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FROM IT ALL stars of the high-octane remake The Getaway 
SINCE FALLING HARD tor each other on the set of the 1991 flop Too Hot to Handle*, Kim Basinger, 40,
and hubby Alec Baldwin, 35, have
had a reputation for being difficult. There have
been tales of tantrums, walkouts and them
driving directors to nervous breakdowns.
Now the extremely attractive couple, who married last summer, has remade Sam Peckinpah's 1972 hit The Getaway, then starring on and off-screen duo Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw. And Kim and Alec insist the filming of the action-packed thriller is the best experience they have ever had. Says Alec, who feels he and his wife have been badly treated by the press, "On Too Hot to Handle we had a bad time. We tried to make it a good movie but the studio made it impossible. We were promised things that didn't happen and the feuds and prima donna antics were blown out of proportion. This time around we were allowed to collaborate and we're very pleased with the result." The Getaway director Roger Donaldson, who made No Way Out with Kevin Costner and Cocktail with Tom Cruise, had heard of the terrible rumours surrounding the notori- ous 'B's — Basinger and Baldwin — but he found the couple to be total pros. 
"This was a tough shoot, six days a week in
the Arizona desert. They had just been
through a draining court case [in which Kim
lost $8.1million because a jury says she broke
her promise to star in Jennifer Lynch's Boxing Helena]
and still, even in 124 degrees, I
found them co-operative and committed."
Says Kim of the shoot, "When we started filming, I came straight from the trial and was exhausted and really low mentally. I thought, ' If we can get through the making of this movie, we can get through anything'." She got through it all right. Not only was the filming a pleasant experience but when the shoot finished she agreed to marry her co-star, who had proposed several times during the relationship. "It was the most romantic experience I've ever had," she says of the 'surprise' wedding that Alec arranged. "It was a magical afternoon." "People are people," says Donaldson of his success working with big Hollywood stars. "Stars need friends, people to talk to. It's a lonely place to be and probably they feel it's reassuring when there's someone who is there along with them for the ride and sticks up for them. Sometimes the rest of the world is coming down on them and giving them a hard time and then it's nice to have somebody who understands and is sympathetic to their problems." The Australian director had never seen the original The Getaway and after reading the script, he rented the video. "It wasn't regarded as one of Peckinpah's best movies although it was his most successful one," he points out. "So I didn't feel I was going to remake a classic. I also knew that I could have a hell of a lot of fun with the picture and that I could do a good job with it. I had a good cast, some really interesting characters and the opportunity to do some good stunts and action. Also, when the first film was made the Steadicam didn't exist, and the Steadicam is very much part of my work. I thought I could give the picture a style that was very much my own. We used the Steadicam for 90 percent of the movie." Does he feel that Peckinpah would approve? "Yes, because I feel in my own mind that if anyone ever remade one of my pictures I'd feel flattered that it got up for another round. "There's one distinct advantage to remaking a film," continues Donaldson. "You have a rough blueprint to work from. And what is great is that you can rely upon the strongest elements of the original and improve upon the weaker ones." The biggest change between the two versions is in the relationship between Doc McCoy (Baldwin) and his wife and partner in crime, Carol (Basinger). Basinger persuaded writer-director Walter Hill, who wrote the 1972 original screenplay, to flesh out Carol because "in the original she was just the girlfriend. It wasn't an acting role." "I was a big fan of the original movie," she says, "and I really loved Ali McGraw. But it was just a vehicle for Steve McQueen. I think Ali would be the first person to tell you that the part she played was just the girl. When Alec came to me and wanted me to do the movie with him, I said, 1 love the movie but there is nothing for me to do. The girl doesn't do anything'. "So he went back to the original book and we found a goldmine. We found so much subtext and so much about her character and their relationship, so much about the theme of the movie being trust that had not been developed for the first film." After all she has been through — the court case and the notorious tabloid stories about how crazy and difficult she is — is she still a trustful person? "Oh, I've been a very trustful person," she laughs "I've learnt a lot about that word, okay, and I like to think that i'm still someone who is able to trust people. I've been very naive in the past and I have learnt. I'm more :choosy now about whom I trust." Baldwin had his own reason for doing the remake of The Getaway. "I loved the original and thought it would be a wonderful film for Kim and I to work on together." "We both wanted to work together again," agrees Kim. "We've been through a lot together and the first time around I still loved working with him. He was as professional and as wonderful a co-star as any can have. I have had other wonderful co-stars but he is unusually giving and unselfish. He doesn't have an ego when he is working. Believe it or a lot, but on Too Hot to Handle we had a really good time together. It's surprising for a lot of people to hear that because it was a tough shoot for other reasons. This time around we wanted an even better experience, and that's what we had." How do you keep your spirits up when the press is criticizing you? "I always say, with the help of God and, with the help of a few people around you that you can trust and who know the truth, you get through the hard times. Sometimes it takes the truth a little longer to cross the finishing line. When people start finding out the truth, they all turn around. It's all about time. You have to have patience." Kim made her breakthrough in the controversial and sexually explicit 9 1/2 Weeks, her favourite film besides Batman, and there certainly are sexy scenes in the testosterone-drenched, blood-soaked The Getaway. In fact, the thriller was much too steamy for the audiences at test screenings and it ended up being significantly edited. 
"We did a lot of explicit stuff in the movie and
some of the audience were very uncomfortable
with the hot sex," laughs Baldwin.
"They were squirming in their seats. We shot rolls and rolls of stuff and a lot of that had to be taken out of the film." The scenes still offer plenty of heat but shooting wasn't as much fun as it looks, claims Basinger. "Doing sex scenes are never comfortable. Even though I worked with Alec, it was still difficult. I mean, it's not Kim and Alec, it's our characters. I'm not going to share my bedroom habits, whether we swing from chandeliers or not, with anyone." There were only four people on the set: Kim, Alec, the director and a very flustered cameraman. "Cameraman Jimmy Muro would go down our bodies and when he cut, he would lean against the wall and go, 'Oh! Oh! I've never done anything like that!' remembers Alec, laughing. After The Getaway, he says there will be no more sex scenes for him. "Since I've gotten married I really don't have any desire to do explicit scenes with other women. It has to be with Kim and no one else." The Getaway didn't do as well in America as expected, and as a result Alec doesn't think he and his wife will be doing another picture together for a while. "I think it's a good movie and that it will do much better overseas because Kim's very popular overseas," he defends the film. "You're always disappointed when a picture you have worked hard on doesn't get seen, but since we went into this movie thinking, 'This will probably be the last time we'll do this on film. It gets old after awhile,' we are not worried about not getting more offers to do pictures together." He admits, however, that the dissatisfactory working experience on Too Hot to Handle diminished his enthusiasm for making films. "Now I have it very much in perspective that movies aren't my raison d'etre anymore," says the theatrically trained actor, who has starred in critically-acclaimed plays like Loot, Prelude To A Kiss and A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway. "Until Too Hot to Handle I saw myself as an actor acting in films. Now, making movies is third or fourth on my list of interests. I'm not complaining. The Getaway was the best movie experience I've ever had and I'm really very happy at this stage in my life. It's just that other things are more dear to me than making movies." * This is UK name of this movie. US name is The Marrying Man FILM REVIEW (UK), August, 1994 |