Kathy Kennedy is an anomaly in the West Coast film community, though she might be the first to object to that label. Filmmaking is a male-dominated industry - which is not meant to be condemnation - simply a fact. One has only to look through the pages of this magazine orany other similar publication to find a preponderance of male names and faces. In the higher echelons of the business, female procution executives are few and far between.
Add to this "odds-against equation" another element: Kennedy is an extremely successful production executive - having acted, respectively, as production associate, and producer on "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "E.T." as well as co-producing two of this summer's eagerly anticipated releases, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "Gremlins". All or which makes her a very singular young woman.
There is no denying that the credentials implied by working on a Steven Spielberg film isure some measure of success. But there are never guarantees. Kennedy has "made it" in the film industry because she knows here job and she does it well. There is no gender gap where performance is concerned. Getting that first job, as Kennedy details, was an opportunity - keeping it, film after film, is a testament to her professional abilities. In the following interview, Kennedy details here background and experiences as a producer and recounts some of the difficulties she faced bringing "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" to the screen.
FF: You have just finished producing both "Indiana Jones" and Gremlins. That must have kept you busy.
KENNEDY: It's been hectic for the last three years.
FF: You seem to have been working at a hectic pace since your first film, "1941". Because your background is not quite as well known as that of your colleagues, Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall, could you fill our readers in on your early career?
KENNEDY: I was born in Berkley, raised in Northern California; we'd moved when I was fairly young to a small town called Weaverville - only about a thousand people live there.
When I entered college at San Diego State, I started out without a definite direction. I didn't grow up thinking I wanted to be a film producer or even really knowing that much about movies, because where I lived they had only one movie house with only one movie a month. I later moved to Redding, California where I went to high school and became much more aware of movies - I realized then that people actually made careers out of making movies.
At San Diego State I dabbled around trying to find a nitch. I took a course in broadcastign which really inspired me, and a sociology course for which I did a documentary on prisons. Those two experiences made me start looking at "the media" as something I wanted to pursue, even though at that time I still hadn't really considered moviemaking as a career.
Then in 1972 I got a job as a camera operator for a station called KCST, the NBC affiliate in San Diego. I also operated camera for some NFL football games, Padre baseball games and a lot of studio camera work. It was a great opportunity. I was only 19 years old and it was all very exciting. But as I look back on it now, if I had wanted to make a break into television, I probably would not have gone about it in the way I did.
For the next five years I did a little bit of everything: from camera operation to working in the newsroom, to producing a talk show. I was director of broadcast standards. I was assistant director, assistant production manager.
FF: It sounds like a great apprenticeship.
KENNEDY: It was terrific. Practically every year I was doing something different, so it gave me a nice overview of the broadcasting business in general. But then I had some major decisions to make because it was heginning to develop into a career and I had to decide whether that was what I wanted.
Now, this may sound far-fetched, but here is the incident that made me decide; I had flown my mother from Seattle for her brithday to see "Chorus Line" in Los Angeles which also happened to be the same weekend that "Close Encounters" opened. So we went to see it the next day because a good friend of mine had been working with John Milius and knew Steven Spielberg and had told me little bits about it. So we saw it, and I was totally enchanted by the movie and said to myself - this is what I want to do - I want to make movies and I want to work with Steven Spielberg.
So I went back home after seeing the picture, got on the phone and started calling people I knew. My friend, who had worked with John Milius, told me that Steven was beginning a new project called "1941" and he was looking for a production assistant, and that if I got up there literally that day, I could interview for the job.
I dropped everything, flew up, had an interview and got hired as a production asistant.
At first I really didn't do anything directly related with the movie. I spent most of my time around the office, so my contact with Steven as fairly minimal. Then after i had been up there for about three weeks, Steven called the producer and said he needed someone to come up to his house and organize the effects and the picture. So I went. He had little notes written on scripes of paper everywhere in the house. So I collected them, took them all away and plowed through them, calling him periodically and somehow made sense of it. Through that first encounter, and some other work we did together, he later called me and hired me as his assistant.
FF: You had obviously made an impression him.
KENNEDY: I guess so. That's pretty much how things work in this business, or in any business. People always say it's the contacts you have, but it's not really that - it's the contacts you make. It's meeting people in any situation. You find people with common interests, common personalities. You find people that share the same taste, think the same way, have the same sensibilities. Those are the people you end up working with and I think that over a period of a year or so, that's what happened to me.
