.

My agent calls me and says,

"Listen, there's a terrible job if you want to do it.

"You can make $1.000.

"A distribution company has bought the rights

"toWhat's a Girl Like You Doing in a Business Like This?

"and going to distribute it in certain very small venues

"and none of the stars of that film will cooperate with any PR business."

"But they want you to do it and they're willing to give you $1.000."

I said, "For how long?"

He said, "For, like, five days."

I said, "Okay, I'll do it."

But it's not like, you know, where you do a thing for the studio,

the limo picks you up and you go first class,

and you stay at a nice hotel and you have handlers.

This is gonna be, like, roughshod.

And I've got to go to three cities.

The way the planes are working,

because they're on the cheap,

I have to keep changing little prop planes.

- It's not like one... - Get there.

I have to change and wait for a plane.

It's really gruesome, the whole affair.

And I don't know what to say, and the radio people don't know what to ask me.

There's pictures taken, I do a TV show in local television.

I was leaving the South, going to Pennsylvania,

I had to change planes in Washington, D.C.

And the plane gets in at, like, 8:00 in the morning,

and my other plane leaves to go to Philadelphia at 10:30,

and so I've got, like, two and a half hours.

And I think, "I'll get in a cab,

"and I'll go to the National and I'll do some quick looks and come back to the airport."

And I was very excited about that.

The museum hasn't opened yet.

I bang on the door, a guard opens it

and I say, "Please let me in. I've just come here, I just have an hour,

"and I came all this way."

And he takes pity on me and lets me in the museum.

So it was rather nice. I'm running around,

but they'd also opened the museum for schoolchildren,

so that there's classes going on.

Like, there was one painting in particular I wanted to see,

you know, Watson and the Shark.

So, I said, "Where is that?" to the guard.

And he says, "That way." I go up some stairs.

And there was little children sitting in front of it

and there was a teacher talking about the painting,

and asked a question.

Like, what did they notice that was one thing,

one singular thing in the painting,

that was different from everything else in the painting?

What she was driving at was Watson is completely white,

he's like dead-white,

and everybody else is like another color.

And so, a little black...

Nobody had said anything, and then this little kid

raises his hand, and the teacher said, "What?"

And he said,

"That white man ain't got no clothes on." Which is true.

And I was in the back of the room and I just started laughing.

I was at the doorway, you know? They didn't know I was there,

and I started laughing and they all looked,

and then they all started laughing. It was wonderful.

That was the only good thing that happened on this trip.

So I go back to the airport, I get on a plane,

little plane,

and fly to Harrisburg.

That is a very depressing place,

because what's happened just before that

is that they had the worst flood they've ever had,

in that area, in history.

It's killed people, it's completely ruined the economy.

It just happened. I'd seen it in the press beforehand.

The city was depressed. It was muffled.

And the guy that picks me up at the airport,

he's got my name,

and I thought maybe it was a chauffeur or something. It wasn't.

It's the theater manager from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

He's a little man, a gray man.

To him, I was some famous guy who he didn't know, from Hollywood.

What do you call this hick town, Sheriff?

He was embarrassed. He can't look at me, he can't talk.

And he's got an old Cadillac,

and we're driving to Wilkes-Barre.

It's night time now.

It's totally dark, it's freezing cold, it's in the mountains,

and this guy is driving like a maniac.

The roads are really icy, the car is slipping.

And it's this huge car.

And he's going like 80 miles an hour and I am horrified.

What a place to die,

with this guy, who's looking straight ahead, not talking,

can't talk, and we're gonna die.

And I don't say anything.

I can't say, "Hey, man, slow down."

And he drives me to a motel,

you know, like, little cheap rooms.

And that's where I'm gonna stay.

He tells me the itinerary. He says, "Tomorrow..."

He said he'll pick me up first thing because we have a full day.

We have to go back to Harrisburg,

where the mayor's gonna give me the keys to the city.

And then there's a brunch,

because the radio has been advertising the film

and the lucky winners get to have dinner with Hampton Fancher.

And there's the premiere.

Then I have to stand there and welcome the people into...

I never knew what a shopping mall was until that.

But this is a shopping mall, and it's a brand new theater,

this is the first film that's ever going to play there.

And it's horrifying.

And he tells me all this in five minutes.

I go, "Wow." I wish it was the day after, you know? That.

My plane leaves from Harrisburg at 7:00 in the morning.

And I said, "Yeah, but, it's like..."

I was already worried about how do I get from Wilkes-Barre and catch that plane for sure,

because then I have to get another plane, like, in Philadelphia,

and then another change in Chicago,

and then I'm going to Frisco.

And... I mean, on my own.

And all I could think about was,

"Get me to Harrisburg on time."

