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It's kind of an
interesting question,
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was this film cursed?
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To take a Hollywood
film set to Haiti
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in the immediate wake
of the revolution
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was incredibly courageous.
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That world of Haiti can
be very intimidating.
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Famously people either
are repelled by Haiti
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00:02:04,340 --> 00:02:08,170
or they become absolute
obsessives about Haiti.
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00:02:08,215 --> 00:02:10,304
And I certainly was in
the latter category.
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I became almost to a fault
an evangelist for Voodoo.
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My name's Wade Davis,
I'm a Professor of Anthropology
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at the University
of British Columbia,
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00:02:22,054 --> 00:02:23,447
and a writer.
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Now, this began as a kind of
serendipitous assignment.
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My great professor,
Richard Evans Schultes,
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was very interested in this
rumored existence
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of a folk poison in Haiti
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that was said to bring on
a state of apparent death
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so profound,
it could fool a physician.
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So he casually asked me
if I was interested
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in going down to the island
nation of Haiti,
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and searching for the formula
of the drug
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reputedly implicated in this
business of making zombies.
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And naturally, I said yes.
25
00:03:00,004 --> 00:03:01,746
Zombies, the living dead,
26
00:03:01,789 --> 00:03:03,747
have for years been
the staple ingredient
27
00:03:03,792 --> 00:03:06,055
of second-rate horror movies.
28
00:03:06,098 --> 00:03:08,491
But is there any truth behind
the Hollywood fantasies?
29
00:03:09,884 --> 00:03:11,800
A couple of years ago,
"Newsnight" took a look
30
00:03:11,842 --> 00:03:13,409
behind the cinema clich, s,
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00:03:13,454 --> 00:03:15,673
and found that on the West
Indian island of Haiti,
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00:03:15,717 --> 00:03:18,110
truth is indeed stranger
than fiction.
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00:03:18,153 --> 00:03:21,461
- What drove the whole story
was the discovery
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00:03:21,504 --> 00:03:23,681
by a man called Lamarque Douyon,
35
00:03:23,724 --> 00:03:25,727
of the case of Clairvius
Narcisse.
36
00:03:27,294 --> 00:03:29,644
This is 62 years
old Clairvius Narcisse.
37
00:03:31,122 --> 00:03:32,710
He's looking at the grave
in which he was buried
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00:03:32,734 --> 00:03:34,909
19 years ago.
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00:03:34,953 --> 00:03:37,868
The funeral was attended
by all his family and friends.
40
00:03:39,305 --> 00:03:40,805
- He heard everything,
when he was put in the coffin,
41
00:03:40,829 --> 00:03:42,743
when he was put in the grave.
42
00:03:42,787 --> 00:03:44,746
And he was showing you...
- A scar here.
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00:03:44,788 --> 00:03:47,836
- A scar here, it was a nail
from his coffin.
44
00:03:49,490 --> 00:03:51,840
So these lines
of evidence led Douyon
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00:03:51,883 --> 00:03:53,929
to go public, saying
he had found the first
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00:03:53,972 --> 00:03:56,713
verifiable instance
of the living dead.
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00:03:56,758 --> 00:03:59,543
And what he meant by that
is he had found an individual
48
00:03:59,586 --> 00:04:02,110
who, by all accounts,
had been pronounced dead,
49
00:04:02,153 --> 00:04:04,243
and turned back up into
the realm of the living.
50
00:04:06,637 --> 00:04:09,552
These powders, of which
I have somewhere, uh...
51
00:04:11,902 --> 00:04:13,383
this poison doesn't make
a zombie.
52
00:04:14,818 --> 00:04:16,908
The question is, can this
poison make someone appear
53
00:04:16,951 --> 00:04:18,562
to be dead?
54
00:04:19,781 --> 00:04:22,305
It's a whole plethora
of ingredients:
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00:04:22,348 --> 00:04:24,045
Bufo marinus,
the Caribbean toad,
56
00:04:24,088 --> 00:04:26,439
with these big parotid glands
57
00:04:26,483 --> 00:04:28,355
with the cardioactive
steroids in them,
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00:04:28,398 --> 00:04:30,225
a number of toxic plants,
59
00:04:30,269 --> 00:04:32,271
broken glass,
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00:04:32,314 --> 00:04:35,012
also um, human remains
for magical reasons.
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00:04:36,711 --> 00:04:39,627
And the most powerful
neurotoxin found on Earth.
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00:04:39,670 --> 00:04:41,976
It's called tetrodotoxin.
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00:04:42,019 --> 00:04:45,502
It comes from the viscera
and the skin of a couple
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00:04:45,545 --> 00:04:49,463
of different genera of puffer
fish, if you will,
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00:04:49,505 --> 00:04:52,639
which includes the legendary
fugu fish,
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00:04:52,682 --> 00:04:55,598
which is prepared by specially
licensed chefs
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00:04:55,643 --> 00:04:58,862
who are said in the West
to eliminate the toxin.
68
00:05:02,605 --> 00:05:05,305
One of the things that I was
completely unprepared for
69
00:05:05,348 --> 00:05:08,220
was how this would all
kind of explode
70
00:05:08,264 --> 00:05:10,396
over the American media.
71
00:05:10,439 --> 00:05:13,399
So I walked off the street
to a literary agent in London,
72
00:05:13,442 --> 00:05:15,879
and secured a-a book advance.
73
00:05:15,923 --> 00:05:18,274
And I used the book advance
to finish the research,
74
00:05:18,317 --> 00:05:20,189
but then I had to write a book.
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00:05:20,231 --> 00:05:21,949
And that's how
"The Serpent and the Rainbow"
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00:05:21,973 --> 00:05:23,800
was actually written.
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00:05:25,194 --> 00:05:28,023
The book really did attempt
to take a phenomena,
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00:05:28,065 --> 00:05:29,850
the Haitian zombie,
that had been used
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00:05:29,894 --> 00:05:32,375
in an explicitly racist way
80
00:05:32,418 --> 00:05:34,245
to denigrate a people
and their religion,
81
00:05:34,290 --> 00:05:36,031
and it tried to make
sense out of it.
82
00:05:36,074 --> 00:05:39,207
And I think David Ladd,
the producer, really got that.
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00:05:39,250 --> 00:05:41,557
And I think that was every
bit his intention.
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00:05:43,081 --> 00:05:44,952
- My name is David Ladd.
85
00:05:44,995 --> 00:05:47,346
I was the producer of
"The Serpent and the Rainbow."
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00:05:48,870 --> 00:05:51,045
What I saw as a commercial
appeal was
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00:05:51,088 --> 00:05:53,483
the reality that zombies
actually exist.
88
00:05:53,526 --> 00:05:56,007
I mean, zombies have been fodder
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00:05:56,050 --> 00:05:58,749
for films for years,
and years, and years.
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00:05:58,793 --> 00:06:01,970
But the fact that
they actually exist
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00:06:02,012 --> 00:06:04,538
was fascinating to me.
92
00:06:04,581 --> 00:06:06,975
And the lead character
was a real life,
93
00:06:07,017 --> 00:06:09,106
honest-to-God Indiana Jones.
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00:06:09,151 --> 00:06:10,935
He was the real deal.
95
00:06:12,372 --> 00:06:14,175
- My favorite director
at that time was Peter Weir.
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00:06:14,199 --> 00:06:16,550
And I thought that "The Year
of Living Dangerously"
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00:06:16,593 --> 00:06:19,029
was a really remarkable template
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00:06:19,074 --> 00:06:21,031
for what I had actually
experienced in Haiti.
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00:06:22,598 --> 00:06:25,254
All of a sudden
Wes popped up and said,
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00:06:25,297 --> 00:06:27,081
"Gee, I'd really like
to do this."
101
00:06:28,387 --> 00:06:29,824
And we couldn't resist.
102
00:06:31,564 --> 00:06:34,829
Wes was the hottest genre
director in the business.
103
00:06:34,872 --> 00:06:37,831
And you know, zombies,
Wes Craven,
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00:06:37,875 --> 00:06:40,137
who could pass on that?
