THE INTERVIEW

THE INTERVIEW

PFS: Tell us about your relationship with Roger Ebert.

Russ Meyer: I recall working with Roger Ebert on BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. He’d flown in from

 the Sundance Film Festival to the Tornado Hotel where they filmed SOME LIKE IT HOT. He didn’t bring a typewriter so we had to use the only spare one in the hotel. It was a children’s’ one that typed giant letters. Later, we had to transfer the type to a normal size. Roger’s contribution to the film was enormous. I couldn’t have done it without him. The experience was fun for us. Here we were, a couple of people Hollywood didn’t know about, turned loose in a marvelous environment. The film wouldn’t have added up to a hill of beans without him.

We came in and as far as they knew, we were from the cornfields of Illinois. And we were working at Twentieth Century Fox. The film made money, and it still makes money. They can’t kill it with a stick. The actors still get residual checks. They call me and say “Hey – I got a residual check!”

It works in all the right places. We spent a few weeks in England with Charles “7 more teeth than Burt Lancaster” Napier, Darth Vader—a lot of great fun. We had huge breakfasts. There is an audience for what Roger does and people respect his point of view. I respect him for that. More than anything else, he’s an honest

man — straightforward.

If I didn’t know Roger, I don’t think I’d be as known today. Hopefully, Roger is working on something that will derail Siskel. (Laughter) He once said some things about Ebert to Edy Williams and myself and I threatened to throw him out a

window! I also don’t like that he jumps on Roger’s lines on the TV show – he does it, I’ve seen him do it, without a doubt.

PFS: What’s a typical day in the life of Russ Meyer?

RM: I’ve been out today with the publicist promoting FASTER PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! It’s tough because we don’t have the advertising budget of a new Hollywood film. My personal feeling is that I must get out and deal with the press and try to get them to understand how I’ve done my films. It’s a challenge. Mr. Wolf’s publicity organization did a great deal to help put me in the position of talking to lots of people about this film. We’ll see what happens.

PFS: What happened with you, Roger Ebert and the Sex Pistols movie?

RM: Well…. (pause)

PFS: Or should I ask what happened between you and Malcolm McLaren?

RM: He just abandoned it! Roger did a great script. It’s all so unfortunate. That experience drove me to not make more films for quite a time. It’s depressing to have a project collapse like that. I traveled to New Zealand and Switzerland just to get away from it. McLaren, that is. It’s damaging to have a project just drop like that.

PFS: When will the book be available?

RM: Soon – it’s ready. It’s called A Clean Breast. Roger came up with the title. This is a fuck and tell book – it’s not a history or anything – a strong book. I’m choosing from over 2,500 photographs. Most of them are very personal, I must say. Without a doubt—no question about it. There is nothing soft about the book. I hope to have it out by the end of the year. Fifteen hundred pages that will leave nothing to the imagination. It’s spoken in a frank way 

and I think the ladies

will live with it. They’ve dealt with me, satisfied me and taken good care of me.

I’ve got a treatment for a film Roger wrote many years ago called THE BRA OF GOD. That’s the next movie I’d like to do. It’s a take-off on the Supervixens series. A woman plays God. I’m back to what I do best — big bosoms!

PFS: What was it like to work with Tura Satana?

RM: Tura is of Japanese and Cherokee Indian extraction. She had a substantial bosom and wasp waist-she had the capability of dealing with the martial arts segments. She was recommended to me by Haji. She made it clear during the shooting that she didn’t like my discouragement of 

connubial bliss on my time. I didn’t want something to occur that might make one of the participants quit and end up on the bus—leaving me up the river. She told me she couldn’t work under those circumstances; that for that length of time she couldn’t work without men.

She knew I didn’t like that, she said that she couldn’t function without sex. I said OK — you not me. I asked her if there was anyone in the crew that she wanted. She looked over to the assistant cameraman and I walked over and asked if her

would like to go to bed with her. My only request was that she only do it once a night. I wanted her to be fresh. She said OK.

Years later, I asked him if it was once a night, and he smiled and said, “No, it was every hour.” Tura was very much in charge during PUSSYCAT! Women have found the movieto be fun and attractive. (Most of my films are directed to the

one-armed viewer). She is a very strong woman, and because of that, the film has found a lot of female fans. I think women today feel a lot better of her taking charge and maintaining control of the situation. Women have come up to me in England and New York and have said “It’s about time someone did this.” Well, it was made over twenty years ago!

PFS: Your next film was MONDO TOPLESS. You were broke, and the film didn’t have sync sound.

RM: It’s a shame to bring up money, but it represents how many asses you have on the seats. It’s doing well as a re-release.

PFS: There are rumors that you had to pull teeth for royalties from BEYOND.

RM: Not true. It’s worked out very well. I’ve been signed up by them to distribute it. I have control of the film. But I thank Twentieth Century’s accounting, even though I had not enough time in the bedroom