Oficiální web Miloše Formana

You could never be sure what Kaufmann truly meant, and what was just one of his eccentric jokes. When Kaufman quit his popular role as the foreign mechanic Latko in “Taxi”,he explained, “I want to create just my own things.” Throughout the film, we watch as Kaufman creates his “own” world out of mystifications and hackneyed jokes not only on the stage, but also in his real life. 

Kaufman not only loses his audience, he also loses close friends and his girlfriend. During his downward spiral, Kaufman sings children’s songs to audiences looking for coarse jokes.  At a college campus show he reads “The Great Gatsby”. He invites his talent agent to a nightclub to watch a performance by a rude, loud-mouthed lounge singer named Tony Clifton who is revealed to be his alter- ego.

Kaufman would fake his own death or to set the theatre on fire just to make an audience laugh. Right when we think we “get” how his mind works, he baffles us with another shocking stunt or mystification. When Kaufman becomes ill, he goes to the Philippines seeking a miracle cure, but when he finds it he recognizes that he once pulled a similar scam (as performance art). With this knowledge Kaufman loses his last chance to be cured; he however accepts that for once the joke is on him.

This innovative biography follows Kaufman’s career from its very beginnings; from the nightclubs to the memorable success of his own show at Carnegie Hall. Despite the obscure and politically incorrect nature of his performance art, we watch Kaufman become a star right in front of our eyes. Milos Forman’s film is a tribute to Kaufman’s humour; it makes you laugh but at the same time gives you the creeps.  

• “In 1975 Bob Henry invited me to see a show in Los Angeles. All the comedians, both the new ones and the old ones, were trying their luck on stage. And then this man came up, Andy Kaufman, completely unknown at the time. I was laughing like crazy but I wasn't sure what exactly I was laughing at. It was one of the most peculiar moments in my life. It was peculiar to such an extent that I started to take an interest in the life and career of Andy Kaufman. Twenty years later I met Danny (DeVito) at Michael Douglas's birthday party and we talked about Andy. Danny was telling me stories about him and I said: “What about making a movie?” He liked the idea and that’s how it started“.
• “The reason I started to see his life as a movie was that I simply couldn’t figure out who the real Andy Kaufman was“.
• “Casting Jim Carrey had been my idea from the start, but I hadn´t dared to cast that part randomly. So I said that everybody interested in that particular role should send me a videotape of them performing Andy Kaufman. The best videotape was from Jim Carrey. He apparently studied all the TV shots and historical data available, because he could not only imitate Kaufman’s voice but also mimic his gestures, and he impersonated him so completely – that I immediately promised the main part to Jim.“
• “I am not exaggerating when I say that I’d never worked with Jim Carrey before. Every morning either Andy Kaufman or Tony Clifton or Latka or Elvis or some other foreigner came to the set. I suspect that he woke up as a certain character in the morning and he went to sleep as that character in the evening. I think I can give him the merit for the authenticity of the whole movie.”
• “If you have experienced working with good people and you have understood each other, it would seem silly not to cooperate with them again. There are five people from “Cuckoo’s Nest”: Danny DeVito, Vincent Schiavelli, Christopher Lloyd, Sydney Lassick and Marya Small. Such a friendship always turns into something really good on screen.”
• “I just like Courtney very much. She is very talented, in everything she says and does there is a seed of truth….”
• “For many people involved it was a very emotional moment. Of course, Lynne Martoulis, Andy’s girlfriend, Andy’s manager George Shapiro, his other manager Howard Wet, and his close friend Bob Zmuda. And the whole “Taxi” crew was there. They hadn’t seen each other for years. When they came and saw the old set, Marilu Henner and Carol Kane were on the verge of tears.”
• “Scott Alexander and Larry Karazewski are very talented screenwriters. They account for the American psyche and have a sense for dialogue. I especially admired the way they dealt with the tons of material on Andy. And I mean tons. They’d read everything and created a dramatic plot which helped the movie a lot.”
• “Jimmy marched out of his trailer as Kaufman’s obnoxious alter ego and the whole crew was just that small. At noon he burst into the Paramount cafeteria where we were shooting, and marched straight to the VIP table: 'Hi, men! Howdy? I’m Tony Clifton!’ He shook their hands, patted them on the back, then moved on. But a terrible smell lingered after he’d left. Before coming in, Jimmy had rubbed stinky cheese on his hands.“
• “I like to cast non-actors, because that brings excitement. Film makers are professionals, almost nothing excites them, they´re just doing their job. I used to hear this all the time:

  ‘Is that really Andy’s manager??‘
  ‘Yep, yep.‘
  ‘And does he play the owner of the club?‘
  ‘Yep, yep.‘
  Everyone said:  ‘Really?‘
  ‘And the little girl we see at the beginning, is that really Andy Kaufman´s granddaughter? Really??‘
  ‘Yes.‘

  It became more thrilling then.“

• “If the movie impressed the audience just as Andy had done, I would be satisfied. He wasn’t worried if he made the audience laugh or not. The only aim he had an interested in was forcing them to participate, to arouse emotions. But he didn’t pay attention whether the audience clapped, hissed, booed, or worshipped him… As long as there was emotion involved, he didn’t care.”