105
00:06:41,401 --> 00:06:44,141
Wade was both grateful
and horrified.
106
00:06:44,185 --> 00:06:46,057
How can you do this?
107
00:06:46,100 --> 00:06:48,058
This is a serious piece of work.
108
00:06:50,497 --> 00:06:52,629
- No, I'm not at all
a horror film fan.
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00:06:52,673 --> 00:06:54,935
I really have no relationship
to the genre whatsoever.
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00:06:58,242 --> 00:07:00,071
- Well, I suppose I do now,
you know.
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00:07:00,115 --> 00:07:02,552
Wes was very keen to move out
112
00:07:02,596 --> 00:07:04,946
of the horror genre at the time,
113
00:07:04,988 --> 00:07:07,338
and I remember Wes saying
to me, sincerely,
114
00:07:07,382 --> 00:07:09,211
that he thought
"The Serpent and the Rainbow"
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00:07:09,254 --> 00:07:12,432
would be his sort of
ticket out in a way.
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00:07:14,041 --> 00:07:16,565
My father was like
a-kind of renaissance man.
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00:07:18,394 --> 00:07:20,439
He didn't set out to be
a horror director.
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00:07:20,483 --> 00:07:22,832
I think that he was excited
to...
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00:07:22,877 --> 00:07:25,836
kind of leave horror
a little bit.
120
00:07:27,925 --> 00:07:31,711
But I think that horror
did allow him to work out
121
00:07:31,754 --> 00:07:34,454
some of his demons
from childhood.
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00:07:34,497 --> 00:07:36,891
He basically didn't have
a father.
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00:07:36,933 --> 00:07:38,564
His father left him when
he was very, very young,
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00:07:38,588 --> 00:07:40,502
and died when he was five.
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00:07:40,547 --> 00:07:42,591
His mother, Caroline,
my grandmother,
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00:07:42,636 --> 00:07:44,855
was constantly trying to get
my father
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00:07:44,899 --> 00:07:48,468
to stop making these terrible,
awful movies you're making.
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00:07:51,252 --> 00:07:53,168
In "The Last House,"
"Hills have Eyes" era,
129
00:07:53,211 --> 00:07:55,952
he was a madman.
You know, that's it.
130
00:07:55,997 --> 00:07:58,086
And people thought he should
be locked up.
131
00:07:58,129 --> 00:08:01,045
I thought it was awesome that
he was making these films.
132
00:08:01,088 --> 00:08:03,004
In those days,
133
00:08:03,047 --> 00:08:04,677
when you said you did
those kind of movies,
134
00:08:04,701 --> 00:08:06,702
people would make
little comments like,
135
00:08:06,747 --> 00:08:08,661
"I never watch those."
136
00:08:08,704 --> 00:08:11,403
So he was a little bit
insecure about that.
137
00:08:12,927 --> 00:08:15,798
Well, when I first met Wes,
I had an interview with him.
138
00:08:15,843 --> 00:08:17,497
Two days before the interview,
139
00:08:17,540 --> 00:08:18,690
I watched "Nightmare on Elm
Street,"
140
00:08:18,714 --> 00:08:21,151
and it was so scary.
141
00:08:21,196 --> 00:08:23,478
And the night before, I watched
"The Last House on the Left,"
142
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and that was a little daunting.
143
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But then when I met him,
144
00:08:27,637 --> 00:08:30,074
he was so nice and charming,
145
00:08:30,117 --> 00:08:33,643
and he gave me a job as his
assistant on "Deadly Friend."
146
00:08:35,078 --> 00:08:37,254
They sent us the book
"The Serpent and the Rainbow."
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What a story! You know,
zombies and Haiti and...
148
00:08:40,955 --> 00:08:42,609
This was a big studio movie.
149
00:08:43,913 --> 00:08:45,960
Then we just started casting.
150
00:08:46,003 --> 00:08:49,267
Bill, at the time,
did a movie for my brother
151
00:08:49,311 --> 00:08:50,790
called "Spaceballs,"
152
00:08:52,052 --> 00:08:54,316
which was how I was
introduced to him.
153
00:08:54,359 --> 00:08:57,405
And I thought, Bill looks
a lot like Wade Davis.
154
00:08:59,408 --> 00:09:00,975
- Barf!
155
00:09:01,018 --> 00:09:04,065
- And so we brought him in,
and Wes fell in love with him.
156
00:09:04,107 --> 00:09:06,894
And from that point on,
the part was his.
157
00:09:09,678 --> 00:09:12,333
That was the third movie
158
00:09:12,376 --> 00:09:13,988
that I was a part of.
159
00:09:14,030 --> 00:09:16,096
The first one, a small part,
didn't shoot very long on it.
160
00:09:16,120 --> 00:09:17,947
The second one,
161
00:09:17,991 --> 00:09:20,821
a magnum opus, "Spaceballs,"
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00:09:20,864 --> 00:09:23,345
which was quite exotic.
163
00:09:23,388 --> 00:09:26,129
But "The Serpent
and the Rainbow"
164
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took it all to another level.
165
00:09:28,131 --> 00:09:30,047
And I thought,
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Is this is what my life
is gonna be like?
167
00:09:33,572 --> 00:09:35,966
And it's only now
that I realize, no,
168
00:09:36,009 --> 00:09:37,967
that never happened again.
169
00:09:38,011 --> 00:09:40,710
Never had quite the experience
as we did
170
00:09:40,754 --> 00:09:42,885
on "The Serpent
and the Rainbow."
171
00:09:44,584 --> 00:09:46,586
After I did "Mona Lisa"
172
00:09:46,629 --> 00:09:49,413
in 1986,
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00:09:49,457 --> 00:09:52,852
my agent mentioned
about this film,
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00:09:52,895 --> 00:09:54,724
"The Serpent and the Rainbow."
175
00:09:54,768 --> 00:09:56,769
And of course the whole,
you know,
176
00:09:56,812 --> 00:09:59,380
Voodoo for a Black person,
177
00:09:59,423 --> 00:10:02,557
how Hollywood has interpreted
Voodoo in the past
178
00:10:02,601 --> 00:10:04,647
as being these savages.
179
00:10:06,039 --> 00:10:07,910
So I wanted to get this right.
180
00:10:07,955 --> 00:10:09,696
A blonde captain
181
00:10:09,739 --> 00:10:11,784
in the darkness of Voodoo land!
182
00:10:14,264 --> 00:10:16,224
- Where do we get this idea
of Voodoo being
183
00:10:16,267 --> 00:10:18,312
a black magic cult?
184
00:10:19,793 --> 00:10:22,751
It largely comes from the fact
that the U.S. Marine Corps
185
00:10:22,796 --> 00:10:25,885
occupied Haiti in the 1920s
and stayed for 20 years.
186
00:10:28,539 --> 00:10:29,932
During the era of Jim Crow,
187
00:10:31,326 --> 00:10:33,327
segregation in the South,
188
00:10:33,370 --> 00:10:35,504
many of the Marines
were from the South,
189
00:10:35,547 --> 00:10:37,090
and everybody above the rank
of sergeant
190
00:10:37,114 --> 00:10:38,812
got a book contract.
191
00:10:38,855 --> 00:10:41,030
And the books had names
like "Cannibal Cousins,"
192
00:10:41,075 --> 00:10:42,859
and "Black Bagdad,"
193
00:10:42,903 --> 00:10:44,774
"Voodoo Fire in Haiti,"
194
00:10:44,817 --> 00:10:46,557
"A Puritan in Voodoo-Land,"
195
00:10:46,601 --> 00:10:48,211
"The Magic Island,"
196
00:10:48,255 --> 00:10:50,911
and all this pulp fiction that
gave rise to the RKO movies.
197
00:10:54,043 --> 00:10:57,307
- She's making Voodoo.
- She's making Voo do what?
198
00:10:57,351 --> 00:10:59,658
Voodoo!
199
00:10:59,701 --> 00:11:02,879
- I do?
- Not "you do," Voodoo!