FF: After "1941" came "Raiders of the Lost Ark." You also worked with Steven on that film.
KENNEDY: I was Steven's associate, I wasn't the Associate Producer - that was Robert Watts. My film background as you can tell from the scenario, was very minimal. Steven had said to me, in essence that this would be a great experience, because I would go on location and I would work very closely with him and also with Frank Marshall and Robert Watts. I would have a unique opportunity to learn everything I possibly could.
It helped that my background included working on a crew. Television and film crews are not all that different. i at least understoood the basis of how things got done. I also understood that it was the product of a huge collaboration, where you have, in some cases, a couple hundred people who are suddenly thrown together and told that they are all going to get along during the next 3 or 4 months and they're going to have a great time making this film. They've never even met one another. The dynamics of that are pretty unusual.
FF: After "Raiders" came "E.T." and "Poltergiest" which were, roughly, in production at the same time. You were assigned to work on both!
KENNEDY: Yes. What happened was that during "Raiders," Steven asked me to produce his next picture. At that time we were at least in the script phase of "Poltergiest." We were also in the script phase of a project completely different than "E.T." "E.T." evolved out of that project but didn't get written until after we were finished shooting "Raiders." That's when Steven asked me to produce "E.T."
FF: Did you feel like you were ready to run the show alone?
KENNEDY: No, but I felt comfortable knowing that I would have help. The key to producing is to surround yourself with the most knowledgable people you can. I already knew that Frank Marshall was going to be producing "Poltergiest" and he would be there all the time. I could ask any questions I wanted of him. In the course of working with Steven, I had also met a lot of extremely good people and so anything I didn't know, I could always find out.
FF: Steven attracts a lot of talented people.
KENNEDY: I think what happens is that Steven has a very contagious enthusiasm. This business is wonderful. It's always challenging, always exciting. Still, there is always the underlying reality that it is a business which is not very different from any other business. What is special about Steven is his enthusiasm. He makes things exciting and challenging most of the time. He draws out 110% from you. He always makes you feel that you can do more than you, yourself, even realized you could do. When people are constantly performing at that rate, you get your just reward at the end. It turns out to be a good picture and something you are very proud of. All of those things make it worthwhile.
FF: You needed that sort of teamwork to put two films out concurrently. Did you and Frand Marshall have to overlap responsibilities for the simultaneous production of E.T. and Poltergiest?
KENNEDY: Yes. I associate-produced Poltergiest and Frank was the production executive on E.T. Frank and I work together on everything, so titles become relatively insignificant. Frank worked as hard on E.T. as I worked on Poltergiest. There just was a point at which Frank had to concentrate on Poltergiest and I had to concentrate on E.T. One of the reasons we divided the two is that originally we were going to start shooting within one month of one another. As it turned out, we didn't start shooting until the end of the summer. We began shooting Poltergiest in May. We didn't start shooting E.T. until September. There were some possible logistics problems and that's why we ended up dividing the two because we thought we were going to have to be in two different places at the same time. As it turned out, we didn't. It was one of those experiences where we both looked back and said, "How did we do it!."
FF: Would you do it again?
KENNEDY: Well, I have to say that when you split yourself constantly like that, it is an incredible drain and I found it an exhausting proccess. For that reason I wouldn't want to go through it again. However, if I could see into the future and know I was going to work on two pictures again, which would turn out as well as Poltergiest and E.T., I would jump into it in a second.
FF: It's hard for anyone who hasn't done it to understand how involved that can be. But you did virtually the same thing with Temple of Doom and Gremlins.
KENNEDY: It was a little different. Gremlins' director, Joe Dante and Mike Finnell, the producer, have worked fairly independently in the shooting stage so there wasn't the same drain as the Poltergiest/E.T. situation.
Frank Marshall and Steven Spielberg and I are the Executive Producers on Gremlins. We found the project, hired Joe, set up the deal with Warner Bros. and supervised the project to the point where they started shooting. At that point, we went off and shot Indiana Jones. We've been very active in the post-production phase of Gremlins also.
FF: Was part of your job for Indiana Jones traveling to Sri Lanka?
KENNEDY: Right. We were on location for about 3 weeks in Sri Lanka. Most of the shooting was done on the London set, however.
FF: Were there also some exteriors done in Hong Kong?
