Kinsey is out on DVD & video on 11th July 2005 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
QUESTION: What is the appeal of playing real life characters like this one in Kinsey?
LIAM NEESON: It always comes down to script, that's what it's about for me and I think most actors - script, script, script. Also I've been a big fan of Bill Condon's from Gods And Monsters. I was on the jury of the Deauville Film Festival a few years ago when it came out, and I honestly had never seen a film like that, certainly not a film like that that was made in America . It was just inspiring, and it was a biopic as well. I was impressed with just how he told that story. And finally Ian McKellen coming through on screen in the most delicate, gossamer thin performance. It was huge but so delicate and nuanced. I was a big fan, so when I got the script, knowing it was Bill Condon I was kind of already committed to it.
QUESTION: What about your research into the man?
LIAM NEESON: There was any amount of research to do. Bill Condon had a research team and they sent me a bucketload of stuff. There were four biographies of Kinsey, two of which were kind of unreadable. The book that Bill based the script on, Sex: The Measure of All Things, was very good, very well written and I thought really got into the complexity of the man. It didn't seem to have an attitude against Kinsey or against his research as some of the books and pieces and periodicals most certainly did. You had to hold them at a distance, you could smell it, they were just corrupt with hate that someone would dare do this kind of research. But Gathorne-Hardy's was terribly good and insightful. And then I spent some time at the Kinsey Institute in Bloomington , Indiana . I think they were a bit wary at first because they've had instances of people coming in to do documentaries and saying one thing but then making a programme that just demonised the institute as well as Kinsey. They were a little bit wary but then they saw that myself and Bill and Gail Mutrux, the producer were determined to tell the story, which is their story too. To cut a long story short we did get access to files and tours of the university, visited his house. The very sweet people [who live there] let us see it and walk through it. So all of that gives you a wonderful foundation.
QUESTION: Do you think this a film that could only be made today?
LIAM NEESON: It seems to be. I believe that 15 or 20 years ago there were a couple of scripts on the go, but they didn't work. There was one I read that was written as a kind of weird comedy - with sex jokes - which was so not right. And of course it didn't get made.
QUESTION: But isn't there a conservative mood in America now?
LIAM NEESON: It is, but you know, we're getting an audience. And if I say it myself we've had reviews which range from very good to ecstatic. I kid you not. I haven't read one poor piece on the film, mind you I haven't read the Midwest . I'm sure there's a couple of bummers there.
QUESTION: Has there been any resistance to the subject?
LIAM NEESON: I haven't encountered any. There was a circular sent round when we were shooting in a place called Plainville in New Jersey . We picked up this flyer that said 'Kinsey is a paedophile, he did this and he did that.....' all slanderous lies. And they went on 'attend a rally today at.........' and they gave the name of the street we were shooting in. About an hour later there was five very sweet old people gathered. We fed them lunch. They were terribly charming, and they were there making their protest and walking round. I thought there was going to be thousands of people throwing stones.
QUESTION: Were there any personal threats?
LIAM NEESON: I wasn't aware of any. I think people got on the internet and we all look at it and think that millions of people are seeing it. I know there's a section of American society that's ultra conservative and fundamentalist.
QUESTION: It's interesting the Internet research might have helped Kinsey?
LIAM NEESON: But then we might not have heard of him. That was his great achievement, devising this one on one interview. ABC television in America was funny, I did a socio-political thing for them before the film came out. They did a sex survey, and I asked how they did it and they said they called 5000 people. Right. And they're going to tell you the truth over the phone, right? That was the beauty of what Kinsey did, it was absolute eyeball to eyeball. I had these conversations with audiences, with Gore Vidal about a week and a half ago, who knew Kinsey. In fact Kinsey took his sex history, a couple of times. As erudite a man as he is, as gifted a speaker and an intellect, tried to get something of the magic of sitting down with this nerdy scientist. And how he just opened himself to him. Knowing of course that it was all totally confidential, but that he was a contributor to human knowledge just by sitting down and talking to this man. He elicited the same response from bricklayers, pimps, drug addicts, judges, the whole realm of American society seem to have had that same response to and from Kinsey. That they were contributors. A lot of them left the hotel room where he met them elated, that something had been taken off their shoulders or that their lives had changed in some way, forever, for the better. Something magical happened. The Kinsey Institute has three or four research assistants who know the questions but it's not been handed on. That method of research is over.
QUESTION: You have an Irish sense of reserve, which is in contrast to Kinsey. How do you go about telling your own kids about the birds and the bees?