200
00:11:02,923 --> 00:11:05,751
- "Zombies on Broadway,"
"Zombies of the Stratosphere,"
201
00:11:05,794 --> 00:11:07,710
"The White Zombie Slave,"
202
00:11:07,754 --> 00:11:10,408
were full of children
bred for the cauldron.
203
00:11:10,451 --> 00:11:12,889
Pins and needles in Voodoo
dolls don't even exist.
204
00:11:12,932 --> 00:11:15,892
And of course, notoriously,
205
00:11:15,936 --> 00:11:18,154
zombies crawling out
of the grave to attack people.
206
00:11:23,769 --> 00:11:25,509
It's very unfashionable
these days
207
00:11:25,553 --> 00:11:27,643
to have any anti-Black images,
Man: Yes.
208
00:11:27,687 --> 00:11:28,904
- But make 'em Voodoo priests,
209
00:11:28,948 --> 00:11:31,385
because then we can absolutely
exploit them
210
00:11:31,428 --> 00:11:33,039
in any way possible,
and I thought
211
00:11:33,082 --> 00:11:35,695
there was a lot of not too far
under the surface racism
212
00:11:35,738 --> 00:11:37,913
in this movie that really
offended me.
213
00:11:39,088 --> 00:11:40,830
- My entire investigation
214
00:11:40,874 --> 00:11:42,745
was trying to take this
phenomena
215
00:11:42,788 --> 00:11:45,182
that had been used in a racist
way to denigrate a people,
216
00:11:45,225 --> 00:11:47,967
and try to make sense
out of sensation.
217
00:11:48,010 --> 00:11:50,404
Wade was very much
into the authenticity
218
00:11:50,447 --> 00:11:52,188
of what we were doing.
219
00:11:54,061 --> 00:11:57,586
No other people looked
like the Haitians
220
00:11:57,629 --> 00:12:00,327
or had the kind of culture
of the Haitians.
221
00:12:02,155 --> 00:12:04,811
That's something that lives
in that island.
222
00:12:06,812 --> 00:12:10,033
I mean, what an adventure to go
and make a film in Haiti.
223
00:12:12,296 --> 00:12:14,645
When I was getting
out of school I was interested
224
00:12:14,690 --> 00:12:17,171
in writing and directing,
and all that stuff.
225
00:12:18,519 --> 00:12:20,043
My father said, come on out,
226
00:12:20,086 --> 00:12:21,966
and see what it's like
to be on a real film set.
227
00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:25,308
Weirdly, when I was a really
little kid,
228
00:12:25,352 --> 00:12:27,746
I was on "The Last House"
set like, twice.
229
00:12:27,789 --> 00:12:29,749
On the Lower East Side
I had my balloon popped.
230
00:12:31,663 --> 00:12:33,621
That had been the sum
of my experience on a set.
231
00:12:35,318 --> 00:12:37,451
If you want to do this,
this is a really,
232
00:12:37,495 --> 00:12:39,366
really hard business.
233
00:12:39,409 --> 00:12:41,107
So if you're gonna work with me,
234
00:12:41,150 --> 00:12:42,979
you're gonna work your way
up from the bottom.
235
00:12:44,459 --> 00:12:47,504
David Anderson, who was doing
makeup effects for his father,
236
00:12:47,548 --> 00:12:49,506
was somebody I hung out
with all the time.
237
00:12:51,205 --> 00:12:53,423
David Anderson,
our makeup effects guy,
238
00:12:53,467 --> 00:12:56,078
his dad took the job and said,
oh, you can have my son,
239
00:12:56,123 --> 00:12:58,168
because Lance didn't want
to go to Haiti.
240
00:12:59,865 --> 00:13:02,085
So we didn't know that
was David's first job.
241
00:13:02,129 --> 00:13:04,043
"Serpent" was the first feature
242
00:13:04,086 --> 00:13:06,176
that I was working
for my Dad on,
243
00:13:06,220 --> 00:13:08,482
and he tapped me to go to set.
244
00:13:08,525 --> 00:13:10,745
He said, I'm going to send
you to Tahiti.
245
00:13:10,789 --> 00:13:12,835
And I was really excited.
246
00:13:12,879 --> 00:13:15,359
And then I realized
it was to Haiti, not Tahiti.
247
00:13:16,620 --> 00:13:18,798
Although, to me at that point,
248
00:13:18,841 --> 00:13:20,253
there really wasn't a whole lot
of difference
249
00:13:20,277 --> 00:13:22,192
between Haiti and Tahiti.
250
00:13:22,235 --> 00:13:23,846
Uh, but there is now.
251
00:13:26,849 --> 00:13:28,740
While I was getting off the
plane in Port-au-Prince, Haiti,
252
00:13:28,764 --> 00:13:30,418
I kind of recognized
a couple of faces
253
00:13:30,461 --> 00:13:32,855
that had been on the other
flight,
254
00:13:32,899 --> 00:13:35,770
and soon realized that
we were on the same crew,
255
00:13:35,815 --> 00:13:37,488
and that we were heading
to the same place.
256
00:13:37,511 --> 00:13:39,730
This was such
an amazing adventure.
257
00:13:39,774 --> 00:13:41,821
We were all similar in age,
258
00:13:41,864 --> 00:13:44,649
and we were all earlyish
in our careers.
259
00:13:45,912 --> 00:13:47,477
Wes loved it. He was right there
260
00:13:47,522 --> 00:13:49,044
in the middle of everything.
261
00:13:51,047 --> 00:13:53,048
David Ladd called me up
and said,
262
00:13:53,092 --> 00:13:55,027
Well, what do you wear
in Haiti? I said, I don't know,
263
00:13:55,051 --> 00:13:57,183
but there's this outfit
in San Francisco
264
00:13:57,226 --> 00:13:59,360
you've never heard of
called Banana Republic.
265
00:13:59,403 --> 00:14:01,797
They make all these great
linen and cotton clothes.
266
00:14:01,841 --> 00:14:04,755
At the time,
Banana Republic was a store
267
00:14:04,799 --> 00:14:07,236
where you bought your stuff
to go on safari,
268
00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:10,153
you know, become adventurers
like Indiana Jones.
269
00:14:10,197 --> 00:14:13,025
I mean, they had the hats,
and I mean,
270
00:14:13,068 --> 00:14:15,679
it was, you know,
you had a whole look.
271
00:14:15,724 --> 00:14:17,769
When I got down to the set,
272
00:14:17,812 --> 00:14:19,835
the whole goddamn production
from grip to the director
273
00:14:19,859 --> 00:14:21,990
was dressed head-to-toe
in Banana Republic.
274
00:14:23,340 --> 00:14:25,472
- It didn't really seem
the kind of stuff
275
00:14:25,515 --> 00:14:28,432
that Wade would wear,
but David really said,
276
00:14:28,475 --> 00:14:30,870
oh, wait 'til you meet him.
He dresses like this.
277
00:14:30,913 --> 00:14:32,697
Yeah, this is how he dresses.
278
00:14:34,177 --> 00:14:36,484
And um, David had begun
to dress like this.
279
00:14:36,527 --> 00:14:38,312
And basically it was
Banana Republic stuff.
280
00:14:40,836 --> 00:14:42,796
The pants with the
pockets on the side, and the...
281
00:14:44,144 --> 00:14:45,971
it was great.
282
00:14:48,322 --> 00:14:50,585
At the time when we first
went down there,
283
00:14:50,628 --> 00:14:52,195
Baby Doc had fallen
284
00:14:53,370 --> 00:14:55,024
as the dictator of Haiti.
285
00:14:56,373 --> 00:14:58,375
- The president for life
they called Baby Doc
286
00:14:58,418 --> 00:15:00,246
flew away from Haiti today,
to France.
287
00:15:01,465 --> 00:15:03,206
- A few hours before dawn today,
288
00:15:03,250 --> 00:15:05,381
an American military transport
plane
289
00:15:05,426 --> 00:15:07,514
took off from Haiti's
capital of Port-au-Prince,
290
00:15:07,557 --> 00:15:10,125
carrying President
Jean-Claude Duvalier,
291
00:15:10,169 --> 00:15:12,955
members of his family,
and several staff people,
292
00:15:12,999 --> 00:15:14,956
and security guards.
