Julian Schnabel
Julian Schnabel talks about his relationship with Jean-Michel Basquiat and the making of the film based on the late New York artist's life and work
How did the idea for the film arise and what made you do it?
Jean-Michel [Basquiat] and I were in a very similar place in terms of all the hubbub and criticism and enthusiasm and attacks, and God knows what else. He was someone who really touched me. He was what every mother hopes their son could be: intelligent, talented, charming, beautiful, and really inspired. And you would think that all of those qualities would be pluses, rather than all the ingredients that would make it impossible to survive in this society.
Anyway when he died there was a lot of sensationalising about his heroin use and his death and the fast lane of the 80s and all this other kind of crap. Somebody came to interview me about Jean-Michel for a film so I thought I'd help them get it made and help give an element of the truth to what they were doing. But as time went on they also seemed to want to make a cliché. So finally I had to take the bull by the horns and do it myself.
You've said that the truth was more interesting than fiction. What biases or misconceptions about Basquiat or Andy Warhol did you want to correct or avoid?
One, I wanted to show that Jean- Michel was educated. If he was living on the street it was not because he was from a poor family. I wanted to show his closeness with his mother. I wanted to show that he was very conscious of what was going on. That even though he was childlike, he was not naive. I wanted to show that he was not using Andy and Andy was not using him. They were real friends. I wanted to show that Andy was deeper than he's been portrayed to be and that he really cared about Jean-Michel, that Jean-Michel was not Andy's protégé; he did not owe his fame to Andy. That's why by the time he and Andy get together in the film he's already having a show.
I wanted to show, I guess more than anything, the creative process. How someone mediates the world through their art and what constitutes the history of mark making in the sense of making a mark, making an image, that becomes a painting. I wanted to show that success really takes place when a work of art is conceived and realised, not when people agree with you. I wanted to show how important music was to his creative process. And I wanted to say things in Jean-Michel's voice.
There is a recurring motif of waves and a surfer...
It has to do with the dream of escape. The reason why he gets into so much trouble is his imagination, but at the same time his imagination keeps him free.
But is this your interpretation or did he talk about wanting to get away from that world?
Jean-Michel was always wanting to go to Hawaii and escape. He did go there several times. But in a US$3.3 million movie shot in 32 days it's hard to take your crew to Hawaii. On the other hand I don't think I needed to do that.
Motionomoascilloscope. It's a sparkling day and this guy's taking off on a big wave and everything is great. It's optimistic. But we go through the film and the barometer drops. He's still surfing and he gets that satisfying feeling after his opening, he's very excited, he feels good, and he's rewarded by that vision. As time goes by, he wipes out when it doesn't work out with his girlfriend, there's an ominous grey sea when he's being beat up, and finally he drowns, in some way. But it's just one image, because when he's walking down the street with Benny he says forget Hawaii, we'll go to Ireland and we'll have a drink in every bar.
Did you portray Jean-Michel as you knew him through Jeffrey Wright?
I think Jeffrey did an excellent job. He is very much like Jean-Michel in a lot of ways in the film. I don't think anybody else would have done a better job. Jean was a complicated guy.
Why did you choose not to go into his bisexuality?
Because it wasn't that important to me. You have an hour and 43 minutes to tell a story. Pick the story you want to tell.
Was the scene when he calls the suicide hot line based on a real event?
He did make that telephone call, but it was a prank call and then he turned it into the song. But it was portentous.
Do you think the way you depicted yourself through Gary Oldman was honest?
I think that was very accurate. I mean those were just a couple of scenes out of our relationship. I mean I never get to
show him the painting I painted for him after he was dead, but that's one of the great things you can do with film is have a
few different realities running alongside of each other.
His relatives didn't allow you to use his paintings in the film. Why?
Who knows what his dad thought. He never even read the script. Maybe he thought I was going to pry into their family life. I
don't know what his problem was. I don't know what his dad knew about his paintings when he was alive; I don't know what he
knows about them now. But that's not the issue.
Has he seen the movie?
I've no idea. But I talked to him about the movie before I did it. He was at my house. I've known him for 15 years.
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