So I get out of there at 7:00 in the morning.

Uh, I don't remember that night.

I went to sleep, I hope,

and in the morning, he's there

to take me.

And now he's kind of excited to show me this shopping mall theater.

And so he said, "Come on in." He was happy.

And he's got an office.

So we go in the office and he says, "This is Suzy."

His secretary.

And she is a frightened, kind of nondescript, frumpy girl.

Uh, is bashful,

because she's bashful anyway probably, and doesn't think much of herself.

But she's scared to meet me, and that's obvious.

But that gives me an interest to put her at ease and make her feel good about herself.

So I'm joking around with her, but she doesn't know what to do about that.

I fuck around, he's like...

He starts acting bossy, and for me, I think.

You know, "Uh, Suzy, did you..."

- And she said... - And she says that.

And I said, "You know what?"

Let's call him Al. "Al, I think I got a good idea here.

"All this stuff I gotta do today,

"I want Suzy to do it with me."

He doesn't like that too much, but I'm, like, pushing it,

and he's got to go with it, kind of. And so, that's it.

I'm relieved. I have this girl who I'm much more comfortable with than this uptight guy.

But what I'm really thinking is,

I know, I have a conviction, that I can communicate with her.

An most importantly, I can be on time to Harrisburg the next morning

before the sun comes up and get on my plane.

That's what it was about. It was manipulation.

We take off, guy says, "Shouldn't we have lunch first or something?"

And she said, "Yes, if you want."

And she's very uptight,

but as I'm talking to her in her car, it gets a little easier,

and she starting to enjoy herself, she's starting to laugh,

and I'm becoming interested in who she is and all that and asking questions.

And then she wants to go to the country club.

She's been living there all her life, she knows everybody,

and she shows up at the country club with the movie star to have lunch.

And there was something about that, I thought.

And so, I did that well with her.

You know, I was like, I was fun with her, I held her hand,

I said, "Come on, let's do this and do that."

And she was, like, breaking character.

We go back to Harrisburg, and the mayor,

and there's still remnants of the flood everywhere,

and I get the keys to the city.

And there's a photographer there,

and it's a little platform, and when this happens,

she's standing there because she's just part of the town. She's a nobody.

But I grab her and I pull her up, and I put my arm around her.

And she's like, flushes, she's excited, it's a happy time.

We go back to Wilkes-Barre.

Takes like 40 minutes to get there.

And I do a radio show.

And the winners come in, who get to have dinner with me.

And there's like, you know, four people have won, and they bring their mates.

And so, she knows, by this time,

that I think that's rather funny,

and so she kicks in with it.

She's beginning to be charmed by the whole idea.

Then we go to the film,

and I've got to stand out there and she knows how I feel about this,

and the theater manager's there now,

and people are coming up to go have a seat

and I've gotta go say, "Hi, I'm in the movie. I hope you enjoy yourself."

So, this is... I hate to tell this story.

This is really ugly.

Um...

The movie starts

and I say to her, "Let's get out of here, I don't wanna watch this.

"And we'll go somewhere and have a drink

"and come back when the movie's over."

Friends, wait!

Stop! Please stop.

Please, I hope you'll forgive me,

but I'm sure you'll understand if we leave now without any further formalities, okay?

In the meantime, eat, drink, dance, and have a good time for as long as pleases you.

Come on.

She's happy to do that.

And we go to what their version of a nightclub is,

where there's a live band,

and she knows them all.

They're like her little chums.

And I'm older than everybody, and I'm taller than everybody, and I'm from out of town.

And I come in and everybody, "Hey, Suzy, hey."

And they're like shy about me being there.

I'm ordering Jack Daniel's after Jack Daniel's,

and we're dancing now to the band and people are getting out of the way.

And we finish that and then she takes me back to my place.

We're drunk.

And I think,

"If I let her go, I'm fucked for the morning. I gotta keep her with me."

And I say, "Do you wanna come upstairs?"

And she's like... Like that, but she comes upstairs.

And we get upstairs,

and she walks in, and I open the door,

and it's cold,

and she walks in and she's like, kind of stiff.

And I know that she wants love.

She wants romance, she wants all this.

And there's that moment for me where I think,

"If I keep her here, it can't be, like, frigid."

You know, like, "Hey, how are you doing?

"You want to spend the night, sleep in bed?"

And I just went for... I just did it.

I walked up behind her and I put my arms around her

and she just kind of melted into that.

She liked it a lot.

She liked being touched.

She liked, you know, my... Whatever I was saying to her.

And she was natural and fine, and it was good.

I wanted to take good care of her,

I wanted to make her happy.

And at the same time, there was the manipulation.

It's like, I'm keeping her here so that we're out of here in the morning.

