You’ve explored worlds of dystopia, historical epics and perplexing moral aspects of the universe. What idea or question has haunted you the longest?
You’ve explored worlds of dystopia, historical epics and perplexing moral aspects of the universe. What idea or question has haunted you the longest? RemyNaylor
Who’s up there. He’d better show himself shortly, because we’re getting into a terrible mess down here. I mean, we are the fucking plague, 7.5 billion people, we can’t handle the planet. As you get older, you do wonder: is it going to be a guy with a long beard and long, flowing white robes, or is it just going to be a void? I don’t dwell on it. It’s weird. I feel like I’m still 21. It’s odd and strange.
Did you score a lifetime’s supply of bread for directing the Hovis adverts back in the 70s? TeeDubyaBee
No. But I ate enough Hovis as a kid in Stockton-on-Tees, with cherry jam and butter, toasted – holy shit. I did five Hovis commercials. They were all classics. The most notable is the boy walking up the hill. The first one I shot up near Halifax, in a mining town. Oddly enough, I might go back up there to do my next movie, which is a war movie [Battle of Britain], so I’m well versed in the area.
Scott’s 1973 advert for Hovis. Photograph: PA
It’s incredible that you are still at the top of your game at 87. How has age affected your approach to film-making? grimesy76
What happens – providing you sustain all your marbles – is that you refine your game. I can now work eight to 11 cameras. I finished my latest film in 34 days. It would normally be 60. Gladiator was 48; normally, 100. I’ve learned to formulate and predetermine, plan on paper and storyboard in my head. That’s why it’s so productive.
My game was tennis. I’ve just had my final knee replacement. I did one in 2012 and the other last week. So that’s the end of tennis. But like any game, the more you practise, the better you get. Forty years of tennis, I became quite good. If I hadn’t played tennis, I’d be a 300lb [136kg] couch potato.
Every time I drive back up to Redcar in Yorkshire to visit relatives, I can’t support but notice how Roseberry Topping Hill resembles the dome-like structure on LV-223 in Prometheus. Do you add touches like this for your own amusement? magbearson
Roseberry Topping Hill was our favourite walk. It tickles me that it’s called Roseberry Topping. I used to have a country house in the Cotswolds. It was attractive, but it was always fucking raining. It was probably built in the 1600s. We’d live by candlelight and I loved all that. I bought it for 72 grand. You couldn’t repair your garage for 72 grand today. But the kids no longer wanted to play ponies and shit like that, so I sold it.
Prometheus, 2012. Photograph: WENN Rights Ltd/Alamy
I missed the countryside, so I bought a teeny-weeny vineyard in France 30 years ago. In one corner, there’s a hill. I thought: “Fuck me, that looks just like Roseberry Topping.” I don’t advise taking up wine growing as a career, though. No one fucking drinks any more. My ambition is just to break even.
You once told the Hollywood Reporter that your favourite film is Muriel’s Wedding. Can you explain why? Sjp15991
I was being cheeky, but I loved it to death, because I love the idea of the two women who are constantly sanguine. And I have to admit, I quite like Abba. I sing Abba in the bathroom still.
The Final Cut is, without a doubt, the perfect version of Blade Runner. What would you say to people who defend the theatrical cut? TheManWithoutFear
I think they all had their day. The most disappointing thing I learned is that you have to be your own critic. I’ve never read another critique since. The massive critic at the time, Pauline Kael, destroyed me in four pages in the New Yorker. She said: he may have a feeble jaw, that’s why he’s got a beard. She’d never even met me! I framed the pages and they are still in my office. I glance at them occasionally and go: “Fuck you, Pauline.”
Scott and Paul Mescal on the set of Gladiator II. Photograph: Aidan Monaghan/AP
Your father was in the military. Did he ever disapprove of you wanting to be an art student? Jagoman
No. My dad, at the end of the second world war, was an acting brigadier general. He said to me: “Ridley, the army has absolutely nothing to teach you. You’re terrible academically” – I got D, D, C, E, E, E, D, but an A+ at art – “go to art school.” I’ll never forget my art teacher at Grangefield grammar school – Mr Cleeland. He was one of the new-age teachers who came in with long hair and who everyone said was weird, but he was a great guy.
How close did you get to designing the Daleks on Doctor Who? badrobot2
I was a very good designer. I was in an office, sharing with a guy called Ray Cusick. Verity Lambert was the producer. Ray said: “What do you think?” I said: “They look like inverted dust cans. I think they look fucking terrible.” He said: “That’s what I think. But that’s what she wants.” Guess what? They’re still here today.
Will there be a third Alien prequel and a Gladiator 3? petewinf and bozo500
Gladiator is in process right now. Another Alien prequel – yeah, if I get an idea, for sure.
Were you really considering directing Terminator 3? bozo500
I’m proud about this. I turned down a $20m fee. See, I can’t be bought, dude. Someone said: “Ask what Arnie gets.” I thought: “I’ll try it out.” I said: “I want what Arnie gets.” When they said yes, I thought: “Fuck me.” But I couldn’t do it. It’s not my thing. It’s like doing a Bond movie. The essence of a Bond movie is fun and camp. Terminator is pure comic strip. I would try to make it real. That’s why they’ve never asked me to do a Bond movie, because I could fuck it up.
Harrison Ford administers the Voight-Kampff test in Blade Runner, 1982. Photograph: Maximum Film/Alamy
Have you taken the Voight-Kampff [diagnostic empathy] test from Blade Runner yourself? Sagarmatha1953
Isn’t that machine great? Some bastard stole it from the set. When it appears on the market, I’m going to go after them like a rat up a drainpipe. I never used to take things. I’d think: “I’m done, move on.” Now, I realise I should, because they go into storerooms and get lost for ever. I get permission to take things and put space suits from movies in my vineyard in France. I’ve got a space suit from The Martian. I’ve got an original space suit from Alien. Can you imagine what that’s worth? Two from Prometheus. They’re all in my barrel room, which has 12,000 sq ft [1,115 sq metres] of barrels. It’s the perfect temperature for the wine. It’s also a perfect place for a museum. Go down to Avignon – the vineyard is 20 minutes from my house – and have a look. It’s fantastic.
I love the press junkets and interviews where you tell interviewers to “go fuck themselves”. Do you swear more now than you did when you were, say, 50? Chin_Of_Tarantino and Bicuser
No. I was much worse in my 50s. How many times have I sworn in this interview? Ten? Twenty? Some are so satisfying, like: what the fuck do you think you’re doing? Swearing is a sign of intelligence? Are you taking the mickey out of me? No? Then I must be very clever.
Ridley Scott: Building Cinematic Worlds is at BFI Southbank and BFI Imax, London, from 1 September until 8 October
COMMENTS