293
00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:17,090
It brought to an end one
of the longest-running
294
00:15:17,133 --> 00:15:20,048
and most brutal dictatorships
in the Caribbean.
295
00:15:20,092 --> 00:15:22,529
As soon as the Haitian people
heard the news this morning,
296
00:15:22,572 --> 00:15:24,357
there was dancing
in the streets,
297
00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:27,056
along with numerous reports
of violence
298
00:15:27,100 --> 00:15:29,231
against members of the dreaded
militia
299
00:15:29,275 --> 00:15:31,625
associated with Baby Doc.
300
00:15:32,888 --> 00:15:34,585
That was the Tonton Macoute,
301
00:15:34,629 --> 00:15:37,544
which was the kind of secret
police of the Duvaliers
302
00:15:37,587 --> 00:15:39,634
and their reign in Haiti.
303
00:15:41,070 --> 00:15:43,289
It was a wild time down there.
304
00:15:44,725 --> 00:15:47,729
And unfortunately, I mean,
Haiti has struggled ever since,
305
00:15:47,772 --> 00:15:49,817
and-and before, long before.
306
00:16:00,916 --> 00:16:03,352
- These are all from Haiti.
307
00:16:03,397 --> 00:16:05,702
I was taught to take more
pictures than you need.
308
00:16:07,443 --> 00:16:09,793
These are just continuity
from the script.
309
00:16:09,837 --> 00:16:11,796
So this was obviously Bill,
310
00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:13,494
and he just got hit
with the powder.
311
00:16:13,537 --> 00:16:15,365
Aah!
312
00:16:18,586 --> 00:16:21,153
- And this was from a scene
that David Ladd,
313
00:16:21,197 --> 00:16:24,200
I believe, shot, the second
unit director scene.
314
00:16:24,244 --> 00:16:26,158
That's where I learned
the term "magic hour."
315
00:16:26,201 --> 00:16:28,682
It's "magic hour!"
What the fuck is "magic hour?"
316
00:16:32,338 --> 00:16:34,514
Before we started filming,
we were all invited
317
00:16:34,557 --> 00:16:36,995
to a Voodoo ceremony where
we were all gonna be blessed.
318
00:16:38,432 --> 00:16:41,000
It was like, okay, you guys
are here in Haiti.
319
00:16:41,043 --> 00:16:42,629
Well, guess what, you're
gonna come into the jungle,
320
00:16:42,653 --> 00:16:45,004
you're gonna get hammered
on alcohol,
321
00:16:45,047 --> 00:16:47,484
and then we're gonna show
you some shit.
322
00:16:47,528 --> 00:16:50,009
And that's exactly
what happened.
323
00:16:50,052 --> 00:16:51,551
- I don't know what the
producers were thinking.
324
00:16:51,575 --> 00:16:53,663
We went out at night
325
00:16:53,707 --> 00:16:56,363
into the heart of
the countryside
326
00:16:56,405 --> 00:16:58,321
to a Voodoo ceremony.
327
00:16:59,801 --> 00:17:02,195
- Women and men would come out
and do these dances,
328
00:17:02,238 --> 00:17:05,153
and then allow themselves
to become possessed.
329
00:17:05,198 --> 00:17:08,243
- You'd see that moment
of possession.
330
00:17:09,506 --> 00:17:12,291
Now this person is being
ridden by a God.
331
00:17:12,335 --> 00:17:15,121
- It was all real
at that moment.
332
00:17:15,163 --> 00:17:17,384
These people believed it.
333
00:17:17,426 --> 00:17:20,343
And after that evening,
so did we.
334
00:17:21,910 --> 00:17:23,954
What it did is it turned
this group of strangers
335
00:17:23,999 --> 00:17:25,695
into a family.
336
00:17:27,046 --> 00:17:29,090
It was a ceremony to bless us,
337
00:17:29,134 --> 00:17:32,050
and take away all the evil
spirits to protect us,
338
00:17:33,661 --> 00:17:37,359
so that we could successfully
make this film in Haiti.
339
00:17:41,582 --> 00:17:44,846
It felt to me that
every day was 16 or 18 hours.
340
00:17:47,021 --> 00:17:50,286
It was an insanely ambitious
amount of material,
341
00:17:51,766 --> 00:17:53,636
and not a lot of control.
342
00:17:54,942 --> 00:17:56,509
Everything was shot on location,
343
00:17:56,552 --> 00:17:58,598
so you're always in a village,
344
00:17:58,642 --> 00:18:01,297
many which had never seen
a film crew before.
345
00:18:02,951 --> 00:18:04,605
There were tons of extras
around,
346
00:18:04,647 --> 00:18:07,433
and people that didn't know
not to look into camera,
347
00:18:09,087 --> 00:18:12,090
and it was definitely not
a normal film set experience.
348
00:18:14,962 --> 00:18:17,138
Thinking back on it,
I just think,
349
00:18:17,182 --> 00:18:19,836
who was protecting us
as a film crew,
350
00:18:19,881 --> 00:18:24,190
Because we did not come across
the Tonton Macoute,
351
00:18:24,232 --> 00:18:26,147
but they were there.
352
00:18:28,193 --> 00:18:30,020
I think the producers
really underestimated
353
00:18:30,065 --> 00:18:32,285
the danger of Haiti.
354
00:18:33,851 --> 00:18:35,480
I just kinda had a sense
that this isn't gonna be
355
00:18:35,505 --> 00:18:37,115
as easy as you think.
356
00:18:38,551 --> 00:18:40,162
I wasn't qualified
to be there at all.
357
00:18:41,729 --> 00:18:43,402
You know, whether I was
a seasoned filmmaker or not,
358
00:18:43,425 --> 00:18:46,211
nobody had an advantage over me,
359
00:18:47,909 --> 00:18:49,605
because it was all new.
360
00:18:51,868 --> 00:18:53,958
We were wanting to honor
their traditions,
361
00:18:54,001 --> 00:18:56,003
and particularly their religion.
362
00:18:57,222 --> 00:18:59,137
Part of it was I think
everybody knew
363
00:18:59,181 --> 00:19:01,878
we needed to have them favor us.
364
00:19:03,229 --> 00:19:05,578
And that if we didn't get
their favor,
365
00:19:05,622 --> 00:19:07,624
we would have a hard
time shooting.
366
00:19:09,104 --> 00:19:11,105
Things could turn bad.
367
00:19:11,150 --> 00:19:13,368
No!
368
00:19:30,038 --> 00:19:31,473
I had done some travelling.
369
00:19:31,518 --> 00:19:33,346
But you still get culture shock
370
00:19:33,388 --> 00:19:35,217
when you're somewhere like that.
371
00:19:36,435 --> 00:19:38,220
And everyone had culture shock,
372
00:19:38,263 --> 00:19:40,111
especially a lot of the actors
had culture shock.
373
00:19:40,134 --> 00:19:42,006
Um... many people,
374
00:19:42,049 --> 00:19:43,890
a few people had nervous
breakdowns over there.
375
00:19:46,184 --> 00:19:48,448
We had a writer,
Richard Maxwell,
376
00:19:48,490 --> 00:19:51,277
who literally was possessed
at a certain point.
377
00:19:53,626 --> 00:19:57,934
That was one of the most odd
experiences of the film,
378
00:19:57,979 --> 00:19:59,675
and of the making of it.
379
00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:02,592
Richard was down there,
and of course, uh,
380
00:20:02,635 --> 00:20:04,246
he wanted to be exposed
381
00:20:05,726 --> 00:20:09,295
to as many of the authentic
characters and places
382
00:20:09,337 --> 00:20:11,731
as he could possibly be,
383
00:20:11,775 --> 00:20:14,734
as he was doing a kind of
final rewrite with Wes.
384
00:20:16,039 --> 00:20:17,626
And I don't remember
the specifics of it,
385
00:20:17,651 --> 00:20:20,914
but Richard got involved
with a Voodoo practitioner
386
00:20:20,958 --> 00:20:23,395
who he thought had put
a curse on him.
