When 79 year-old, Hollywood legend Ridley Scott decides to replace a key role in “All The Money In The World” only weeks away from release, all you can do is get out of his way. When the allegations of sexual harassment and assault against Kevin Spacey arrived, Scott mobilized quickly to hire Christopher Plummer (ironically, his original choice for the role), and reshoot the disgraced actor’s scenes. This last minute round of shooting — plus creating new marketing materials — is expected to cost north of $10 million, and the studio was as supportive as they could be in the situation.
“They were like, ‘You’ll never do it. God be with you.’ [Laughs] ” Scott told EW.
However, for the director, once he heard the news about Spacey, there was no doubt in his mind about what had to be done. “I was finished with the film and was in [U.K. recording studio] Abbey Road finalizing the music. Someone was like: Guess what? And that’s where it began. I sat and thought about it and realized, we cannot. You can’t tolerate any kind of behavior like that. And it will affect the film. We cannot let one person’s action affect the good work of all these other people. It’s that simple,” Scott said, adding that he and Spacey haven’t spoken.
There are few filmmakers in the industry who work as efficiently as Scott, so it’s not a shock to learn that “All The Money In The World” is nearly ready for awards consideration. Why? Because he doesn’t waste a second.
“I move like lightning. I’m already two scenes ahead. It’s simple! If you know what you’re doing, you don’t need 19 takes. You do one for the actor, one for me. It’s all planned out. When you storyboard, you’ve already pre-filmed the movie in your head — the wide shots, close shots, establishing shots. You’ve gotten some of your weird ideas when you’re quietly sitting, storyboarding by yourself. After a while you learn to trust and listen to your intuition. And I listen to mine. I trust it,” Scott explained.
“I’ve been shooting since Monday [Nov. 20] and in with the editor every night since then,” he added. “We’re not dealing with celluloid anymore; it’s all digital, and I send [the footage each day] to [editor Claire Simpson] and she cuts it, and I can go in and look after shooting. Everything I’ve shot is already in [the final cut] up through yesterday morning.”
No matter how the movie turns out, that’s impressive stuff.
“All The Money In The World” opens on December 22nd.