Cinematographer John Seale Talks Turning Down ‘Furiosa’ and Capping His Career With ‘Three Thousand Years of Longing’
John Seale was considering retirement a decade ago — then fellow Australian George Miller convinced the cinematographer to shoot “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Now, their partnership continues with the fantastical romance “Three Thousand Years of Longing.”
During production, Seale decided the two-hander, starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton, would be a “fascinating” film to cap his career, electing against reuniting with Miller for “Furiosa,” the filmmaker’s upcoming “Fury Road” prequel, which is currently in production.
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“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” Seale recalled. “George said, ‘Well, I’m not going to ask you to do it.’ I thought to myself, ‘Ah great, now I don’t have to go through it all.’ Then he said, ‘I’m going to invite you.’ That one word — ‘invite’ — changed the whole thing and made it even harder.”
Seale has been a studio filmmaking staple since the 1980s. He earned an Oscar nomination for lensing “Witness,” his first Hollywood feature, and later won for “The English Patient.” Now at the tail-end of nearly five decades as a cinematographer, Seale finds his new life “liberating,” traveling with his family to places like Machu Picchu and the Galápagos Islands. But his work still finds a way back to him.
“One of the greatest compliments you can get is your granddaughter ringing and whispering in the phone, ‘Papa, guess what we’re watching in school! ‘Dead Poets Society,’” Seale said, mentioning his work with Peter Weir.
In a conversation with Variety, Seale detailed his working relationship with Miller, reflected on his illustrious career and explained why he stayed out of retirement to shoot “Three Thousand Years of Longing.”
When did you decide that “Three Thousand Years of Longing” would be your final feature film?
I went for a long time without work, deliberately, until I was asked if I would be able to take over work on “Fury Road.” I worked with George before on “Lorenzo’s Oil.” I really enjoyed his visual effects and him as a person, so it didn’t take much for me to decide to do it. I knew that “Fury Road,” with so much pre-production, was going to be a pretty damned iconic film. I really wanted to make a good one to go out on.
But then you made another movie!
Well, I was high. “Fury Road” is a big movie. I’d been missing those little films with two or three actors and a small number of people. I told George, “If I’m not too old, give me a ring and we’ll have lunch.” He said it’d only be two years, but seven years later I’m doing the movie. It didn’t take much to talk me into doing it. He’s a lovely man.
I read that “Three Thousand Years” shot with a Fujinon Premista 19-45mm lens — a new piece of technology.
We were so privileged to be presented with that. We actually designed a shot around that. The quality of it that I found so lovely was it didn’t take away from the incredible crispness in the way that the digital negative can, but it somehow softened it to a point where it almost looked like a really good old-fashioned film lens. I loved it for that. They very graciously took it back and finished their press junket and then they gave it back to us for the last six weeks of shooting. We were able to use it all the time — it could’ve rusted into the camera, to be honest.
Which shot was designed with the lens in mind?
It’s a big wide shot in the castle, with the Princess being lifted up on the next balcony and then going on with the djinn ending up in the skylight. It was a long range shot, where it did have to combine crane movement with a zoom.
The film features some very snaky tracking shots. How were those conceived?
George has a very comprehensive list of storyboards that he follows very closely. It’s very rare to go off that line. Our challenge was to find the equipment that could hold the shot, but also be able to move through very small doorways with a Steadicam. Those shots are always built in the past — easy to draw because a pencil is cheap. To actually put it on film sometimes becomes quite a technical nightmare. But George was really happy with it.
You two are both Australians who came to Hollywood in the ‘80s. Have you bonded over that?
It’s a subject that often comes up. I’ve been asked a lot how Australians all seem to do well in the industry. For us, there’s nothing too hard. If the director wants something that’s nigh impossible, that’s the challenge. The other answer which I’ve fallen back on is that maybe it’s something they put in the beer, which I told Michael Keaton when I was doing “The Paper.” Whether it’s the first answer or the second, maybe it’s a combination.
I read that George Miller offered you “Furiosa,” but you turned him down.
He was very lovely, but I still had to pass on it. We’ve got some beautiful grandchildren. I want to spend time with them. I didn’t have much time with my children because I was always overseas; I regret that in a way. I’m nearly 80! It’s time to move over and let the young blokes in. Let them have a beer and go make a movie.
Looking back on your career, there’s one story that I have to ask about. I’ve read that you expended more film shooting James L. Brooks’ “Spanglish” than on any other production. Is that true?
It’s absolutely correct. I think I got three bottles of champagne from Kodak. We get a bottle of champagne every 100,000 or million feet of film — something like that. Jim’s got a way of shooting that’s his way. He regularly went 30, 40, 50 takes and we kept rolling afterwards. A lot of the footage was just wasted stuff, but it went through the camera. You’re going to really chew into the film if you do that. But that’s a fascinating film, absolutely.
When asked which of your films is your favorite, you’ve said that you like to say “the next one.” Since you don’t plan on doing another feature, I want to pose the question again.
Well, that’s awful! Look, I don’t think I ever really had a favorite. Saying that was a good way of saying, “Hopefully the next one is going to be my favorite.” Now I can pull back. They were all different and I’m so glad they were — medical films and lawyer films and futuristic films. I was asked to do the whole gambit of subject matters. They’re all my favorite.
“Three Thousand Years of Longing” hits theaters on Friday.
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