The good, the bad and the Christopher Lee
He's been in some duds and appeared in some classics. But as Christopher Lee celebrates his 81st birthday and anticipates the release of The Return of the King, he tells Victoria Barrett that he has no regrets.
According to the Oracle of Kevin Bacon website, the man on the sofa opposite me is the most well-connected man in Hollywood. He has been in more films than your gran's had hot dinners, has worked with just about anyone you can think of (your gran excepted) and this very day is celebrating his 81st birthday. I didn't get him a present. After all, can you think of an appropriate birthday gift for Christopher Lee?
The veteran actor is currently embarking upon an ambitious project of documenting his past work on a series of DVDs (six or seven in total) supplemented by a talk at the ICA this Saturday. In the meantime his career is undergoing a glorious indian summer, thanks to roles in the Star Wars prequels and his brooding turn as Saruman in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. When the last chapter goes on release in December it will nudge his tally of films up to around 220, reportedly the most of any actor, alive or dead.
Actually the number may be even higher than that. "If you add up every [film] that I have done, I am told that the figure is nearer 290," Lee shrugs "But I don't know how accurate that is. People have a habit of publishing things I have never been in. The number of times I have told people that I was not in The Longest Day, and it is still happening. I have made a lot of movies, but I don't see any point in talking about films I don't think are terribly good. I have been in a few. I don't know any actor that hasn't."
This Saturday he will be introducing a film - 1972's Nothing But The Night - which was never released "The only film I have ever been involved in producing, never again. It wasn't an easy story, about old, brilliant people who don't want to die so they transfer their brains into very young children. Although not in a vat, like some schlock film," he adds.
But immediately after his talk, Lee is traveling back to New Zealand for pick-ups for Return of the King, the final instalment in Peter Jackson's epic triptych. "I cannot wait for Return of the King. It is the climax and people will get an overall picture of Middle Earth and of Tolkien. I want people to appreciate what has been achieved. Before Lord of the Rings, some people would have just classed Peter Jackson as a horror director. But there is a mind there. Somebody once asked me how I found Peter Jackson and I said: 'Well, I parted his hair and there he was'. Look what he has done. He persuaded New Line to invest in making three films at the same time. When I first read Lord of the Rings I wanted to see a film of it. But at that time the technology wasn't there, there was no such thing as CGI."
As it happens, Lee seems as eager to watch the final film as the fans. Either that, or he's playing coy about the details. "I am very excited about Return of the King. [I want] to see how they have done it. I have only seen a few short rushes of the film and I am still not sure how it ends. If I did, I still couldn't tell you. I have, however seen the schedule for Return of the King and it is hectic. The premiere is in Wellington then it is something like Berlin first, London the day after and then Copenhagen the day after that. "
But the event that Lee seems to have set his sights on is next year's Academy Awards. "They can't not give awards to The Return of the King," he insists, still smarting from the way the previous two films were passed over on Oscar night. "When there were no best picture or best director awards for The Fellowship, I thought it was a disgrace. The other [nominated films] were good movies but they did not even compare. You can't compare anything to these films. You cannot compare it with Star Wars or the Matrix, which I didn't understand a word of. There will never be anything like it again. I am very lucky to in this late stage of my career to have worked with Tim Burton, Peter Jackson, George Lucas. I love to work and to be able to still be working is wonderful, after all how many roles are there for 81 year olds. It has been hard work but definitely worth it."
In the past, Lee has been known to bridle when interviewers bring up the horror roles that made his reputation. Today he can afford to be more sanguine. "I have done quite a few cult films but far less than people think," he explains. "You get the most extraordinary statements in the press that I played Dracula 10 times, which is wildly wrong. I don't even bother correcting them. Vincent Price made some wonderful movies, serious movies, but he is only known for horror. Peter Cushing, an extremely talented brilliant theatre and television actor, look what happened to him. I can't claim to have those backgrounds, but being in those films were very important at the time and I do not regret anything."
He starts to laugh, remembering one of his stints as Dracula. "I had dressed up as him for a documentary, and I was wandering around his castle [in Transylvania]. There was mist coming down. I walked towards the castle where there was a big party going on for Romanian army officers and I suddenly appeared. You had never seen so many diehard communists making the sign of the cross. They thought he had come back to life!"
Despite their outward differences, however, one could argue Dracula and Saruman are spiritual cousins; both intelligent, complex men who have turned to the dark side. Certainly, Lee admits to being fascinated by the nature of evil. "There is something sad about malevolence, to be wicked," he says. "I have always tried to make that come across in the villains I have played. 'Good' people can a virtue of being persistently noble which can become rather uninteresting. There is a dark side in all of us. And for us 'bad' people the bad side dominates. I think there is a great sadness in villains, and I have tried to out that across. We cannot stop ourselves doing what we are doing."
Christopher Lee takes a long puff on his vast cigar, grins his lupine grin and silently dares me to argue back. Perhaps fortunately, I don't get the chance. His wife is on the phone wondering where on earth he has got to, and he really must be on his way. I can't blame him. It's his birthday after all.
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