Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) Interview
What inspired you to direct I Am Legend?
I was finishing Constantine. I’d actually read a script draft of this before I did Constantine, and it kind of stuck with me. Then, I brought this project up to Akiva, who was one of my producers on that (and is one of the producers of I Am Legend), so he and I started working on it. We came up with a version of the film, pitched it to the studio; they liked it. We approached Will, and the three of us got together. Will had been involved at some other time and so he knew the project.
What really got me into this was this idea of – and I’ve always been fascinated with this idea – of abandoned urban environments and how a solitary person can survive in that environment. I had read books on it, and there’s an all-time [favorite] fiction book called Earth Abides, where the geologist comes down from the mountains after having been up there for three months, and a virus has wiped everybody out. It’s a story about the re-start of civilization. Those stories have really always interested me.
Had you read the book I Am Legend by Richard Matheson?
I read the book after I read the script. In the film there are some themes from the book, some ideas, and some characters from the book. The virus is from the book, but we elaborated the character story.
How possible do you think this scenario is?
These things are pretty possible. Some parts of the story are a little more fantastical than others, but we made it as real as possible. We talked to the people at the CDC (Center for Disease Control) and virologists, and [discovered that] these kinds of pandemics are very possible, especially with the way the world works now with airplane travel. You think about the Spanish flu in 1918 and a million or more people that it killed and you just think, ‘Well we didn’t have airplanes then; people didn’t jump up and travel then like they do now.’ So, you have an outbreak of that in the way the world works now and it’s serious business.
Was fear a big part of the suspense of the movie, creating fear of the possible reality of the situation?
A little bit a part of it. Our movie really takes place three years after this has all happened, so I think that the fear of what happened doesn’t play as much a part as the fear of what this guy lives in, what he deals with in the world now.
How difficult was it to make a film where you have a solo character?
It’s difficult in the construction of the story because the structure of scenes is so different. But it’s one of the things that really appealed to me. Also, one of the things that appealed to me was this idea - and we talked about it a lot – that there are certain movies that work without sound. That’s how we approached the film, which is: how do you tell this story basically without dialogue. That all comes down to how you structure the scenes, how they play against one another, but also how the structure of the scenes themselves work. We would rehearse scenes without dialogue – there’s very little dialogue in the movie anyway – but it was really about how do we make sure that the way the sequences feel is very, very sharp and clear as you move from one to the next, to the next, to tell our story. So, a lot of that was in the structure of the screenplay and the structure of the scenes, and how we rehearsed and how we prepared, and then, once you’re actually shooting it, once it’s thought through, it’s a little easier.
How was it to work with Will Smith on the movie?
We worked together from the very beginning, so once Will and his partner, Akiva, became involved, we were all really working together, day after day, working on the story. Literally, from the first day you start doing that, it’s kind of a rehearsal, because I’m coming at it from a director’s point of view, Akiva’s coming at it from a writer’s point of view, Will’s coming at it from an actor’s point of view. And you’re creating a story. You’re creating scenes, and as you’re creating scenes you’re talking about where he’s coming from, where I’m coming from, themes, and so by the end, when you have the script, we all have such a deep understanding of it, you’ve already been through rehearsals. And then, to actually start working on the scenes themselves, we have this real foundation. So, by the time we started shooting, we could play because we knew what we were doing. And also, then, we could try different things, and variations on things. It was a lot of fun.
Does Will have a certain way of working?
I think the big thing about him and the way he works is he likes to grind away and grind away, which I really like and like to work that way too. So, if you have a scene, you keep thinking about it and talking about it, trying different things and seeing what sticks, and trying it again and tearing it apart. And then, OK, this is best, and you get one new little thing. So, you keep working and working and working to try and get the most of the meat off of the bone. That, I guess, is the best way to describe the way he works. That’s what we did with the whole story, and for sequences and scenes, really to just keep trying different things until you feel like you’ve really found the best, richest moment there is.
What were the challenges of creating a deserted New York City?
Everywhere you go, there are lots and lots of people and cars, and we had a lot [in the film] that takes place outside. So, early on I did a test, actually, of going into spots of New York. I videotaped locations and then, in post, I erased people and cars and signs of life, which we saw we could do. And that’s what let the studio allow me to shoot it on the streets versus doing it all on a stage, trying to do blue screen. Then, when we actually did it, what you have is much more control. So, you go to the City and they wouldn’t let us shoot on weekends outside. Then, we would block off big portions of where we were shooting so, at least, in the near vicinity you don’t have any of the signs of life, you don’t have the cars, and you don’t have the people, the traffic. We’d turn off whatever lights we could. But inevitably in the distance you still have traffic on far cross streets or people that go around, or a solitary person would come running out across the street or you got traffic lights and lights on in buildings and all those kind of things. So, that was all stuff we had to deal with later.
Do you have a particular liking for sci-fi movies?
I do. Specifically, I like creating worlds. So, even though this is sci-fact, realistic, it is still a world you are creating because it is something that hasn’t happened yet. So, the idea of what is New York like three years after people are gone? What does it sound like? What does it look like? What does it feel like? That, I really enjoy. If that means that it’s a science fiction story, then I guess I like science fiction stories.
You’ve made music videos as well as features. Is there any relationship between the two?
They’re very different beasts. On a day-to-day basis, when you’re on the set, it’s the same thing. It’s the same tools, the same kind of a crew, the same kind of limiting factors of time and weather and money. But what you are actually making is very, very different. The length of material you’re dealing with in a feature is so different from those three-and-a-half minutes of music video. All the things you have to keep track of in a feature film is mind-boggling. In a music video, you’re really not tracking character. You’re not telling a real hero’s journey of any kind.
How much is I Am Legend intended to be a warning of what could happen in this world?
A little bit. It’s an interesting thought. It’s so much about the character. It’s really a character piece but you can’t help feeling that if you’re going to do the apocalyptic film where a virus wipes out humanity, there’s going to be some feeling of, ‘Hey, we better take some responsibility for ourselves and the planet here, how we mess with nature.’ There is a little bit of that message in here. But the movie’s much more about the character than it is about that, and I just don’t think you can get around that when you’re dealing with this kind of a world. Everything takes place three years later. It takes some of the sting out of that idea, just because it’s already happened, you’re not watching it happen. You’re not seeing the process of it happening.
What was the biggest challenge to making the film?
There are lots of challenges in different ways – one of them is you’re dealing with a guy who’s by himself, you’re creating a movie with very, very little dialogue, a very quiet film, and trying to make sure it’s very clear and emotional, and paced correctly and is exciting and visceral. And logistically, you’re shooting in New York and clearing streets and doing all these big things, and there are a lot of visual effects, so on lots of levels there were many, many complicating factors.
I Am Legend is released in the UK on December 14, 2007, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures.