And...

So, I had the feeling that she'd never been made love to in the way we made love,

and it went on for quite a while.

And I talked to her about herself,

about what I thought her qualities were,

and I don't think she'd ever heard those things before.

And by the end of that, she was very thrilled.

I didn't have that good of a time,

I was still guilty because I knew what this was leading to,

and I knew why I was doing it, and I'd never done that.

I mean, I'd done crazy things, but not for purposes that were utilitarian, you know?

We slept for a while. It was very dark.

I was scared to death about making sure we had the right amount of time.

I was thinking the car was gonna break down, whatever,

I'm not gonna get to Harrisburg and get the plane.

It's like, you know, 4:30, 5:00 in the morning,

it was dark, it was bleak and it wasn't nice,

because I was leaving and I knew that her feelings were strong,

and that this was over with and she'd never talk to me again.

And we got to the airport, it's a little, tiny airport,

and I stay in the car a little while with her.

I mean, she knows she doesn't own anything here,

so she can't justify any questions or accusations or anything.

But she's not pleased.

And I get out of the car, and I have one bag,

and I walk around to her and I say...

I'm just saying "Suzy." I don't know what her name was.

And I say, "Thank you so much, and you are something,

"and I'm so glad, and you were so nice."

And I kiss her goodbye.

It's a little cube... It's a small, open airport.

And I walk in, there's a little coffee thing

and there's a lady behind the counter.

It was a prop-jet there warming up, and I was walking, I could see it,

and when I looked back to her to wave,

she was behind the wheel of her car with her back to me,

the car was backed to where I was going.

And she was just like this and she didn't look or anything.

And it was a sad pose.

And so, I say to the woman at the counter,

"Is there another plane that goes to Chicago?

"Could you look and see what time that's leaving?"

And if there's a plane in between, I could postpone,

because it looked like these prop-jets were going, you know, the commuters.

And so, she said, "There's one that leaves in an hour,

"and that would get you there on time for your flight to Chicago."

And I said, "Put me on it."

And so, I go back outside, and it's right there,

and she's still in that position.

And I walk up to her and I tap the window and she looks.

And it's like...

You know, not that I'd come back so we could get married,

but you know, she was happy.

And I said... You know, she rolled the window down, or opened the door...

And I said, "Listen, I don't have to leave for another hour.

"We could have breakfast or something if you want."

And there's a little cafe there.

And she was so happy.

And we went in and we had some stuff, we talked more,

and that was it. That was great.

So, and she, you know... It was a wave goodbye, it was a nice goodbye.

And I get on the plane.

I missed the connection to Chicago.

Fuck!

And I missed it by an hour or two hours or something.

And so, but there was another plane coming.

I got on that place, I got to Chicago and on my plane to Frisco.

I get to Frisco,

and the plane that I missed crashed in Chicago.

A couple people lived.

The reason it was something was because the congressman's wife

was carrying bag money to pay off...

It was during the Nixon... You know, Watergate.

You know, beside the plane crashing, that's news.

Not everybody died.

I never figured out whether, from where I was sitting,

whether I would have died or not.

I think the first class died.

And so, I was in back of that, and so maybe I wouldn't have.

But when I got back to LA,

there was an envelope to my agent,

and it was the front page of the Harrisburg newspaper

of me getting the keys to the city with her.

And there was a circle around both of us,

and then an arrow to herself, in the photograph,

and it said, "Your guardian angel."

And that was it.

Brian Kelly was probably the funniest guy I ever knew.

He could walk up the stairs to get his hat, and come back down

and tell you what it was like walking up the stairs to get his hat,

and you would be rolling on the floor.

Not because he was trying to be funny, although he knew he was funny,

it's just, his take on the universe was so funny.

And he wasn't... He was a very smart guy,

but he wasn't interested in smart things per se,

although he was very proud of himself,

and very contained, very autonomous.

And he was irresistible to women.

Women would, you know, fall over themselves trying to get to Brian.

I mean, he's a handsome guy, he's a sexy guy,

he's a funny guy, he's a strong guy,

he's formidable, he's a heroic guy.

But that much? It bothered me a little bit.

I felt competitive, I felt jealous of him a little bit.

But we loved each other and we were buddies.

He was simple in a way. He didn't...

Like the things that plagued normal old fellows didn't bother him

because he didn't think about it.

He didn't ask questions.

He didn't ask deep questions, by the way.

Not that he was frivolous,

but he didn't ever ask me deep questions.

And the one time I said to him,

I said, "Do you get jealous ever? Ever get the feeling?"

You know, because I have. I've felt possessive and all that stuff and suffered,

since I was 11.

And he never did.

And it wasn't the kind of guy you could ask, "Well, why is that?"

