Quentin Tarantino
LOS ANGELES—Here’s part two of our list of interviewees who engaged us, and kept us from staring at the ceiling or looking at our watch:
“Cinemanila!,” Quentin Tarantino exclaimed in our recent encounter. “That was fun!” He was, of course, referring to the film festival in the Philippines that honored him in 2007.
What’s his bedroom and house like? “My house is full of accoutrements. But, the bedroom is kept clear of a lot of that. It’s the most uncluttered place. Off this room is my record room.
“It looks like a used record store, where records are filed in bins, into categories. That’s where I play my music and when I’m thinking about the movie I’m working on, working things out in my head.”
Anthony Hopkins
“I’ve had a wonderful life,” said the man who played US presidents Richard Nixon and John Quincy Adams, Pablo Picasso, Adolf Hitler and Alfred Hitchcock. “I’m happy to be alive. I would hate to be almost 76 and still working. I was asked, ‘Why do you take these parts?’ I said, ‘ Well, it beats working.’ When I meet young actors, and they say, ‘ What is your advice?’ I say, ‘Keep working.’”
He recalled his student days: “I was pathetic. I sat in the back of the classroom my whole school life. I didn’t know what they were talking about. But, it was a great gift because, in the end, I was so angry and enraged.
“I think in a way Imade a certain choice. I thought, I will get my revenge. I will become rich and famous.” With a soft chuckle, he added, “Of course, they’re all dead now and I’m still here. So, there’s nobody around to revenge on.”
Sofia Coppola
Imagine, director Sofia Coppola still remembers how to sing the “Lupang Hinirang” (the Philippine national anthem). We were floored when Sofia, speaking in her usual quiet manner, replied to our question on what she remembers about the Philippines when she and her family were there for the “Apocalypse Now” shoot: “I know the national anthem. I could sing it, but I won’t.”
“I have nice memories of the Philippines and its people. My nanny, who raised me, was Filipino. It was such a warm culture, and a beautiful place. I’d love to go back.”