REVIEW
IN HOLLYWOOD HISTORY, few directors
have been as much of a one-man band as Robert
Rodriguez. From the moment he exploded onto
the scene in 1992 with the gonzo action movie
El Mariachi, he’s been a multi-hyphenate so
prodigious they were in danger of running out
of hyphens. Writing. Directing. Editing.
Composing. Operating the camera. You name it,
chances are Rodriguez did it, as he established
his base of operations, Troublemaker Studios,
in Austin, Texas, far from the gimlet-eyed
glare of Hollywood.
That changed with this year’sAlita: Battle
Angel, the first true blockbuster of Rodriguez’
career. Working with his old friend, writer-
producer James Cameron, Rodriguez found
himself at the helm of a $200 million behemoth
— but one that benefited from all those skills he
had honed on the likes ofDesperado,From Dusk
Till Dawnand theSpy Kidsmovies. And, true to
form, he still managed to make it at his home.
Here, he tellsEmpireabout the lessons he’s
learned from a long career of being the ultimate
independent filmmaker...Your entire career has been leading up to
a big studio movie like this. The way you have
carved out your own personal fiefdom up there
at Troublemaker...
I’ve amazed myself.I imagine Hollywood came calling right from
the off.
They did early on. They saw I was a frugal and
new person on the scene. I dabbled with the
idea of doing some bigger movies, but what
usually happened was they would bring me
a big project and the script was in such disrepair
that it was going to take so much work to get
it up to shootable quality that it was almost
inventing a whole other script. I thought
I should be doing my own scripts, my own ideas.
I didn’t do it purposely at first. It was more
out of necessity to do my own ideas and original
films like theDesperadofilms andSpy Kids
andMachete, rather than wait for a big script
that I would just be a director on, and the studio
would have all the say. Accidentally I found
that I had more freedom, since [El]Mariachi, by
doing my own thing. If the right big project came
along, I would take it, but I never really found
one that I was really that interested in. Until
Alita, and part of the circumstance there was
that I would be working with my friend Jim
[Cameron], rather than just working under
a studio. That was a big difference. Jim is the
studio at that point. He has all the say. That
felt a little more like we were still making
a big independent film rather than working
for somebody. I like the feeling of working for
myself. I feel I’ve never worked a day in my life.
Any idea you can come up with, you can do.
You’re not told, “You can’t do that.” I started
becoming addicted to the freedom I had. It
wasn’t really that I had a plan. It’s just that
I enjoyed that way of working, and if I could ❯ROBERT RODRIGUEZon how being
his own boss prepared him
for directingAlita: Battle Angel
“I haven’t
worked
a day in
my life”