HOW IT WAS WORKING WITH DEE WALLACE STONE
Interview by Marco De Luca with Roger Steinmann, writer/director

MDL: How did it come that Ms. Stone was cast as the lead. I mean, after all, she isn’t the most famous star in the world?
RS: No, but a terrific one. Now, it’s hard to think for me to have found anybody better fitted for this demanding role. In the second and third act, she is in every scene. IN EVERY. This not only means a time-consuming, but foremost an energy-consuming issue. And Dee was very much in touch with Patricia.

MDL: Have you known Ms. Stone’s work before?
RS: Well, who on this planet doesn’t know “E.T.”? After all, just behind “Titanic”, it’s the most grossing film of all time. And there she plays the lead, means the first name within the cast list. But I remember her as well from a ‘summer’-movie, or better, THE summer movie of 1981: “10”, by Blake Edwards. I saw this movie together with some friends as a teenager. We all fell for Bo Derek, the ‘chick’ of the season. And I remember beautiful young Dee in a strong supporting role. – And this makes me, as a filmmaker, link to some great and successful fellow-directors like Blake Edwards and Steven Spielberg. By the way: Another actress of our cast played under Spielbergs direction: Lilyan Chauvin in “Catch Me, If You Can”.

MDL: Apropos ‘Spielberg’: Ms. Stone mentioned something about Spielberg’s direction…
RS: Yes, and this is a flattering one: Dee said, that my direction is much more subtle than the one of great Spielberg! He only gave very rudimentary advice, but has rather concentrated on technique, such as camera issues. For him, the actors were just a necessary tool to fulfil his dream of a story telling. Well, maybe, in the meantime, he has changed his style a bit. Let me ask Lilyan, how he directed her in last years “Catch Me…”.

MDL: How did Ms. Stone approach her role?
RS: With absolute sincerity. She always was well prepared, well in time, very professional. For a Mid-European a dream to work with. She was as upset as I when other people didn’t come up with their professionalism. – But there was one issue: She didn’t like a lot of rehearsals. Just the necessary steps, sure, but everything beyond, she stalled. She wanted to keep her best moments for the very first take. Mostly, she then delivered it just perfect. The only crux was, that her leading men, Tim Bottoms and Mickey Rooney, liked a lot of rehearsing. They became better and better, their performance came into true shape. Whereas Dee got exhausted after numerous of takes, and certainly not any better. Facing this later in the editing room, there is a hell of an issue to be solved.

MDL: Ms. Stone is an acting teacher.
RS: Yes, she has numerous very devoted students. Once, I attended her class, I think, to look at some young actors to play Alan [her son in PARADISE]. There was a great feeling, how all the students were grateful about Dee’s input. She rather acts like a mom, than a teacher.

MDL: How was Ms. Stone’s approach towards the script?
RS: Well, her role IS the script, so to say. She was very much behind it, cared for it as she would have had written it herself. She came up with a lot of changes. But only dialogue changes, where she thought that Patricia wouldn’t express herself like this or that. This, her contribution, was very helpful and I really want to thank her for this.

HOW IT WAS WORKING WITH TIMOTHY BOTTOMS
Interview by Marco De Luca with Roger Steinmann, writer/director

MDL: How did you get to Mr. Bottoms?
RS: Well, I have to admit, rather through a coincidence. I mean, I knew him and his body of work, but he wasn’t considered first – which was a just a waste of time, since he’s a fine actor and he proofed it in playing five roles in our film with tremendous skill. – When we had our first shooting of PARADISE, we had Edward Albert (“Butterflies Are Free”) in the Timmy part. The concept with Edward was, to get him the first time to play with his legendary father Eddie Albert (best know for “Roman Holiday”), who of course was as well playing his father in our film. As we had to abandon that production due to the death of Ray Walston, but got into the second time around almost two years later, the Edward-family made it kinda difficult to work with. Might be, that Eddie was getting too old. Anyhow, the Alberts didn’t show up at meetings. We were on an urgent basis to replace these two actors. We got word that Timothy Bottoms would be interested for the role(s). I called him immediately, and we had a meeting in his lovely home in Santa Barbara the next Sunday. A true professional, he already red through the script and was performing his concept of how to play the parts. It came very close to what I had envisioned, and the he was cast at once.

MDL: Unfortunately, Mr. Bottoms isn’t the big star of the seventies anymore…
RS: Yes, and we all were aware of it, foremost Timmy himself. But look, what he did just in the last month. Following his several President Bush incarnations (“That’s My Bush!” as well as upcoming films), he played the lead in this years Palm D’Or of Cannes, in Gus Van Sant’s “Elephant”. The Golden Palm comes just next to an Oscar! And this film is with our Timmy, I think even in the lead. I guess, God is watching him, and returns him the big success of the seventies. Don’t forget, that he was one of the biggest young stars during this period. I’d say, he just had bad luck, but never lost his incredible talent.

