THC: Why wasn't Reindeer Games released at Christmas?

JF: The truth is, I wasn't ready. I just am not very quick when it comes to the final process of the music and the editing and all of that. And I knew I wasn't going to be ready when we finished shooting it.

THC: Aren't you bothered by movies with unrealistic settings? For example, when a writer can afford a luxurious loft?

JF: Yeah, doesn't that drive you crazy? I go through this all the time with set designers and costume designers and set dressers. I say, you cannot give them this! This is a bloody palace! You're not going to able to afford this on so and so's salary, you wouldn't have accessories like this. I think everything on a set, and every costume, has to make a statement. Even if it's a prop, if it's this vase of flowers. I like flowers. Some men don't. I do. I think that makes a statement about me that those are there, that I didn't have them thrown out of the room. Everything in a movie has to make a statement, everything has to be there for a reason--otherwise, don't have it there. It's the old theatrical saying, that if you have two crossed swords over the fireplace in the first act, you damn well better use them in the third act. And that's the point.

THC: They showed Black Sunday [Frankenheimer's 1977 thriller in which terrorists attempt to blow up the Super Bowl] yesterday.

JF: Oh, did they? They do every year.

THC: You were in the control booth for one scene?

JF: Yes. The reason for that was, one, I used to be an actor; two, I was a television director; and three, I wanted Sammy Grossman, who was the real director of the Super Bowl, to do it, and the day before we were going to shoot the scene, Grossman's agent called me and said that he wanted $15,000 for Grossman to do this one day's work. That would be the equivalent today of about $100,000. And I said, you know what, there's no way. I figured it was going to be a one-shot, so I just did it myself. Theoretically, you have to join the Screen Actors Guild, but they give you a one-shot thing, so you can do it without joining. But then, I was recently asked to play a general in The General's Daughter, which I did. And so I had to join the damn Screen Actor's Guild anyway.

THC: It seems that the bulk of your career has been working in thrillers. How did that come about?

JF: Well, I did 152 live television shows, most of which were not thrillers. I won the Emmy four consecutive years, just recently, doing cable films (Against the Wall, The Burning Season, Andersonville, George Wallace), none of which were thrillers. Some of my best movies are not thrillers (Birdman of Alcatraz, Grand Prix). I did Manchurian Candidate, and it was a huge success, and I got offered a lot of these things. And then, for a while, my career didn't do that well, and then I made a big comeback doing Black Sunday, and then I tried to get away from it doing some other things. And it just so happens that people just think of me in terms of those movies, like Ronin and now Reindeer Games. I must say I like [doing them]. It's the old story: if nine people tell you you're drunk, maybe you shouldn't drive. If everybody keeps telling you you know how to do these movies, maybe you should do them, you know what I mean? I like doing suspense pictures. I like doing character-driven thrillers, which is what I would consider Manchurian Candidate, Ronin, etc.