An explosive archive interview with the late director, who led a life as action-packed and hair-raising as his films
This interview first ran in 2013, and has been republished following the death of William Friedkin, aged 87
William Friedkin, Hollywood’s most combustible director, has tried therapy only once. The session took place on April 11, 1972, the day after he won the Oscar for best director for The French Connection. He was 37 years old and the toast of Hollywood, but he woke up so depressed, he couldn’t get out of bed. His business manager sent him to a Beverly Hills psychiatrist, who took notes while Friedkin sat and talked for an hour. “I was making up stuff. Complete lies. The guy was a total stranger. Why would I tell him anything about what’s really going on with me?”
Friedkin walked out, never to return, even after suffering a heart attack from stress in his early forties. “I’ve read plenty of Freud. A lot of his stuff is insightful, but overreaching. I don’t need to know any more about myself. I know what’s wrong with me.”
Hurricane Billy’s tantrums and blow-ups are, of course, the stuff of legend. His take-no-prisoners antics while making classic films such as The French Connection and The Exorcist put even hubris-drenched rivals such as Peter Bogdanovich and Michael Cimino to shame. When Friedkin wasn’t frequenting prostitutes or firing people (70 people on one movie alone), he was slapping actors to provoke a reaction or letting off real shotguns to get the right sound effect. No question, he was the wild man of Seventies cinema, and it was a densely crowded field.