Rob Marshall

After Chicago I wanted to stop for a moment and think about what would be next. I didn’t jump right into something. I felt that it was a great opportunity to be in a position where you can make a choice as opposed to something that’s chosen for you. So I chose Geisha because I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to try something that would scare me but that would be ultimately rewarding. It’s funny how it came about. I got the call from our producers Lucy Fisher, Doug Wick and Steven Spielberg while I was in the throes of the awards season of Chicago. They were asking me about Memoirs but I couldn’t focus so they kept sending me bottles of sake, antique prints of Geisha and beautiful books. It was really hard to turn away from it because I thought, “Wow, this is fantastic.” So it was a combination of the world of Geisha and also the story. The central story was very moving to me, about the child who is sold into slavery and must surrender to a life that’s very difficult and learns to ultimately find love in a world where love is forbidden to her.

I remember I was in Japan and we were in a Geisha theater and they were showing me how a lift worked. I remember immediately Catherine Zeta-Jones coming out of the floor in Chicago and I thought, “I’ve traveled halfway across the world to do something completely different and it just dawned on me that I’m doing a movie about rival women in show business again” [laughs]. But it was obviously in a very different way. It was a coincidence, although I have to say that something about the fact that Geisha are artists first. The word Geisha means artist and dance is the highest art that they perform so that is something that I connect to.

To me it’s a combination of beauty and cruelty which it what makes it so fascinating. They really are moving works of art. They have to train unbelievably hard and they work incredible hours. When I was in Kyoto where there are so few real Geisha and it is now a very different kind of profession. You’re not sold into it. You make a choice to do it as a teenager in high school the way American students would choose to go to the School of American Ballet or become a model. But back then children were sold into these Geisha houses as maids and as slaves, but there was a reward for that ultimately at the end of it if they were able to maintain the work because they could become Geisha. But to me the movie is about how you deal with this very difficult profession. In the movie there are four different Geishas. Through all of her turmoil Sayuri is the survivor. But Hatsumomo is the tragic villain who self-destructs because she can’t deal with the restrictions of being a Geisha. Mameha the teacher is the perfect Geisha. Then Pumpkin is a failed Geisha who becomes a prostitute.

It is just fascinating. You have to remember that this is a women-run business, even in the 20’s and 30’s. So there’s a sense this is a female business. Sayuri has a modern sensibility because she went against the culture and didn’t accept that she could not love.

I have a very simple philosophy when it comes to casting and it really is casting the best person for the role. Sayuri was such a demanding role because not only did she have to be a great actor that could carry a film, but she also had to speak English. She had to be a brilliant dancer in order to learn how to become a Geisha in six weeks. It takes a lifetime to become a Geisha. She had to age from 15 to 35 and have that great spirit. For me an actor like Ziyi Zhang comes along once in a generation. She’s 26 years old and is extraordinary on every level so there was no question about her. She was Sayuri the way Ken Watanabe was the Chairman. I met Ken the day after the premiere of The Last Samurai in New York. I thought he’d be a Samurai but here was this gentle, lovely man with a great humor and kindness. He was the Chairman.

The reason is because I wanted to enter into this world in somewhat an authentic way. One of the things we did throughout the movie was shoot the movie through bamboo, through silks, things like that, to give a sense that we’re peering into a unique hidden world. I wanted to start the movie in Japanese so you’d have a sense of disorientation and feel that you’re in a place that’s foreign and odd to you. Then once the voiceover begins you understand that it’s being narrated and being told as a memoir.

I’m happy. I grew up watching and loving movie musicals. They’ve inspired me throughout my life and so I’m so thrilled that Rent and The Producers are opening this season.

Chicago presents this wonderful thing in your life that you can maybe take a chance or open up or try something different with the success. It’s this lovely thing that happens because it rarely does in life. Mostly what happens in your life is you’re perceived as one thing and that’s what you do and that’s it. For me telling a story is telling a story, telling it through dance, telling it through singing is the same thing as telling it through a dramatic piece. You have to make it feel connected to your emotions in some way; whether it’s funny, whether it’s sad, whether it’s beautiful, whether it’s cruel.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck