Australian director Peter Weir captured the hearts of his A-list audience at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday by telling a myriad of previously untold stories about some of his greatest films, including The Truman Show, Dead Poets Society, AND The Year of Living Dangerously.
The six-time Oscar nominee spoke at the Venice Tennis Club to a crowd of fans who hung on every word he said, particularly when Weir revealed an intimate encounter he had with 25-year-old Mel Gibson and 32-year-old Sigourney Weaver in the 1982 romantic drama.
“I was very interested in doing a first-time love story, and it was Mel Gibson's first time doing a first-time love story,” Weir revealed. “And Sigourney's first time doing a first-time love story. So we got to the scene where they were supposed to kiss, and neither of them had ever kissed, so they were like virgins on screen.”
Weir confessed that when they rehearsed the scene, “it was a terrible kiss.” “I took Mel aside and said, 'Mel, what's wrong? You're pushing too hard.' He said, 'No, that's not me, Sigourney's pushing too hard.'” The director was forced to take matters into his own hands, assembling some of the best kisses in cinema, including Hitchcock's.
Mel Gibson in 'The Year of Living Dangerously'.
MGM/Courtesy of Everett Collection
“[But] Mel, I think, was right. Sigourney was the one pushing too hard. So I said, I went to Sigourney, I said – forgive me, Sigourney, if you ever see this – and I said, 'Sigourney, the only way I can know what's wrong would be to actually kiss you,' but the DGA, the directors' guild, wouldn't allow that, nor would actor equity. 'But I wonder if you could kiss my hand so I could feel the pressure.' Well, we ended up laughing. And laughing was the way we did the scene. We all relaxed about it. The Year of Living Dangerously.”
Weir spoke about the “trust” he built with Jim Carrey and Robin Williams in their respective films The Truman Show (1998) and Dead Poets Society (1989). “When I first met Jim, the first meeting, he was very nervous in his house,” Weir begins. “… I said, 'I think maybe [your character] he could do little things in the mirror. And he was like, 'Yeah, let's go to the bathroom. Come on.' So we just met, we ran down to his bathroom, and he grabbed the soap and was doing a funny little act in the mirror. And this was 10 minutes after we met.”
“With Robin, I said, with him, 'Let's see how low you can go. You're very full and big in your comedy. But I think maybe you just raise an eyebrow and there'll be a little bit of laughter in the room. Just look at the little things. Let's see how small we can go. But don't lose your charm.' So there was trust.”
Weir is the recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at this year's 81st Venice Film Festival.