Excerpt from Day 4 of trial August 4 1989
Gordon Sommers(Director):...what did you hear?
Imperioli: Mr Rothstein made it sound like you were sworn enemies for life after everything that happened on set. Now you're hanging out together, I don't understand
Sommers: Things got brutal between me and Kesston during the shoot, but hey I guess it's that old human thing, once you get what you want, the past is the past. And in the end Michael Kesston gave me what I wanted. His performance was brilliant
Imperioli: That made up for everything?
Sommers: Hey we're all a bunch of weirdos who want to explore the human condition and the meaning of life by playing dress up and racking our brains raw for a way to show people something new, something they don't already know. Simply put, we're all crazy. You tie a bunch of crazy people together for several months and crazy things are going to happen. I've heard of directors pulling cocked and loaded guns on actors and luckily I didn't have a gun on the set, at least not a real one, and there's always a part of me that will hate Michael Kesston but I believe there's nutrition in hate. It's like the broccoli on your plate when you're a kid. It did help that after we wrapped he explained some of his antics on the set
Imperioli: Did he now. Care to share?
Sommers: (Laughs)Geez I'm just starting to get along with this guy
Imperioli: That's fine. He'll get his turn. We appreciate both your attendance. We weren't expecting either of you. Having you two show up and literally knock on the court room door was a welcome surprise. I think I speak for the prosecution too when I say we appreciate the different angles you can give us into clearing up this matter
Sommers: Oh it is not a problem. I don't want my work to hurt anybody. But I'll tell you this was all Michael's idea. I'm used to people putting the blame on me. I think I'll throw someone else under the bus this time. Who better right(laughs)
Imperioli: What do you mean people put the blame on you?
Sommers: I'm the mad genius right. I'm the crazy artist in control of all the pieces. Is it a cliché that directors are control freaks? Yes. Would I describe myself as a control freak? Yes. I can be obsessive. I know every reason why someone would hate me. But you know how people are
Imperioli: How's that?
Sommers: Both easy to piss off and easy please at the same time. It's okay to tell an actor to shut up sometimes. But pleasing people, the audience I mean, is part of my work. It is my work. And people talk. They want something to comment on just to show they have an opinion. They'll see your movie and say a little something about it then move on with their life, never talk about it again. To make something that is someone's life, as much as movies are my life, that's my goal. That's my dream
Imperioli: I think it's admirable, to want to please people for a living
Sommers: Well I want to help them to understand
Imperioli: Undertsand what?
Sommers: People can be a mystery. Nobody understands everything about them, and if they think they do they're wrong. Movies show us what we don't already know about people, a good one will. Racism, bigotry, mistrust of others, it's all like lazy writing. You just let it happen because it's easy. But I think we can help. I really do
Imperioli: What if I were to call you a teacher? The same as a school teacher, but on a bigger scale?
Sommers: Sure. We directors, we all have a subject we're obsessed with. A filmmaker spends his whole career making the same movie over and over. It's like something we can't escape. A curse. I'll admit I have my own curse. There might be different actors and the details about the story might vary but it's pretty much the same idea. It's the same as having a type with women. You're intimate with a woman for the first time and most people get hooked on that type for life. It has to be something psychological about why a movie maker gets so attracted to a certain subject matter, something in their background, something about their childhood or other. He keeps trying and trying and sooner or later he gets it right. It's perfect. Just what he was trying to say with every work before it and now he's said it and everything before and after it is just a shadow of it
