Original-Cin Q&A: Director Alexandre O. Philippe Dives Deep Into William Friedkin’s The Exorcist
By Bonnie Laufer
One of the more fascinating films being offered at this year’s online Hot Docs festival is the documentary, Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist.
It’s a lyrical and spiritual cinematic essay on the 1973 horror classic, which explores director Friedkin’s filmmaking process, and the mysteries of faith and fate that have shaped his life and filmography.
Linda Blair with director William Friedkin
Leap of Faith director Alexandre O. Philippe — 78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene (2017), The People vs. George Lucas (2010) and Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019) — spent six days interviewing Friedkin about his most famous film, managing to get Friedkin to divulge never-before-heard stories about his filmmaking process. To wit: He literally shot off guns from the sidelines to get startled reactions from his actors.
Our Bonnie Laufer spoke with Philippe about his unprecedented access to Friedkin and how his new-found friendship with the director has changed him for life.
Leap of Faith is among 91 features and 45 short films from this year’s disrupted Hot Docs Festival that will be available for streaming from May 28 on the recently launched Hot Docs at Home TVOD platform, available here.
Original-Cin: You have made documentaries about Hitchcock and Aliens so you clearly love film. But what is it specifically that you look for when you choose your subjects?
Alexandre O. Philippe: Yes, I truly love film. Some would say that I am a film nerd. But as I like to say, ‘I don't choose the subjects from my films, they tend to choose me.’ I think no project has been more fitting than this, because I was not at all planning on making a film about The Exorcist.
In 2017, I was touring with 78:52 the film that I made about the Psycho shower scene in 2017, which was also at Hot Docs. I was at a film festival in Spain for the Spanish premiere and William Friedkin was there getting a Lifetime Achievement Award.
I was having lunch one day at the port and I hear a voice behind me that says, ‘Hey Alex!’ And I turn around, and it's William Friedkin. He says, ‘I've heard so much about you and your work.’ And he then proceeds to invite me over to his table to tell me stories about Alfred Hitchcock.
He took my phone and gave me his email address and told me that he wanted me to send him my film. He later sent me this gushing email how much he loved 78:52. He invited me to Los Angeles to join him for lunch. And from that, he initiated the conversation about me making a doc about The Exorcist and that he would give me full access to everything I needed.
OC: You ended up getting unprecedented access!
Philippe: I knew immediately I didn’t want it to be just a behind-the-scenes documentary. It had to be something a little different. I was interested in meanings and the deeper resonance of film and Friedkin’s process. That's what excites me as a filmmaker, so instead of going over his entire filmography, the plan was to really crack open what it took to make that film and why it was so important.
I wanted to completely crack open The Exorcist and get into his process as a filmmaker. I wanted to talk about art and music and all of these things and not even mention special effects, because first of all, it's been really well documented. But secondly, really who cares? I wanted to get to the heart of William Friedkin's The Exorcist.
OC: You had an epic six-day interview with Friedkin, a journalist's dream I might add. What a gift you got.
Philippe: Not only that, but countless lunches and phone conversations. It really was a gift. He still calls me and we have become quite good friends. I really have no words to express what this is meant to me.
OC: He has divulged so much. I just found it so fascinating and we learn so many things that have never been told about that film. I really loved watching him tell his stories and it was clear that he felt so comfortable with you. Was there anything that you learned that stood out for you?
Philippe: It's funny because we all have this vision of Friedkin being bigger than life, right? I think that any time that you have someone who has that kind of a persona, there are these tall tales that come attached to that.
I think he's definitely, over the course of his career, played on that too. I think at this time in his life, where he probably felt like it was time for him to sort of let his guard down a little bit, to be a little bit more vulnerable, he was happy to cut through the B.S. in a way.
I think that what surprised me, without giving it away, was the sequence about the Kyoto Zen Gardens. What is this connection between The Exorcist and the Zen Gardens in Japan? I found that so interesting and it was a perfect way to end the documentary.
OC: It's a little emotional too.
Philippe: I've seen this film in the theater with people. There's not a dry eye in the house when he ends on this note, because it's just one of those moments that completely took me by surprise. As he delivered that monologue in such an emotional fashion that I knew this had to be the close-up of the film.
OC: What did you do to prepare before making the doc?
