This article is taken from Total Film Issue 28 May 1999 At Cannes '98 The Faculty was presented mouthwateringly, as Kevin Williamson/Robert Rodriguez Project. Williamson as we know is the walking word of the teen/horror Renaissance: He's got a formula and he's going to use it. Rodriguez reputation is more rubbery. As a teenager he adopted his Dad's VCR/camera set-up (he used to sell cookware) and dived straight into making his own short films. MR Rodriguez bought another one think that it was lost, but little Rodriguez soon swiped that one too, bolting the two together to make an editing suite. To beat the five-minute pause mechanism on the VCR he had to teach himself to work with the zippy dexterity of a cut and mix DJ. At 24, he checked himself into a Texas hospital and submitted to a month's of testing a cholesterol-lowering drug. I n the final three-weeks of stay he scribbled out a screenplay and, on getting out, used his 'salary' of 7,000 dollars to act as a casting director, cinematographer, cameraman, editor, director and sound editor on his first feature El Mariachi. After hawking it around at festivals the film was bought by Columbia and released in it's original format, making it the lowest-budget major studio film ever made. His Banderas-propelled segment The Misbehaviors, provided the only flash of watchability in the other wise dismal Four Rooms, and was the first to kneel before Salma Hayek (Desperado) and to champion the cause of MR George Clooney - Movie Star (From Dusk till Dawn). INTERVIEWER: The Faculty is kind of a cross between The Thing and The Breakfast Club. ROBERT RODRIGUEZ: It's a B-movie with a capital B. I have a good relationship Dimension/Miramax and they wanted to do something in the same area as Scream and Scream 2 - only with a sci-fi element - before someone else did it. They sent me the original Scream script and I couldn't do it because I was expecting to do Zorro right after From Dusk till Dawn. They were like "maybe you could just squeeze it in…" I told them I couldn't possibly shoot it in a month and, in the end Wes Craven did a great job. But I was a fan of Kevin's and when I heard of The Faculty, I told I probably wouldn't be able to do it. But when I read the script it reminded me so much of my old high school days - barbaric, dark. The character Casey's very much like me, a camera guy, not knowing whether to follow everyone else or be his own person. It's my whole high-school career in a movie that in essence is a Sci-Fi/Body Snatcher Flick. INTERVIEWER: Working with all those thrusting young things, where there a lot of ego's to juggle? RODRIGUEZ: No, no. They where all very eager to work and they all love acting. I was very excited to do it because I did a movie right after El Mariachi called Road Racers, set in the 50's; a Rebel Without A Cause-type movie. It was David Arquette's first starring role, Salma Hayek first movie, and it was a whole parallel for that coming-of-age-thing. But I shoot Road Racers in 13 days, and I was able to do that because I was working with such a young cast and they simply didn't know that you couldn't shoot a movie in 13 days. So they were all so eager to work all hours. It's the same with The Faculty: all the kids are so keen to prove themselves and they're ready for anything it really charges you up. INTERVIEWER: Salma Hayek has a rather brief part in the movie. First, she has a cold and is unsexy, and then she is an alien and is very sexy - in a lab coat. RODRIGUEZ: At first I told her: "you can't be in this movie. You're too young to be a teacher and you are too old to be student." But 2 weeks before shooting I called her up and said: "I don't have a nurse, yet. It's not a Latin part. It's totally straight, you play a nurse, a sick nurse." INTERVIEWER: Did you feel compromised about the Tommy Hilfiger connection? RODRIGUEZ: Well, I've sold my body to science to make a movie, so selling someone's jeans was nothing. As a producer, you have to go out and buy these clothes anyway. So, if someone's giving you them to you - plus a few million to advertising in a market that you know is going to be flooded with a bunch teen flicks - then it makes sense that your kids stand out. And anyway, I think it's cool to have a film about conformity, and they're all wearing the same label. I: Were your parents supportive of your filmmaking or were they always telling you to go get a proper job? R: They were very supportive, because I was always hard to find interests for. I came from a very big family, all my brothers and sisters were all good in school and sports, and I hated that stuff. So, if I showed an interest in something, they'd pounce on it. If I started drawing they'd get me art class; if I started messing around with a musical instrument they'd get me lessons. I: Quentin Tarantino is not known for his acting ability, yet you got a great performance from him in From Dusk till Dawn? R: Well, I would like to say I inspired him, but it was more him. He was determined to make it something he could sink his teeth into. He really threw himself into it, sometimes more than I wanted him to. He was scaring me - genuinely. I