By Steve Dinneen
American Psycho director Mary Harron returns to the big screen with Daliland, a biopic of the surrealist painter Salvador Dali. We caught up with her at her New York home to ask her about working with Sir Ben Kingsley, depicting an icon and being obsessed with celebrity.
WHAT DREW YOU TO DALILAND?
Before we started working on the project, I had no idea that as an older man in the 1970s, Salvador Dali spent so much time in New York: the era of glam rock, the beginnings of disco, hanging out with Andy Warhol. It’s strange to think of this guy from the 1930s being in 1970s Manhattan, I really like the paradox of that.
I was interested in what happens to a young person when they’re thrown into this world. I remember being young in New York in the mid 70s and just feeling like I was on this merry-go-round: you get invited to things just because you’re young and people like to have young people around. You can be on the merry-go-round for a couple of years, and then suddenly you’re in your mid 20s and it just sort of stops.
The young character James is initially dazzled and I had the same sort of experience, where you meet somebody legendary or who you admire. And it’s great, you feel flattered that you get to know them. And then gradually you start to see the complexity of it.
Then there’s the idea that celebrity gives you power but it can also rule you. It can bring you up from nothing but it can destroy you. It’s like a drug and Dali was definitely on that drug.
WHAT ARE THE THEMES YOU WANTED TO EXPLORE IN DALILAND?
I’m interested in the price of fame. Dali was somebody who had lived for 50 years with a persona that he has to carry on – he had to put on the moustache, he had to throw the parties, even though he was struggling with so many aspects of his life. There’s also a lot of exploitation. The young want something from the old, the old want the youth – both Gala and Dali couldn’t stand to be around old people because it reminds them of death. It’s a bit vampiric.
There’s also the fascinating relationship between Dali and his wife Gala – who was on top, who was exploiting who, or was anyone being exploited? She was a tyrant and she has a young lover, but she was also his servant and relied on him for money. Most artists’ muses – like those of Picasso, for example – were victims but Gala wasn’t a victim – she was complicated and I liked that.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING WITH SIR BEN KINGSLEY ON DALILAND?
The amazing thing with someone like Ben Kingsley is his weight of experience. He knows himself and what it takes for him to do a role, knows exactly what he needs. If you think of acting as a kind of meditation, where you have to get to a certain place to inhabit a character, particularly one as challenging as Salvador Dali – Ben could just get there.
There’s no, ‘Oh, I have to go walk around the block’ – he can just turn it on right away.
