Malibu resident Ed Harris, director, star and producer of the film “Pollock,” made an appearance at the New Malibu Theater Friday night for a special screening of his film.
Harris was nominated for an Oscar for his role as artist Jackson Pollock. His co-star Marcia Gay Harden was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the artist Lee Krasner, who married Pollock and whom many believe was an impelling force behind Pollock’s success as a painter.
After the screening, Harris waited patiently in the lobby, head down, to enter the theater. He answered questions from an appreciative audience, who gave him a standing ovation.
Harris describes the journey of making the film as a “long saga” that started in 1986 when his father sent him a biography of Pollock with the artist’s photo on the cover. His father said he, Harris, resembled him.
In the early ’90s, Harris himself started painting in mixed media. Of his work in the film, Harris said, “I wasn’t trying to mimic him, I was just trying to understand what it’s like to be a painter.”
An artist painted all the pre-drip paintings used in the film, deconstructing them, particularly a mural that he is seen painting in the beginning of the film, allowing the actor to follow guidelines. Harris said that in other shots, especially while executing the “drip” paintings, he was just “trying to paint a picture I liked.”
Answering a question about what was the most painful part of portraying Pollack, Harris said that it was “painful making the movie” itself “because it was really hard. Low budget, long hours, everyone was working for peanuts.”
A continuing pain for Harris is the “running around [publicizing the film] to make up the money spent.”
Deciding what part of the painter’s life to focus on was another difficulty for Harris.
“There’s an awful lot of information available,” he said. “It’s a two-hour film. [I ] got rid of what wasn’t important, winnowing away to what was my particular vision.”
As for the preparation for the part of Pollack, Harris said, “The solitude, isolation, the deep fears” that Pollack suffered from — “being truthful with that” was painful.
“He had the emotional maturity of a 14-year-old. He was an outsider,” explained Harris. “Then he found this thing, a way to express himself. He was desperate for recognition and approval, yet opened himself up to ridicule.”
Many actors play despicable characters (Hannibal Lecter comes to mind) and portray personalities that are not even close to their own. However, Harris said, “I wouldn’t have done the film if I hadn’t been drawn to him.
“There’s a part of him I like a great deal,” said Harris. “I have a great empathy for him. There’s a part of him that was intolerable. People fled from him. He was mean, so unhappy.”
But “the guy tried, pushed through a lot, [but] what painting is worth a life?” said Harris, referring to a girl’s death that Pollack caused, in addition to his own.
As for switching careers, Harris said he decided to direct this film because he didn’t want anyone who had a different vision to direct it. He said that if something came up again that caught his imagination, he would consider directing again.