Woody Allen: A Rare (and Random) Q&A
Say what you will about his much-storied personal life, we here at TV Guide Online are huge fans of
Woody Allen. In fact, we'd do
anything for five minutes on the phone with the notoriously press-shy filmmaker. That said, a P.R. flack for the Prostate Cancer Coalition called us offering a brief interview with Allen, who was among some stars asked to personally decorate a Grolsch beer bottle for an eBay
charity auction. Random, we know. But it's for a good cause — and it's an excuse to talk to Woody! The only caveat: We were forbidden to ask the secretive
Annie Hall director about his current projects and told to focus our questions on his freakin' bottle. Drat! Sounds
Bananas, right? Eh, just go with us on this. It'll be fun!
TV Guide Online: Hello, Mr. Allen. What interested you in painting a beer bottle for the Prostate Cancer Coalition?
Woody Allen: [
Chuckles] Oh, you know, I get asked to do a certain amount of this kind of thing during the course of the year. Oddly enough, people will send me canvases or vases and ask me if I would draw or decorate something and send it back. If I can accommodate I always do, because it's for a worthy cause.
TVGO: Why this cause? Do you know someone with prostate cancer?
Allen: No. Thank God. I would've done it for any number of causes.
TVGO: I see. So tell me what you did to the bottle.
Allen: I just drew a picture of my black-rimmed glasses on it.
TVGO: Ah, that's your signature, isn't it?
Allen: Well, I mean, they wanted something that would identify it with me. So I gave it a crude... you know, I'm not really much of an artist... but I did my best. I can handle a pair of glasses.
TVGO: The other celebs aren't exactly known as visual artists, either. Donald Trump, Bernie Mac, Lil' Kim.... Are they good company to be in?
Allen: Right now, as you're telling me who they are... I didn't know who they were until you're mentioning their names now. Yeah, sure, they're very good company.
TVGO: Your fellow New Yorker, The Donald, stars in The Apprentice. Are you a fan of that show?
Allen: I don't get a chance to watch too much television because I go out for dinner every night and then come home and turn on the remains of any sporting event that's on. Baseball, currently, or basketball, as soon as the season starts. Then I go to sleep very early. I'm asleep in bed before 11 every night, so I never get a chance to see anything. I read accounts of [TV shows] in the newspaper but I don't get a chance to view anything.
TVGO: Just a thought: Ever get the urge to save Jennifer Tilly from those Chucky movies? She was so good in Bullets Over Broadway.
Allen: Jennifer was a great find for me. The minute she came into the room when we were having our auditions, she was just sensational. I hired her immediately. When you look back at that movie, there was a significant amount to her character that she herself contributed just instinctively in the performances.
TVGO: So you'd use Tilly again?
Allen: Oh, in a shot. She's great.
TVGO: Cool. Speaking of actresses in need, you originally cast my pal Kelli Maroney in The Purple Rose of Cairo. Due to a conflict, she ended up committed to a bad zombie movie instead. She's always regretted this. Would you call her up again someday?
Allen: [Snorts, laughing] That, I don't know. You know, this is what happens. People get committed to other films and we're like two ships in the night and you never see each other again. I don't know.
TVGO: OK, well, I won't put you on the spot.
Allen: Uh, I have to go back to rehearsal...
TVGO: Oh? What are you rehearsing?
Allen: [Pause, while he apparently considers whether to tell me] A play at the Atlantic Theater.
TVGO: What's it called?
Allen: It's titled The Secondhand Memory. OK, good luck! [Click]