You know? But I did, and he said, "What's the point?"

I knew men, and I'm probably one of them,

who's known a lot of women.

That way, I mean.

But not as many as that guy knew.

That guy was with many women.

And I've known a few people like that.

You know, three women, different women in a day and all that

for many days in a row.

But he had that.

And women would just...

And he wasn't nice to women necessarily, either.

That was another odd thing.

Maybe not so odd, you know.

He was dismissive of women.

There was a party given for me in Vienna,

and every woman around always only had eyes for Brian, never for me.

And like I said, I was a bit envious of that,

or I thought that I'd been usurped and that wasn't fair.

But this party, I was invited down in a plane,

all that stuff, he came with me, we go to this fete,

and there's a lot of people.

And there is one woman that is knock... Knockout.

And we called her, "the Apache."

I said, "Have you checked out the Apache?"

You know, she's German, but she's this, you know, Austrian.

And she was wonderful-looking.

And so, the whole night goes on,

I don't talk to her, he doesn't talk to her,

but she looks at me, and it's about me, this party,

and there's some speeches and stuff.

And then I see her walking across the floor,

and then she comes up to me and I'm like, "Yes! Finally!" You know?

And I look at her and she says...

"Hampton?" I said, "Yes?"

She says, "You are with Brian Kelly?"

I said, "Yeah." She says, "Could you introduce me to him?"

I said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

So I... Actually, this story is so terrible, I'm not going to tell it.

We're counting on you, son.

Now, if I decide to call for a full-scaled search,

I want Coast Guard helicopters in a hurry.

He was... It was a stupid show, right?

It was a very popular show.

He played the lead, the guy, you know, the adult, the father.

The ranger.

They have a thing in television called TVQ

and his TVQ was very high because of that show.

So he was in a good spot to become a star.

His father was governor of Michigan before that, before I knew him.

Republican.

You know, Brian wasn't exactly, in the '60s the same way I was.

It was almost a narcissistic relationship we had.

And also, it was a great thing to be, uh...

Loved by a guy like him,

who is a man's man, and very irreverent.

I was involved with his girlfriend Maggie, is how I met him.

That's what's weird about the accident.

Because he was a guy that as a man or a woman,

if you wanted somebody in your corner,

somebody who couldn't be harmed and made sure you weren't harmed,

somebody untouchable that way,

you would choose Brian.

He was like some kind of B-movie detective hero. That's just who he was.

He had a Maserati.

We were driving down Sunset Boulevard late at night,

but it was one of those... All those teenagers or whatever.

And he was a very bold driver,

and inconsiderate driver.

And someone was inconsiderate at the same time he was inconsiderate,

and they said, "Pull over, you motherfucker!"

You know? And there was like five or six of these guys.

And he just pulls over.

And jumps out.

And I thought, "Oh, God."

And there was a lot of 'em. And I get out, too.

And he told stories about himself and I'd heard things about him.

He was just a guy who knows how to do stuff.

But I knew he didn't know how to do that.

Not with those many people and that kind of people.

But he had a legitimacy about him, he just looked like it.

And he said, "These are registered.

"You want some?"

They got back in the car and then we laughed like hell.

We never stopped driving from Frisco to get to LA one evening.

We were gonna take some shortcuts. He always had shortcuts.

The drive took 16 hours.

That's Brian, you know? It wasn't a pain in the ass.

You're screwed up every which way.

"No," he says, "I got a way."

You know? And it was always hilarity.

But in that drive, there was one thing I remember that was typical Brian.

It was like in Stockton or Modesto or some weird place.

We're driving and he said, "We better go in there and have a drink."

And what it is, is a roadhouse for Chicanos.

You can see the cars out there and you can hear the maria... You know, the accordion music.

This is, like, not a good place for gringos.

And especially, you know, just two kind of handsome "Dan" kind of guys

going into a place like this.

And it's like, "Okay, sure, let's go in there."

We go in. As soon as we walk in, every head there was is, you know,

"What the fuck are you doing here, mother..."

They didn't say anything, but that's the feeling.

And we sit down at a table, order two tequilas,

and Brian is very, "Two!"

You know? Like, "Don't call attention to yourself, man. It's bad enough."

So we sit there, we're having the drinks and there's bad looks.

Everything is like... You know, they pulled the plug on their happiness,

and now it's like it's macho meanness.

I can feel it from every direction.

And he can too, but he acts like it's not there.

He acts like he's a clown and it's his party.

And then I see him get up, I say, "Don't do it, man."

And he walks over to a table with a beautiful somebody-else's-girlfriend,

and the band is playing.

And he goes like this.

And she's like... She looks at her boyfriend.

This is just too much.

