Welcome to #FlashbackFriday, where we look at past moments with filmmakers, actors, etc. and highlight something in cinema history that’s fascinating, amusing, perhaps something you never knew or have seen, you name it.
Earlier this week, we were able to share a never-before-seen interview with Stanley Kubrick, where he broke down the ending of the masterpiece “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Well, now another piece of Kubrick history has shown up on our radar, and we decided to make it this week’s #FlashbackFriday.
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In the below clip, we have an interview with actor/comedian Steve Martin and Charlie Rose, as they discuss an evening that the actor spent with the legendary filmmaker. In 1980 (or thereabouts), while Martin was in London doing his stand-up, Kubrick reached out to him and asked the comedian to stop by for dinner. While there, the director pitched Martin “Eyes Wide Shut.”
Obviously, Martin didn’t actually appear in the film, and Kubrick didn’t make it in the ‘80s, instead waiting until 1999. But the rest of the clip details what Martin experienced while being wined and dined by Kubrick.
“I went to his estate, we had dinner, we played chess,” said Martin.
He continued, “It was an interesting evening. You toured his catacombs. There would be boxes of reviews and they’d say ‘favorable reviews’ and ‘hostile reviews.’”
It’s interesting to think of Martin as someone who could have been in “Eyes Wide Shut.” In the ‘80s, the actor would go on to do a number of comedies and cement himself as the sweet, dad character. That would have been completely blown up if he took Kubrick up on his offer to star in the highly sexual thriller.
Instead, we got Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise and the rest is history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykFUBgCcbEc
