Shine director Scott Hicks: I had to fight to make the film with Geoffrey Rush
Writer/director Scott Hicks revealed his struggle to make the multi-award winning 1996 film Shine during a session at the Adelaide Film Festival, saying the greatest challenge was gaining support for his lead actor, Geoffrey Rush.
“Geoffrey was both the biggest problem, and then ultimately joy, that I’ve had in all of my time because nobody wanted to make the film with Geoffrey Rush.
“It was said to me point blank, over and over and over again,” Hicks told the audience as he received the festival’s Don Dunstan award.
“I had the most disrespectful things said to me. ‘What sort of a failure is this guy? He’s 43 years old and he’s never made a movie. Forget about him. Here’s three names. You’ve got your money tomorrow. Pick one of them.’ I said, ‘No I have a deal with…’ They said, ‘Oh, you have a contract with…’ I said, ‘No, I have a handshake and Geoffrey. I cast him 18 months ago. He is playing this part and that’s that.’ They said ‘Okay. See you later.’”
Hicks, who cut his teeth on large scale documentaries, had been working on the film for several years at that point. It would be another two to three years before he was able to get support for the project when Ernst Goldschmidt from French foreign sales company Pandora Cinema made the first financial contribution to the film.
Hicks said: “He had seen Geoffrey on stage in Sydney in Hamlet – not playing Hamlet. So he knew, he knew what I was talking about.” Rush went on to win an Oscar for his performance in the film.
Hicks says: “One of the great reviews for Shine, the opening line was ‘From the moment the unlovely oblate of Geoffrey Rush appears on the screen, you know we’re in for something special’.”
Hicks explained that over the course of his career he has learned the importance of casting. “I have been as dogmatic as I can about who is in my film regardless of who is financing it,” he said and while Pandora was supportive of his decision to cash Rush, the role of Peter Helfgott was one of contention.
“I had battles over the casting of Armin Mueller-Stahl. I had originally cast Bob Hoskins as the father. I had a huge fight with Pandora. They said ‘You have to have Kurt Douglas, Jack Lemmon.’ I said, ‘I’m a huge admirer of Jack Lemmon but he’s not Peter Helfgott. In the end I said to them, ‘I’m willing to make my own mistakes but I refuse to make yours. I will not make this film if you make me cast these people.’”
To date, Shine has grossed US$89m worldwide.
Brooke Hemphill
Scott Hicks had made two unsuccessful feature dramas before Shine. He had also made a great feature length documentary. So it was quite natural for a distributor or sales company to heavily question his choice of cast and try to minimise their risk. So many of these stories are cast as battle between genius director and grubby commercial distributors. But the great thing was that Shine was made and the reality was that the bulk of the budget came from what is now Screen Australia. It was the Australian taxpayer which took the biggest risk and it paid off. Scott Hicks should be eternally grateful as should Baz Luhrmann and a number of other Aussies but you rarely hear this acknowledgment from them. Ego seems to get in the way.
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Shine would’ve taken $200 mill by now if Hicks took my advice and called Marcus Graham.
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#harry. Everyone takes risks. Hicks risked his reputation and held fast to creative convictions that were not arrived at through ego but through artistic conviction, even if they are lashed to the mast with a little ego. Your assessment sounds slightly twisted by bitter cynicism with a sprinkle of misunderstanding.
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This isn’t the first story about great films struggling to get up – I for one would like to know the names of the people who shot him down. There should be consequences for people who create hurdles to good work just as there are rewards when they get it right. Screen Australia is a great institution but it shouldn’t automatically get a pass mark. To be good it should be challenged just as much as the creatives.
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