How Stanley Kubrick saved Albert Brooks’ life: “You will not understand what I’m saying, but you must believe me”
If Stanley Kubrick calls to tell you how much he loves your film, then you know you’re onto something, and that’s precisely what happened to Albert Brooks. It was an event that would play great significance in his mental well-being.
Brooks had come through as an actor in the likes of Taxi Driver and Private Benjamin. He’d also taken the directorial reigns on his debut, 1979’s Real Life, 1981’s Modern Romance and 1985’s Lost in America, but it was Modern Romance that would play a significant part in Brooks’ sense of self-belief. The comedy romance movie starred Brooks as well as Kathryn Harrold and Bruno Kirby.
Brooks plays a Hollywood film editor who is working on cutting a science fiction film whilst caught up in an intense relationship with a bank executive. However, the film was not well marketed and suffered at the box office, leading Brooks to doubt his abilities as a filmmaker. That was until Kubrick stepped in with some advice.
In a profile piece with Esquire, Brooks opened up on the impact Kubrick had on his life, following on from Modern Romance. “He saved my life,” he said. “I was so depressed; I didn’t understand the movie business; I didn’t know what was happening”. Kubrick then gave Brooks some invaluable advice.
The legendary director told him: “This is a brilliant movie – the movie I’ve always wanted to make about jealousy. You will not understand what I’m saying, but you must believe me: The studio decides before the movie is ever released how it’s going to do. It has nothing to do with you.”
In another interview with IndieWire, Brooks noted: “Stanley Kubrick found me and phoned me after I did Modern Romance — it was like the President calling. Kubrick said, ‘You’re going to blame yourself, and it has nothing to do with you. Releasing a movie has nothing to do with you; it has to do with a corporation.’ Essentially, if a movie doesn’t open well because no one has heard of it, I’m not supposed to sit at home believing I was on a level playing field.“
Kubrick’s kind words were “a big deal” for Brooks, and he followed up by asking for a look at his next script, Lost in America. However, the filmmaking icon’s suggestions were not up to scratch. “They were terrible,” Brooks noted. “I said, ‘Gee, Stanley, I don’t know…'”
It wasn’t long before the two cinema heroes’ relationship soured, and they fell out. Brooks said of Kubrick: “Everything about him points to a genuine obsessive-compulsive disorder. I don’t care who you are: You can’t do a hundred takes over and over. You never would’ve seen Sinatra in a Kubrick movie – ‘Take what? What’re you, fuckin’ nuts?'”
Still, Brooks largely owes his life and his career to Kubrick, even if just for that brief moment of kindness when he taught him a valuable lesson about the nature of the movie industry. Sometimes, films are not destined to be successes, even if they’re of good quality, and Kubrick played a central part in Brooks’ very existence.