had to tell him not to bring real guns on set. I: It's a film of two halves, but you make it work in the way you divide the two with that incredible Salma Hayek scene - from sex to extreme violence. R: When I read the script I thought someone had photocopied the wrong second half. But yeah, I guess Salma scene is cut-off part - and it wasn't even in the script. Originally there was a character named Blondette who came out flirted with the guys and turned into a vampire. But I wanted to do something more striking, something with music. Salma wanted a choreographer, as she was worried she couldn't dance. But I said: "No. It's going to be raw. Just you, me and the snake. I'll shoot you in slow-motion and cut out the parts were you fall down." But it's pure cinema. It only exists in the movies, after the editing and sound process. At the time it didn't seem like we were getting anything. I: And you practically launched George Clooney as a movie star. R: Well, he was already on TV, but no one was hiring him. But it turned out the way he is on ER is totally unlike him. When I met him, he was just like Seth in the movie; very debonair and fast-talking. So I decided we needed someone hungry and wanted to prove himself. When we got him he was swamped with calls, but we got him first and he worked his ass off for us. I: Four Rooms: what went wrong? R: Oh, it was a disaster movie! The whole anthology idea. It's a noble cause but… It's always going to be terrible. Same thing as with New York Stories. The short can't be taken lightly. If you've only made features, you can't necessarily go out and do short feature. I think I got away with it because I've done so many short films. I knew exactly what to do: Set-up the story, get to the pay-off and get the hell out of there. And I seem to work better with restrictions - I learned that from El Mariachi. In Four Rooms it was one room, New Years Eve and has to involve the bellboy. Great! That's exactly what I respond. I can go burn down the whole place if I feel like it. Desperado was my calling card. Most studios couldn't relate about what something like El Mariachi meant to them. So, I had to do something that would relate to them. You know you 7 million and I gave you an international hit; an action film that looks much more expensive than it is. It's easier to spend someone else's money, particularly when your using all the tricks that you learned when didn't have any money. But I've had a lot of freedom - and that's the key. Don't give me any money, don't give me any people, but give freedom, and I'll give you a movie that looks gigantic. It's amazing the projects the studios bring me, the ones I've turned down: Superman Lives, The Wild Wild West. They bring them to me because I'm the guy that can make them cheap. But now I would rather work on something that I've invented myself, than work on keeping the cost down on someone else's movie. I: So what happened to The Mask of Zorro? R: I was tempted by the Latin hero angle, the Antonio Banderas connection - I knew he was going to be Zorro - and of course, the chance to work with Willy Wonka himself - Spielberg. It was said it broke down because of budget disagreements, but actually there were a lot of changes at the studio. It happened before - I was due to make Desperado it was put on hold because Last Action Hero was such a big flop, and ended waiting months for the go-ahead. I: And while you were sitting around, you wrote the script for Predator 3. R: It's kind of a fantasy script. I don't know if it's ever going to be made. I wrote the opening scene on a Spanish galleon on another planet being attack by invisible shapes that turn out to be humans in Predator gear. But the heroes go to the Predator planet - a breeding ground for species from other planets - and the Predators hold gladiator-like games. Since I knew I wasn't going to be doing, I just went for it - a 150-million dollar bloodfest with a gigantic Jean-Claude Van Damme/Arnold Schwarzenegger celebrity death match at the end. I: Like everyone, I have an idea for a movie. I've almost written the script. What do I do next? R: Assume you've finished you're script and it's good. Shoot it on video first. Get a camera, get your actors and instead of spending forever rehearsing, just go ahead and shoot it: each scene, one take, like a rough rehearsal. With The Faculty, we rehearsed for a week, then went on-set and shot rehearsals on video. I don't believe in standard storyboards-video storyboards are more practical. You're gonna make mistakes so make them cheaply. And when you've shoot the film on video, show it around; don't worry about shooting a "proper" print. The story and characters will come through, regardless- and if people don't like your movie, you at least didn't invest in all that extra money in an actual print. That's the problem with Film Schools: They're not up with the times. If I'd gone to film I would have never known something like El Mariachi was possible. In fact, I would have laughed at the idea and said it was impossible. Don't be told something is impossible. There's always a way. TRANSCRIPTED BY THOR MAGNUSSON