MDL: Mr. Bottoms believed in the screenplay of PARADISE?
RS: Very much so. He always mentioned that if one film will mark his ‘comeback’, than it will be PARADISE. And - who on Earth is able to showcase his talents in playing five parts?

MDL: How did Mr. Bottoms prepare for these five different roles?
RS: Well, with a professional such as Timmy there isn’t much to see how he does his preparation, as he does it before he comes to the set, when learning his lines. Timmy is a quiet person between takes – just the opposite as, for instance, Mickey Rooney. Timmy likes concentration. Sometimes he seeks distractions from it and then he becomes the entertainer again. – I recall a shooting day, starting as scheduled, with Timmy as Henry as a young father. Then, we needed, not scheduled, one shoot of the older Henry, when he has a beard. Then, in the afternoon, we were shooting the scene in the park, where he is the father of little Patricia, eventually dying of a heart attack. And in the evening, Timmy was Douglas, as we had to complete the scene where he finds Patricia in the old shack. So Timmy jumped from one role into the next, from one costume and make up into the next, without any hesitation. I guess, he even liked this challenge a lot. Timmy is the perfect actor when it comes to a demanding part!

MDL: But, the first minute of meeting the real Mr. Bottoms…
RS: …I didn’t believe in him that much, yes. He was VERY quiet, was unshaven, He just did gardening work when I pulled up my car, and was accordingly not the means of a movie star. But, as soon you push the bottom of Mr. Bottoms, he is on, and can give you whatever you need. And he’s an directors actor, will trust you fully, and on the other hand is kinda lost without strong guidance. He, as I recall my idol Billy Wilder saying, is like a Jack Lemmon: You have to pull him back since he always wants to give you too much. But in an ideal collaboration, such as we had, Timmy is giving the performances one wants to watch.

HOW IT WAS WORKING WITH BARBARA CARRERA
Interview by Marco De Luca with Roger Steinmann, writer/director

MDL: How did you get to Ms. Carrera?
RS: For the role of the diabolic Katherine Hiller, we were looking at several actresses with a sexy Spiderwoman-appeal in order to get a strong counterpoint [early on in Act I] to the sweet innocence of Patricia Paradise. Without a doubt, Barbara Carrera owns these exotic attributes. We were lucky that she accepted this rather small role. Because at our very first meeting, it turned out that she had a strong passion for the role of Patricia. She fell in love with the script, and felt strong about being the one and only Patricia for this film. She gave her conception of how she would play it and made a big plea to alter our casting idea. Indeed, it would have been an interesting switch to see a dark haired angel opposite to a blond devil maybe in the person of Dee Wallace Stone. We didn’t go with Barbara’s conception, and I’ve to admit, we’ve rather typecast these two roles. But eventually, Barbara fulfilled her small part very well.

MDL: This certainly is visible in the ‘catfight’ scene, the last confrontation between Patricia and Katherine.
RS: Sure, and Barbara, as well as Dee [as Patricia], gave her best. Barbara knew that this is her key scene, where she really is able to show what she is up to. [In this scene, Katherine is drugged. She slips that she’s got an affair with Patricia’s husband. The scandal is, that Francis is as well her half-brother.]

MDL: Ms. Carrera is a former top-model. Was she delicate to work with?
RS: No, the contrary was the case! Despite her unique beauty, she is the one to ‘steal horses with’, as there is a say in German. She is a real pal. I remember a scene [which is cut from the final version] which we shoot at 2 AM. Everybody was tired after 14 hours of work. The scene demanded that Barbara’s character is being shot by the Mafia and she subsequently falls to the floor. She wears a splendid evening dress. Despite all the former, she fell down to the hard floor. And we needed to repeat this scene numerous times, as everybody was tired and there were some mistakes. Barbara did this painful scene without a glimpse. She is a real pro!

MDL: You got a confirmation about Ms. Carrera power by a “Star Wars”-director…
RS: Oh, yes, Irvin Kershner. Apart of “The Empire Strikes Back” he did the James Bond film “Never Say Never Again”, directing Barbara. Through her I befriended him. He just had the same good experience with her, and her part as ‘Fatima Blush’ is the one she always is best remembered for. And there, she had to perform some quite physical obstacles, as it’s an action film. – Irvin is quite an outstanding person, very cultivated. No wonder, are Barbara and he best pals. And Irvin looked over the script and gave me quite good notes, as Billy Wilder did. Both of them I thank at PARADISE’ end crawl.