But it's so much too much that they can't do what normally they would do.

And he knows that somehow, always, in his life.

And he just picks her up and he starts swinging her around

and polka dancing almost, you know, around the floor. Everybody...

And finally, it ends up, everybody's clapping for him and buying him drinks.

And that was Brian.

I never saw him get in trouble.

Except the one trouble he got into and knocked his brains out.

He was going five miles an hour

and went over a curb and fell over and hit his head.

Bingo, he just hit it in the wrong place.

But it wasn't, you know... I was right behind him on my other bike.

And my nanny was on the bike with him,

and my daughter's on the bike with me.

It was nothing. It was just another fluke thing.

Well, I thought he was joking, in fact. I thought he was fucking with me,

because we always did that.

And he might have been, but then, hurt himself.

And it was not more than...

I mean, you've run into poles with your head harder than he hit his head,

but it was just at the right moment, the right place.

Yeah.

I met him in late '68 or early '69.

The accident happened in '71.

And even after he was crippled and had the aphasia, and he couldn't think right,

uh, he still expected...

You know, one arm didn't work.

He looked like a stroke victim.

And, uh, he had no hesitation in a restaurant

to tell the waiter or the waitress to cut something for him.

Expected it.

And he wasn't embarrassed about that kind of thing,

or embarrassed about his condition, either.

Although, I mean, it took his life away,

and the life he knew and the life he expected to live was gone forever.

And he handled that pretty well.

I only saw him cry once.

I took care of him for a long time, for about a year afterwards.

Because he had to reconstitute himself.

He couldn't speak.

He didn't walk right, and all that.

There was therapy, and I would take him.

I felt complicit... I mean, I felt guilty.

Not guilty, but I felt, if it hadn't been for me, it wouldn't have happened.

And he was my friend as well, so I would do that anyway,

but probably it was somewhat informed by my part in that accident.

And it's just before the accident,

I had decided that I didn't wanna be part of it anymore.

It was just, I had other things I wanted to do,

and it was taking too much of my life away and I felt, you know, I had to get out.

We were having fun, only all the time.

I don't think I stand a chance of making you stop your grin.

Although it was fun while it lasted,

I wasn't doing this anymore.

And it was painful in a way, you know, to everybody.

He didn't remember. Brian didn't know,

because after the accident, it was like he didn't...

You know, his short-term memory had gone.

Like his girlfriend, that girl, well, they were broke up.

But he didn't remember that.

So to him, it was like, "She's leaving me because I'm not a man anymore."

And not that he even felt sorry for himself outwardly,

but he couldn't...

And I would talk to him about that. I said,

"You'd moved into a hotel, you were finished, you know, with Maggie."

And she was finished with you.

And he couldn't quite comprehend that.

You know, he did, he sucked it up,

but he didn't have any memory of his disenfranchisement from anything.

And you'll write it?

Yeah.

Yes, I am.

Seventeen months' worth of notes there.

Barbara! I was under contract at Fox

and she was a teenager doing a TV series.

And I used to see her picture in the hallway at Fox.

And I used to go put my finger on her face and say,

"I'm going to marry you."

You know, I used to say that every week.

I got sent to do her show The Monroes.

Easy, easy!

That wagon has to be dead center.

You know, I was a contract player.

And so, I got sent to Wyoming, that's where they did it.

It was... You know, it lasted one season.

And I did not want to go.

I didn't want her to see me. A small...

Because I knew when we did see each other,

it was going to be forever, you know, kind of thing.

And I'd seen her in a movie already,

I loved her work.

I saw her on the set out there,

outside, you know, location.

And I saw her chair

and I was walking in that direction,

she would've seen me if I'd have kept walking

but I turned around and went the other way

because I knew it was the wrong time.

I have better things to do than watch the creek.

And that was in sixty...

I don't know, '66?

And then in '74,

my friend Michael and Patty, his wife, said,

"You'll never guess who we're friends with."

And I said, "Who's that?"

He says, "Barbara Hershey and David Carradine."

"David Carradine? What's he have to do with it?"

He said "They're together." I said, "Really? Oh, good."

And inside I thought,

"Excellent. That's a good thing for her.

"So much for me."

But then, they conspired to get me to meet her.

Because they thought it would be a good idea for her

because they didn't like David.

And so, I met her.

The rest is history.

David didn't like it but he didn't do well by her.

She was ready, probably, to get out.

We were together for the longest I've ever been with anybody.

But we never lived together, we traveled together.

We'd stay... You know, she would stay at my place, I'd stay at her place.

But we kept separate places.

That's...

That's one reason why it worked probably.

And, uh, she was wonderful.

She's still wonderful.

You're pretty.

Very pretty.

You have a remarkable figure.

