Icons and Instincts by Vincent Paterson

Author:Vincent Paterson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rare Bird Books
Published: 2022-09-10T01:43:23+00:00

My story about The Birdcage used to end there. But it has developed a new wrinkle. I recently read an article in the Huffington Post entitled “25 Years Later, ‘The Birdcage’ Is Hollywood’s Most Monumental Gay Movie” by Matthew Jacobs. In the very first paragraphs of the article, Jacobs states that Robin Williams improvised the now famous “Eclectic Celebration of the Dance,” as written in the recent biography, Mike Nichols: A Life by Mark Harris.

Robin Williams improvised the now famous “Eclectic Celebration of the Dance.”

My stomach turned reading and rereading this erasure of my contribution. I created that piece. I created it specifically for Robin knowing he would “werk it,” and I was elated that he loved it. It wasn’t improvised at all. In fact, knowing that both Robin and Mike were on set to witness my creation of this iconic dance piece for the film and would absolutely correct this misinformation, but are both no longer alive to do so—it was a sickening feeling.

I reached out to Matthew Jacobs, and we quickly unraveled that he cited as fact an incorrect assumption Mark Harris had written in the Nichols biography. When I clarified what really happened and that I had created that moment at Robin’s request, Mr. Jacobs added a correction to his article. Mr. Harris, however, after correspondences from mutual artist friends as well as myself, never responded. This is not uncommon for choreographers. But we’ll dissect this further in the next chapter.

Besides The Birdcage, I had the elation of creating with Mike on one other film, Closer. I got a call from him one day, “Vincent, how are you, my boy? I’m in London directing the film Closer with a brilliant cast, and I’ve run into a bit of a challenge that, for some reason, I can’t seem to hurdle. So I thought of you. Are you available around now?”

“Sure, Mike. What’s the situation?”

“Natalie Portman, who’s a director’s dream, has a scene with Clive Owen in a private room in a strip club. They have dialogue while she’s performing a striptease or lap dance of sorts on a circular couch. It’s a very sensitive scene because eventually, she shows him ‘the goods.’ I was hoping you might consider coming over and helping me with the scene, even directing it with me.”

“Wow. Sure. Thanks, Mike. When? I’m there.”

I flew to London and designed the scene with Natalie and Clive. Mike made some adjustments and then we shot it. Codirecting a scene with Mike Nichols even topped acting in a scene with Catherine Deneuve during Dancer in the Dark. Sharing dinner together, Mike continued to amuse me, discussing a crazy range of topics from heroin highs to Meryl Streep. Mike asked me if I would choreograph/stage a few other general scenes in the strip club as well as cast the girls. Certainly, I acquiesced. When he arrived in the room for the final audition for the strippers, I wanted to surprise him as well as have fun with him. I sat him in a chair in the center of the room and had each sexy female stripper give him a lap dance.

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