MDL: Ms. Carrera is the Ambassador of Nicaragua. How is she as a person?
RS: One tends to think that she is superficial. Well, she isn’t like that at all, folks! Barbara is very philosophical, and takes her post as Ambassador very serious. She is well educated, speaks several languages [she was even living in Germany], and has lately become a rewarded painter. She showed me some astonishing paintings of stars she knew personally and she worked with: Bette Davis, Burt Lancaster, William Holden, and others.

HOW IT WAS WORKING WITH MICKEY ROONEY
Interview by Marco De Luca with Roger Steinmann, writer/director

MDL: How was it working with Hollywood-legend Mickey Rooney?
RS: Easier than I thought at first. Mickey (or ‘Mick’, as he allowed to call him), is a director’s actor. After all what I heard about him, driving directors crazy with being moody and ad-libing all the time, I couldn’t experience a lot of these difficulties. With PARADISE, he was in a perfect mood. And what I especially appreciate with him: Mick was offering different options of how to play a scene. This makes him a complete treasure.

MDL: But Mr. Rooney is well known for ad-libing.
RS: OK, he tried. But then one is able to proof to be a director and charm and whisper and convince, what ever it needs, that the scene and film will be what it needs to be. And after all, it was me who wrote the script.

MDL: Mr. Rooney plays a dual-role. Did he like the story and script?
RS: Apparently, otherwise he wouldn’t obviously have accepted the role(s). You might remember: We had some difficulties to cast this one part. These older actors have a crux: some are too old and therefore retired, others doesn’t need our quite small money, then again others aren’t easy to locate, being maybe even without an agent, and the remaining intact rest is kinda busy. – So with Mr. Rooney, we were extremely happy to get him. After all, he was to play a dual role, sometimes from scene to scene alternating his character. As well physically, he had to change make-up and costumes. But Mick is very fit, very energetic. Everybody knowing him, will confirm this very unusual power within this short body.

MDL: In one scene, Mr. Rooney sings and plays the guitar. How did it come to this? Was it a previously composed song?
RS: No, not at all. Knowing that Mick is a full blood entertainer, I simply asked him over the phone at our very first conversation, if he could think of anything for this romantic family-scene. At once, Mick was singing into the phone an immediately created song. Created at once! I only had to direct him into a little bit less sounding western tunes, and after a few minutes, we had our song “Family”, the one which is in the film now. That’s why Mick deserves all the credit for it.

MDL: At the first shooting day, Mr. Rooney shocked you to death…
RS: Yes, he did, by exclaiming that he haven’t learned his lines. He said that he’s just glanced over the script. Insisting that he better get into his trailer and to get to learn them, he laughed “Son, I did 300 films [including tv-films] in my life. Don’t you worry!”. I tried to remain calm. We were going ahead to the first scene [when Simon meets Patricia as a little girl], and Mick knew EVERYTHING! He even altered the dialogue to the better. I asked him. “Son, just before the scene is about to be shot , I’m going very concentrated over the lines, and then I know them.” Well, that’s called extreme powerful short-memory, because after some hours, he wouldn’t be able to remember these lines again. ”And Son, you’ve written the most complicated script I’ve ever seen in my life!” He laughed again. Well, what he meant was, that I’m including always all kind of details for camera, costumes, set-dressing, etc. They were in italic, so I’m asking the actors to disregard them. Well, Mick was paying attention to everything, professional as he is.

MDL: How was Mr. Rooney between the takes?
RS: Very much as described in Arthur Marx’ Rooney-biography. Mick is a big mouth. When he’s in the mood, he talks to everybody, being it the producer or a set dressing assistant. Well, that’s rare as most actors and surely stars not only show their power in being selective, but as well tend to be introvert when they are off work. Not so Mick: As described in the biography, especially by his numerous wives, he always is “on-stage”. He loves the public. And he loves to tell tales when one is eagerly listening. I recall telling him, that my two beloved Rooney- movies (well, of the ones I’ve seen) are “Breakfast At Tiffanys” and “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World”. He exclaimed immediately “Both of them are bullshit!” Irritated, I asked him why. Of the first: “This Chinese character I had to play is totally off. I did a favour to my friend Blake Edwards. They didn’t find anybody else or anybody famous being such exotic.” And about the latter film: “Within the premise lays a big error. The USD 350,000.00 is by far too low an amount to make a these guys chasing and killing each other. It should have been ten or hundred times of it to make it work!” [“Mad World” tells how a group of ordinary individuals get into a greedy craziness when they get to know a dying gangster’s hiding place of his loot.]
And having asked him about how it was working with Marilyn Monroe, he confirmed that she had her first walk-on [appearance] in one of his movies, and even more, that he has created her stage-name from Norma Jean Baker to the immortal ‘MM’. Wow, Mick!