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The “desperate” request from Jackson came less than two years before his June 2009 death, Landis told the Star, at a time when Jackson was hoping to revive his stagnant career.
“I went and met with him, and he asked me if I would do another film with him and he was so disfigured by then, it was so grotesque what he had done to himself,” Landis said from Los Angeles.
“He had no nose! It was like the Phantom of the Opera! He wore a little (nose) piece. I was so horrified. You look at the cover of “Off the Wall” (his 1979 album): this was a good-looking guy!”
Landis said he already knew that Jackson had gone “completely crazy” at some point after they had teamed for the award-winning 1983 “Thriller” music video, because he’ had worked with him again in 1991, directing Jackson’s “Black or White” video.
“I still liked him, but he lived on another planet.”
It wasn’t until Landis met him again in 2007 that he realised just how much more damage Jackson had inflicted upon himself through excessive cosmetic surgery. It is believed that Jackson had a dozen or more nose jobs alone in the decades of his death from cardiac arrest at age 50 in 2009, although he admitted to just two such procedures.
“Just that self-loathing . . . he bleached his skin! He was a black guy when I met him! I found him such a tragic figure. I liked him, but I was heartbroken and truthfully I couldn’t figure out a way to shoot him (for a new film).”
Jackson tried to persuade Landis to work with him, offering complete creative control, but the plea didn’t work.
“He wanted to do whatever I wanted . . . he felt he had done good work with me and he just was desperate. He clearly was not in good health.”
Landis (62) made the Jackson revelations during an interview to advance his July 18 Toronto visit for the “Animal House” reunion at TIFF Bell Lightbox.
The 1978 frat-boy comedy, which Landis directed and which made the late John Belushi a movie star, was the first of a string of hits by the Chicago-born filmmaker, who also helmed “The Blues Brothers”, An American Werewolf in London and Trading Places.
Based on the title track of Jackson’s record-breaking 1982 “Thriller” album, the video was an immediate smash upon its December 1983 release, despite having a running time far exceeding the three-minute standard for pop tunes and videos.
The “Thriller” video would go on to win many awards and “best video ever” accolades, including a 2009 admission by the Library of Congress to the National Film Registry, the first music video to be so honoured.
A 45-minute documentary “The Making of Thriller”, produced in 1983 by Landis and also co-starring him, would go on to reap sales and awards kudos of its own.
Landis first met Jackson after the pop superstar had seen his 1981 comedy-horror hybrid “An American Werewolf” in London. Jackson was impressed by the werewolf faces created by the film’s Oscar-winning make-up man Rick Baker, and he wanted to do something similar with Landis and Baker. At that time, Jackson’s desire to look grotesque was make-believe, not reality.
“He just wanted to turn into a monster,” Landis said.
“I realised immediately that, gosh, this guy’s celebrity is so gigantic, instead of doing a little needle-drop video, a classic music video, I would much rather make a theatrical short, a ‘two-reeler.’
“And I thought that hopefully we could use Michael’s celebrity to bring back theatrical shorts, because I love shorts.”
But Landis discovered that even a Michael Jackson project could hit a roadblock. Walter Yetnikoff, then the president of CBS Records, objected to the US$500 000 proposed budget of this “vanity video,” because regular music videos at the time cost between US$20 000 to US$50 000 to make.
“Walter Yetnikoff literally said, ‘We’ve made all the money (from the Thriller album)’, and it was a union shoot and very ambitious. I wanted the dancers to have at least a week’s rehearsal, that’s expensive.
“The make-up call at that time was the biggest make-up call in history, although I think that (record) has been passed. We had like 40 make-up artistes. It went big! . . . We were able to raise the money by selling “The Making of Thriller” to Showtime, which was a brand new cable channel.”
Landis says he has mostly fond memories of Jackson, even though he ended up suing him and later Jackson’s estate for US$2,3 million he felt he was owed from “Thriller”’s immense success. The suit was settled last year for an undisclosed sum.
“On ‘Thriller’, I think I was never paid. I own half of it. My deal was with Michael’s company and Michael’s company was mismanaged. . . . I mean, I just received my ‘Thriller’ money — or I should say my 30 percent ‘Thriller’ money — last year. It was finally settled. I was suing him for 14 years.”
Landis had just turned 33 when the “Thriller” video was released, just eight years older than Jackson, yet he felt a lot older than him.
“It was like dealing with a gifted 10-year-old. He really was childlike. And he was emotionally damaged: he was an abused kid and had a very difficult childhood. But when I made ‘Thriller’, he hadn’t gone totally crazy yet.
“He still had a lot of joy within him. He wasn’t that intense yet. He was tortured, but he was happy-go- lucky for a lot of it. He worked very hard. He was just great. If you see ‘The Making of Thriller’, you see I treated him like a kid, which is what he was. And I really liked him.”
Landis still has plans for “Thriller”, despite everything. The Jackson estate wants to make a 3D vision of the video, for release next year. Landis expects to be involved, although he has mixed emotions about it.
“They’re going to figure every way they can to get money out of that poor dead guy,” he said. — Torstar News Service.
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