Monsters and Movies By Matt Slovick Washingtonpost.com Staff Monday, November 23, 1998

Writer-director Bill Condon. (Lion Gate Films) About Bill Condon's Filmography Birthdate: Oct. 22, 1955 Home Town: Queens, N.Y. Current Home: Los Angeles Education: Degree in philosophy from Columbia College Awards: Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for "Murder 101," which he wrote and directed Future Project: "Vicki Oberjeune: Alone in the Night." A documentary study of a fictional Hollywood legend that Condon co-wrote with Nancy Cassaro. Reviews "Gods and Monsters"

A new film, "Gods and Monsters," is a fictional account of Whale's final days. The director committed suicide in 1957 at the age of 67. Dressed elegantly, he was found drowned in his swimming pool, but by then he'd already suffered a series of strokes that had diminished his mental capacity.

The film's driving force is Bill Condon, who both directed and wrote the screenplay, which is based on Christopher Bram's fictionalized account of Whale's last days, "Father of Frankenstein." Whale is played by Condon's first choice, Ian McKellen, whose performance is mesmerizing. Although the much-acclaimed actor has yet to receive an Oscar nomination, expect that to change in February.

In the film, Clay Boone (Brendan Fraser), Whale's groundskeeper, and the director forge a friendship. Whale, who was also an artist, asks Boone to sit for him as a model. The blue-collar Boone agrees and becomes fascinated by the director's tales of Hollywood. As their relationship progresses, Whale views Boone as another one of his creations – a monster who can be molded. Whale takes on the part of Dr. Frankenstein, manipulating Boone and exposing him to things he's never experienced.

When we sat down with Condon, he was fresh from a screening of "Gods and Monsters" the night before at Washington's annual gay and lesbian film festival, Reel Affirmations. He was enthusiastic about the experience, calling it "the best screening," adding: "The one in New York was wonderful, and Seattle was wonderful. But this ... there was something about seeing it for the first time with a gay audience. And there wasn't a single moment that people didn't get or respond to."

We talked to Condon about the difficulties involved in filming the movie, why he selected Brendan Fraser as a main character and what it was like to work with McKellen.

Q. The title "Gods and Monsters" is taken from "Bride of Frankenstein." What was the exact quote?
A. "To a new world of gods and monsters" – Dr. Pretorius says it as a toast to Dr. Frankenstein as they embark on this new scheme.

Q. What attracted you to this project?
A. First an incredible love of James Whale's movies. Then I have a friend, Curtis Harrington, who knew Whale the last 10 years of his life. So, I'd heard great stories about him. I thought he was an interesting figure in Hollywood history. That's all what drew me to the book, to the novel by Christopher Bram – "Father of Frankenstein." And it was really reading that novel and thinking that there was a wonderful film to be made from it that got me going on it.

Q. When you were writing this, did you have Ian McKellen in mind for the James Whale role?
A. Oh yes, always.

Q. You usually film a movie out of sequence, and edit and add sound later. But is there a point when you're watching someone such as McKellan and you know his performance is something special?
A. Yes. I kind of knew it almost immediately. For one thing, we started by shooting the George Cukor party because it was the old Merchant-Ivory trick of spending all your money on a couple of scenes. I wanted to do that first because if we were three weeks into our four-week schedule and didn't have the money, I knew I'd never get it. On the first day we shot that scene where he is talking to David Lewis, and he's abandoned by him. The waiter comes up with a tray of martinis, and Ian says, "Oh, just the one," which is a line he made up on the set. Then I thought, "Oh my God, we're in good hands here."

About a week before, we were rehearsing and he had his hair dyed white. That was spectacular. The same snow-white that Whale had in real life. And suddenly you could see Whale coming to life and Ian turning into a different person.

Q. One scene has Fraser and McKellen smoking cigars at the dining room table. Boone is trying to confirm Whale's homosexuality. That must have been an interesting scene to shoot.
A. There are a lot of theatrical devices in the movie, and that was one where I really did want it to be that you're just looking at these two people on opposite sides of the frame. And you play with things like lighting their cigars at the same time and and then blowing out the matches out at the same time – all that stuff – to really get the sense of these two people – who are so opposite – at the very moment that the Brendan Fraser character, who has had it confirmed for him that Ian's character is gay, is just coming to grips with all that. We were really playing the comedy of that visually.

