GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

DECEMBER 4, 1998

Evenings Out

Just when you thought it was safe to take a shower Gay director and lesbian lead bring new life to Hitchcock's classic

by Tim Nasson

Gay director Gus Van Sant's take on Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller Psycho has been shrouded in secrecy since the project began.

Universal Pictures decided on what they think is a savvy marketing strategy for letting members of the press know about the film's impending release, instead of the customary pre-release screenings and interviews with cast members.

First, the studio sent out a postcard with the film's release date. Second, and most cleverly, voice mail messages were left for members of the press that announced: "This is to confirm your reservation for cabin number one at the Bates Motel on Friday, December 4. Ms. Bates and Norman are looking forward to having you." According to a Universal representative,

since the project was announced. Die-hard Hitchcock fans expressed concern that remaking the film bordered on sacrilege. Others thought, "If it ain't broke, why fix it?”

A theater owner in Los Angeles, who saw the film and spoke on the condition of anonymity, admitted that he was one of the many who were skeptical about the remake.

"I don't know if they should have gone through the trouble," the theater owner said after seeing.the film. "But, saying that, I was terribly surprised at how much I liked the film. Vince Vaughn's role as Norman Bates is the best thing in the film. He steals the movie. That's not to say that Anne Heche is bad. His acting is just simply terrific, though."

Much of Van Sant's Psycho and Hitchcock's Psycho are the same. The biggest difference, of course, is that the new film was shot in color.

In the 1998 version, both lead actress Anne Heche and director Gus Van Sant are openly gay. In the 1960 original, the only gay participant in the film, Anthony Perkins, was not out.

Anne Heche asks Vince Vaughn if there are any vacancies at the Bates Motel.

the reason behind their strategy has to do with the way the original Psycho was released.

"Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was shrouded in secrecy," the rep commented. “We are releasing and marketing the new film exactly as the original was. No press or promotional screenings, no première party and no interviews."

Van Sant's version of the Hitchcock thriller has been at the center of controversy

"There are some slight technical differences too," added the theater

owner. "The amount of money that is stolen by Anne Heche is $400,000. Janet Leigh stole $40,000. Inflation," he laughed. "In addition, the old Psycho cost only $800,000 to make, the new one $25 million. Still a bargain in today's filmmaking world."

"Also," he added, "the house atop the hill is not made of wood. It is made of brick and masonry."

"As you may know," Anne Heche said during an interview earlier in this year, "the new Psycho was filmed, shot

by shot, according to the original. However, the shower scene...took only three days. In the original, it took five days."

“I know that many working on this film have taken a lot of flak," Heche added. "There are people that have said, 'Why are you fucking with a masterpiece?' I have said this before and I'll say it again songs are remade everyday, it seems. Plays are revived on Broadway every year. [I]f a story is good, it is worth retelling.”

Heche said that the original film got terrible reviews when it was first released. "It just sort of slowly climbed to the heights of its current popularity and cult status."

There may be some people who have never seen the original, so having the new version filmed shot for shot according to the original has appeal. People seeing the story for the first time will not be seeing something completely different.

"I first saw the original Psycho the night before I met Gus Van Sant," Heche said. "I, like so many other late-20-year-olds had never seen it. I loved what I saw, and wanted to be part of the remake.”

There was no bad blood between the new and the old either. “Janet Leigh sent me flowers on the first day of shooting," said Heche. “She wished me all the luck in the world.”

Reprising the role of Norman Bates in the new version is Vince Vaughn, an actor Heche had already worked with in Return to Paradise, released earlier this year.

"I was so comfortable with him, even though he had to kill me," Heche said laughing.

Anne Heche

Ellen DeGeneres, whom Heche calls her wife, was not as happy about the role.

"Ellen did not like the fact that I had to be killed in [the film]. She doesn't want any 'psycho' people to get any ideas. Nonetheless, in her own quirky and comedic way, she came up to the bathroom in the house we share, the night before I was to shoot the shower scene while I was taking a shower and opened the shower door and scared me half to death. That's Ellen for you," Heche said with a smile.

According to published reports, Vaughn took his role as Norman Bates a step further than Anthony Perkins did. While re-creating the scene where Norman spies on Marion Crane (Heche), Vaughn actually reached down and started to pleasure himself.

"Well, it's the Bates Motel," says Doyle, the film's cinematographer. "Of course he masturbates. Vince was obviously going for broke in the film. When Doyle asked Van Sant if they were really going to include that scene in the film, Van Sant said, “Yeah, why not? Let's go for it." Van Sant even filmed the scene from several angles.

There it was: a gay director filming a straight actor jerking off to a naked lesbian (Heche has said she did the scene completely naked, sans body-stocking)—and it was not even a porn film.

Unfortunately, Vaughn's jerk-y improv did not make it into the film, though the theater owner who saw the film swears he heard a zipper unzip right before the murder in the shower scene.

The six-foot five-inch Vaughn said it was

a fortunate coincidence that he got to work with Heche on both Return to Paradise and Psycho, adding that he is also a big fan of Van Sant.

Vaughn is nonplused about all the talk about remaking the film.

"Hey," he said, "Hitchcock's daughter is happy about the remake and so is Janet Leigh. If they are both happy, who cares about what anyone else thinks?"

Vaughn had no qualms about playing opposite a lesbian actress, either. His only problem was all the talk that went on in the tabloids while they were filming together about an affair between the two of them.

"I love Anne," said Vaughn. "She is a great woman and a terrific actress. She and Ellen seem so happy together. Ellen came and spent time with her while we were filming Return to Paradise. I just don't understand why people make her and Ellen's sexuality such a big issue."

Vaughn called attempts by tabloid newspapers to suggest that he and Heche were having an affair “insulting” and “rude.”

"I have a girlfriend whom I love dearly and I know that Ellen and Anne love each other dearly," Vaughn said. "How do you think our families feel when they read that crap?”

While Vaughn and Heche are quite different in appearance and in acting style than Leigh and Perkins were, it is a safe bet that no matter what, their roles in the new Psycho will be remembered for just as long.

If Van Sant's past in filmmaking is a telltale sign, chances are that this new Psycho • will have all the elements of becoming a new classic.

Tim Nasson is a Boston freelance writer.