Mike Nichols told Alejandro González Iñárritu not to make ‘Birdman’
The 2014 black comedy-drama Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, was one of the most widely-acclaimed films of that year. It starred Michael Keaton as a faded Hollywood actor known for playing a fictional superhero called Birdman, who tries to gain artistic credibility by putting on a stage adaptation of a Raymond Carver short story.
Amazingly, however, Iñárritu was almost convinced not to make the movie after the legendary director Mike Nichols, famed for his movies such as Charlie Wilson’s War, Working Girl and The Graduate, tried to put him off the project. Iñárritu had been discussing his meeting with Nichols in a Director’s Roundtable for The Hollywood Reporter.
At one point, Tár director Todd Field said to Iñárritu: “I read somewhere that when you were doing Birdman – I have to ask you about this because we’re here and I won’t be able to ask you about this again – which is you met with Mike Nichols, and Mike Nichols said don’t [it].” Iñárritu laughed before detailing the story.
He said: “We were about to shoot. Two weeks before we started shooting, I wanted to have the advice of Mike Nichols for comedy. It was my first comedy; I didn’t know how to do it. We were in rehearsals in the St. James Theatre, and I went to Mike Nichols to have lunch between rehearsals.”
Naturally, Iñárritu wanted to seek out some advice from someone more familiar with the comedy genre. He continued: “I started saying, ‘Mike, we are doing this film with one shot, with these actors, this crazy idea’. He was drinking a martini with the olive and just looking at me. At the end, when I finished the concept, he just got the olive [and said,] ‘Alejandro, you should stop now. You are running to disaster; this is a complete disaster.'”
It’s a wonderful image to think of Nichols sitting over the table from Iñárritu sipping his Martini with a blank expression before ripping into the concept of Iñárritu’s film. Iñárritu went on: “Literally, my slacks were shaking. ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘A comedy is made on cutting; you cut from one place to the other for the reaction of the people. They hear the joke; you have to cut to the close-up. These actors are not comedy actors; they know nothing about theatre.'”
Fair points from Nichols, even if slightly cruel. However, Iñárritu stuck to his guns, although the meeting with Nichols gave him the insight he needed – even if it was not what he had originally bargained for. “He started giving me all the points of a genre he knows very well, and he was absolutely right,” Iñárritu admitted. “So I was terrified at the end of the lunch; I didn’t know what to do. So we had a hug, and I said, ‘Thank you very much for your advice.’ I went back to rehearsal, and Edward Norton said, ‘How was it with Mike Nichols?’ He was so excited. I said, ‘It was great, it was amazing.'”
It’s most likely that Iñárritu hadn’t wanted to upset the apple cart of his actors and so kept the actual details of the meeting with Nichols to a minimum. However, Nichols’ advice was imperative to Birdman’s success. “I appreciated what he said because he put me on a red alert; suddenly, my awareness of the possibilities raised,” Iñárritu said. “I knew it was possible. He verbalised it, so I needed to put much more effort, so I appreciated he was so honest with me, and it was great. But it was terrifying to have that blessing from Mike Nichols.”
