Rob Marshall could have done any movie with any big movie star after directing the blockbuster Academy Award winning movie musical Chicago. Instead he went the other direction and directed the adaptation of the best selling novel Memoirs of a Geisha which was in limbo after Steven Spielberg decided to pass on directing.
Memoirs of a Geisha begins in the years before WWII when a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house. Despite a treacherous rival who nearly breaks her spirit, the girl blossoms into the legendary geisha Sayuri [Ziyi Zhang]. Beautiful and accomplished, Sayuri captivates the most powerful men of her day, but is haunted by her secret love for the one man who is out of her reach [Ken Watanabe].
Check out the official site for Memoirs of a Geisha
Daniel Robert Epstein: The book this movie is based on is so popular, were you nervous about adapting it?
Rob Marshall: It was exciting and scary. There I was working with an international group of actors, five of who are making their English language debut. I found that something exists between director and actor sometimes that transcends language. Im very lucky that we had six weeks of rehearsal because we worked out how this would work. I would be speaking English and it would be translated into Japanese and Chinese in front of me. Many times the actors couldnt speak to each other except the English in the scene. It was extraordinary. But we had the luxury of that rehearsal so by the time we got to shooting it felt very natural. These are the greatest actors really in the world. I have Kji Yakusho the Al Pacino of Japan and Gong Li the Meryl Streep of China. So I felt like I was in very safe hands with them.
DRE: After Chicago was such a hit did you feel any pressure for your next project?
RM: After Chicago I wanted to stop for a moment and think about what would be next. I didnt 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 thats 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. Its 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 couldnt 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 thats very difficult and learns to ultimately find love in a world where love is forbidden to her.
DRE: Both Chicago and Geisha involve rivalries between strong women. Why do you keep coming back to that theme?
RM: 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, Ive traveled halfway across the world to do something completely different and it just dawned on me that Im 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.
DRE: Do you see Geisha as a form of slavery?
RM: To me its 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. Youre 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 cant 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.
DRE: How can modern women relate to this?
RM: It is just fascinating. You have to remember that this is a women-run business, even in the 20s and 30s. So theres a sense this is a female business. Sayuri has a modern sensibility because she went against the culture and didnt accept that she could not love.
DRE: Why did you cast some Chinese actresses to play Japanese characters?
RM: 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. Shes 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 hed be a Samurai but here was this gentle, lovely man with a great humor and kindness. He was the Chairman.
DRE: Why start the movie with the characters speaking Japanese and then segue into English?
RM: 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 were peering into a unique hidden world. I wanted to start the movie in Japanese so youd have a sense of disorientation and feel that youre in a place thats foreign and odd to you. Then once the voiceover begins you understand that its being narrated and being told as a memoir.
DRE: How do you feel about reinventing the movie musical with Chicago?
RM: Im happy. I grew up watching and loving movie musicals. Theyve inspired me throughout my life and so Im so thrilled that Rent and The Producers are opening this season.
DRE: Can you talk about the transition from directing musicals to doing drama?
RM: 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. Its this lovely thing that happens because it rarely does in life. Mostly what happens in your life is youre perceived as one thing and thats what you do and thats 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 its funny, whether its sad, whether its beautiful, whether its cruel.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Memoirs of a Geisha begins in the years before WWII when a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house. Despite a treacherous rival who nearly breaks her spirit, the girl blossoms into the legendary geisha Sayuri [Ziyi Zhang]. Beautiful and accomplished, Sayuri captivates the most powerful men of her day, but is haunted by her secret love for the one man who is out of her reach [Ken Watanabe].
Check out the official site for Memoirs of a Geisha
Daniel Robert Epstein: The book this movie is based on is so popular, were you nervous about adapting it?
Rob Marshall: It was exciting and scary. There I was working with an international group of actors, five of who are making their English language debut. I found that something exists between director and actor sometimes that transcends language. Im very lucky that we had six weeks of rehearsal because we worked out how this would work. I would be speaking English and it would be translated into Japanese and Chinese in front of me. Many times the actors couldnt speak to each other except the English in the scene. It was extraordinary. But we had the luxury of that rehearsal so by the time we got to shooting it felt very natural. These are the greatest actors really in the world. I have Kji Yakusho the Al Pacino of Japan and Gong Li the Meryl Streep of China. So I felt like I was in very safe hands with them.
DRE: After Chicago was such a hit did you feel any pressure for your next project?
RM: After Chicago I wanted to stop for a moment and think about what would be next. I didnt 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 thats 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. Its 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 couldnt 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 thats very difficult and learns to ultimately find love in a world where love is forbidden to her.
DRE: Both Chicago and Geisha involve rivalries between strong women. Why do you keep coming back to that theme?
RM: 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, Ive traveled halfway across the world to do something completely different and it just dawned on me that Im 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.
DRE: Do you see Geisha as a form of slavery?
RM: To me its 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. Youre 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 cant 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.
DRE: How can modern women relate to this?
RM: It is just fascinating. You have to remember that this is a women-run business, even in the 20s and 30s. So theres a sense this is a female business. Sayuri has a modern sensibility because she went against the culture and didnt accept that she could not love.
DRE: Why did you cast some Chinese actresses to play Japanese characters?
RM: 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. Shes 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 hed be a Samurai but here was this gentle, lovely man with a great humor and kindness. He was the Chairman.
DRE: Why start the movie with the characters speaking Japanese and then segue into English?
RM: 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 were peering into a unique hidden world. I wanted to start the movie in Japanese so youd have a sense of disorientation and feel that youre in a place thats foreign and odd to you. Then once the voiceover begins you understand that its being narrated and being told as a memoir.
DRE: How do you feel about reinventing the movie musical with Chicago?
RM: Im happy. I grew up watching and loving movie musicals. Theyve inspired me throughout my life and so Im so thrilled that Rent and The Producers are opening this season.
DRE: Can you talk about the transition from directing musicals to doing drama?
RM: 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. Its this lovely thing that happens because it rarely does in life. Mostly what happens in your life is youre perceived as one thing and thats what you do and thats 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 its funny, whether its sad, whether its beautiful, whether its cruel.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
ainur:
One of may favorite books. Looking forward to this.
yushi:
There was a good write up in yesterdays Guardian newspaper about Geisha's in regards to this film and to them (real Geisha's) at least the film and the book it's based on are a load of bollocks. Check out the feature - clicky here