What I love about it is that every moment with those actors has lots of levels to it. Everything Brendan says is untrue in the first part of the scene because he is pretending not to be uncomfortable. And he is. And then it gets into something that's almost like, to me, the archetypical conversation that straight men want to have with gay men when they find out that they are gay. So that was the fun of it.

Q. An intensely emotional scene between Fraser and McKellen near the end of the film involves a physical altercation. When you see it on screen, it only takes a couple of minutes. How long did the scene take to complete?
A. We decided to pretty much shoot in sequence inside the house because we knew we had that scene to get to, and it was going to be the hardest scene in the movie. And, of course, what had happened is that by the time we got there, we'd stolen time because we had such a tight four-week shoot – 24 days – that we didn't have very much time to do it. So that kind of added to the tension of it.

But we'd rehearsed it quite a bit and we'd staged it and really gone through a lot of different choices there on how to stage that scene and finally came up with that one. I think it made it, in a way, more intense. Normally I only like to use one camera, but in that case because of the time we were really forced to use two on every part of that scene, and because of the intensity of it.

Q. Let's talk about some of the other cast members. Why Brendan Fraser?
A. It seemed to me first of all that the part has physical demands. He's big. He looked liked the monster. But he has that soft center to him, too. Those obvious reasons. I also have admired him. I think he's an underrated actor. It's the hardest part in the movie because he has to sit and listen to a very entertaining performer. And so, I knew that Brendan had amazing comic instincts, and that he could fill out those moments when I cut to him. And he did.

Q. It was surprising to see Lynn Redgrave in such a non-leading, non-glamorous role.
A. We went to her. She's famous for having an amazing ear for accents, and I knew that we were playing with a stock character there, you know Frau Bluecher ("Young Frankenstein"), or the Hungarian Germanic maid. So I knew that there were so many American actresses who would go over the top with it and wouldn't make it real. So that was the first thing. I knew she was the comic relief and what a wonderful comic actress she was. Also, I loved the idea that she was someone we hadn't seen do something like that before. She had worked with Ian 35 years ago and knew him, so I think he was a bit of a draw for her.

Q. Whale's death was ruled a suicide. Was it mysterious at first?
A. It was considered mysterious only because of the fact that David Lewis, who had lived with him, wouldn't release the suicide note and claimed it was an accident. He did that out of respect for Whale. So then rumors started surrounding it, and then it appeared in one of the "Hollywood Babylon" books. And once it got into there, then it was lumped in with a lot of other sordid, gay Hollywood murders. So then David Lewis released the suicide note. But once you have that stigma of "Hollywood Babylon," it's hard to live down.

It's amazing. I've just gotten back from France and Spain and the first question is always, "So, have they ever figured out how he died?" Yes, but no one believed it.

Q. Would you talk about the reconstruction of the 1935 Universal Pictures set for the "Bride of Frankenstein" scenes?
A. We didn't have any of the original plans, and we couldn't find any of the props. So really it was just going off the film and stills from the film that we slavishly copied. The only thing is that we were on a smaller stage than the original Universal stage, so the set doesn't go as high as that one did. But our stage has its own sort of connection to Hollywood horror past. It was where "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" was shot. It was thrilling to do, to see that set up again.

Q. Was James Whale respected during his time?
A. He was appreciated at the moment because [the horror films] were big hits. He was taken seriously as an interesting stylish director; got very, very good reviews for them. But still was making horror movies, so there was still that touch of a stigma there. "Showboat" got wonderful reviews and was a big hit. Once he left Hollywood, he really was forgotten.

Q. As the writer and director, did you have an audience in mind while you were completing this film?
A. No. I'm curious to see who the audience will be. I believe there are three audiences for this movie. I think there is the mainstream, art-house audience that I hope will be drawn by Ian McKellen's performance and Lynn Redgrave's and the other performances. I think there is the core gay audience that should be drawn by a lot of things in the movie. And then I think there is an interesting other audience that usually doesn't go with the other two, which is a kind of … cinema fantastic-horror film audience who really hold Whale in high regard and especially love "Bride of Frankenstein." So I'm hoping they come out as well. So it will be interesting to see.