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| 05/03/2002 - Updated 03:15 PM ET |
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'Unfaithful': Adrian Lyne Thursday, May 9, 2 p.m. ET Can a marriage infected by infidelity, deceit, guilt and anger find a way to recover? That's the question director Adrian Lyne explores in Unfaithful. The film, which stars Diane Lane, Richard Gere and Olivier Martinez, opens May 10. Chat with director Adrian Lyne, who describes Unfaithful as "an erotic thriller about the body language of guilt." Coming from the director of Fatal Attraction and 9 1/2 Weeks, you know this one's got to be hot. Adrian Lyne's other directorial credits include Jacob's Ladder, Flashdance, Indecent Proposal and Lolita.
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Comment from USATODAY.com Host: Adrian's doing a photo shoot that's running a little late -- he'll be joining us as soon as he's done. Please stay tuned.
USATODAY.com Hostess: Thanks for joining us, Adrian. Many of your films have dealt with adultery and its sometimes dire impact on marriages. What is it about this particular topic that you find so compelling?
Adrian Lyne: I've always liked relationship pieces, and obviously sex is part of that. The interesting thing is that you can make a film like Fatal Attraction, that's over 2 hours long, and a minute of it is sex over a sink, but that's all that people remember. I've always liked making movies where you can put your feet in the shoes of the actors and recognize yourself. If it's a recognizable situation, then it's that much more involving. This particular film I loved was called La Femme Infidele. I inevitably wanted to loosely base this movie on that one. In that film, for example, you barely saw the lover.
Some said that Fatal Attraction was a moralizing ending, but that was the last thing on my mind. In this film the ending is ambiguous. As one of the characters says, affairs tend to end up badly.
Alexandria, VA: I love the way you film New York City. Why is New York the setting for so many of your movies?
Adrian Lyne: I just love to be there. I have a place in Tribeca. I love the energy, all the cliches. It's a place I go to call Cafe Noir, which is kind of a French cafe is Soho, which is like my local hangout. When you go to a place regularly, you look at it in terms of shots. So I used it, because I loved the light and angles of it.
Los Angeles, CA: The sex scenes in Unfaithful are pretty sizzling. Did you ever get embarrassed or uncomfortable during the filming? What about the actors?
Adrian Lyne: I've always thought that actors kind of want to know they're looking good. Their main source of vulnerability is that their bottoms and breasts are looking good. I always had a horror of a couple going at it in total silence, and I'm quite vocal in my encouragement, so they get a sense I'm almost doing it with them (not literally, obviously). When I'm cutting the scene, I notice my encouragement helps. You can see their confidence building. I've also got a horror of the filmmaking process: screaming for quiet, the clapper, etc. It creates an atmosphere of fear. I put the clapper on at the end so there's no mini-drama. If you're doing a sex scene, the less you stop them the better.
San Francisco, CA: How did you decide to cast Olivier Martinez? He is SMOKING hot.
Adrian Lyne: Oh, good.
I'd seen him in The Horseman on the Roof, and he was also in Before Night Falls. I tested him with Diane, and they were very sweet together. In the end, I cast a couple and their chemistry. I was really worried, because I didn't want him to be the cliched French lover. He made it fun because of the gestures and the accent. He made something of the role that an Anglo Saxon wouldn't have done. It made her going crazy for him more believable, since he was so different from Richard.
Austin, TX: I've always loved your smoky film style. Do you consider that your signature film "look"? Do you always use the same cinematographer?
Adrian Lyne: No, I've done three films with Howard Atherton, but I don't always use the same person. I always use smoke in the atmosphere because it changes colors, but I'm wary of filmmakers who insist on doing the whole movie from a crane, for example.
Pittsburgh, PA: I read that you changed the ending of this movie. Did you also change the original ending of FATAL ATTRACTION? Why did you do that?
Adrian Lyne: The original ending of Fatal Attraction was flat dramatically. Some have said it was a marketing decision, but that's not true. We found this other ending of Glen Close turning up in the house which works better than the original. In this particular case, the studio wanted me to do a heroic ending, and I went to the studio and told them I wanted to do a more ambiguous ending, which treats the audience much more intelligently.
New York, NY: It's interesting that you chose Diane Lane for the lead, since she virtually vanished from the big screen for many years. What was it about her that made you cast her in the role?
Adrian Lyne: She was wonderful in A Walk on the Moon. I was actually in France and saw the movie, and found it interesting that she's a very erotic actress while being very nice at the same time. She's sexy without being hard and tough. She's likable as a mother and a lover.
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