387
00:20:23,439 --> 00:20:25,615
- Richard was a nice guy.
388
00:20:25,659 --> 00:20:27,375
But... and he was very sincere
about Voodoo,
389
00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:29,489
but he got so shaken
by the experience
390
00:20:29,531 --> 00:20:31,751
he had a nervous breakdown
on the set.
391
00:20:31,795 --> 00:20:34,232
I think they sent
Jill Simpson to his room
392
00:20:36,234 --> 00:20:38,192
to see how he was doing,
393
00:20:38,237 --> 00:20:40,239
and he was only in a t-shirt.
394
00:20:40,281 --> 00:20:42,501
And as I recall, it like,
had a bullseye on it,
395
00:20:42,545 --> 00:20:44,199
and that was it. Nothing else.
396
00:20:44,242 --> 00:20:45,853
- You know, it was-it was...
397
00:20:47,549 --> 00:20:49,354
- So obviously, she came back,
she said, oh my God,
398
00:20:49,377 --> 00:20:51,510
we're in trouble.
399
00:20:51,554 --> 00:20:53,556
I'd see him at dinner
or something, and...
400
00:20:53,599 --> 00:20:56,037
"how are the rewrites goin'?"
401
00:20:56,079 --> 00:20:57,666
But it was the moment
when he said, yeah,
402
00:20:57,691 --> 00:20:59,300
I really got a lot done.
403
00:21:00,650 --> 00:21:02,434
I, you know, there was...
404
00:21:02,478 --> 00:21:05,741
trouble with the original
name for my character,
405
00:21:05,786 --> 00:21:07,656
and uh, it had...
406
00:21:07,701 --> 00:21:10,660
Eventually the lawyers
407
00:21:10,703 --> 00:21:13,009
decided that "Dennis"
408
00:21:13,054 --> 00:21:15,490
would be a good first name,
and I hated that name.
409
00:21:15,535 --> 00:21:18,015
I just never liked Dennis.
410
00:21:18,058 --> 00:21:19,973
But that's what he had to do.
411
00:21:20,017 --> 00:21:22,150
And I remember he said,
uh, I got a lot done.
412
00:21:22,192 --> 00:21:24,934
I've changed all the names.
413
00:21:24,979 --> 00:21:27,763
So every one of 'em
says "Dennis."
414
00:21:29,679 --> 00:21:31,811
And then I realized,
oh, that's like, a click,
415
00:21:31,855 --> 00:21:33,465
with software.
416
00:21:34,683 --> 00:21:36,903
- This one morning,
we, we found him
417
00:21:36,947 --> 00:21:40,342
standing outside Wes's door
completely naked.
418
00:21:42,212 --> 00:21:43,519
And around him were
419
00:21:44,693 --> 00:21:47,044
25 cigarette butts.
420
00:21:48,959 --> 00:21:50,700
- Wes opened the door
and there he was,
421
00:21:50,743 --> 00:21:53,223
and he's just like, I'm sorry,
man, I can't do it.
422
00:21:53,268 --> 00:21:54,835
- And he just stood there
and smoked
423
00:21:54,877 --> 00:21:57,054
until Wes got up.
424
00:21:57,097 --> 00:21:58,795
And Wes came and got me.
425
00:22:00,666 --> 00:22:03,844
I got on a plane with him
and got him to Miami,
426
00:22:03,886 --> 00:22:07,064
handed him off to his wife,
and he was flown home.
427
00:22:07,107 --> 00:22:10,676
But he-he was completely
under some kind of a...
428
00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:14,070
What he thought
was a Voodoo spell.
429
00:22:14,115 --> 00:22:16,073
Other people
had nervous breakdowns.
430
00:22:16,116 --> 00:22:17,553
Who else had a nervous
breakdown?
431
00:22:17,596 --> 00:22:19,859
- I don't know if I can
tell you.
432
00:22:19,903 --> 00:22:21,644
It might have been one
of the actors.
433
00:22:23,558 --> 00:22:26,126
And I think they had...
a nightmare or a vision.
434
00:22:29,565 --> 00:22:31,306
- Uh...
435
00:22:32,699 --> 00:22:34,830
really, I always have a hard
time talking about this,
436
00:22:37,181 --> 00:22:39,182
because I don't know
the audience.
437
00:22:40,750 --> 00:22:43,623
You know, I don't know
people's openness.
438
00:22:46,538 --> 00:22:48,801
I went through this ceremony,
439
00:22:48,845 --> 00:22:51,152
and um, just a really...
440
00:22:51,194 --> 00:22:53,936
Some-some unsettling
things happened
441
00:22:53,980 --> 00:22:57,941
in that-in terms of things
that I perceived about myself,
442
00:22:57,984 --> 00:23:00,290
and different environments
and everything, and so...
443
00:23:00,335 --> 00:23:02,642
The-right away, Wes says,
like, what'd you take?
444
00:23:02,684 --> 00:23:04,425
What'd you drink?
Did you smoke anything?
445
00:23:04,470 --> 00:23:07,255
You know.
446
00:23:09,518 --> 00:23:11,564
Some of it is pretty much um...
447
00:23:13,653 --> 00:23:16,525
some things that people
probably have experienced
448
00:23:16,568 --> 00:23:19,354
in different times
with clairvoyance
449
00:23:19,397 --> 00:23:22,791
or a sense of past lives
or something.
450
00:23:29,232 --> 00:23:30,538
I had a lot of uh,
451
00:23:31,887 --> 00:23:34,586
sequences to do with travelling
really quickly
452
00:23:34,630 --> 00:23:37,240
over the surface of Africa.
453
00:23:39,505 --> 00:23:42,508
And moving towards a gathering
of people
454
00:23:42,550 --> 00:23:45,249
out in the middle of nowhere.
455
00:23:45,292 --> 00:23:47,425
And I realized that it was
a convocation of people
456
00:23:47,469 --> 00:23:50,471
of all skin tones and colors.
457
00:23:50,516 --> 00:23:53,257
And that there was this...
Steps with an oration.
458
00:23:54,998 --> 00:23:58,087
That was an experience
where I was so disturbed,
459
00:23:58,132 --> 00:24:01,265
I cancelled the rehearsals
the next day.
460
00:24:02,919 --> 00:24:04,660
They said, what's the matter
with you?
461
00:24:04,703 --> 00:24:06,575
And I didn't want to talk
about it, you know.
462
00:24:06,618 --> 00:24:09,011
I just, but Wes was really like,
463
00:24:09,056 --> 00:24:10,449
this is why we came here.
464
00:24:14,365 --> 00:24:16,454
We shot a scene
in a cemetery at night.
465
00:24:18,718 --> 00:24:22,329
And I actually had to get
into an open grave
466
00:24:22,373 --> 00:24:24,549
that one of our skeletons
had to go in,
467
00:24:24,593 --> 00:24:27,335
that I had to get in and dress.
468
00:24:27,377 --> 00:24:28,964
That's just one of those
moments where you just go,
469
00:24:28,989 --> 00:24:30,598
what the fuck am I doing here?
470
00:24:31,773 --> 00:24:33,384
Getting into the hole,
471
00:24:33,427 --> 00:24:35,473
I'll never forget looking
and seeing the rocks
472
00:24:35,517 --> 00:24:38,214
around the wall of the hole
that they had dug for me,
473
00:24:38,259 --> 00:24:40,217
and coming to the realization
474
00:24:40,260 --> 00:24:42,567
that those were not rocks,
that those were bones.
475
00:24:42,611 --> 00:24:44,787
And they were at all levels.
476
00:24:44,830 --> 00:24:46,833
There were bones, people
piled on top of people.
477
00:24:46,875 --> 00:24:48,964
- Oh shit! Oh sh...
- Are you okay?
478
00:24:49,009 --> 00:24:50,792
And we just dug...
