a) Memories of an earlier near meeting.
Ridley wanted to work with Jon Finch on the Duellists, he sent the script to the agent who Jon had just left and so received no response
Jon was doing a film with Roger Vadim on "Une Femme Fidèle down in the Loire Valley on, and Ridley found found that they were staying in the same hotel when he was working on the Duellists.
When Ridley saw Jon about Alien a couple of years later, he told him about that time "I was staying in the same hotel as you"
Jon replied "Why didn't you say hello?"
Ridley responded, he said "Because of the fact I had sent you a script, I thought "Sod him why should I talk to him""
Of course, the agent hadn't sent the script onto Jon
b) Letting go of Jon Finch
John Hurt had been asked if he'd like to do Alien, but he had already committed to the South African film, so that was dropped.
So Ridley approached Jon Finch to play the role as he had been impressed by his work for Roman Polanski's Macbeth. Ridley was impressed both by the work of Polanski and Job Finch.
So Finch had been cast as Kane, and on the very first day on the bridge, Ridley noticed that Jon started to look extremely pail that day. H R Giger wrote that this even took place on July the 4th when Jon Finch would be found to be sick again and then taken to hospital
Ridley went over to Jon and said "Do you feel alright?"
Jon said "No, I feel terrible, in face, I feel really bad. How do l look?'"
Ridley replied ''Terrible.''
And so he revealed to Ridley "I'm a diabetic"
c) Brian Johnson's slightly different memory of the event
However Brian Johnson remembered that Jon Finch when into the sculptors place to have his life mask done and of course he hadn't told anyone he was diabetic but while he was having it done, he passed out, perhaps he had gone into a diabetic coma and there he was with two straws sticking out of his nostrils, they said to him "Okay Jon?" and there was no response.
Ridley wanted to work with Jon Finch on the Duellists, he sent the script to the agent who Jon had just left and so received no response
Jon was doing a film with Roger Vadim on "Une Femme Fidèle down in the Loire Valley on, and Ridley found found that they were staying in the same hotel when he was working on the Duellists.
When Ridley saw Jon about Alien a couple of years later, he told him about that time "I was staying in the same hotel as you"
Jon replied "Why didn't you say hello?"
Ridley responded, he said "Because of the fact I had sent you a script, I thought "Sod him why should I talk to him""
Of course, the agent hadn't sent the script onto Jon
b) Letting go of Jon Finch
John Hurt had been asked if he'd like to do Alien, but he had already committed to the South African film, so that was dropped.
So Ridley approached Jon Finch to play the role as he had been impressed by his work for Roman Polanski's Macbeth. Ridley was impressed both by the work of Polanski and Job Finch.
So Finch had been cast as Kane, and on the very first day on the bridge, Ridley noticed that Jon started to look extremely pail that day. H R Giger wrote that this even took place on July the 4th when Jon Finch would be found to be sick again and then taken to hospital
Ridley went over to Jon and said "Do you feel alright?"
Jon said "No, I feel terrible, in face, I feel really bad. How do l look?'"
Ridley replied ''Terrible.''
And so he revealed to Ridley "I'm a diabetic"
 |
| Jon Finch as Kane |
c) Brian Johnson's slightly different memory of the event
However Brian Johnson remembered that Jon Finch when into the sculptors place to have his life mask done and of course he hadn't told anyone he was diabetic but while he was having it done, he passed out, perhaps he had gone into a diabetic coma and there he was with two straws sticking out of his nostrils, they said to him "Okay Jon?" and there was no response.
So one way or another, they got the medic there,
they had to lift him out of the seat and carry him to a dressing room
where he was checked up and taken to hospital to findout out that it was
an extreme case of diabetes and that was the last they saw of Jon Finch
for Alien.
As far as Ridley could make out, Jon had been drinking too much coca-cola and had not been taking his insulin. Brian understood that because he hadn’t declared his diabetes on his insurance, the company couldn’t go on using him.
As far as Ridley could make out, Jon had been drinking too much coca-cola and had not been taking his insulin. Brian understood that because he hadn’t declared his diabetes on his insurance, the company couldn’t go on using him.
