Billy Williams - Elizabeth Taylor: The perfect professional (65/172)

To listen to more of Billy Williams’s stories, go to the playlist: • Billy Williams (Film-m...
Born in London in 1929, cinematographer Billy Williams shot more than 40 high profile films throughout his career, being nominated for an Oscar for ‘On Golden Pond’ and ‘Women in Love’, then winning the Oscar for ‘Gandhi’ in 1983. He received an OBE in 2009. [Listener: Neil Binney]
TRANSCRIPT: Many times in my career I've had to work with... with beautiful women who are in their 40's and they want to look 10 or 15 years younger, and... and you have to do it by a combination of good make-up and hair, the right wardrobe, choosing the right lenses, diffusion, but principally the lighting, where you put the light, and since those days... you know, once I started working with... with very well known actors and actresses who, you know, wanted to look right, I would make a point of... of when they were... say the... during the test, the day of tests, going... going into the make-up and taking a little lamp with me and talking to them about how they would like to look and what was their best side, and anything they were worried about, with the make-up person present, just the three of us, and I'd move around with the hand-held lamp and see what happened with the light in different directions. It's amazing just how much you learn about the different configurations of the face, the good points, the bad points, the good side and the bad side that's not so good.
So I'd kind of make... keep mental notes of... of where was the best place for the light to be and so that whenever one started to get in close, I'd make sure that they had the best possible light. Sometimes when you're in wide shot you can't maintain that degree of... of finesse because you have a lot of other considerations as well. So that usually as.... because particularly with someone like Elizabeth [Taylor], when you're getting closer you re-light the shot a little bit, take a bit of time to improve things, and that's... well, it was in those days, accepted as... as being important because she was the money, she was selling the picture. So it was... it was really great fun working with her. The other thing that... that I... really impressed me about Elizabeth was that, although she might come on the set rather late, she knew exactly what she had to do and we would do one... one final rehearsal once she came on set, and then we'd shoot and take one would always be perfect. She was absolutely spot-on with her lines, her marks, whatever props she was handling, whatever the timing was, it was absolutely spot-on and she would carry on being perfect for about three or four takes. Now if she was playing a scene with someone who took some time to warm up, as some actors do; not... not all actors hit it first take, some actors take three or four takes before they really get into it and then it starts to happen. But, of course, if you're in a two shot and... and you've got one actor like Elizabeth who's there from the... from the first moment and someone else who's not, it can be a bit of a problem.
But we didn't have that because we had Michael Caine; he... he's always good. You know, Michael's very, very dependable and consistent. But we also had a smaller part actor called Billy Dean who'd been a... a stand-up comic and he'd never appeared in a movie before, and they cast him as a police inspector and he has quite a few scenes with Elizabeth, and he couldn't always get his lines right and he'd got one line that he had to say... he was... he was sort of enquiring about someone and he... his line was: 'How old was he, would you say?' And he couldn't get it right and he kept saying: 'How old was he... would you say... how old was he, would you say he was?' He just couldn't get this line right you see, and in the end it became a bit of a laugh, but, of course, it didn't help Elizabeth, but one gets around it by cutting. But she was a delight... and I was later to do another picture with her where she was... she was equally good fun.

[@stephaniestanley8041]

I once read a remark from a photographer about Elizabeth..."wherever the light fell, it composed beauty." Her face was symmetrical.

[@spockboy]

Great story teller. He looks like Beatles producer George Martin's brother.

[@bh8365]

Billy Williams has so many stories. He tells them so well.

[@eddingtonmcclane6963]

Williams’ voice is the perfect sedative-hypnotic.

[@stephaniestanley8041]

Agreed. He is wonderful.

[@wadedavid4375]

Remember going to see Night Watch, when it came out in 73. Always liked it!

[@jjmboston5832]

So glad to hear that. You may think someone as beautiful as Elizabeth would be so difficult to work with her.

