Getting to the heart of Alfred Kinsey

By Moira Macdonald
Seattle Times movie critic

WILLIAM GRATZ / KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS Bill Condon, arriving for a recent premiere of "Kinsey" in New York City, spent years working on the film.

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Bill Condon, writer/director of "Kinsey" and "Gods and Monsters" (for which he won a screenwriting Academy Award in 1998) and screenwriter of "Chicago," came to Seattle for a brief visit earlier this month to talk about the long process of making "Kinsey." Here, in his words, are his thoughts:

Finding Alfred Kinsey

I had read an article in The New Yorker in 1997, an excerpt of this major biography by James Jones ["Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life"]. That was the first revelation of all these things — bisexuality, encouraging open marriages among his team, making films — none of that was known. That, to me, seemed like an interesting story. The more I got into it, I couldn't get over how contradictory he was. He was telling everyone to be as candid and open and honest so we can know what people are doing, and yet being completely secretive about what he was doing [in his own life].

I got involved [with the film] in early 1999. We didn't shoot until 2003, so a four-year process. I spent a year of just researching, and about a year and a half on the script.

Re-creating the man

There was one man, Clarence Tripp, who got involved with Kinsey right after the publication of the male volume, took thousands of films for him, became close to him, became a psychologist and writer in his own right. He just died. I talked to him for hours about what [Kinsey] was like — he so came to life. So many people discussed how he just emanated power, this incredible charisma.

What I heard over and over again was that he was the smartest person that anyone had ever met. If he were here, he might talk about how sexual behaviors or activity in Seattle might be different from others, and he would certainly know the flora and fauna here, the birds; he would give you a fascinating mini-lecture about one of those things.

Transforming Liam Neeson

We were trying to figure out how to give Liam the Kinsey look. [Kinsey] was famous for two things: this hair that stood straight up, and bow ties. With Liam's hair, we wondered, would it be a series of wigs, or his own hair, which is thin? Liam has a stylist who said, "Why don't we just give it a shot?" I remember going to [Neeson's] apartment, eager to see, oh my God, is he going to be Kinsey? In that time not only had he had his hair cut, but he pulled out of his closet a suit and a bow tie. So when he opened the door, there was Kinsey.

On the controversy
 
I think [the release] will be interesting. There are fringe groups for whom he is an absolute demon. I think there was a quote from one person [from the conservative watchdog group] Concerned Women for America who said, "This movie is a godsend to us." They hadn't seen the movie, of course.

One Kinsey biographer, Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, put it so well when he said, "America is the most licentious culture since Rome, and the most puritanical country ever invented." That tension — we don't have a lot of sex, but when we do, we go crazy with it. An interesting dynamic, you know? People's positions seem to be hardening.

How he got here

When "Gods and Monsters" came out and was well received, so many people said, "I wish you'd come to me with that." I said, you know, I did, three times. "Oh, yeah, but anything next, you come to me." You go back to them, they say no again. It's hard to get movies made at this level — they're not big-budget, big-star movies, but they're not teeny-tiny, so you need some money. It took all these years to piece it together.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com