Carradine, with his wife Linda, in Cannes, where he came
to attend the Director’s Fortnight for Americana.
2, 3:
David Carradine confesses, talking about his wife Linda, and Cannes, where
these photos were taken: “I was impatient to come to Cannes,because here my long love story with Linda resides.
I came with Linda when she [text cut off]…were married; then, when she was
pregnant, and now, with our daughter Kansas.”
DAVID CARRADINE WAITED EIGHT YEARS TO SHOW HIS FILM “AMERICANA”
At the Cannes Festival,A New and Celebrated Director
The man who was Kung Fu says he is a “woman’s man” and claims he
is the most gifted actor of his generation.
He’s still slim and his face, a bit more hollow, still reminds us of
Caine, his character from the popular television series Kung Fu.
It seems that David Carradine is doing well at forty years old, and not
only physically, since the Cannes Film Festival must have found his film
Americana interesting, as it was presented this year during the
Director’s Fortnight. To talk about his start behind the camera, David
Carradine has chosen a little bar you might call “sorry, but
congenial“near the sea…
Q:
You
directed this film in 1973. It’s taken eight years for it to be
released. That’s a long time, isn’t it?
A:
Especially if I tell you that I shot it in 18 days.
Actually, those eight years can be easily explained. I needed money and
time to edit it the way I wanted to, so I hired out as an actor and I
made 14 movies [including The Long Riders, screened at Cannes
last year]. Whenever I had time, my friends and I would go to my house
to edit
Americana. Just as well I have a good wine cellar!
Nothing more appropriate to raise the morale of the tired troops.
Q:
Military language that works well with your film. Why did
you choose the story of a Green Beret who ends up in a quiet small town…
and rebuilds a carousel?
A:
The idea dates from my film Heaven with a Gun, and my
falling in love with Barbara Hershey. We were inseparable from the first
day of shooting and whenever we could we’d walk in the woods. One day
were seated in our truck, and Barbara, half asleep, was snuggled up
against me. A friend, Richard Carr, remembered this story when he saw us
that way. And that’s all. Since I was obsessed with it, I went to see
him one day, paid him for two months, he wrote “my” story and we went to
shoot it in Kansas.
Q:
There has been a lot of discussion about your relationship
with Barbara Hershey, first that she called herself Barbara Seagull,
believing that the spirit of a seagull that was accidentally killed
during a [movie] shoot had entered her; afterwards because, when she was
giving birth, you played music. Do you still call your son “Free”?
A:
Always, but he wanted to change his name. Now he’s called
Tom.
Q:
Clearly being called “Free” would not be seem to be easy.
A:
Especially, if like him, if you want to be a baseball star.
He seems, from what he tells me, that he gives the impression of someone
who is not serious. I think he wants to be like everyone else.
Q:
Come, be honest, would you like to be called “Free,” Mr.
Carradine?
A:
It wouldn’t matter to me. Doubtless I would be different,
since I believe that names can form one’s destiny. Each name carries
images that are not always easy to bear.
Q:
What images are associated with David, would you say?
A:
I’m thinking about the Bible (that’s easy to understand).
David was the father of Solomon, although for a long time I thought it
was the opposite. And it was funny that Solomon constantly imitated
David: David was a star, Solomon had one; David wrote songs, Solomon
decided to write them too. In a way, a friendly biblical rivalry.