479
00:24:52,229 --> 00:24:54,710
this horrible hole right
in the middle of it all,
480
00:24:54,753 --> 00:24:57,712
And excavated all these
body parts, and bodies,
481
00:24:57,757 --> 00:25:00,454
and put 'em aside, and put
our fake skeleton in there,
482
00:25:00,499 --> 00:25:02,195
and shot the scene.
483
00:25:02,239 --> 00:25:03,980
And uh...
484
00:25:04,023 --> 00:25:06,026
for that I'm probably
goin' to Hell.
485
00:25:07,548 --> 00:25:09,221
There's all these
scenes with piles of skulls
486
00:25:09,246 --> 00:25:11,248
and piles of bones everywhere,
right?
487
00:25:11,291 --> 00:25:13,381
The set dressing
was three or four
488
00:25:13,423 --> 00:25:16,210
enormous gunny sacks
of human bones.
489
00:25:16,252 --> 00:25:18,385
And I never asked where
they got 'em.
490
00:25:18,429 --> 00:25:19,909
I didn't want to know.
491
00:25:21,214 --> 00:25:22,781
Should I even be talking
about this?
492
00:25:22,825 --> 00:25:25,219
Like, I-I don't even know
that this is cool, you know.
493
00:25:25,261 --> 00:25:27,176
This is not cool. Like...
494
00:25:28,743 --> 00:25:31,224
We had several members
of local crew.
495
00:25:31,268 --> 00:25:33,052
And this one woman in particular
496
00:25:33,096 --> 00:25:35,576
was going to help us wrangle
some bones for an altar
497
00:25:35,621 --> 00:25:37,797
that we were creating.
498
00:25:37,839 --> 00:25:40,538
And um, when she delivered
the bones,
499
00:25:40,582 --> 00:25:42,540
we realized they were real
human bones.
500
00:25:42,584 --> 00:25:45,544
And she had uh, robbed a grave.
501
00:25:47,022 --> 00:25:48,981
- Ah! There's a lot of stories
502
00:25:49,025 --> 00:25:50,592
I don't know if I want to tell,
503
00:25:50,635 --> 00:25:52,569
I don't even know if I
should've told the bone story,
504
00:25:52,594 --> 00:25:54,422
- but um...
- Too late.
505
00:25:54,464 --> 00:25:55,989
Yeah!
506
00:25:57,643 --> 00:26:00,166
When they go to make the Voodoo
potion in the cemetery,
507
00:26:01,384 --> 00:26:03,083
there's a shot where the camera
508
00:26:03,125 --> 00:26:05,346
kinda dollies through
the gravestones.
509
00:26:05,388 --> 00:26:07,740
And I don't want to accuse
anybody of this,
510
00:26:07,782 --> 00:26:09,915
somebody told me like,
we're gonna put
511
00:26:09,959 --> 00:26:11,787
a dolly track down here,
512
00:26:11,830 --> 00:26:14,136
so those two headstones
have to move, and...
513
00:26:15,748 --> 00:26:18,445
and you-you know,
clear the path.
514
00:26:18,489 --> 00:26:20,230
Like, make a level path.
515
00:26:20,273 --> 00:26:23,103
And um, the graves
were not deep.
516
00:26:23,145 --> 00:26:25,671
And the bodies didn't seem
to be in coffins.
517
00:26:27,193 --> 00:26:29,761
So there was sort of
some moving of bones,
518
00:26:29,805 --> 00:26:31,763
and you'd kind of move
a headst... you know,
519
00:26:31,807 --> 00:26:33,808
take a picture of the
headstones, and move it,
520
00:26:33,853 --> 00:26:36,507
and put it back later.
521
00:26:36,550 --> 00:26:38,094
I think we may have...
desecrated some stuff.
522
00:26:38,117 --> 00:26:39,945
I'm not sure.
But I don't remember.
523
00:26:39,989 --> 00:26:41,730
I could-it could all be
a hallucination.
524
00:26:41,773 --> 00:26:43,905
Please don't hold me
to any of this.
525
00:26:43,950 --> 00:26:46,473
To me, when a bunch of Americans
526
00:26:46,517 --> 00:26:48,146
try to recreate something
that's happening
527
00:26:48,171 --> 00:26:50,086
in Haitian culture,
that's enough to be
528
00:26:50,130 --> 00:26:52,306
a little nerve-wracking
right there.
529
00:26:52,348 --> 00:26:55,656
If we had disrupted something
there by doing something wrong,
530
00:26:55,701 --> 00:26:58,181
would we have called in a God
that was angry at us?
531
00:26:59,704 --> 00:27:01,444
I don't know.
532
00:27:06,625 --> 00:27:07,843
At this point we'd been there
533
00:27:07,886 --> 00:27:09,452
for a number of weeks.
534
00:27:12,107 --> 00:27:14,414
But nobody had really dealt
535
00:27:14,458 --> 00:27:16,634
with the desperation
of the people.
536
00:27:18,506 --> 00:27:22,075
So it was kind of a little
bit shocking,
537
00:27:22,117 --> 00:27:24,032
and a little bit frightening
538
00:27:24,076 --> 00:27:26,078
to see this all of a sudden
change
539
00:27:26,122 --> 00:27:27,993
in the way that it had.
540
00:27:31,561 --> 00:27:33,041
We were shooting
the giant procession.
541
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:36,872
So we had our main characters,
542
00:27:36,915 --> 00:27:40,615
and literally thousands
of Haitian extras.
543
00:27:40,659 --> 00:27:42,269
I think there were 2,000.
544
00:27:45,315 --> 00:27:47,665
They hired like, 1,500 extras,
545
00:27:49,318 --> 00:27:51,558
but of course it quickly grew
to 3,000 or 4,000 in Haiti.
546
00:27:54,367 --> 00:27:56,195
Then they had the naivete
to think
547
00:27:56,239 --> 00:27:58,111
that the assistant director
could go, "cut!"
548
00:27:59,765 --> 00:28:01,592
Well, you don't let loose
4,000 Haitians,
549
00:28:01,635 --> 00:28:04,508
drums, night, torches,
and music,
550
00:28:04,551 --> 00:28:06,989
and song, and chant,
and go, "cut!"
551
00:28:07,032 --> 00:28:10,252
I mean, this was a full-on
ceremony at this point.
552
00:28:19,435 --> 00:28:20,741
And rumor went out
that everybody
553
00:28:20,786 --> 00:28:22,701
wasn't gonna get paid.
554
00:28:22,743 --> 00:28:24,287
- Some of the extras found out
that other people
555
00:28:24,310 --> 00:28:25,964
were getting more money.
556
00:28:26,008 --> 00:28:28,444
And so they all were demanding
to be paid
557
00:28:28,489 --> 00:28:30,011
the greater amount of money.
558
00:28:30,056 --> 00:28:31,971
And it may have been the
difference of a dollar
559
00:28:32,013 --> 00:28:33,885
to ten dollars, which, it...
560
00:28:33,929 --> 00:28:35,974
You know, that many years ago,
in Haiti,
561
00:28:36,018 --> 00:28:38,019
was an, an incredible
amount of money.
562
00:28:38,064 --> 00:28:40,153
There was a lot of people.
563
00:28:40,195 --> 00:28:42,328
Even before we came down there,
that said,
564
00:28:42,372 --> 00:28:44,417
you're gonna come into Haiti,
565
00:28:44,461 --> 00:28:47,115
and you have an insane
amount of money
566
00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:49,378
for this conditions that these
people live in here.
567
00:28:51,250 --> 00:28:54,689
The average pay a day
is a dollar
568
00:28:54,732 --> 00:28:56,430
for cuttin' sugar cane,
569
00:28:56,472 --> 00:28:58,648
one of the worst jobs you could
ever have in this life.
570
00:28:59,954 --> 00:29:02,218
And I think production
was trying to get...
571
00:29:02,261 --> 00:29:04,176
Well, we'll give 'em
three dollars a day.
572
00:29:05,917 --> 00:29:07,875
- They felt that we were
underpaying them,
573
00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:09,703
and I think we probably were.
574
00:29:09,748 --> 00:29:11,140
And they wanted more money.
