Inside Secrets: Chuck Russell Reveals Untold Stories Behind Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx’s Iconic Film Collateral
Chuck Russell
Look, I’ll give you my opinion, but I will tell you every rule is meant to be broken. There’s always a new dodge getting into this business. I actually came to LA with a book called The Gentle Tambers by Dee Brown. I found the highest value piece of literature I could, which was about women in the West, stories of women in the West, but I was way too early. There wasn’t the openness to feminist stories at that time. I came in with something to sell. The people were talking to me. They knew the author, Dee Brown. So it helps. I’m not mentioning that because it didn’t really work, but it did help as an introduction. And one of the pieces of advice I often give, if you’re packaging yourself to be a director, that’s one track. And on that track, don’t be dissuaded. I got my first directing gig, which was Nightmare on Elm Street 3, because I already had gotten myself the rights to the blob. New Line didn’t want to do my proposed remake of the blob. But since I was presenting myself as a director and spoke well in the meetings and did my own storyboards, et cetera, they said, hey, we need a director for Nightmare on Elm Street 3. Would you pitch us what you would do with that film? So just coming in with a point of view. Nowadays, with your iPhone, there’s no excuse for anybody not to come in with some footage. We did not have it. I mean, I wasn’t a big 16-millimeter or 8-millimeter film guy. I was when I was a kid, but I didn’t have a short film to pitch. So that is one track. But the production track, they don’t go well together. So a piece of advice I just gave this week to a young lady, if you’re going to do film production, don’t come in and say, but I want to direct, because they don’t care and everybody wants to direct. The person who’s hiring you probably wanted to direct. I really don’t know why, because it’s the hardest job. You’re there before everybody and after everybody and you’re planning the next day. But it is the glamour job, apparently. So it doesn’t help to say, I’ll be getting your coffee and running your office. But by the way, I want you to know I’m a scriptwriter and I want to direct. Literally everybody, including the people serving you at restaurants, at least in LA, also have that attention. So announcing it to the universe doesn’t help. My friends in the business were shocked when I got my first directing gig, because they just thought I was a great production guy. I was an assistant director. I mean, I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, but I worked really hard in the lane they needed me for. I made myself almost irreplaceable, working hard in the jobs most people aren’t looking for in the first place. But you learn film production. I observed other directors directing as a guy getting the coffee, as a second AD and finally as a first AD. You see everyone’s different styles. It really helps. There’s a learning curve. It helps you when you’re finally ready for your first directing. I got a lot of compliments on Nightmare on Elm Street 3, because I knew how to use the camera. I come from theater, so I knew how to work with actors. So I would say, the interesting question is, if you’re starting, do you shout out that you’re directing? Shout out that you’re directing behind a project, whether it’s a short film you want to make and talk to those people who might make a short film with you, or whether it’s a feature and you have a property the way I had with the book I found originally, which didn’t work out, but interesting people were willing to talk to me about it. And then finally the blob, which seemed like an odd idea at the time, but Cronenberg had already done the fly. So I had a precedent for a silly title, 1950s film being a success. I could point to saying, this is my intention.
