The only actor Stanley Kubrick allowed to improvise
There’s no question that Stanley Kubrick is one of the greatest directors in cinema history. The filmmaker made 13 feature films during his career, including the stunning 2001: A Space Odyssey, the darkly comic A Clockwork Orange, and the thrilling cult tale Eyes Wide Shut. Kubrick possessed a rare genius, although this often came at the expense of some of his actors.
It’s a well-known fact that Kubrick mistreated Shelley Duvall on the set of The Shining, overworking her to the point of severe mental and physical exhaustion. Kubrick often went to extreme lengths to achieve his desired aims, earning a reputation as an extreme perfectionist. However, there was one actor Kubrick was more relaxed with – Peter Sellers.
After collaborating on Lolita in 1962, playing Quilty and his disguise, Dr. Zempf, Kubrick reunited with Sellers two years later for Dr Strangelove, where he was subsequently trusted to play three roles. While his supporting role in Lolita, adapted from Vladimir Nabokov’s incredibly controversial novel of the same name, was unforgettable, his role in Dr Strangelove came to be career-defining.
According to film writer and biographer Alexander Walker: “One of the people Stanley admired unreservedly was Peter Sellers. First of all, Peter Sellers was mad. Stanley was in awe of him. He could do things that Stanley couldn’t do, like act. Stanley couldn’t write, and he couldn’t act. He could re-write, but he could never act. And he was always in awe of people who could give him performances, particularly performances that were not in the script, who could add something to a character that even Stanley had never anticipated.”
Believe it or not, the intensely meticulous filmmaker allowed Sellers to improvise many of his scenes, allowing the comic’s natural ability for humour to elevate his work even further. Kubrick’s long-term collaborator James B. Harris explained: “During rehearsals, we did a lot of improvisation, but Stanley created scripted improv. We recorded the improvisation and had the best of it typed up—so that you were no longer doing improv, you were doing scripted material based on improv. Stanley never did any improv other than with Peter, but he was sensible enough to realise that when you hire actors, you’re hoping that they bring something with them.”
Harris also revealed how Sellers shaped his character’s direction in Lolita. Initially, Dr. Zempf was written as Sellers in drag, however, “We started to rehearse it, and Peter said, ‘You know, I think we’re over the top with this.’ So Stanley and Pete got together and created the character of Dr. Zempf, with a German accent.”
It seems that Kubrick found everything he needed from an actor in Sellers. With Dr Strangelove, the pair made what is widely considered to be one of the greatest comedies ever made, earning them both Oscar nominations.
