We did a series on television called An Age of Kings, which were Shakespeare's history plays. He came in as this young hopeful actor to play hotspur and he was absolutely fascinating because he was this raw Scotsman who hadn't done any acting of that type before. He was wonderful, though. I've known him socially since then, so it was a nice treat to work with him in the film. Sean's a terrific guy and so is Harrison. I know it may sound po-faced to say this, but they're real actors, not pastiche actors or showy actors and just as good as any of the other major actors who do more 'serious' work. I don't know if Donovan was a nice man, but not many people can say they shot Sean Connery!
Indymag: Were there any changes in the script? There were several occasions when all the acting of it was me, rather than anybody else, but I didn't change the script. There was one wonderful time when Sean Connery changed the script, added something in the script which remained in the film and he did it whilst we were doing the first take of this scene and we just all fell on the ground with laughter. Steven said we will keep that in and we'll do that, this is as follows. In the scene where it is revealed that I am the bad man‌ when the two of them are standing here together (makes motion), their arms tied back to back and their talking about the girl. Sean said "of course, she's German" and Harrison said "How do you know?". It's not in the script. Sean just said "She talks in her sleep!". (laughs) Harrison's face was a picyure because this was the girl he was living and sleeping with and it was his girlfriend! It was 21 Indymag March 2015
simply fantastic. We all died with laughter and that's the reason why Steven is so wonderful. It sounded very funny in English because of his strong Scottish accent. Indymag: What about your final scenes? That's amazing. It took three days to shoot that from the minute the cup touches his lip to when he falls to the ground and turns into dust... You'd do it in a computer workshop now, that whole sequence, but this was done frame by frame. I think we started three months before shooting, with a model of my face, and they worked on that, making me look older and older and older. And, of course, the hair at the back looks like it's growing at a thousand miles an hour. They did that the other way around. They pulled the hair up and shot it in reverse, so you see it going down. Frame with me getting older it is what it is. And after a certain point, I turned into a skeleton but I couldn't do that. I'm not that good an actor! Two hundred years in one second. They chucked lots of stuff out from what they filmed. The sequence is a warning, isn't it, don't every drink from the golden cup. [Laughs] But it was a very exciting sequence.
Indymag: Would you have liked to change the way you played Donovan and were you happy with Donovan's ending? Would you have preferred he showed his better side and ride off into the sunset with Indy and company? No to the first question and, yes, very happy to the second. I