Film producer and director Lee Daniels—who describes himself as “part homo, part Euro, and part ghetto”—is back in theaters with The Paperboy, a Southern gothic, melodramatic (to say the least) follow-up to his 2009 Oscar nominated directorial sensation Precious.
Daniels’ new film is based on Pete Dexter’s film noir-flavored tale of two brothers (Matthew McConaughey and Zac Efron) trying to find evidence to free a death-row prisoner (John Cusack) with the aid of his, to say the least, sex-starved pen pal (Nicole Kidman). Set in the Florida bayou during the turbulent 1960s, the film, drenched in sweat and raw sexuality, is ostensibly a murder mystery. However, it is more notable for its wildly uninhibited performances (especially those of Kidman and McConaughey), outrageous set pieces and copious amounts of queer subtext.
Although The Paperboy has divided critics, there’s no denying the power of Daniels’ assured vision and fearless approach—which add to the movie’s palpable vibrancy.
Windy City Times: When we spoke about Precious three years ago, you talked about the bravery of Mo’Nique and getting to that vulnerable place on the set—which we agreed is helped by the unique ability of gay men and straight women to do that.
Now, in The Paperboy, that has happened again with Nicole Kidman’s performance. Was there a similar process to get her to that place? I mean, come on—she really brought it!
Lee Daniels: Thank you! Richard, I think that sometimes the great part about working with Nicole is that she doesn’t edit herself; she gives her opinion but she trusts me unequivocally [and] she trusts her director unequivocally. If she chooses to work with you, she succumbs to whatever it is that that director wants, and that’s what she did for me. That’s what Mo’Nique did for me, and there you have it. It was a magical, wonderful experience, and I’m looking forward to working with her over and over again.
WCT: She sure did. To me, this movie looks like it’s to be seen at the drive-in in 1966, so kudos—
Lee Daniels: Yeah! [Delighted] I’ve been telling people that all day long. At my press conference at the New York Film Festival last night I said, “What I want to achieve in this film cinematically is that I want to make sure you feel that this movie was made in 1967, circa 1970.”
WCT: You really got that. I also got a heavy hint of Altman in the dinner table scenes with Scott Glenn as the father of Matthew McConaughey and Zac Efron, and Macy Gray as the maid—that overlapping dialogue and that improvisational feel to things. It felt like you were saying, “Let’s just see where this goes.”
Lee Daniels: I have a weird way of working sometimes. We go and do the lines and then I go, “Okay, this isn’t working, what do you think you should say?” and then we take it from there. There’s no rehearsal, as I’ve told you before.
WCT: Which is amazing. I guess part of that has to be a trust issue and stuff like background research for the actors on their characters done in advance. I mean it had to have been so fun to figure out Nicole’s look—with that bleached blonde wig and the make-up and all that stuff.
Lee Daniels: Are you kidding me? [Laughs] I said, “You got to do your own make-up and you gotta figure out your own look” and she said, “What do you mean, ‘Figure out your own make-up?'” I said, “Because I can’t afford a make-up artist to do you right and also, it’s good for you for your character.” She looked at me like I had four eyes. I thought she was going to leave the movie at that point but then she just ran for it; she did it.
WCT: With that white eyeliner—man she got that trashy look. Speaking of “white”—did you get to go shopping for Zac’s tighty whities?
Lee Daniels: Tighty whities, tighty whities. Oh, I’m sick of that tighty-whitie thing. Okay, here’s the thing—let’s set the record straight. I got so angry because I got so sick of hearing the question at Cannes and I said to a reporter, “Well, why wouldn’t I have him in tighty whities? I’m gay”—and that wasn’t really true. Maybe a little bit.
But everybody that’s on the screen are people that I know or is myself and with Zac’s character, in particular. First of all, Zac wasn’t my first choice to do the role, and the person that I had wouldn’t look so great in the tighty whities. As a kid, my mother would always scream at me and hit me up the side of the [head], “Why are you always walking around in your underwear? Go put some clothes on.” So it was really a throwback to my youth. Of course, I didn’t look nearly as good as Zac does in his tighty whities.