[@teeniebeenie8774]

love him, great stories, blessings !

[@zyzzyvacation]

Billy filmed two Liz Taylor films: "X, Y and Zee" (1972), with Michael Caine, and "Night Watch" (1973), with Laurence Harvey.

[@billslocum9819]

Delightful story, but Mr. Williams has Bill Dean in the wrong film with Taylor. He was Inspector Walker in "Night Watch" from 1973 with Taylor and Laurence Harvey, not "Zee & Co." with Michael Caine.

[@TimothyJonSarris]

Seems more and more it's done with diffusion of the lenses.

[@user-fu4lo9bf7z]

I am transfixed

[@robertbates6249]

is he Sir George Martin's brother??

[@morganwhite2176]

Can you imagine… he is speaking about women in their 40’s as if they need reconstructive surgery to look decent. Not all 40 year olds look 40.

[@TheRavenal]

No, but they want to look 20 or 30

[@bigred8432]

He is talking about woman who wanted to look younger. Not his opinion of them. Their opinion of themselves. Did you even watch the video?

[@morganwhite2176]

@@bigred8432 No need to be belittling. Everyone has a right to an opinion.

[@bigred8432]

@@morganwhite2176 It's not any more belittling than yours was. You can have an opinion, of course but you are incorrect in relation to this video.. He is literally talking about how certain stars wanted to look a certain way, he's done the same in his other videos. And he always talks about he was accommodating and tried to make them comfortable.

[@morganwhite2176]

@@bigred8432 You are rude. It’s ok for you not to see it. You don’t know me at all and I wouldn’t address a stranger the way you did but each to their own.

[@carlrosa1130]

I don't understand one thing - WHY ARE THEY LATE? They are paid $millions to pretend in front of a camera. There are dozens (if not hundreds) of people waiting to work...why is ONE person entitled to be late?

[@brianobrien7983]

Just ask their agent, manager, lawyer, publicist, personal assistant, driver, trainer, personal chef, masseur, astrologist… the list goes on and on and on…. When one person has that many people on their payroll they believe the are deserving of every single concession they get.

[@carlrosa1130]

@@brianobrien7983 Well, there's a SEVERE flaw in that argument - the driver, trainer, personal assistant and publicist are paid by the movie/production. Just to be clear - Is your actual argument that if they pay a manager, astrologer and personal chef to do their job, the entire rest of the entire crew can wait on them for as long as it suits them?? Using that belief, then the director, investors, director of cinematography, Executive producer, other big-wig actors can all do the same and work will never, ever get done....and you would actually defend that behavior. Wow....

[@flagler88]

The producer is the boss and they want star value and a return on the investment and will indulge actors (to a point) to get that, simple Hollywood math

[@carlrosa1130]

@@flagler88 Clearly, they go long past 'to a a point.'

[@markwoldin162]

She may have been consistent, but Taylor was not a great actress.

[@bhaj4588]

Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf East of Eden Suddenly Last Summer Cat On A Hot Tin Roof Giant Besides, her humanitarian efforts more than compensated for any flaw she may have had.

[@markwoldin162]

@@bhaj4588 You are actually making my case for me. There isn't a single film you named that wouldn't have been improved by someone else having done her role. I greatly admired her for many reasons but her acting chops were not one of them.

[@bhaj4588]

@@markwoldin162 I know. That is exactly what I said.

[@jonldn]

I often wonder why people post a negative comment for no reason other than to say it. He was obviously saying what a professional she was .

[@markwoldin162]

@@jonldn To make conversation. There is a codenin Hollywood that I am not a part of as I am a million miles away from it. Billy Williams says many negative things, but win a catty or subtle way. Also please keep in mind, mr. London, when saying something negative one might be saying something positive. When a second-tier actor gets a prime role that means a great actor did not get the role. So if Madonna has the power to force herself to be the lead innovita that's ruining the movie and preventing someone like Meryl Streep from doing the role should we not point it out?