SECRET AGENTS AND DESPERADOS:

An Interview with Robert Rodriguez

     Robert Rodriguez is on an action roll. His unique and original family film, SPY KIDS, was deservedly one of 2001's biggest hits. Rodriguez's sincere, kinetic style connected with kids of all ages, and the script's lack of post-modern cynicism was refreshing in a year of smart-ass children's films. Although a sequel was certain, Miramax had actually greenlit SPY KIDS 2 before the first film's release, as Rodriguez's original draft already contained both stories. SPY KIDS 2: THE ISLAND OF LOST DREAMS is a wonderful title for what promises to be an even more exciting adventure tale.

     On the other end of Rodriguez's busy cinematic spectrum (and from a PG to an R rating) stands ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO, the second sequel to his famous debut, EL MARIACHI. Shot on Hi-Definition video, OUATIM represents Rodriguez's loving tribute to Sergio Leone's mythic and classic "spaghetti westerns." While he admits that his screenplays are rough blueprints, Rodriguez's inate sense of plot and character complement his directorial prowess. This amazing output of two large-scale action films in one year prove that Robert Rodriguez is one of the most dedicated storytellers around.

CD: Did you ever think you would get confused while writing and shooting two completely different scripts like SPY KIDS 2 and ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO?

RR: I thought I would. I shot them back to back. But it worked out great.

CD: I really did love SPY KIDS. You nailed it.

RR: Thanks, I appreciate that. I was so inspired from those kinds of movies when I was growing up and they weren't making them anymore.

CD: What kind of response did you personally get from the film? Did you ever talk to kids after?

RR: Just going to the theater and seeing how many kids were dragging their parents to it. I was at a mall, and I heard a kid saying, "Oh SPY KIDS! Let's go see that!" and the Mom says, "Oh not that again!" (Laughs) That was a good sign. It's still opening overseas. It opened in Mexico already, and while we were filming there, we had a screening with the cast, set up an outdoor screen in the plaza like CINEMA PARADISIO, and the whole town was there, like 4000 people. Very cool.

CD: When we talked last year, you said you already had most of SPY KIDS 2 done since it was incorporated into your original draft --

RR: Right. I had written a lot for SPY KIDS that didn't make it. It became one and two all by itself.

CD: When you knew they were going to be two different films, how did you restructure the scripts?

RR: I pushed stuff over and added more scenes. Basically, I wanted them to already be Spy Kids, and have all the gadgets, be cool agents, but that wasn't that first movie, it was the genesis of how they become spies. So all that stuff where they were a little too savvy, too pro-active, that went into SPY KIDS 2.

CD: When you wrote SPY KIDS 2, was it a complete script or a series of scenes?

RR: I had a lot of ideas for the first one that were never developed, so I put those aside. I had a lot more than I thought. After SPY KIDS I went off and wrote DESPERADO 2, ran out and shot it, came back thinking I had to write SPY KIDS 2 from scratch. You know, you go back to the files, and I said, "Wow, there's already 60 pages there! I don't even remember writing that much!" So I was thrilled because my mind was on such a different project that I couldn't think about it while I was down in Mexico.

CD: What were the 60 pages?

RR: It was the whole movie blocked out in scenes. But it was all pretty much there and I just filled it out.                            

CD: Was the screenplay more skeletal since you had a better grasp on the story and characters, and knew you'd be adding things on the set?

RR: Yeah, I did that a lot. Just the casting changes things, so I wrote very vague because I didn't think I'd have time to find really good actors like I had last time. I had six months the first time, and this time I had three weeks. So I thought if I don't find terrific kids to be their nemesis, I don't want to have all this dialogue, then break their hearts by cutting it all away. But sure enough, I found great kids. The little girl is Haley Joel Osmet's sister and she's amazing. I kept giving her pages every day, "Here you go!" and writing more for the boy. Their parts just grew. Originally, there was a spy grandpa, but I didn't really have a part for him, so I decided to cast Ricardo Montalban. That part became much bigger (laughs). He is so cool in this.

CD: He was so fantastic in WRATH OF KHAN and it should've opened more doors for him. That was an Academy Award performance.

RR: Me and Quentin (Tarantino) were talking about that. I got the idea at Quentin's film festival here in Austin because he showed KHAN. It was sci-fi night at the fest and Quentin went on and on about Ricardo and how amazing he is, what a compelling performance it was. He hadn't done anything since 1990 because he had a bad back for awhile, so I said, "Man that's fine. You'll be in a flying wheelchair and you won't have to go anywhere!" He came down and he said all he remembered about KHAN was William Shatner coming up to him at the premiere and saying,"Thank you so much for your performance. It really guided me in what to do." And Ricardo didn't have anything but a wall, since he shot all his scenes first. He didn't have Shatner to act against. He did that whole part in a vacum. Here, he's got a great Khan-type part.

CD: How did you develop the kids further in the sequel?                                                                           

RR: I knew they would go beyond the antagonstic relationship, and they would be working together more. I based it on the relations I had with my siblings, like my younger sisters, if they were dating a guy I thought was rotten to the core, but you couldn't tell them anything. They have to make their own mistakes; you can't ever warn anybody in your family about anything until they come back later and say, "You were right" (laughs). I gave Carmen and Juni another set of rivals. Even though they were the first, they're not considered the top Spy Kids. So Carmen has a crush on the other spy boy, and Juni thinks he's bad and can't convince Carmen. So that's really fun.                                                              

CD: Did you have a bigger budget this time?                                                                               

RR: No, it was the same budget (35 million). I shot on Hi-Def.   That amazed me that I could shoot two movies back-to-back. I shot the second DESPERADO in the same schedule that I shot the first one even though this is a much bigger movie, more epic like THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY. It's unbelievable how fast it was. I was the DP and the Production Designer on both, so it was more like making a home movie, a lot more personal. We shot it more like EL MARIACHI. It was the same kind of camera George Lucas used for SW:AOTC. When you're shooting on film, you're basically shooting in the dark. Now you can really see your work at the end of the day, so this changes everything. You're charge, excited and you can see everything you did. It's like the difference between vinyl records and CDs.

CD: Did you use storyboards?                                                                                                         

RR: I would as I needed to. I used to be a cartoonist, so I would draw something quick on the spot, and it would look like a doctor's prescription. All the more reason to trust me (laughs).                                                              

CD: Do you still write in the early morning?                                                                                                

RR: That's the only way...writing in bed.                                                                                    

CD: Is that how you wrote ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO?                                                                                             

RR: I wanted to test out this HD camera, but the actor's strike was coming up. I thought if there's a way to write something quick. It can't be SPY KIDS 2 because it's too complex. Antonio Banderas was available, so I thought we'd try another DESPERADO. It gave us the chance to do everything with the camera: motion, action, outdoor, blistering sun, dark interiors...I said, "Oh, let's do another DESPERADO!" Antonio said, "Do you have a script?" I said, "No, you'll have it Sunday!" So I called Columbia and said, "Do you want to make a movie?" I finished the script in five days. That's the way to get anything done. Set yourself on fire. The last 30 pages wrote themselves in such a flurry, that I was shocked at what was happening. I didn't know how it was going to turn. It was like writing real time. I don't even think I can take credit for the script -- it was all done subconsciously.               

CD: How does this film differ from the other two?                                                                          

RR: EL MARIACHI was FISTFULL OF DOLLARS, DESPERADO was FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, and this is THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY. This is got tons more characters, it's more epic, a bigger story. I showed it to the studio and they were surprised how big it is, that I took it that much further. This script was the reverse of SPY KIDS in that I had been doodling with it for years and I thought I had so much more written than I did. I only had three cool scenes written for the Lee Van Cleef type character, and the idea that the Mariachi was hiding out in the town with the guitarists, but that was all I had. So I started from scratch.            

CD: Did you study the Sergio Leone westerns for inspiration?                                                                                  

RR: No, I was trying to do it more by memory. I just wanted to take the idea that he involved the civil war and all that, and gave it a much bigger backdrop, yet the personal story between the main characters was still tight and focused. I took that idea and thought, "What could happen? A coup de tat in Mexico!"                   

CD: How long was the first draft?                                                                                                    

RR: That's real funny. The first draft was 65 pages. It was all I could muster, so I grabbed a short story I had written about a banker whose daughter is kidnapped by the cops, who tell him to go steal his bank for the ransom. It was a whole ten minute short. I grabbed that and shoved it into the structure of the script so it would be 75 pages, even though I knew next week I would take the sub-plot out once I got the rest of the script filled out. Just so that I wouldn't see this anemic 65 pages. There were so many action sections that just said COUP DE TAT! ALL THE INDIANS COME OVER THE HILL. BIG BATTLE! The studio called and said, "It's everything we want, but we don't know about that banker sub-plot." I said, "Yeah, I was thinking of taking that out" (laughs).                         

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