He left Czechoslovakia to escape Communism to find artistic freedom. The Czech people worshiped Milos – they adored him, and they gave him everything he wanted for that film. I even wore one of the costumes from that period. I’m not sure if I can explain the difference it makes to be working in a place that’s that many hundreds of years old and to shoot in the same theater where Mozart actually conducted Don Giovanni from the same platform. The way we were shooting it – it was so elaborate, and the costumes and the sets were authentic. With Roy Dotrice, he’d sometimes say “That looks too much like acting! I want it more natural!” And then Roy would do it again, and he’d say, “No! Now you are acting as though you are not acting!” That’s an interesting comment. I don’t know what they were saying – it was all in Czech – but Forman didn’t scream at any of the actors. Ondricek walked with a short cane, and he would swing it and shout and scream at Milos. He and his old friend from school days, Ondricek, the great cinematographer who should have won an Oscar for that picture, and they would have screaming fits – it was really funny. We had Brits, we had Czechs, we had Germans, we had Americans and all of them have to be spoken to in a different way – even though the lingua franca was English. We had to contend with several different personalities and several different approaches to discussing things with actors from different cultures and backgrounds. Our communication was only on the set, ever. He was his own man: It was between him and God, and that was it. I didn’t have anything to do with anybody else on the film – I was separate from them all, because that’s what I thought Salieri would have been like. The best acting comes from when you trust your director to say, “That’s not right – try this.”ĭuring the shoot in Czechoslovakia, we had nothing to do with each other, ever – it was always the film. Some directors talk a good game, but they don’t really know what the fuck they’re talking about. You know that very early in the relationship. There is something that happens between an actor and a director – you know when a director knows what he’s doing. While we were filming Amadeus, if I tried something – if I read a scene, and he didn’t think it was truthful or honest – his expression was “That’s bullshit.” But that didn’t bother me. And if a man like that, who’s gambling like that on you – well, you know he trusts you. It’s what any director does with actors: Can they speak his language? Can he speak theirs? He saw in me that thing that he was looking for in that character. He was very businesslike – he just wanted to make sure there was a clarity in our exchanges and an understanding between us. There was no discussion of the play or the direction or how it was going to be shot or anything like that. But what he saw in me, I think, was someone who understood the role. He’s not a man who does that kind of thing. But then he called me and said he wanted me to do it. It was a British writer, and they always used British actors. Some very famous people came to audition for him – with their own makeup men, by the way. It was a very famous role and a very famous play, and actors from all over the world wanted to do it. We did this audition, and when I was finished, he just disappeared. I still didn’t expect to get the part, though – I just wanted to have the audition material, and to meet Milos Forman. He came into the party and turned around and walked out.” We tried to give him a surprise birthday party once.
F MURRAY ABRAHAM AMADEUS MOVIE
But that movie was unusual – it was a take on life that I just simply responded to. It wasn’t foreign to me, because I’m from the border of Mexico, and I’m familiar with certain classical Mexican movies.
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I thought, “This is a guy I want to work with!” Basically, I’m a comedian, and I loved the sense of humor. The only film of his I knew was Cuckoo’s Nest, but when he was interested in seeing me, I saw Fireman’s Ball, which is really terrific. I auditioned a few times, but I didn’t meet Milos until I had this little interview in his apartment. When I insisted on auditioning only for that role, I didn’t think I had a chance in the world of getting it. But I said, “I want to come in and read for or I don’t want to do it at all.”
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They asked me, along with a whole bunch of other people, to do improvisational scenes around the play, which we all knew because it was famous. I really objected to it because I thought we were as good as any British actors. At that time, British actors were being brought in to do plays and movies, and Americans were brought in to support them. Singer Paulette McWilliams on Her Years With Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, and Steely Danīefore Amadeus, I was making a living and supporting my family – but I wasn’t prominent at all. The Beatles in India: 16 Things You Didn't Know