After leaping a bottomless chasm, avoiding spikes in the walls and outrunning a rolling boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark's opening sequence, Indiana Jones loses the golden statue to his long-time rival, René Belloq. Played by Paul Freeman, Belloq is one of Raiders' triptych of antagonists, but whereas the bulk of the villainy is brought by the Nazis, this fallen archeologist strikes closer to home. He and Indy have a past, and find their ideological dispute writ large as they hunt for the eponymous artifact. Freeman's cool Frenchman is a key ingredient in what makes Raiders such an enduring film
Screen Rant recently caught up with Freeman to discuss Raiders of the Lost Ark ahead of its 40th Anniversary re-release in 4K, touching on the famed production and the movie's lasting impact.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a movie that has its own behind-the-scenes mythology as is. But going back to when you first got the script, what was your impression of it? It's very Lucas and Spielberg, but also unlike anything they'd done previously. What was your first thought?
That's right. I wasn't bowled over by the idea of doing it, because I'd just finished making a picture called Dogs of War in Belize and was very happy with that experience. And my wife was in it - or the girl who became my wife was in it. I was got this call to go and see Spielberg in LA, which was really pleasant and I was happy and I was excited. But it wasn't the most exciting thing in my life at that moment, so I was rather cool. I went and had a very good meeting, and then I went off and drove around Arizona with my future wife. Then I got the call saying I got the job.
For Lucas and Spielberg, it was a massive movie. Spielberg was coming off 1941, and there were a lot of budget and time pressures. On set, did you feel the intensity of this movie being a big thing? Or were you just in your own little bubble focusing on your character? How did it work?
There was a different kind of intensity. Because of 1941, the intensity was in the speed with which we had to make it. Steven has spoken about this quite a bit since, but it taught him that you didn't need to take all the time he was taking in making a movie before; that he could work fast without losing the quality. They had all sorts of clauses in their contract between each other, Steven and George, to make sure that Steven came in on time and under budget - which he did. It was a very fast shoot, in the sense that in Tunisia in the heat there, Steven would run between setups. The film crew was the same film crew that I'd been working with on Dogs of War immediately before in Belize, which was hot too - and humid heat. But in Tunisia, they were falling asleep at lunchtime in their food because Steven was just running them ragged. As soon as he said "Cut!" in one set, he would run across the sand to the next set and say, "Alright, I'm here! Next." He drove the thing like a steam engine.
There's obviously the famous story of Harrison shooting the guy with the swords. Were there any of your scenes that you felt were really impacted by the speed of it; anything where it was done more spontaneous than perhaps you expected?
But that thing with Harrison doing the shooting instead of the sword sequence, which was rehearsed, was because he got ill. It wasn't for time purposes. We all got dysentery from Tunisia, working there. I think the only people who didn't get ill were Steven, who had his food flown in cans from Fortnum & Mason, and Howard G. Kazanjian, the producer. Everyone else at some point or other got ill, I think - I'm trying to remember whether Karen got ill. Anyway, I got ill right at the end of the picture. But Harrison got ill when he was meant to do that sword fight that he'd rehearsed the day before, and he just couldn't move that much. If he'd moved, he'd have had a terrible accident. So he said, "Why don't I just shoot the f*cker?" And that's how that wonderful moment came around.
Jumping off Harrison, you and he have such a great on-screen relationship with you playing the warped mirror of him. How was it working with him on set and creating this history? Because there's so much alluded to, but very little actually said in the script.
We didn't get together and invent any backstory, which perhaps we should of rather, but we didn't. It didn't seem necessary; we both liked the script. The script was good enough - not good enough, it was a terrific script. But as for playing between each other, we had such a nice accord of batting stuff backwards and forwards, and mutual respect and everything. I think that just came across; the easiness of it. Although there was a time constraint, there was never any constraint on getting something right. For instance, after the first or second week, Steven decided to reshoot a lot of the second unit stunt stuff, because he just didn't think it was good enough. And they all went away and reshot it without a question. While we were going to start doing the snake pit, he was unhappy with these rubber snakes that they started with - with just a few real ones. He said, "No, no, no. We won't shoot that today. No, we'll get some more snakes," which all came over from a snake farm in Holland in a couple of days' time, "and then we'll shoot it."
One of my favorite scenes in all of movie history is the scene in the valley where he's about to destroy it, and you get that amazing speech about the ark and humanity passing through history. I just want to dive into that: how it was written, how you approached it on set, what direction you were given. I'd love to just learn a bit more about that scene.
I'm afraid I might disappoint you. It's very much the same thing. Steven doesn't give any acting direction - that is, he doesn't talk about [it]. He expects you to have done your research; to have done the background stuff. He's not going to tell you what you should be thinking as a character at this point in time. What he will say while you're working is, "Look right, look left" because he's looking at what the visual looks like. It's the great thing about somebody who knows their job so well. Once somebody who knows their jobs so well makes a choice, then you just go with it. And that was always apparent with him. It would be breathtaking: you'd come on the set, expecting to do a scene which in the script is a small scene in a tent - a small scene between me and Anthony Higgins and Wolf Kahler, which was set in a tent. When I got to the set, it was an enormous valley. It was a construction site. People with donkeys and ladders carrying sand around, as though they were building the pyramids. And that was entirely Steven leading with his vision.
They just started filming Indiana Jones 5 over here in the UK, with James Mangold directing. Have you been following the developments of this movie? Are you looking forward to seeing what they've cooked up? It's going to be quite an interesting movie.
Well, I'm not a big fan of the rest of the movies or the franchise. It doesn't really bother me. It's not my thing anymore.
We're looking back at a movie that came out 40 years ago and has had such an impact. When you hear that movie name, what is the thing you think of? Do you think of the shoot? Do you think of the reception it got? What is the one memory that you take from this movie?
I don't take one. It's a whole lifetime wrapped up in it. I had a dear friend of mine brought up to Tunisia who came with us; got him a role in the thing, he was an architect? I was with my future wife. It was just a great turning point in my life. Apart from its theater, its cinema history, its movie history - which is really important. I think it's changed - though not always for the better - the course of action-adventure films. But for me personally, it was a watershed.
Raiders of the Lost Ark in now available in 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray as part of the Indiana Jones 4-Movie Collection.
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