575
00:29:15,623 --> 00:29:18,191
You know, suddenly
I began to get a feeling
576
00:29:18,233 --> 00:29:20,061
that people were getting
anxious.
577
00:29:20,105 --> 00:29:22,673
And I was hearing from ADs
that there was uh,
578
00:29:22,717 --> 00:29:24,500
talk of a strike,
579
00:29:24,545 --> 00:29:26,589
that the extras
were gonna strike.
580
00:29:28,417 --> 00:29:32,682
And then, you know, that kinda
became louder and louder,
581
00:29:32,727 --> 00:29:36,077
and then it became more like
a little bit of an unrest.
582
00:29:38,079 --> 00:29:39,820
- And I'll never forget,
at this point,
583
00:29:39,865 --> 00:29:41,704
I thought I had a great
bond with these people.
584
00:29:41,736 --> 00:29:43,390
And I got up on top of a bus,
585
00:29:43,432 --> 00:29:45,826
and I was trying to negotiate
with them.
586
00:29:45,871 --> 00:29:48,176
- I remember him with a mic...
A megaphone,
587
00:29:48,221 --> 00:29:50,309
in his Banana Republic outfit.
588
00:29:50,353 --> 00:29:54,140
And on top of this building
with the megaphone
589
00:29:54,182 --> 00:29:56,010
and a translator,
590
00:29:56,055 --> 00:29:59,057
trying to talk everybody down.
591
00:29:59,101 --> 00:30:01,799
- And I looked down, and they
all had rocks in their hands.
592
00:30:01,843 --> 00:30:04,019
- And the negotiations
fell apart,
593
00:30:04,063 --> 00:30:07,066
and they revolted, and started
throwing rocks at us.
594
00:30:07,108 --> 00:30:09,285
- And they started
to kind of riot.
595
00:30:09,328 --> 00:30:10,982
- We had to leave our
camera equipment,
596
00:30:11,026 --> 00:30:13,288
everybody had to...
We had to run into a church,
597
00:30:13,333 --> 00:30:14,900
and lock the door.
598
00:30:14,942 --> 00:30:17,641
- We were surrounded, and...
599
00:30:18,946 --> 00:30:21,731
we... we needed to get out.
600
00:30:21,776 --> 00:30:24,257
In the meantime,
Doug had ensconced himself
601
00:30:24,299 --> 00:30:27,607
in a house,
and was paying the extras
602
00:30:27,651 --> 00:30:29,827
with what money he had.
603
00:30:29,871 --> 00:30:31,873
The word was out that
we are out of here.
604
00:30:31,916 --> 00:30:36,050
And I literally ran straight
from set into a bus,
605
00:30:36,095 --> 00:30:39,054
got in the bus, and off we went.
606
00:30:39,097 --> 00:30:41,317
And I was in one of the first
buses that left,
607
00:30:41,361 --> 00:30:44,451
um, with rocks pelting the back
of the bus as we left.
608
00:30:46,713 --> 00:30:48,585
We went straight
from that location
609
00:30:48,628 --> 00:30:50,805
straight to a running plane,
610
00:30:50,848 --> 00:30:53,373
and straight to the Dominican
Republic.
611
00:30:54,634 --> 00:30:56,375
That was it for Haiti.
612
00:30:56,419 --> 00:30:58,726
I-I do like to be an adventurer.
613
00:31:00,249 --> 00:31:02,121
But with adventure
614
00:31:02,163 --> 00:31:04,210
comes responsibility as well.
615
00:31:07,299 --> 00:31:09,040
No one had thought
about, you know,
616
00:31:09,084 --> 00:31:11,520
you're gonna gather a thousand
people together
617
00:31:11,565 --> 00:31:13,567
who are making three
dollars a day.
618
00:31:15,263 --> 00:31:16,875
I think it was a naive decision.
619
00:31:19,573 --> 00:31:20,984
We all got over
to Dominican Republic,
620
00:31:21,009 --> 00:31:23,184
Santa Domingo.
621
00:31:23,229 --> 00:31:25,535
Everybody is completely
exhausted.
622
00:31:25,578 --> 00:31:27,885
And uh, the luggage
doesn't appear.
623
00:31:31,192 --> 00:31:33,107
Obviously there's a scam
happening,
624
00:31:33,152 --> 00:31:35,259
So I got on the luggage rack
and I crawled through the door
625
00:31:35,284 --> 00:31:37,242
and went out on the tarmac,
626
00:31:37,286 --> 00:31:39,897
and came around the side
of the luggage van
627
00:31:39,941 --> 00:31:42,335
with-filled with luggage
from the plane.
628
00:31:42,377 --> 00:31:44,423
And I saw like,
five Dominican cops
629
00:31:44,467 --> 00:31:46,338
trying on everybody's clothes.
630
00:31:47,905 --> 00:31:49,819
Caught them red-handed.
631
00:31:49,864 --> 00:31:51,865
And I just said, no.
You know, I speak Spanish.
632
00:31:51,910 --> 00:31:53,563
I said, yeah, no, no.
633
00:31:53,606 --> 00:31:55,913
No es posible, hermanos,
por favor.
634
00:32:01,180 --> 00:32:03,486
When you make a film,
you become a family.
635
00:32:05,662 --> 00:32:08,143
This is a group of people
that are brought together
636
00:32:08,186 --> 00:32:11,625
anywhere from three
or four months' worth of time
637
00:32:11,667 --> 00:32:14,105
to a year's time.
638
00:32:14,148 --> 00:32:17,326
And you share your life
with them,
639
00:32:17,369 --> 00:32:19,327
and they share their lives
with you.
640
00:32:20,676 --> 00:32:22,941
And Marianne, she and Jill,
641
00:32:22,983 --> 00:32:24,681
this is Jill Simpson here,
642
00:32:24,724 --> 00:32:27,380
were this dynamic duo.
643
00:32:27,423 --> 00:32:29,730
And without them, I don't think
Wes could have functioned.
644
00:32:31,862 --> 00:32:33,951
"The Serpent and the Rainbow"
645
00:32:33,994 --> 00:32:36,315
was the movie that Wes and I
decided to become partners on.
646
00:32:39,566 --> 00:32:42,002
I started working with Wes
as a producer on "Shocker."
647
00:32:44,179 --> 00:32:46,834
We did "Shocker,"
and "People Under The Stairs"
648
00:32:46,876 --> 00:32:48,749
for Universal.
649
00:32:48,791 --> 00:32:51,317
We clicked, and we were
really good friends,
650
00:32:51,359 --> 00:32:53,101
and we just had a really
good partnership.
651
00:32:55,364 --> 00:32:57,148
I just thought Wes was
gonna be here forever,
652
00:32:57,192 --> 00:32:59,759
because he was so full of life
and interested,
653
00:32:59,802 --> 00:33:01,718
and intriguing.
654
00:33:01,761 --> 00:33:03,826
And it-it just kind of doesn't
make sense that he's gone
655
00:33:03,851 --> 00:33:05,505
even to me now.
656
00:33:08,942 --> 00:33:10,857
It was family.
657
00:33:10,901 --> 00:33:12,729
Obviously for David as well.
658
00:33:12,772 --> 00:33:15,054
I mean, he met his wife through
"Serpent and the Rainbow."
659
00:33:17,385 --> 00:33:19,605
I had to ask for his
approval to marry Heather,
660
00:33:19,648 --> 00:33:21,738
basically.
661
00:33:23,913 --> 00:33:25,394
I didn't even ask
Heather's father.
662
00:33:25,438 --> 00:33:27,179
I had to ask Wes Craven.
663
00:33:29,484 --> 00:33:31,704
So, there you have it.
664
00:33:31,748 --> 00:33:33,010
Thank you, Wes.
665
00:33:34,621 --> 00:33:36,275
People loved him.
666
00:33:36,317 --> 00:33:38,538
People went through Hell
for him,
667
00:33:38,580 --> 00:33:40,670
and did it gladly.
668
00:33:40,713 --> 00:33:42,585
Like, were happy to be there.
669
00:33:44,065 --> 00:33:45,607
You know for me it could be
challenging at times
670
00:33:45,632 --> 00:33:48,200
because I was like, the film
crew is really your family.
