“Successes, failures and other delusions”: director Ed Zwick talks about life in Hollywood

If you were making a film about Ed Zwick, the Oscar-winning producer and director of several blockbusters, the first act would almost certainly have the American Film Institute in Los Angeles as the backdrop. This is where, in the 1970s, in his twenties, Zwick realized that he was out of his depth and had to quickly start learning from his peers.

“It’s very practical, it’s right at the end of the pool,” he said. “And your other students, or colleagues as we call us here, will actually become your teachers.”

This is something he has never stopped doing throughout his 40+ year career. During that time, he directed some of Hollywood’s brightest films: Denzel Washington (“Glory”, “Courage Under Fire”, “The Siege”), Tom Cruise (“The Last Samurai”), Brad Pitt (“Legends of the Fall”). , Leonardo DiCaprio (“Blood Diamond”) and Daniel Craig (“Defiance”) and barely Julia Roberts, who had agreed to star in Shakespeare In Love, then dropped out without a word, shutting the film down for years.

It’s all told in Zwick’s new book Successes, Failures, and Other Delusions (Gallery Books) – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Working in Hollywood.

“It’s a crucible,” Zwick said of filmmaking. “And in the crucible, things explode between artists. There’s actually something beautiful about that, and often something very good comes from that. But I wanted to tell it as it was.”

Zwick and his producing partner, Marshall Herskovitz, have been in that crucible since they met as students at AFI, forming what they call the longest partnership in Hollywood history.

“We like to make epic movies, big movies,” Herskovitz said. “But we also believe that people can achieve epicness in normal life.”

This is what they tried to achieve with their first TV series “Thirty Something”. They didn’t think the series would last one season, but it ran for four seasons, winning 13 Emmy Awards.

“We were really interested in the contradiction, the contradiction of being married, the contradiction of your job, you want to mess around but you have to work hard. All the contradictions of life. That bothers people,” Zwick said. “A lot. People often wanted a direct, straightforward depiction of life. But that’s not life.”

While filming Thirtysomething, Zwick got his hands on a script about a group of black soldiers from Massachusetts during the Civil War. “Glory” was a sensation.

But the on-screen battles were matched by behind-the-scenes battles with Matthew Broderick’s mother, who Zwick says fought for the director to expand the role her son was playing, that of the white commander of an African-American regiment. It was an early lesson for Zwick about when to compromise, and when to stand your ground.

When asked about navigating the world as a creative and learning when to strive for something and when to realize it’s not worth it, Zwick responded: “I don’t know if this is appropriate for CBS television, but there’s a poem by E. Cummings. And the last line of the poem is: There are some things I won’t eat. But this also suggests that there is such a world will He eats. And having to make that decision is really critical.”

Herskovitz said of Zwick’s films: “People cry in those films. They’re moved by the film. They remember the film. But in order to deliver a visceral experience, you have to bring a lot of things together. And I think that’s what Ed does brilliantly.” You have to have a great story, and you have to have a great sense of casting. Then you have to know how to deal with these very special people who are going to go out there and be the face of this movie. And I think in the book he talks very eloquently about the different ways you have to deal with different people.”

If the movie about Ed Zwick had a villain, it might be Harvey Weinstein, who ended up buying the “Shakespeare in Love” script that Zwick had lovingly developed, then barred it from getting to the microphone on the Oscar stage when it won Best Picture. picture.

Watch: Ed Zwick barely gets a word on the Oscars stage:

“Only in Hollywood can you end up feeling bad about something you’re supposed to feel really good about,” Zwick said. “But it turned out to be very important to me later on. It wasn’t necessarily about fairness. It was about working hard and knowing what you’ve done, and then moving on, and you’re going to get beaten.” “There is a harshness in this job that you have to accept in terms of the ups and downs of what happens. What do you do next? Do you get back up? And can you keep going?”

Read an excerpt: “Successes, Failures, and Other Delusions” by Ed Zwick
The award-winning director and producer recounts four stormy decades in Hollywood, which included a fake TV newscast in which he bombed Charleston, South Carolina.

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The story was produced by Anthony Lodato. Editor: Remington Koerber.