KENNEDY: That was the second unit. It was storyboarded by Steven, then we hired Mickey Moore, who did the truck chase in Raiders. Mickey went with Glen Randall, the stunt co-ordinator and Vic Armstrong, who was the English stunt co-ordinator. Those three did the Hong Kong shots.
FF: Did you encounter any particular difficulties in Sri Lanka?
KENNEDY: Actually, we had a fairly easy time of it with no major problems. There is a sequence in the picture that involves a suspension bridge, which was quite an elaborate stunt. The reason we went to Sri Lanka was twofold; one, we needed a jungle location and it was much easier to shoot there than it would have been in Africa, for instance, and two, we needed a very, very deep gorge with cliff walls on either side.
FF: When you scout locations , do you have a fairly good idea where to look in the first place?
KENNEDY: Yes. Robert Watts has a phenomenal background as production manager on a great number of films. He has been just about everywhere in the course of doing location scouts. So he had some idea of where to go. You're always hampered by the fact that you've got to make sure that you're going to be able to get the crew there, be able to house them and not have lengthy drives to locations. In this particular situation, we had an even more unique favor on our side. The British government was building a dam in Sri Lanka. They had some top engineers from Switzerland and various other parts of the world. We were able to use some of their people to give us the engineering dynamics of the suspension bridge, which involved a 350 foot span over a 600 foot drop.
FF: Did you walk across it?
KENNEDY: Once! Then I decided to walk around. I normally don't have a problem with heights, but in this situation, when i got out to the middle of the bridge I got very weak in the knees.
FF: That's understandable - it's a long way down!
KENNEDY: Yes, and the bridge was only 18 inches wide!
FF: After Sri Lanka, you began working on the interior shots at Elstree Studios?
KENNEDY: The primary focus of this story takes place almost entirely inside the palace. We had every stage on the Elstree Studio lot in use at some point. There were about nine stages and in some cases we had stages that converted to other sets. There were some where we had two or three sets on the same stage. It was a massive amount of set work.
FF: Did much of the Temple of Doom budget end up in the sets?
KENNEDY: Yes, much of our budget was spent on the sets and on the ILM special effects, which outnumber what we had in Raiders. This time we have roughly between 150 and 160 effects shots, which is not Jedi, but still a lot for this kind of picture. We had 108 in Poltergiest and only about 30 in E.T.
FF: Raiders was fundamentally an action-adventure film, yet it received the 1982 Science Fiction Dramatic Presentation Hugo on the basis of a very minimal supernatural element. Was there any conscious attempt to try for the same category in Temple of Doom?
KENNEDY: I don't think we ever try for a category. What we usually try to concentrate on is the story, to make it original and unique enough so that it's exciting. I think that Temple of Doom is as much in the spirit of action-adventures as the first. But it doesn't really delve into supernatural elements.
One thing that we were particularily concerned with (in relation to the science fiction cross-over), was whether or not audiences would perceive Indiana Jones as Han Solo. Because there is a definite separation between the two characters. It's amazing that Harrison can separate them. It also says a lot about the strength of the Indiana Jones stories.
FF: Script secrecy has been a problem on other Lucasfilm productions, particularly on Return of the Jedi when certain plot details leaked out. Were there any similar secrecy problems on Temple of Doom?
KENNEDY: Over the years we have become fairly confident and comfortable with our system of secrecy, and on Temple of Doom we weren't dealing with the same kind of mystery elements which Jedi dealt with. We didn't have a story which was a continuation of a previous story. Indiana Jones is a completely separate, new story. However, many of theplot elements were kept under wraps. I don't think you have to be ludicrous about it, but at the same time we still do it to protect the audience. I think that most people really hate it when they pick up a magazine or newspaper and read all about a movie before they've had a chance to see it.
FF: You have, to say the least, demonstrated a talent for production. It's safe to say you've found your direction - your niche.
KENNEDY: I think producing a picture is one of those difficult responsibilities that you always have a hard time explaining what it is you do exactly. It involves so many different things, people and communication, organization, personality and common sense. Those are things you can't sit down and learn from a book. Not everyone can paint. Not everyone can direct. Not everyone can write. Filmmaking is a niche that I like. People ask me in my past influenced me. Now I realize that I was usually the one organizing the talent show, or putting together the homecoming parade, the one behind the scenes in an orgainzational position. So in retrospect, my producing films does make a lot of sense to me now.
Article and interview by Jessie Horsting
Fantastic Films
September 1984