Jon Finch would reveal years later, he actually was suffering from
a case of pneumonia, and that he had a bronchial attack that he never had again
d) Peter Beale's concerns
Peter Beale, the UK executive in charge of production for Fox meanwhile was very concerned about it and expressed that concern to the main offices, wondering if the production should continue because Ridley's first film The Duellists lacked commercial success and so did not warrant full confidence
e) Michael Seymour's delight
Curiously Michael Seymour seemed to Giger delighted by Jon Finch being taken ill because he imagined that this meant three more days to build the set.
d) Peter Beale's concerns
Peter Beale, the UK executive in charge of production for Fox meanwhile was very concerned about it and expressed that concern to the main offices, wondering if the production should continue because Ridley's first film The Duellists lacked commercial success and so did not warrant full confidence
e) Michael Seymour's delight
Curiously Michael Seymour seemed to Giger delighted by Jon Finch being taken ill because he imagined that this meant three more days to build the set.
Roger
Christian would acknowledge that Jon Finch had done three days of
filming before he was taken ill, and that Ridley was using incense
smoke being puffed around with a bee-puffer which caused a problem for
Jon Finch
Source Quotes
Source Quotes
- (11:21 / 00:11:40) Ridley: John Finch had been cast as Kane, and on the very first day on the bridge which we're about to come to, the scene that we're about to come to is the first time on the bridge, apart from the tracking shot, I did the tracking shot first and I noticed that he started to look extremely... he didn't look well, I didn't ask him, (00:12:00) I thought he was just naturally pale that day, we got into, I think the first slate, and I did er action and then cut when I went over to him and said "do you feel alright?" and he said "No, I feel terrible", he said" in fact, I really feel bad", and so we got the medic there. They had to lift him out of the seat, and carry him to a dressing room where he was checked up and taken to the hospital to (00:12:00) finding out that it's an extreme case of diabetes and er, that's in fact was the last of Jon Finch for the Alien and er I had to literally reconvene at lunchtime thinking about who we could get and I knew that John Hurt was in London, so I pitched to John and er, went and saw John Hurt that night and cast him that night. He was there at the studio the next morning. (Alien commentary from Alien Quadrilogy DVD and Alien Anthology Blu-Ray combined)
- Ridley Scott: I had cast Jon Finch, who was Polanski's Macbeth, as Kane. First day, first shot, Jon Collapsed. I talked to him, he said, "I'm a diabetic..." He had gone yellow and couldn't get up - we had to lift him out of the scene. He was fine, but he had to recuperate. He hadn't taken his insulin and was drinking too much Coca-Cola. That night we looked at the book and came across John Hurt who I have always liked. (Empire November 2009 p109)
- Ridley Scott: I
think it is known that there was another actor originally playing
that part, Jon Finch, who became ill, and we had to recast. Probably
identified at that moment very strongly by playing Macbeth for Polanski.
I'd been impressed by Polanski's work anyway, and also by Finch.
He said ''Yes, l'd love to do this.''
He came on board.
The first day, the first shot, he starts to look as yellow as this pencil.
I thought ''God, what's wrong?''
We did a couple of takes and he seemed absolutely lacklustre, no energy.
We cut, and l got up and went over to him
and said ''What's up? Are you all right?''
He said ''No, l'm terrible. I feel terrible.''
He said ''How do l look?''
