Steven Soderbergh names the most memorable movie of his career: “I was terrified”
Having made so many movies in so many genres over so many years, you’d think that asking Steven Soderbergh to single out one production as the most memorable of his entire career would be like asking someone to pick a favourite child.
After all, since his breakthrough narrative feature, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, shook up independent cinema and claimed the Palme d’Or in 1989, he’s helmed a further 36 films, not to mention his work in television, or his behind-the-camera contributions to other filmmakers’ work, never mind his extracurricular editing activities that he does for nothing more than shits and giggles.
Along the way, he’s touched base with almost everything cinema has to offer; whether it’s drama, comedy, romance, espionage, thrills, spills, horror, biopics, period pieces, or experimental efforts that test out new and rapidly evolving technologies, Soderbergh has left very few filmic stones unturned.
He even became one of the few names, and the first since 1938, to compete against themselves in the ‘Best Director’ category at the Academy Awards when Traffic and Erin Brockovich went head-to-head at the 73rd edition in March 2001, with the former winning him his first, and so far only, Oscar.
With that in mind, it would be easy to assume that the crowning achievement of his professional life would rank as his single most memorable undertaking, but that’s not the case. Instead, Soderbergh pointed to one of his lightest and breeziest projects, because he was concerned that he’d bitten off more than he could chew.
When asked the aforementioned question by Shivani Vora, he only had one answer. “Ocean’s Eleven,” Soderbergh replied. “I had never attempted anything on that large of a scale before, and I was terrified. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to execute it. The cast made the movie. It was a unique group of people who made a lot of practical jokes. They put me at ease with their humour.”
Even though he had ten films under his belt, which included several Oscar nominees and the one that won him ‘Best Director’, as well as other acclaimed efforts like Out of Sight and The Limey, Soderbergh maintains that being handed a studio-sized budget and wrangling a corral of A-listers together for a remake of the ‘Rat Pack’ favourite was his most unforgettable experience.
It’s easy to see why, though; he’s right in saying that he’d never mounted anything on such a grand canvas, and the sheer star power of the ensemble added more pressure than he’d ever been accustomed to. Of course, he didn’t need to worry that he couldn’t pull it off, since Ocean’s Eleven cleared $450 million at the box office and launched a lucrative franchise.
As the law of diminishing returns set in across the two sequels, it became clearer that the opening instalment had captured lightning in a bottle, and perhaps feeling less pressure than he did the first time around contributed to Twelve and Thirteen falling short of expectations.
