Doris Duke holds an important place in the Duke legacy, but few know about the relationship she had with her butler. On Feb. 9, HBO will premiere a new somewhat-based-on-a-true-story film called Bernard and Doris about the heiress. Starring Susan Sarandon as Doris and Ralph Fiennes as butler Bernard Lafferty, the film explores the relationship between the two and is directed by seasoned actor/producer/director Bob Balaban. Recently, recess' Andrew Hibbard sat down to talk with the director about his new film.
What initially drew you to the story of Bernard and Doris?
I was sent a movie called Bernard and Doris by a friend- at New Line. It's kind of unusual, and I read it and I liked it, so I started trying to make it into a movie and then I think what attracted me to it was simply the idea of two lonely people, both very unsuccessful in their relationships and the fact that they were so different: one was the richest woman in the world and one was a gay young butler who was Irish and didn't have a penny and who was an alcoholic. But I was very interested in how these two people did seem to find some kind of comfort in their relationships and I thought it might be worthy of a movie if I cast it correctly. So I happened to be working with Susan Sarandon. I had the script and I said, "Hey, would you like to play Doris Duke." And she read it and said this could be very interesting. We called Ray Fiennes, and he was very much looking forward to working with Susan with whom he had never worked and he thought the story was interesting. He had no idea that Doris Duke was a real person. He just thought it was interesting because the script was interesting. So that's a good sign because this is not a biographical picture. This is really just a movie about two lonely people who were complicated and quite interesting,
How did you approach this film?
Basically, the movie is a fable. It sort of takes into account some of the larger, well-known facts about Doris Duke and her butler but in no way is this intended to portray the real Doris Duke and the real Bernard Lafferty and what really happened between them. It omits a lot of things. Some of what we do is quite factually accurate but not in the terms of the relationship between the two characters. But other than that, Susan Sarandon doesn't look like Doris Duke. We have no idea how Doris Duke really acted, nor do I have any idea how Bernard really acted. I wouldn't have done it if it painted itself as a terribly accurate picture of two real people.
Could you describe how you see it as a love story?
We took some very simple givens. He always remains the servant in our movie but there's a comfort level growing between them. And throughout the movie, we actually watch him getting closer. We watch Doris becoming infatuated with Bernard discovering that it's not going to be sexual but she's still interested. You watch the two fight about three-quarters of the way through and you realize they're like an old married couple.
How did you approach this coming off of The Exonerated, which is a very different film?
Everything I do in my life is kind of like starting all over again. So, I basically set out to make this movie and said, "I don't really know what it's going to be, but I know I have two of the best actors there are, and let's be guided by their instincts and my instincts and let's be kind of flexible here." So we began this movie, and the script ended up going through a certain amount of change as we were preparing to shoot. We're not trying to imitate Doris Duke and Bernard Lafferty, we're trying to follow the instincts of two very gifted actors. That was kind of the rule of thumb for this thing. Two great actors. Let's provide them enough space and enough screen time so that we could really explore what was going on with them on a psychological level, not necessarily on a story level.
What were the difficulties of working with such a small budget?
Well, the difficulty was we had very well-meaning people in all of the technical capacities and only some that were technically proficient. Some of the people in some of the various positions were not very experienced at doing their jobs. We had scenarios where we had to pay more attention and spend more time on some very simple technical things. Normally in a movie where you would have everybody crackerjack ace at doing their job, it's a little easier and a little faster. But on the other hand, we had a lot of people working for us who were passionate to be working on the movie and the technical areas. So it's a little more difficult but we also had a lot of enthusiastic people.
Susan Sarandon said she enjoyed being directed by you because of your understanding of acting. Do you think being an actor affected how you direct, especially in the case of this movie?
Well, I wouldn't say necessarily that being an actor makes you a good director, because it doesn't I'm afraid. But you're aware of what other directors do on movie sets. It does probably give me a little leg up on how to cope with certain situations. I do think every movie is different. It's always important that the actors feel creative and happy.
And you have to create a wonderful atmosphere or a trusting atmosphere in a way that they can feel protected and safe to do their work. But in this case, it was more important than usual because it was only the two [of them]. And also, we couldn't provide any creature comforts. The only thing I could provide the actors with was the feeling that they were free to do their best work and could play and have fun, which they did.
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