Notorious Hollywood producer Robert Evans, whose credits include such classics as "The Godfather", "Chinatown", and "The Conformist", is now himself the subject of a movie.
Based upon his enthralling autobiography, documentary "The Kid Stays in the Picture" charts Evans' meteoric rise, fall, and eventual resurrection through imaginative use of archive footage, film clips, and visual effects.
Did you ever expect to see your 1994 autobiography made into a feature film?
I never wanted to make "The Kid Stays in the Picture" into a movie. I was wrong and they were right. Darryl Zanuck told me when I was an actor and I wanted to be a producer, "If you want to be a producer, you've got to make an audience cry and laugh." I've seen this picture with a 100 audiences and people are either laughing or crying - or both. I didn't make the film, but it is an original. I'll tell you this though, it was a lot easier watching it than living it.
Did you miss not having some scenes from the book in the film? Your showdown with Steve McQueen should have been in it...
How do you show it? That's the problem. We had to buy the footage of Steve and Ali in "The Getaway". It cost a lot of money. There were 256 releases to make this picture.
Did you tell writer/directors Brett Morgen and Nanette Burstein if there was anything you didn't want to see on screen?
I didn't want to see George Hamilton playing me, I wanted the real thing. There are three sides to every story: yours...mine...and the truth. This is my version.... and by the way it's all f***ing true!
Have you been surprised by the reception the film has received?
This film was shown at Sundance. I'd never been to Sundance before. I'm not a Sundance guy either. I've never had applause lasting over two minutes in my life but we had a 17-minute standing ovation. No exaggeration. It was a shock. I thought I was hallucinating, but that's the reaction we got for it. One of the proudest moments of my life.