I said ''Terrible.'' We had to lift him out of his seat, and he was carried away, and it turns out that he was a diabetic. (Alien Quadrilogy Documentary) - Brian Johnson: We started off, and we had – Jon Finch was the character that John Hurt took over. And Jon Finch went into the sculptors place to have his life mask done, and he hadn’t told anybody he was a diabetic, and he had to discover while he was inside his life mask. And he actually passed out. And they went, okay John, and there was no response. And they got the ambulance out there and dragged him out. Because he hadn’t declared that on his insurance, the company couldn’t go on using him. So we had a 2 week period – we’d been filming on the interior of the Nostromo, in the cabin. The set was probably 4 or 5 feet higher than how you see it on the film. Because Ridley was shooting, in 2.35 or whatever it was, I can’t remember the format now. It was letterbox, anamorphic. He couldn’t get the roof of the set, and the actors and everything else in. He was getting really frustrated. John Finch was out and they had to wait two weeks for John Hurt to come on board, and in that time they got a saw and cut four or five feet out of the set, to make it neat. (http://www.originalprop.com/)
- Brian Johnson (31:14) I don't know if you remember, but originally, erm, John Hurt's character was played by Jon Finch, did you know that, oh right, well Jon Finch was contracted to do the... to do the show and they took him down to the plasterers shop to do the life cast and he hadn't told anybody he was diabetic and he went into a diabetic coma in the cast just with two straws sticking out of his nostrils erm and they had... he had to be rushed off to hospital and as far as I remember, because they had to wait for John Hurt to start, that was the time when the set was changed, the dimensions of the Nostromo interior were cut down by three or four feet so Ridley could get all the ceiling bits that were hanging down in the shot because of using the format we were using, a lot of the stuff was out of the top of the frame so, um he used it to his advantage. No questions about that. And we got John Hurt who was superb (Alien Makers 2)
- HR Giger ; Jon Finch the main actor, is sick again and had to go to hospital. Michael Seymour is delighted because this gives him at least three more days to build sets (Giger's Diaries, July 4th 1978, p81)
- Shadowlocked: Did you have anything to do with Finch's initial casting as Kane in Alien?
Roger Christian: No. But I'd constantly seen him and kept up with him. He looked really ill [on the Alien set]. Despite what the books and the other sites say, he actually did three days of shooting.
Shadowlocked: Most places say that he only did one shot - even the Quadrilogy documentary, which includes the shot where he looks so unwell.
Roger Christian: No, he did more than that. But the smoke, after the first two or three days…Ridley loves smoke, and that was when we were using the bee-puffer, the incense smoke. At that stage, that was really upsetting him. Plus there was the diabetes, as it transpired. But no, he did more than one shot - he was there for the first couple of days. He was really trying, and he looked great, actually, as the character. And then he got so ill he just couldn't carry on, and Hurt just took over and Ridley didn't have to re-shoot that much; just the parts with [Finch].(http://www.shadowlocked.com/) - Note, there was a video or article online where Jon Finch suddenly revealed that he had Pneumonia but that seems to have been lost in the past.
- Jon Finch: The first time I nearly worked with him was on, er, the Duellists, which was his first picture and, erm, he sent er, er, he sent the script to my then agent who I just left, and I was doing a picture with Roger Vadim down in the Loire Valley, and he told me this, couple of years later, when I saw him about Alien, and he said, "I was staying in the same hotel as you", and I said "why didn't you say hello", he said "because you hadn't replied to my, the fact I had sent you a script, I thought "Sod him why should I talk to him"" , so he didn't talk to me because the agent hadn't actually sent the script to me, so I lost out on Alien, then we did, erm, er, on er the Duellists , sorry. Then we did Alien, and I did, erm, I think about three days on that, plus all the xxx with the chest and the neck, head and all that stuff you know, and erm, after three days, I had an extremely bad bronchial attack the first time in my life, never happened since either, and ended up in intensive care, and I had to take two weeks off after that, so, you know, a loss there, they couldn't work it, so sadly I missed that one and er, and John did it, John Hurt did the, you know, and the whole thing, I wanted the, especially when the little bastard who came out of the stomach you know, I thought I knew all about this, working at it for ages, you know, and he was sold, the little alien was sold, I don't know maybe forty or fifty thousand dollars recently, you know, anyway, that was it, that was the first time and the second. (Alien Quadrilogy: Jon Finch sets the record straight)
- (In response to David J Schow picture of John Finch on Facebook) Charles Lippincott: Wow, I was just talking about him tonight! Peter Beale, who was the UK Exec in Charge of Prod. for Fox, was worried and concerned about Ridley Scott and Alien because Jon Finch diabetes raged out of control and he had to be replaced by John Hurt. Beale was really concerned about it and expressed that concern to the main offices, wondering if the production should continue as Ridley's 1st film was not a tried and true blockbuster to warrant full confidence. (Facebook Saturday 2nd May, 2015)
No comments:
Post a Comment