671
00:33:49,635 --> 00:33:51,420
Everybody worked with my father,
672
00:33:51,463 --> 00:33:53,223
and people would interface
with him and interviewed him,
673
00:33:53,248 --> 00:33:55,119
and knew him, oh my God,
he's such a great guy.
674
00:33:55,163 --> 00:33:57,383
And he was. He was a great guy.
675
00:33:57,425 --> 00:33:59,340
He was not a great father.
676
00:34:01,604 --> 00:34:03,563
I've talked to a lot of people
about it.
677
00:34:03,605 --> 00:34:05,279
It just-it just wasn't
something that he could
678
00:34:05,304 --> 00:34:07,132
really wrap his head around.
679
00:34:07,174 --> 00:34:09,916
He wanted to, I think, but...
680
00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:12,068
he didn't want to do that more
than he wanted to be a director
681
00:34:12,092 --> 00:34:14,791
and wanted to be
who he had become.
682
00:34:16,489 --> 00:34:18,273
He tried to branch out
and do other things.
683
00:34:18,317 --> 00:34:19,927
He's-he comes back to horror.
684
00:34:19,969 --> 00:34:21,668
That's where the opportunity is,
685
00:34:21,710 --> 00:34:23,626
and that's where he gets
to process
686
00:34:23,670 --> 00:34:25,498
whatever happened
to him as a child,
687
00:34:25,541 --> 00:34:27,630
which, I know broad strokes of.
688
00:34:27,673 --> 00:34:29,284
There's definitely trauma there.
689
00:34:30,806 --> 00:34:32,635
I think he did what
he did really well,
690
00:34:32,679 --> 00:34:34,289
and he put everything into it.
691
00:34:34,333 --> 00:34:36,465
And he had a lot of compassion
for the people
692
00:34:36,509 --> 00:34:38,076
who were around him.
693
00:34:39,293 --> 00:34:40,990
I think he had a lot
of compassion for me
694
00:34:41,034 --> 00:34:42,818
and my sister.
695
00:34:42,862 --> 00:34:44,623
I think he didn't always
know how to connect.
696
00:34:45,692 --> 00:34:48,041
And uh, and that's...
that's true for a lot of people,
697
00:34:48,085 --> 00:34:49,434
a lot of fathers and sons.
698
00:34:53,873 --> 00:34:56,833
We're not gonna be like,
super cozy as father and son.
699
00:34:56,876 --> 00:34:59,706
But we were able to come
together on film sets,
700
00:34:59,748 --> 00:35:02,143
and that was a beautiful thing.
701
00:35:20,248 --> 00:35:22,336
When the film came out,
702
00:35:22,380 --> 00:35:24,164
I was disappointed.
703
00:35:25,427 --> 00:35:28,081
These gratuitous horror
elements,
704
00:35:28,126 --> 00:35:31,215
to my mind, completely
deflated the power
705
00:35:31,259 --> 00:35:33,914
of the truth of the story.
706
00:35:33,956 --> 00:35:37,873
But I also clearly recognize
that it wasn't my film.
707
00:35:37,918 --> 00:35:39,485
It was Wes Craven's film.
708
00:35:40,963 --> 00:35:44,402
In my book I had targeted
these movies
709
00:35:44,445 --> 00:35:47,318
as being the perpetrators
710
00:35:47,362 --> 00:35:49,842
of the grotesque stereotypes
about Voodoo.
711
00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:53,976
- And then suddenly,
I'm held responsible
712
00:35:54,021 --> 00:35:56,501
for a Wes Craven movie
that by all accounts
713
00:35:56,545 --> 00:35:58,894
essentially perpetuates
that same stereotype.
714
00:36:01,289 --> 00:36:03,329
That's when I started
to think about representation.
715
00:36:05,074 --> 00:36:07,903
And I guess, you know,
the white saviorism.
716
00:36:09,253 --> 00:36:10,974
Probably the protagonist
would be Black now.
717
00:36:13,909 --> 00:36:16,695
I felt that Bill was
the right actor, though.
718
00:36:18,219 --> 00:36:21,266
He was very sensitive
to his role,
719
00:36:21,309 --> 00:36:23,398
you know, and other people.
720
00:36:25,182 --> 00:36:28,273
I think for young Black
actresses now,
721
00:36:30,449 --> 00:36:33,800
there's a record of somebody
who worked there in 1988,
722
00:36:33,842 --> 00:36:36,541
and did the female lead.
723
00:36:36,585 --> 00:36:38,282
I'm proud of that legacy.
724
00:36:59,869 --> 00:37:01,393
I think that Wade, you know,
725
00:37:01,436 --> 00:37:03,221
he has very mixed emotions
about it,
726
00:37:03,264 --> 00:37:05,527
because on the one hand,
you know,
727
00:37:05,570 --> 00:37:08,007
he felt that maybe we had,
to a degree,
728
00:37:08,050 --> 00:37:10,358
bastardized this serious
piece of work.
729
00:37:12,317 --> 00:37:14,318
- But on the other hand,
730
00:37:14,362 --> 00:37:17,235
it made Wade Davis, Wade Davis.
731
00:37:18,844 --> 00:37:21,413
I literally went from
being kind of the darling
732
00:37:21,456 --> 00:37:23,632
of the Haitian community,
733
00:37:23,675 --> 00:37:25,677
to being a so-called
controversial figure.
734
00:37:27,722 --> 00:37:29,943
So it was a very bittersweet
735
00:37:29,985 --> 00:37:32,250
convergence of forces
that occurred.
736
00:37:34,164 --> 00:37:36,340
That said, I totally
honored the people
737
00:37:36,384 --> 00:37:38,255
that worked so hard to make it.
738
00:37:39,996 --> 00:37:41,835
And I left it all behind me,
without bitterness
739
00:37:41,867 --> 00:37:44,914
or contempt, and only joy.
740
00:37:44,958 --> 00:37:47,307
But then I just went on with
a new phase of my life,
741
00:37:47,351 --> 00:37:49,222
and became an activist
742
00:37:49,266 --> 00:37:51,791
working on behalf
of the last nomadic people
743
00:37:51,833 --> 00:37:53,487
of the rainforest of Southeast
Asia.
744
00:37:55,097 --> 00:37:56,657
And I have not been back
to Haiti since.
745
00:38:50,065 --> 00:38:51,503
All in all,
when I look back on it,
746
00:38:53,112 --> 00:38:55,157
I believe there was a curse.
747
00:38:55,202 --> 00:38:57,204
I believe there are curses.
748
00:38:58,639 --> 00:39:00,559
I believe we were actually
blessed and protected.
749
00:39:02,601 --> 00:39:05,038
What may have happened had
we not gotten that blessing,
750
00:39:05,081 --> 00:39:06,909
you know, God only knows.
751
00:39:08,606 --> 00:39:10,695
But there was a certain
confidence that was given
752
00:39:10,739 --> 00:39:12,914
to us all that night.
753
00:39:12,958 --> 00:39:16,309
I basically learned my craft
through all of these people
754
00:39:16,353 --> 00:39:19,007
that I was now on
an island with.
755
00:39:19,052 --> 00:39:21,358
Every experience
just got soaked in,
756
00:39:21,402 --> 00:39:24,099
and filed, and became like,
the foundation.
757
00:39:25,492 --> 00:39:27,452
- David LeRoy Anderson,
for "The Nutty Professor."
758
00:39:29,583 --> 00:39:31,237
- And what I was able
to achieve there
759
00:39:31,280 --> 00:39:32,934
with this film crew,
760
00:39:32,978 --> 00:39:34,675
and with this film community,
761
00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:37,331
was enough to make my Dad proud,
762
00:39:37,375 --> 00:39:39,333
and make me feel successful,
763
00:39:39,376 --> 00:39:41,596
and make me come home excited
about what I had done.
764
00:39:43,250 --> 00:39:45,164
But very, very aware of the fact
765
00:39:45,208 --> 00:39:48,036
that I didn't do
any of it alone.
59120
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