Questions for Ang Lee

[serious crayons]

Hi Ang! This is not much of a question related to the movie, more a personal one. Would you care to meet up with us Brokies in NY in May? We may be obsessed but pretty harmless. If you come, I promise I´ll tattoo "Ang" on my forhead. Will you come?

Thanks, buffymon, I'll be there! Dinner at Five Leaves is on me. No need for the tattoo on the forehead, though. A less conspicuous spot is fine: bicep, wrist, ankle ... whatever.

Ha ha, this reminds me of when we were shooting the scene with Cassie and Ennis at that little dive bar in Riverton. At first, we'd planned for the scene to take place at the Red Lobster across the street. But there was this one woman, she was a regular customer at the dive I guess, who was SO determined for us to shoot the scene in her favorite tavern. She wrote letters, she sent candygrams ... I thought that Red Lobster would be a perfect set, and Linda looked fetching in the Red Lobster uniform. That woman so determined, though. She even offered to get a tattoo. That's your business, I said.

But then when I saw that she didn't get just ONE tattoo, she got pretty much her whole body tattooed, well, what could I say? Not only did we agree to film there, but I let her appear in the scene.

and oh...a movie related question. Sort of. If you would have to chose another time and place to set the BBM story in, when and where would it be? After having watched the movie a hundred times, this is the question that have kept me up at night.

Good question, buffymon. Actually, I had originally planned to set BBM in a whole different time and place. It was going to take place on an ocean liner, in the early 20th century. We had it all worked out: stars signed, budget lined up, shooting dates ... then the suits changed their minds. Said they wanted to make the film more quote/unquote "marketable." Next thing you know, Jake and Heath are out, Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are in. They even changed the name of the ocean liner, to one that supposedly struck a more familiar chord with the focus groups. Suddenly, I didn't recognize my own project, so I bailed.

Wonder whatever became of that picture. Straight to video, I suppose.

[Front-Ranger]

Question for Ang Lee: Will you marry me?? 

[serious crayons]

Hey, Ang!  

I've been dying to ask:  did Aguirre and Uncle Harold really have an affair on Brokeback?  And isn't that Uncle Harold on the other end of the phone when Aguirre yells, "Not on your f---in' life"?

Very perceptive, Spin. Yes, Aguirre and Uncle Harold were together for a couple of years. Aguirre broke it off. That was Joe on the phone, trying to persuade Joe to move to Denver. Funny -- adamant as Aguirre was, he would ride up with the binoculars and watch Jack and Ennis tussling, fondly recalling his own frolics with Harold. But he wouldn't give in to Harold's pleas. Harold even tried faking his own near-death to lure Joe back. When Joe ignored Harold's desperation and tried sending Jack in his place, that's when Harold realized it was really over between them. Oddly enough, once Joe saw that he was about to lose Harold for good, he had a change of heart. He rushed off to Denver, after all, as soon as he summoned Jack and Ennis down from the mountain.

[serious crayons]

Ang, do these jeans make my butt look big?

Not at all! Very flattering.

[Monika]

Thanks, buffymon, I'll be there! Dinner at Five Leaves is on me. No need for the tattoo on the forehead, though. A less conspicuous spot is fine: bicep, wrist, ankle ... whatever.

Ha ha, this reminds me of when we were shooting the scene with Cassie and Ennis at that little dive bar in Riverton. At first, we'd planned for the scene to take place at the Red Lobster across the street. But there was this one woman, she was a regular customer at the dive I guess, who was SO determined for us to shoot the scene in her favorite tavern. She wrote letters, she sent candygrams ... I thought that Red Lobster would be a perfect set, and Linda looked fetching in the Red Lobster uniform. That woman so determined, though. She even offered to get a tattoo. That's your business, I said.

But then when I saw that she didn't get just ONE tattoo, she got pretty much her whole body tattooed, well, what could I say? Not only did we agree to film there, but I let her appear in the scene.

Good question, buffymon. Actually, I had originally planned to set BBM in a whole different time and place. It was going to take place on an ocean liner, in the early 20th century. We had it all worked out: stars signed, budget lined up, shooting dates ... then the suits changed their minds. Said they wanted to make the film more quote/unquote "marketable." Next thing you know, Jake and Heath are out, Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are in. They even changed the name of the ocean liner, to one that supposedly struck a more familiar chord with the focus groups. Suddenly, I didn't recognize my own project, so I bailed.

Wonder whatever became of that picture. Straight to video, I suppose.

 


Thanks, Angie! (I feel as though I can call you that now that we have bonded).


 

[serious crayons]

Why are boxes a soup hard to pack? 

That's code for "Campbell's tried to cheap out on our product-placement offer." When that fell through, we tried to set something up with Wolfgang Puck's people, but that didn't work out either. And we were supposed to guard the sheep, not eat 'em. So we had Heath shoot us a nice elk.

[serious crayons]

Did Ennis say "I'm sorry..." to Jack during the second tent scene?

Actually, what he whispered was, "I'm silly." The two were still chuckling over the "butt of a donkey" remark and trying to get back into character.

[Penthesilea]

Hi Ang!

It's so great to have you here, I have tons of questions. and everybody else does, too. Hope you don't have any plans between now and our NYC gathering.

First question: was Jack really Bobby's father? We doubt it, with Bobby talking such a strange accent and all.


2nd: why did Alma Junior's eye color change?


3rd: where was Ennis going to when he hurried out of the kitchen after revieving the first postcard? And what was he doing there?


4th: please tell us a little bit about the, uhm, you know (I'm a bit shy to mention it) ehm, the electric knife Monroe used at Thanksgiving.

[serious crayons]

Why don't Texans drink coffee?

As far as I know, they do. However, I've heard that residents of Massachusetts don't drink coffee.

[serious crayons]

Why did Ennis wear socks, but no drawers?

The wardrobe budget was tight, so we could only afford one or the other. Heath insisted on socks. In fact, what he really wanted was striped ones ...