| SPC: |
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What was the genesis of "The Spanish Prisoner?" |
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| Mamet: |
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I was reporting a Soldier of Fortune convention at Las Vegas for Esquire. I spent several days with this British guy who represented himself as an Air Vice Marshall. Everyone thought he was someone else's friend. I wrote the piece and, eventually, a fact-checker called me up and said: "Oh, your Air Vice Marshall—did you lend him any money? The guy's a con-artist and he's been taken a lot of guys for a lot of money." Jesus Christ! I remember he'd been talking about his investments in the Cayman Isles and dropping a lot of names. All of a sudden, all the things that were inexplicable at the time flashed back to me. We'd walked past this table of firearms and he'd picked up a service pistol and said: "Oh, look at that. I carried one of these in Aden,"—but he didn't know how to cycle the action. But I was really privileged to have met him, I think, because the big con is just not being done that much. The short con is being done all the time on the streets of New York—$10, $20—but not the big con anymore. |
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| SPC: |
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How much did he take you for? |
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| Mamet: |
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Oh, he never took me for anything. I didn't have any money. As soon as he found that out, he moved on. He was rather quiet — not flamboyant. The con people prefer to play the victim off the wall... |
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| SPC: |
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What is the basis of a con—greed or the game itself? |
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| Mamet: |
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It's always said: You can't con an honest man. All confidence games play on or exploit a desire of the victim's pride and ego. The hero of my film wants to be thought well of: he feels he's not getting what he deserves from his employers. |
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| SPC: |
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How much did he take you for? |
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| Mamet: |
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Oh, he never took me for anything. I didn't have any money. As soon as he found that out, he moved on. He was rather quiet — not flamboyant. The con people prefer to play the victim off the wall... You know, the con-man looms large in the history of Western civilization. Look at the prominence of confidence men in English literature—Smollett, Fielding, Dafoe, constantly. There's a rage of them in literature. |
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| SPC: |
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Where do you stand on the film's two opposing philosophies? No one is what they seem-- and people generally look like what they are...? |
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| Mamet: |
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I don't know...I go with the old poker adage: trust everybody—but cut the cards. |
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| SPC: |
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You've assembled a fascinating cast, combining Mamet regulars like Ricky Jay, Felicity Huffman and your wife Rebecca Pidgeon with other well-known actors who are new to your work, like Ben Gazzara and Steve Martin. |
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| Mamet: |
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Yes, I don't know why Ben and I haven't worked together before — except, that he lives in Italy. I grew up in the 50's and used to watch him in "Run For Your Life" on TV and then in films like "Anatomy of a Murder"— he's never not wonderful! He never makes anything obvious — and that's the best thing you can say about any actor. Felicity Huffman has worked for about 15 years with the Atlantic Theater Company that I'm connected with. Rebecca was the original "Oleanna" and has extensive credits in England. And I wanted to do something with Steve Martin since seeing him on stage in "Waiting for Godot" with Robin Williams, which Mike Nicholas directed — I thought Steve was stunning. |
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| SPC: |
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And your leading man, Campbell Scott, looks and dresses like you. |
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| Mamet: |
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I think you may be watching this movie much too acutely. That's very funny. I remember doing a play once when the costume designer said "Dave, every play you do, the hero always ends up looking like you." Of course, as I'm the writer and director, I am part of the main character... |
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| SPC: |
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Ricky Jay is your expert card-sharp. |
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| Mamet: |
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I knew his work from long ago on shows like the "Ed Sullivan Show." Ricky has written a couple of great books about magic. We became friends and he was my technical advisor on "House of Games"— and finished up acting in the movie. He'd acted before for Joe Papp in New York. He's just finished playing a villain in the new James Bond film, "Tomorrow Never Dies." |
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| SPC: |
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This film is very different from a typical Hollywood thriller-- the bad guys in those movies always know exactly how their Pavlovian victims will react-- while your con artists go with the flow, utilizing whatever moves their victim makes. |
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| Mamet: |
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That is what is meant by playing it off the wall. It looks extraordinary elaborate what con people are doing but really there's very little props and very little sets. They take advantage of the locales where they are and improvise with whatever else is there that will help you believe in them. |
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| SPC: |
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What about the team behind the camera? |
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| Mamet: |
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I loved Gabriel Beristain's photography on "Delores Claiborne" for Taylor Hackford. I was talking to Taylor about another of his films that I really loved — "Blood In, Blood Out," and he said: "Gaby did that, too." That settled it. As for Carter Burwell's music, I saw "Fargo"— Mike Nichols says it's the only movie that nobody didn't like. I loved that movie — and I loved the score, right from the first moment of the movie, the long shot of the car. And I hope this to be the first of many films with Jean Doumanian. I met her when she was producing some one-act plays on stage--by myself, Woody Allen and Elaine May. Jean is terrific to work with. |
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| SPC: |
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What are your next projects? |
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| Mamet: |
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We're on Broadway now with a new production of one of my plays, "The Old Neighborhood," with my wife Rebecca Pidgeon. I'm also putting together a couple of films, including a Terence Rattigan play I want to re-make, "The Winslow Boy" — I love Rattigan. I was very impressed by the re-make of "The Browning Version" with Albert Finney. And I've finished a script for Al Pacino— about poker, actually, so Ricky Jay is advising again. The current title is "Four Queens." I have a feeling that will be changed. |