Last October I acquired a copy of the Stanley Kubrick DVD box set and have been slowly working my way through that. This past Friday I watched A Clockwork Orange for the first time in over a decade. Commentary or film review aside, here is an interesting tidbit.
There is a brief scene in which Alex (Malcolm McDowell) is daydreaming whilst reading the Bible in jail. He fantasizes about sexy harem women, then imagines himself whipping Jesus Christ. The man who played Jesus is named Jeremy Curry, and he is brother to Michael Curry, my boss.
On Monday I told my boss that I had seen his brother over the weekend. When I explained, he told me of how Jeremy got that part. Michael and Jeremy were living together in London at the time. They were working in a theatre and had returned home for the day. Michael was reading the London Times and saw an advertisement that read "JESUS WANTED". At the time, Michael and Jeremy's other brother Robert was starting off on a big religious kick that would lead him to become a priest. Robert was constantly deriding Michael and Jeremy about their more "theatrical" lifestyles, so Michael immediately suggested that Jeremy try out for the role of Jesus, just to piss off Robert.
Thus Jeremy Curry became Jesus Christ and spent three days being beaten with a whip of ribbons by Malcolm McDowell. That's Kubrick for sure. Three days of whippings, 6 or so seconds of film, and the poor man didn't even get his name in the credits!
***Update***It's now April '09 and I just finished up teaching a brief film course on the films of Stanley Kubrick at the local art gallery. I had the opportunity to show the scene with Jeremy Curry and show photos and e-mail stories that Michael had passed along to share for the class. Everyone in the class so excited, especially the ones who know Michael personally. It was such a wonderful opportunity to be able to share a personal Kurbick-related story.***
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6 comments:
not only is this story completely awesome, but Jared and I just watched A Clockwork Orange last week, too!
That is interesting! Clockwork Orange is so fantastic and stylish. Even if he was in other films, I can't imagine too many cooler parts. I re-watched it last year. I was on a bit of Kubrick kick myself, although I never made it through Dr. Strangelove. Kept falling asleep.
Last week I saw Eyes Wide Shut again. So good.
-Lucie (the only reason I didn't post under my name is that I have already forgotten my password)
Most of my friends know that this movie is in my top five of all time -- There never has and most likely never will be anything made quite like it. Note to Hollywood: PLEASE do not EVER attempt to remake this film!
My wife Patty was sickened by "A Clockwork Orange" but I thought it was neato and disturbing. Those two aren't mutually exclusive, right? What a great story about Michael's brother.
jeremy curry is my dad, and the brother who became a priest wasn't richard, it was robert. say hi to michael from me.
Thank you, Rebecca, for the updated information. I've corrected the blog entry- I'm sorry about the confusion but I get Richard's and Robert's names confused pretty often. I'll pass your regards on to Michael- he'll be excited to know that you read this!
P.S. I also updated the entry with my latest news regarding that story.
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