Philippe: First, I read as much as I could about Friedkin and The Exorcist. I watched interviews with him and read biographies and anything I could find on him. Then I watched The Exorcist for 30 days and really studied it. I can probably recite full monologues for you at this point (laughs).
OC: Spending all that time with Friedkin must have given you an abundance of material. I can't even imagine what you must have left on the cutting room floor.
Philippe: The editing process was difficult because I had too much great stuff to use.
OC: What you didn't go into detail about, and being a huge fan of the film, I’ve always wondered how it affected Linda Blair as a child? Did she require years of therapy after making this movie?
Philippe: No, quite the contrary. Believe it or not, although everything she was made to do in the film was very effective, it was done in a playful way. I didn't include that, because it felt sort of like behind-the-scenes kind of anecdotes, which are fun but didn’t feel right for this documentary. We did speak about it at length and he told me that, for the real difficult scenes, he would reward her with a milkshake. She got a lot of milkshakes (laughs).
OC: Good thing most of her scenes were in bed so that if she gained weight from those shakes no one would be able to tell!
Philippe: (Laughs) Good point! Friedkin was really thorough with Linda. He explained what she had to do and why it was important to the film. One of the reasons she got the part was because she was already mature, much more so than girls of her age. And sure, she understood things that most kids didn’t.
OC: What do you think it is about The Exorcist that holds up so many years later?
Philippe: It sounds like a trite thing to say, but simply because it is a great film. It's not holding up because of the special effects. It's holding up because it is a spiritual film. And by spiritual, I mean it doesn't matter whether you're a person of faith, whether you're agnostic, or whether you're atheist. It's a film that taps into our human emotions. It's a film about love.
It's a film about what happens when there's someone that you love going through something, and there's nothing you can do about it. It's stepping into guilt and not being able to help the person you love most in the world. In fact, it’s the nuances, the details, and the subtleties that make The Exorcist great.
OC: It most definitely stays with you. I saw it when I was 10-years-old, and it scarred me for life! I still can’t look at images of Blair when she is fully possessed without shivering.
Philippe: Friedkin told me that if he were to remake The Exorcist or make The Exorcist now, he would tone down the special effects. He would not make it the focus of the film. It’s the one thing that still troubles him all these years later.
OC: One thing that really stood out for me while watching this film was his vast knowledge of music, filmmakers, and art, and how he references them all with such ease.
Philippe: He's remarkable. I just love the way he thinks and he has such a depth of knowledge. It's extraordinary. I have had the good fortune to just go visit him, sit back and listen to whatever he wants to say. Pretty amazing.
OC: How did working on something like this and having this kind of access to Friedkin change you as a filmmaker?
Philippe: First off, I got my own sort of personal masterclass. There's no film school that gives you that kind of experience and there's no price tag on a masterclass like that. Also, it's been lessons in life that he's given me. But it's also the level of trust that has been quite astonishing.
One of the things that's incredible is, in the film, we talked about the fact that he actually rejected William Blatty’s (the author of the book) screenplay. It was too far away from the book and he told Blatty that under no circumstances was he going to make a movie using that screenplay.
OC: Yes, I found that quite bold, how he turned down the actual author of the book and was so honest with him about how he felt.
Philippe: On one visit to his home, he went upstairs and he brought me the book that he annotated, and which was signed by Blatty on the day of the release of The Exorcist. The annotated book became the blueprint for the actual screenplay, which as far as I was concerned was like the Bible.
When he first showed it to me I got these chills, literal goosebumps. I asked him if there was any way that I could scan those pages because I would love to show some of them in the film. He said, ‘Just take it with you and bring it back whenever.’ And I, like, had this moment of, ‘Are you freaking kidding me?’
I'm looking at my producer in disbelief. But I took the book and wrapped it in paper and kept it by my side at all times. We had rented an Airbnb for the crew for that first wave of interviews. And I went back there and I'm literally freaking out.
The crew went to get groceries and I stayed in the Airbnb with the book because I was so nervous to let it out of my sight. I actually slept with it. It was a completely surreal experience for me.
OC: So now that you've had this experience, if you could pick another filmmaker that you could just sit with for a week who would you choose?
Philippe: David Lynch. This is sort of off the record but I am working on a Lynch project right now. It's nothing to do with this, but it's a unique Lynch project. There's obviously been a number of documentaries made about him but trust me, what I am working on is nothing, like what you would expect. Stay tuned.