RIDLEY SCOTT INTERVIEW ON ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD, KEVIN SPACEY AND CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER

The film director saved his latest film after its star, Spacey, was accused of sexual assault

Kaleem Aftab @aftabamon

‘I’m fast and I thought that I have to do something right now’ Sony Pictures

The impression one gets chatting to director Ridley Scott is that he’s a man who is not lacking in confidence or self-belief. Perhaps that is what comes from being a director with so many classics under your belt: Thelma & Louise, Blade Runner, Alien, and Gladiator. It’s also a personality trait that enabled him to act decisively and quickly when his latest film, the J Paul Getty biopic, All the Money in the World, found itself embroiled in the sexual allegations made against its star Kevin Spacey. 

Spacey had been touted as an awards contender playing the billionaire who refused to pay Italian kidnappers a random fee for his 16-year-old grandson in 1973. Then came the allegation made by actor Anthony Rapp that Spacey had made untoward sexual advances towards him at a party when he was just 14 years old. This accusation opened the floodgates and soon a RIDLEY SCOTT INTERVIEW ON ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD, KEVIN SPACEY AND CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER

The film director saved his latest film after its star, Spacey, was accused of sexual assault

The impression one gets chatting to director Ridley Scott is that he’s a man who is not lacking in confidence or self-belief. Perhaps that is what comes from being a director with so many classics under your belt: Thelma & Louise, Blade Runner, Alien, and Gladiator. It’s also a personality trait that enabled him to act decisively and quickly when his latest film, the J Paul Getty biopic, All the Money in the World, found itself embroiled in the sexual allegations made against its star Kevin Spacey. 

Spacey had been touted as an awards contender playing the billionaire who refused to pay Italian kidnappers a random fee for his 16-year-old grandson in 1973. Then came the allegation made by actor Anthony Rapp that Spacey had made untoward sexual advances towards him at a party when he was just 14 years old. This accusation opened the floodgates and soon a number of sexual misconduct allegations were made against the former Old Vic artistic director and both Netflix, who were in the midst of shooting the sixth season of House of Cards and Scott decided that they needed to jettison the actor from their projects.

All the Money in the World was pulled from the prestigious AFI Fest in a move seen as a precursor to the movie being withdrawn, or postponed from cinemas, but Scott had other ideas. The British director was adamant that he didn’t want the release date of his film moved. He knew that Danny Boyle had been shooting Trust, an eight-part television series on the kidnapping that is at the centre of All the Money in the World and with that series due to air in the spring he made the decision to quickly order reshoots with Christopher Plummer replacing Spacey in the Getty role.

Plummer was originally in the running to play J Paul Getty (Sony Pictures)

“I’m fast and I thought that I have to do something right now,” says Scott. “So already at that moment, I was discussing with my partner who had paid for the film, [billionaire] Dan Friedkin, if I can get Christopher Plummer, we can be off and running and I’ll be shooting it in nine days.”

Friedkin stumped up $10m to fund the reshoots. If it had not been such a major story it would be impossible to know that Plummer hadn’t been involved all along. Scott says that when Spacey was in the role it was a much colder version of Getty, but now, “Christopher is both sympathetic and cruel sometimes”.

The choice of Plummer came easily as he was being considered when Spacey was originally cast. “It was a toss up between the two,” says Scott. The advantage of Plummer was that he is an octogenarian as is the character depicted in the film, but it made business sense at the time to give Spacey prosthetics and age him up. “Kevin had a big profile with the success of House of Cards and he was useful on a commercial level.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/ridley-scott-interview-all-the-money-in-the-world-kevin-spacey-christopher-plummer-a8147631.html