Ridley Scott is known to fascinate audiences with his unique storylines and spelling magic from behind the camera. Every Scott-directed movie has been fictional, or partly based on real-life characters.
The filmmaker is known for his work in films like Blade Runner and Alien. While those movies did not score highly at the time, are known to be classics in the current era.
In conversation with Fede Alvarez for his Director’s Cut podcast, the ace director shared that one of the executive producers on the film asked him, Why won’t he make movies about normal people?
While talking to Alvarez, Scott went on to reveal, “There’s only one film worked out of all of that lot.’
He went on to explain, “But they’re pretty good first four movies. So I knew I’m on the right track. But somebody at one of the studios said to me, ‘Why don’t you do a film about normal people?’ I went, ‘What the f— does that mean?’ Because no one’s normal unless you’re totally boring, right?”
Scott stepped into the movies at the age of 38, where his directorial debut, The Duellist, was released. While the movie did fine at the box office, the filmmaker opened up about the challenges that came his way.
He explained, “I was 38 and realized I hadn’t done a movie, so I had enough money to find a writer, pay him, pay for the book, et cetera. And so from that, we got a prize at Cannes, where the first film went. Pretty good. But the studio here made seven prints. So my producer is David Puttnam. I said, ‘Is this normal?’ He said, ‘No, it’s not.'”
He continued to reveal that Alien had been a fan favorite of many, but Blade Runner cost him a lot. He shared that the film critic, Pauline Kael, destroyed him over the review she wrote for the movie.
The director claimed that the film reviewer “destroyed Blade Runner in four pages. I didn’t even meet her. To me, it almost walked in the column of industrial espionage, because you’re destroying a product before it’s out.’
Meanwhile, Scott’s recent release, Gladiator II, is nearing 2000 on the box office after being declared a super hit.