At SFIFF54: a great night for British actor Terence Stamp at the Castro Theatre
Actor Terence Stamp during an evening in his honor at the 54th S.F. Int'l Film Festival on Friday at the Castro Theater.
Photo: Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
By Omar Moore "God, I've seen that movie 'Priscilla (Queen Of The Desert)' so many times," he recalled former U.S. president Bill Clinton telling him.
"You haven't seen it more than I've seen it," he quoted Colin Powell, the former U.S. Secretary of State, as saying to him.
The 'he' is Terence Stamp, the British actor who has played lead and character roles for the better part of 50 years. On Friday night Mr. Stamp held court in a special evening here at the Castro Theatre to salute his career. The night before he had received the Peter J. Owens Award for outstanding acting in his illustrious film career.
The best event so far at the 54th San Francisco International Film Festival saw Mr. Stamp regaling the audience and moderator Elvis Mitchell with many stories about his life and career. Some of the stories had the audience and Mr. Mitchell himself in stitches, while other stories were punctuated with silences and pauses that made Mr. Stamp's recollections all the more poignant.
Any idea that Mr. Stamp was the harsh, raw brutish type he's played in numerous big screen roles was dispelled during his two hours on stage. Mr. Stamp, more serious and circumspect prior to the S.F. Film Society Awards gala on Thursday night, let his hair down on Friday night, looking relaxed and comfortable in blue jeans, a white shirt with a tied-around-the-neck sky-blue sweater, the latter which Mr. Stamp promptly removed upon walking on stage.
The 72-year-old Stepney-born London man defined his acting career as "before and after Fellini". Mr. Stamp gave funny insights into the director Federico Fellini, whom he worked with on the little-seen 47-minute 1967 film "Toby Dammit", part of a trilogy of Edgar Allan Poe stories filmed as "Spirits Of The Dead".
Mr. Stamp was supposed to star in Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow-Up" (1966), but "he fired me, basically", the actor revealed. "And I never knew why. I never heard from him again."
"Blow-Up" however, was made very much with Mr. Stamp in mind even after he'd no longer been part of the equation.
Prior to their incommunicado status Mr. Stamp told the audience of his conversation with Mr. Antonioni. "When we talked about London, what was happening in the sixties, [Antonioni] changed the story from a fashion photographer in Milan to a fashion photographer in England, to sort of accommodate the London swinging scene, and me."
When Mr. Stamp found out through a third party that he was no longer a part of "Blow-Up" and that he was replaced by David Hemmings, Mr. Stamp said he responded at the time: "Who's David Hemmings?"
Fortune turned for Mr. Stamp soon after, when Peter O'Toole dropped out of Mr. Fellini's "Toby Dammit" in 1966. ("Toby Dammit" was shown for the audience at the Castro Theater later that night.)
According to Mr. Stamp, Mr. Fellini had apparently told his casting director for "Toby Dammit" the following:
"Send me your most decadent actors."
The rest was history.
When filming "Toby Dammit" however, Mr. Stamp needed assistance.
"'I want some direction,'" Mr. Stamp said he told the legendary director.
Terence Stamp got direction. Very specific direction.
"He didn't pause," Mr. Stamp noted.
Using an Italian-flavored accent Mr. Stamp re-enacted just how Mr. Fellini had given the actor some very explicit and graphic direction:
"'Last night was the final performance of Macbeth. You give me the performance of Macbeth. It's the final performance. It is the only thing. And then you go to a party, but not really a party. Horgy. Extreme horgy. You're drinking. You're smoking hashish. Lots of f*****g. You f*****g some big blonde. Some big black guy f*****g you. All the time, smoking and drinking! All the time f*****g, large f*****g. Somebody drive you to the airport . . . they give you LSD!'
"I never asked for any more direction," noted Mr. Stamp.
"I hope you told your story to Colin Powell," added Mr. Mitchell.
In a night that was personal and conversational rather than formal, Mr. Stamp talked about his romantic relationship with Julie Christie (with whom he starred in "Far From The Madding Crowd".)
"We had our romance . . . I could never really understand like why she was so nervous (on set) because the camera just loved her," Mr. Stamp said.
"I mean, she had this incredibly photogenic face. She was one of the most lovable people that I ever met. There was something about her that was intimately lovable. And I stayed friends with Julie. And this thing that makes her lovable has sort of become more lovable . . . it's not connected with the part of her that's aging, you know? It's something I feel she intrinsically is. And it always struck me as strange that she had so many fears about performing.
"I think what makes her so lovable is this kind of profound modesty. She seems to be unaware of this thing that makes her so lovable," Mr. Stamp concluded.
"You're describing yourself right now," Mr. Mitchell quipped.
A very introspective and bashful Mr. Stamp noted, "I never really regarded myself as anything special like physically, because my heroes were like Gary Cooper and Cary Grant you know, and they were guys that were impossibly handsome . . . and it wasn't until the Sixties that how I looked became a look."
Michael Caine had met Mr. Stamp and the actor was Mr. Caine's first acting student. Mr. Stamp, who has starred in many films including "Billy Budd", "Blue", "The Collector", "The Limey", "Superman: The Movie" and "The Adjustment Bureau", mentioned that Mr. Caine had given him lessons on cultivating an accent. He also noted that he and Mr. Caine were the first actors from the south of England to emerge and make a mark in their profession on the big screen in the U.S.
Movies fascinated Mr. Stamp from a very early age.
"When I was a boy -- I was about three, three and a half -- and my mother took me to see my first movie. And it was Gary Cooper in a movie called "Beau Geste". I was lost. Forever, you know? But my fate was decided that afternoon. I just wanted to be what Gary Cooper was," Mr. Stamp recalled.
A lover of cinema, Mr. Stamp said he'd go alone in his "misspent youth" as a young teenager to watch continental movies.
"And one of the movies that I saw which gave me sort of wet dreams for years was a movie called "Bitter Rice", with this woman called Silvana Mangano.
"In real life she was beyond beautiful," Mr. Stamp said. "Really, she was exquisite. She was like goddess-like, you know? And when I saw her she was like 17 and she had these hot pants. She was just stunning and I always wanted to meet her. I went back to Rome with my brother who wanted me to do (work) for Fellini. We were walking . . . [down an Italian street] there was a group of people . . . and a guy and a woman, and as this trio got closer I realized the woman was Silvana Mangano. And I was so overwhelmed. I thought I was going to faint."
The veteran actor, who has written memoirs also talked about "being aware that I was aware" in front of the camera.
"In 'Blue', because of the pain, the emotional pain that I was in at the time, I was truly present. The awareness, the fundamental awareness that I think of as what I truly am was kind of nearer the surface because I was being reminded of it more frequently. So when I look at 'Blue' I am aware of a kind of androgynous, androgynous-ness. And when I did "Priscilla" -- which was the most frightening thing of my whole career really -- but I did it," Mr. Stamp said, citing the influence of an actress (Caroline Bliss) whom he called "a great friend of mine."
An audience member asked Mr. Stamp what it was like working with Angelina Jolie on the 2008 film "Wanted". On the final shot for the actor -- and following the announcement that it was Mr. Stamp's last scene -- Mr. Stamp said he was embraced by Ms. Jolie.
"As she hugged me I felt myself becoming aroused, you know. I thought, 'I didn't want her to think I was weird or anything, so as she hugged me I just allowed myself to get an erection."
"And on that note . . . " said Mr. Mitchell.
The evening concluded right then and there.