Quite full.

Thank you.

Michael and Patty called me and said,

"Hey, um...

"Barbara's over here, we're gonna go to Royce Hall

"to see a dance concert."

I said, "Where's David?"

"He's out of town."

So, I go to Michael's place and there's Barbara!

And it was wonderful to see her.

I didn't talk to her.

Just talking to Michael and Patty was talking to Barbara

and we went to Royce Hall.

Patty said, "Here, you guys take the front seat."

I said, "No, no." She said, "No, take the front seats."

We sat there and watched the first half of the show.

A Javanese kind of concert.

It was great.

And we didn't talk or anything.

I hadn't talked to her. Literally.

Then the intermission came

and we walked up to go to the lobby

and then intermission was over,

and I said, "You guys go down and sit now in the front seats."

And then, they went down and sat in the front seats.

And then, I knew by sitting with her in the backseat,

that something had changed right then.

Later I found out what it was is that,

she wasn't used to that.

Not that David was not generous,

he was generous, I think.

But he didn't think of other people a lot.

And she was impressed.

And after that I became impressed

because when the concert was over, Michael was like a kid

and I have a bit of that in me.

And people are sometimes shocked or turned off or embarrassed,

but we wanted to dance.

And it's Royce Hall and it's out there, there's some... Landscape.

And we started dancing and doing things

and marching around and doing funny things.

And Barbara went right in with us.

She was, like, hooked up.

Literally, hooked up with us and was doing these things.

And I went, "Whoa! Yay for Babs!" You know.

I really liked her.

David was doing a show calledKung Fu and she was in one.

And so, she was at her father's apartment.

There was a lot of suitors around Barbara always.

Guys who were just friends but had their eye open.

And there was about three or four of them there.

I was embarrassed, I was shy about it.

And her father's there, and there's the television on

and there's a pool table there,

and she's under the pool table.

You know, away from those guys.

And I looked at the...

And she looked at me and she goes, "Hampton!"

I was like this, "Hi."

And I looked around where I should sit and she goes like this...

And then, I left.

But I was quite excited to be invited to lie next to her.

Brian had had a court settlement about the accident

and gotten a lot of money.

And that had run out, just about.

And he was interested in film,

always wanted to produce, actually.

And he asked me if I had any ideas about a property.

And I said, "See if you can option Philip K. Dick's book,

"Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?"

I had tried to option it before and not succeeded.

I just thought maybe he could succeed.

I didn't know what else to tell him.

I didn't have any faith in it

because I'd been involved with Dick

and Dick was not involvable. I didn't think it could work.

You know, he was very elusive about that project.

He didn't... You know, he wouldn't even talk about it.

And we talked about other projects.

He wanted me to do two others.

And we did talk about those, but I wasn't interested.

And every time I'd bring it up...

Turned out years later, I found out

that he had already optioned it to some French company.

But he didn't say that.

And he was very, you know... He was kind of paranoid.

I thought he was crazy.

You know, not just crazy like my friends and me.

"You're crazy!" But I'll bet really crazy maybe,

because he kept messages

from somewhere, maybe.

I was sure he didn't like me.

I'm not the kind of guy that jumps to conclusions,

but I get the feeling you don't like me.

I said that to him and he said,

"I'll see you next time."

And I said, "I don't think so."

And he said, "Why?"

And I don't talk like that, but with him I did

because it was so clear he didn't like me, I thought.

He thought I was a hustler.

I mean, a Hollywood-type hustler and I'm not.

I wish I were. I was trying to be.

But I guess I succeeded with him

in letting him think I was or something.

I said, "You think..."

And he said, "No, I don't think that."

I said, "I should come here with a cigar

"because I don't even know what the fuck I'm doing.

"I don't know anything about this. I'm not a producer.

"And I wanna be." You know.

So I never made sense with him exactly.

So, I didn't succeed.

And then it's '77, I guess.

And I'm teaching acting, I'm washed up.

I mean, there's nothing I can do.

I stopped acting in '75.

Come on, Bing. Get out of my way. You're under arrest.

What?

There's traffic warrants on him. Put your right hand behind your head.

I never thought of myself as an actor.

From the beginning, I thought of it very provisionally.

I didn't expect to do anything as an actor.

I didn't feel myself to be a very good actor.

And I was a lazy actor.

I kind of pretended to study and take it seriously,

but I really secretly wasn't that serious about it.

I was more serious about writing.

And more serious about directing.

And I guess my little tragedy is I didn't get to direct as much as I want to.

Wanted to.

And I thought that was my talent.

And I denied it.

I refused to admit how frightened I was

of not just acting, but...

Well, if you're frightened of acting,

it means you're frightened of life, I think.

Acting is life.