LIAM NEESON: I just said ask your mother. Kinsey was terribly reserved though. His co-author, Paul Gebhard, is still alive and a very sprightly man of 87. In all the years he ever worked with him Kinsey always addressed him as a Gebhard and never let him in emotionally. Yet Gebhard could see he had this huge sentimental side. Kinsey would sometimes tell his team about some poor little Mexican guy who was locked up in prison for statutory rape, a 17 year old girl that he was going to marry. This man was locked up for 10 or 12 years, saying that his mother had him at the age of 16. In his community that's what people do. Kinsey would be relating this story and would be holding back floods of tears. But he had this reserve and I suppose I was able to tap into it.
QUESTION: Did you have any concerns about the motel scene with Peter Sarsgaard?
LIAM NEESON: It's part of the work as a whole. I might have been concerned if it had been a lesser actor than Peter. He's a mate, and I've done a movie with him before so all that side of the filmmaking process was very comfortable. And the scene of course was terribly necessary. We didn't want to shirk the fact that Kinsey was bisexual. He was very confused at an early age. And even though the scene is an invention, they did have a relationship, but the scene is an artistic invention in our film. But it wasn't an issue. We were shooting so many scenes every day, and that was one scene we didn't want to cheat on. To give it it's full time to choreograph it right and make it real, make it realistic too.
QUESTION: What was the length of shoot, and the budget?
LIAM NEESON: I think it was under $11 million, shooting in Manhattan and New Jersey , by Hollywood standards that's nothing. We shot it in 37 days. I think Laura was attached to the movie first, then me and then we tried to set a date. First off it was going to be March 2003, then it got moved. As usual with these independent films the last tenth of money doesn't show up and suddenly you're back to square one. Somebody doesn't sign a cheque on that Tuesday and everything's held up. So March became May, and May became the end of July when we eventually shot. By that stage Laura and I were having to turn down work. It was getting critical, if we didn't start by the end of July, I have to earn some money. But it worked, it came together.
QUESTION: Is sex a hot topic still? Do you agree that sex equals power?
LIAM NEESON: It seems to be. I was just reading the other day that there are 50 to 70 million people in American who would classify themselves as evangelical Christians. That's 40% of George Bush's vote. And the issue that made them come to the polling booth was nothing to do with Osama Bin Laden or terrorism, it was the prospect of gay marriage and the abortion issue. Sex related issues, which Bush went after. Sex research in America has had to go underground. Adultery is still outlawed in 10 states. Oral sex within marriage is still outlawed in some States.
QUESTION: What were your own experiences of sex education?
LIAM NEESON: It's something I don't want to get into. My parents were wonderful. Did we all see stuff written on toilet walls? Of course. And there's a feeling of guilt from looking at it. My Mum and Dad did their best, but I remember my Mum reading something and getting terribly embarrassed. Kinsey was out in the open, he tried to practice what he preached. I'd listen to tapes of his kids who are now old people. It sounded the most healthy loving family and family upbringing. They were devoted to their Dad and he was to them. Their problem was they just didn't see enough of them because he was on the road all the time taking these sex surveys.
QUESTION: Was Kinsey a tragic hero?
LIAM NEESON: I think he's kind of a tragic hero too. A tragic pioneer.
QUESTION: Were there discussions over the ending of the movie?
LIAM NEESON: I think the film requires that [as in finished film]. We shot an alternative ending before that, of Laura and I sitting on a park bench after the interview with Lynn Redgrave. We're just like a normal older couple sitting there and Laura notices some bird in a tree and says 'oh my God look it's the Mexican motmot, we haven't seen one up here north of the border. And I'm saying 'that's not a motmot - God it is'. It was a lovely little scene, but when it was put onto the end of the film it was just not uplifting enough. It wasn't big or grand enough, you know.
QUESTION: There are rumours that we might see you playing Lincoln ?
LIAM NEESON: Well, you know, I'm supposed to hopefully do that this time next year. We're just at very early stages. Steven Spielberg wants to tell this story, the making of the Civil War and what it did to America.
QUESTION: Might the film touch on his sexuality?
LIAM NEESON: Well this book has come out and I haven't read a script. It's interesting though that the man who wrote the book upon which the script is based was one of Kinsey's research assistants, [Dr] Clarence Tripp. It's two degrees of separation. But we'll see what happens, there's many a slip twixt cup and lip.
QUESTION: What with that and Kingdom Of Heaven there are a lot of strong roles coming in - so this must be a good time for you?
LIAM NEESON: I've had a good year. It's feast or famine. Last year was very good. But I've nothing lined up at the minute. That's the way it is."
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