WCT: Well, it doesn’t hurt to have a nice little bonus like that in the film.
Lee Daniels: Yeah and in the back of my mind I sorta thought, “Wow, he’s sorta hot” but I tried to make him not look hot throughout the film which is so hard because he’s so beautiful.
WCT: You failed there miserably, sorry. [Laughs] Speaking of bravery, we should also talk about Matthew McConaughey’s bravery—his character is involved in a (SPOILER ALERT) rough-trade scene with two Black men in a motel room that I’ve never seen in a “mainstream film.” Can you talk about how parts of your background came into play there?
Lee Daniels: Look: These people—Nicole’s character and also Matthew’s character—they are both, I think, on death missions. They have death wishes and I think that in the ’70s—I think, I know, there were men … I have to relate to things; they have to come to me personally. And in that time I dated white men that were from the South that were just dealing with coming out of the closet—forget about the fact that they had a taste for African-American men. So it was like a double whammy.
So this is pre-AIDS and, man, it was hardcore and I remember that there was a white man I dated that actually killed himself because he could not deal with the fact … he was already ostracized from the gay community because he was dating a Black man at that time. All I can say is that it was very personal and I married my world into The Paperboy world with Matthew McConaughey’s character in that scene.
WCT: Is it true that you offered Oprah Winfrey the part of the maid (eventually played by Macy Gray)?
Lee Daniels: Yes, and I can’t imagine her now playing it—masturbating on the floor opening my movie.
WCT: [Laughs] Can you talk about the phone call when you talked about it?
Lee Daniels: She said, “Are you nuts?!” She produced me for Precious and we had been looking for something—and now we have something; we just wrapped on The Butler. But I said, “Okay, here it is, Oprah—you’re playing the maid” and she said, “You Are Out Of Your Mind, Lee Daniels!”—in capital letters—and I said, “Yes, I am out of my mind and you’re going to play it” and we fought back and forth, and she won. Then I called my girlfriend Macy Gray, who was in Shadowboxer for me.
WCT: That’s right. It sounds pejorative to use the word “oddball”—that you’re the king of oddball casting; I should use the word “cool” instead. Putting together these interesting people together and you did it again here. This reminds me—off topic—are you aware of this spat between your girl Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj?
Lee Daniels: Yes. Keith Urban was at the screening last night and he sat by me. But, listen, it’s too incestuous; I care not to comment. My allegiance is to my girlfriend Mariah, needless to say, and I think she’s a lady and I think it’ll be some … interesting TV.
WCT: No doubt. Okay, let’s go on to the forthcoming The Butler for a minute. There’s a lot of anticipation now that this still of Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan has been released. You’ve got Oprah and Denzel Washington and Mariah in the film, for starters, and you’ve just finished shooting. Can you talk a little bit about what to expect?
Lee Daniels: I don’t know. I hope it’s a good movie; I think it’s going to be good. I hope so. I think we all gave it our best as I do all the time. And I think the actors really brought their A game—now it’s left to me to try and make a good movie out of it. It’s very exciting.
WCT: A very good friend of mine, Victor Salvo, has created The Legacy Project, the first walk of fame in the country for LGBT iconic figures, and a freestanding gay and lesbian museum is coming next. Two of the first to be honored are Bayard Rustin and James Baldwin and I’m wondering, as an African-American gay filmmaker, if a biopic of either of those gentlemen is in the works?
Lee Daniels: I think Rustin is beyond; he’s a tour de force. I was actually going to do a film about him. I talked at length with Denzel to do something with him about it and it just sort of disappeared. It’s genius, what [Rustin] did.
WCT: Is there a chance that that might circle back at some point?
Lee Daniels: I don’t know. I love that story; it’s fantastic, so maybe.