I knew that much.

If I was lying as an actor,

I was lying in my life.

And the lie, for me, in the beginning

that it took me a few years to face

was that I was a frightened person.

That I was terrified.

That I had tension in me,

I was nervous and I was lying about it.

I was redirecting that into an arrogance,

into a fearlessness,

into a pomposity and it became part of my persona.

I played characters like that.

Bad guys, rapists and arsonists

and cowards and misfits.

You know, dumb people. I played a lot of dumb guys.

Then Brian calls and he says,

"I only have a few thousand dollars left.

"There's no prospect of my getting anything."

He lived high.

And now I understood and it was horrifying.

I said, "I don't know what to tell you, man.

"The only thing we know about is properties

"and there's one I know that could be good,

"that it might be a thing to come."

So, I told him about that

and he then calls me a week later

and he got it for $2.000 or something like that.

And then he took it to Michael Deely,

a great producer and a renowned producer.

And Michael Deeley said, "No way. Doesn't work."

The novel.

And then Brian told me that.

Then I got defense... I said, "That's nonsense.

"It does work. This is a very simple notion.

"A detective during the future after these mechanical creatures.

"It's simple. Come on, it works fine."

He said, "Could you write that down?"

I said, "No, come on."

He said just write it and I'll show that to Michael. So I wrote a page.

He showed that to Michael and Michael said...

Then he told me that.

And then, a little while later, he called me.

Kind of really beseeching,

demanding I write a screenplay.

He said, "You're a good writer, you can write this."

And I said, "I don't wanna write that."

And then, Barbara talked me into it.

She was makingStuntman with Peter O' Toole.

Good evening, want a lift?

We were staying at the Coronado

outside San Diego on the beach.

And she had to do a night shoot

and it was in the evening.

She was getting ready to go and the phone rings.

And we're in a nice suite overlooking the ocean.

And there's the courtyard down there for the Coronado.

And it's Brian.

And I've already had this from Brian,

I already told him I don't want to be involved in that.

It's not my area.

I don't even have an area.

But that's definitely not it. I'm not interested.

And, um...

So, he tried to talk me into it on the phone and I actually got angry.

I said, "Listen, don't you understand N-O?

"I can't do this. If I could, I would,

"but I can't. I'm not interested.

"Even if I were interested, I wouldn't know how to even approach it."

"But you said..."

"I know the formula idea but I don't know how to write it.

"I don't know what the dialogue would be, the stuff."

I hung up on him, disgruntled.

King of hung up on him, actually.

And Barbara was watching me and she said, "What are you doing?"

And I said, "You saw what I'm doing."

And she said, "The reason you wanted to option this three years ago

"was because you said you wanted to walk through the front door.

"You said this is a front-door project.

"And he's asking you to walk through the front door.

"Just like you've been saying you wanted to do

"and you're saying no?"

And I got... I said, "You don't understand."

I was like that.

She beat me down just through intelligence.

And showed me myself, kind of.

Which made me cry, made me whine.

And she said, "Hampton, do this."

And I said, "I can't do this."

Then she had to go shoot.

And I remember watching her as they set up down there, the floodlights.

I didn't have anything to do that night except wait for her to come back.

And so, I sat down at the desk there in the suite

and had that stationary from Coronado.

And I thought, "What would it be like if I wrote one page?"

So, I started writing the opening idea of the thing.

And I rather liked it.

I thought, "Damn, this is interesting."

So, I wrote that page.

Then I went to bed.

And then, um...

Before sun up, she had come back.

And I hadn't slept.

I was lying in bed, but I pretended to be asleep.

And I watched her come in.

You know there's that smell, the makeup, it's nice.

And she came in and she looked at me thinking I was asleep,

and there was a basket of fruit there and she peeled an orange,

walked back and forth peeling an orange.

She was just so hyped from the shoot, I guess.

And I watched her peel the orange.

Ate the orange ravenously.

On her knees, she got down on her knees

and just concentrated on the orange

and I was, kind of, out of the corner of my eye watching this.

And then she came to bed.

And I said, "You know, I think I might have something on this thing."

She read every page I wrote after that.

I mean, I had a couple of people who were helpful to me but that was the first.

I went back, I lived in Topanga,

she lived on top of Topanga.

I would work for a week and then I would read to her.

Or sometimes she came down.

I remember her sitting on the couch and I was on the floor...

"Blah, blah, blah," reading.

And she said, "God, that is so good."

"You know, this is wonderful."

And that was very nice, I mean, it kept me writing.

It took a year.

When you do a term paper,

you gotta write like a writer.

Make every sentence say exactly what you mean.

If you got a big idea, then you write a big sentence.

If not, don't. Simple.

I said, "Listen, I'll do this,

"but how do I get paid?"

My rent was $350 a month.

He said, "I'll pay your rent for however long it takes to write it."

And I said, "Great."

Because I could teach one time a week,

and get the other money, you know, for the car or whatever.

And I did.

He was reading it as I was writing it.

It was a lot of fun. I mean, that script is nothing like it turned out to be.

It was a far different draft, that first draft.

But when it was finished,

I knew this was, like...

The writing was okay, you know?

And the story was interesting and unique.

And I... And so, immediately,

Michael Deeley read it because Brian took it to Michael.

And Michael actually called me.

I didn't know him. I met him once.

And he said, "We ought to have a meeting.

"Could you come to the house?"

Two years later, we get the money

but he said, uh...

"Oh, let's do this thing.

"What do you guys want?"

We go, "Huh?"

You know, Brian... I didn't know anything.

And he said, "Okay, I'm gonna tell you what you want."

We said, "So there's no trouble?

"Thank you, Mr. Deeley."

He said, "We're all partners. Equal partners on this."

Equal decision-making powers and equal money.

I said, "That sounds okay to me."

And so, right away, I get sent a check.

Just to hold me over for $20.000.

You know, in 1978.

I was quite happy.

I couldn't believe it.

Pan right or pull back.

Enhance 34 to 46.

There's burn out with any writer.

And Hampton, I think, said,

"I give up. I can't do this anymore.

"I need time out."

Ridley never came right out and said,

"If you don't do what I'm telling you to do,

"then we'll get somebody else to do it."

That never was said.

Ridley was shy, he's manipulative,

you know whatever, he didn't tell me.

I think what happened was, I said to Hampton,

"Look, there's this guy around who can come and do

"some of the city speak and the dialogue.

"What I want you to do is meet him.

"And you tell me." 'Cause I felt it was so much his now.

This script, you know, he's doing all the work.

I'm just sitting there being creative.

I was disaffected from the production.

I had nothing to do with it.

Once they started shooting, then I get a phone call,

Michael Deeley is saying to me,

"If you have enough maturity to do this,

"we'd like you to come down, look at dailies,

"we have one scene left to do, the rooftop scene."

So, I went down.

And the first thing I did was visit the set.

It was a night shoot.

It was probably in the last week of shooting.

They had the whole back lot at Warner Brothers.

So, I drive to the backlot, it's midnight or something,

and, uh...

You know, it's...

It's like a phantom situation. There's all these...

There's the set, the street,

you know, the chase scene was being done,

but they were momentarily in hiatus

because something was going on.

Something serious.

But I didn't notice that.

All I saw was this incredible set. "Oh, my God, this came true."

I was out of my skin with excitement.

I was so happy.

Maybe the happiest I've ever been in my life. I couldn't believe it.

So, I was amazed

and looking around for Ridley and Michael Deeley,

and then I see them both, they're talking.

They're, like, in a meeting and then I realized...

I didn't realize it then, it was afterwards.

All these people that are not doing anything

are waiting for this confabulation to take place.

But I was too excited to notice it.

So, I run towards the back of Michael Deeley,

who it turns out,

he's talking with Jerry Perenchio and Bud Yorkin.

And this is one of the most crucial moments of the production.

In terms of, "Shall we continue as we are

"or are you guys gonna be fired?

"Are we taking the movie away from you?" And I don't know that.

I come up behind.

I know they're gonna be glad to see me

and glad that I'm happy

and I grab Michael by the neck from behind,

and he looks around at me and in a second,

he says, "Not now, Hampton."

And then I realized what I'd stepped into and I backed away.

I think I contributed one line to that scene, the rooftop scene.

I wrote a whole scene.

But I think they used the Gaff character I brought back into that.

That he lands there and gives him the gun.

They used that one line.

It's too bad she won't live.

But then again, who does?

I, in my stories and novels,

often write about counterfeit worlds.

Semi-real worlds,

as well as deranged private worlds,

inhabited often by just one person.

While meantime, the other characters

either remain in their own worlds throughout

or are somehow drawn into one of the peculiar ones.

Too bad she won't live.

But then again, who does?

What is theBlade Runner? What does that title mean?

It's the name of the police unit

to which the character I play is assigned.

Mmm-hmm. And is this a movie that takes place in the future or present?

Forty years in the future on Earth,

in recognizable surroundings,

not so much science fiction

as a little bit of futurism

blended with a detective story.

Uh-huh. How do things seem to be 40 years from now?

It's no musical comedy, David.

It's a Spanish Gypsy term.

If you had it,

you were in touch with the ineffable.

Anything that wants to live beyond its limits,

that is expressive and crazy,

and it can't be relied on,

that'sduende.