Cineaste: What motivated you to make a documentary about Klaus Kinski now?
Werner Herzog: The time was right. I couldn't have made it five, six, or severn years ago. I always had the feeling that I should round the films up, that something was missing - like the chain was missing a link. There's something mysterious about time. All the turbulence, all the turmoil, has somehow settled. My perspective has shifted and that's why the film has humor in it, and people laugh. Of course, some of it is very bizarre. I see it myself and i can face it, now, with calm humor and a certain serenity - but only because time has passed.
Cineaste: In the film you chose to ignore Kinski's background, personal life, psychological make-up - how he became Klaus Kinski. Why?
Herzog: It never interested me. I never wanted to make an encyclopedic fiolm on Klaus Kinski. It was always evident to me that it should be my Klaus Kinski, that's why I have this extra, whom I met at the airpor, carry a sign that says "Herzog's Kinski." My intention at the beginning was to call thefilm "Herzog's Kinski" but I think My Best Fiend is a better title. The film is as much about me as it is about him, about our strange relationshiop. Which is the reason why, for example Nastassja Kinski is not in the film and Pola Kinski isn't in it, either. I beieve his character becomes somewhat evident of course as seen through my eyes and through his deeds.
Cineaste: How did you choose the footage and the people you interviewed? It seemed as if his female costars had only good things to say about him.
Herzog: I could easily have found hundreds of female partners who would have told the most atrocoius stories of what a permanent pestilence he was on set. But that wouldn have been a stupid and wasy game. I didn't want it. I see him differently now. Not that I can claim he was a good man - he was not. He was demonic, evil, but he was wonderful at the same time.Gracious and full of humor and warmth. Not only through the choice of witnesses, but of the footage as well, I wanted to create an homage, an apotheoissi of Klaus Kinski, I'm sure he would have liked the film.
Cineaste: What was your technique for dealing with his tantrums?
Herzog: There was no technique involved. Here is this man, Kinski, and you have to put him on the screen. You have to take all his rage, all his intenstiy, all his deomonic qualities, and make them productive for the screen. That was the task and there was no time for learning. I had to master the situation from day one, from the first day of shooting Aguiree. On set you have no choice. I had to be strong enough to shape him and force him to the utmost, beyond the limits of what i snormally required for the shooting of a film. But he would push me equally - to the limit. It was not permissable to take even a little step back from his level of intensity and professionalism. And, of course, he literally would have been ready to die with me, if I had died on the ship in the rapids. He would have sunk in the ship with me, and vice versa. But i cannot deny that there were moments, which were dangerous, when we could have killed each other.
Cineaste: In the film you alluded to the fact that he "wasted" himself in your films - you used that word "wasted."
Herzog: Yes, he was empty and destroyed to a degree that he needed a long time to get back on his feet, and for me it was similar. I needed some time to lick my wounds. The only exception was Nosferatu and Woyzeck, when we had only a hiatus of five days in between shooting. We did it back to back and, of course it was a great strain on him in particular, and on me as well, but so what.
Cineaste: How heavy a toll was it for you?
Herzog: Nobody should be intered in the price one h as to pay to work with extraordinary people. The film is the only thing that matters.
Cineaste: There is a moment in the film - when you are both at Telluride - when the affection between you two is palpable.
Herzog: Thank God that moment exists on film, because the media do not believe me. He was always labeled as the Bosewicht of film - the villain! And I tried in interviews, say after Fitzcarraldo or Aguirre, to put across that side of Klaus Kinski. Nobody would ever print a word of that. He was grandiose and very generous. One time I said to him, "Klaus, you look so elegant, what is it?" I looked at him and I said, "Ah, It's the jacket," and he said, "oh, Yves Saint Laurent made this for me, and I got it yesterday in Paris." I said, "This is a wonderful Jacket" and he ripped it off shoulder and threw it on me and said, "Now take it. It's yours." He would give away his car in a split second - because he felt like giving me his car. Of course, I gave it back to him later.
Cineaste: But you kept the jacket.
Herzog: I still have it and I still wear it once in a while. It's a little bit short, his arms were a little bit shorter than mine, but I like it the better because of that.