I've spent two years on this project and it still fascinates me 
After an award-winning career in musical theatre, Rob Marshall applied his skills to the movie version of Chicago. It went on to score the Oscar for Best Picture in 2002, but in an interesting twist, Marshall was overlooked for Best Director. Memoirs Of A Geisha, based on Arthur Golden's wildly popular novel, marks his second big screen outing after years of development under Steven Spielberg.
Were you at all wary of the huge expectations in tackling a beloved book?
It was daunting. Scary. What makes it easier is when you have brilliant actors - that also makes it much more exciting to work on. You know, it's funny, I was immediately drawn to this because it is so visual and I was looking for something after Chicago that was very different. Somebody recently said to me, "Yes, but you still did a movie about rival women in show business," - I guess that's true. I don't know what's wrong with me! But the truth is, it was the differences that excited me. The canvas is so rich, so beautiful and so fascinating. It's still so compelling and I've spent two years on this project and it still fascinates me.
It's a hidden culture and something that people still know very little about and that's the point. The point is that what happens in the teahouses stays in the teahouses and so I think that's why Arthur Golden's work was so embraced, because people wanted to learn what that's all about. I mean the first line of our movie is, "A story like mine should never be told," and that really is the truth so it's immediately seductive.
Did you have concerns about trying to equate what a geisha is to a western audience?
It's very hard to equate what a geisha is to a western audience. It's just that nothing exists that's the same. Somebody asked me recently, "Is it like having a trophy wife?" And I said, "No! It's nothing like being a trophy wife," because geisha are artists - that's what geisha means, artist. It's very different now than it was then. Obviously during the time of the movie, girls were sold into a geisha house basically as slaves and now it's very different.
At age 16, when they're in high school, they make a choice of whether to study the traditional arts and becoming a geisha, which is like saying I'd like to go the American school of ballet, or I want to become a model... It's a choice. Also, they're married. I mean the geisha that I met in Kyoto said, "Oh, you know, I want to do this for a couple more years and then marry my boyfriend and here's my CV!" You know, she was giving me her 8-by-10s because they're their performers. That's what they are.
What else did you find surprising about the life of a traditional geisha?
The one thing I would say that's astonishing when you really think about it is that in the 20s and 30s and still today it's a woman-run business. That's quite empowering for that time and they make an enormous amount of money. When I was in Kyoto we were entertained at the oldest teahouse and it's very expensive!
We had about seven geisha performing for us. Of course everything is a performance, from pouring the saki to how they walk, how they enter, and one of the geisha was making her debut that night and spilled the saki, which was a horrible experience for her. It meant nothing to me, but then every bit of it is an art. At the end of the night I asked how much it all cost and it was thousands of dollars that they earned for two hours. It's an amazing culture in that way. They are strong businesswomen.
Did you ever feel like it might be an issue to cast Chinese women as geishas?
You know I have a very simple philosophy about casting - you cast the best person for the role. That's it. That's how I feel. I mean, when I cast Queen Latifah in Chicago, everyone said to me, "You know it's 1920s Chicago and there would be no such thing as an African-American matron in a jail," and I said, "Well, you know, but to me she was Sophie Tucker [vaudeville performer]." As a director, the hope you have is that an actor claims their role and I have to say that every actor on this movie claimed their role. There was no question - no question marks at all.
It's very interesting because it's sort of a tradition in filmmaking - Egyptian-born Omar Sharif plays a Russian in Doctor Zhivago, American-born Renee Zellweger plays Bridget Jones, or Nicole Kidman and Jude Law play Americans in Cold Mountain. I mean, to me it's all about their acting. They are acting, these are actors. You know, the demands for these roles was extraordinary, each one of them had huge demands, and I couldn't have cast this movie twice. These are the best actors in the world for these roles. Period.
Suzuka Ohgo, who plays the young Sayuri, is remarkable. Ken Watanabe has worked with her before - is that how you discovered her?
Yes. It was actually the last bit of casting on the movie. She was very difficult to find because we knew the whole movie really hinged on her. If you don't care about Sayuri from the beginning then when [Zhang] Ziyi takes over the role it would have been an uphill battle for her. They share something very interesting, Ziyi and Suzuka, they have this incredible love of life. There's just a spirit that is hard to explain, but there's this joy and a spirit and a strength that's very important for Sayuri because it's what guides her through her life. It's that beautiful water in her eyes that keeps her moving forward through all obstacles and they shared that.
I know Suzuka watched Ziyi a lot... I think because she was in a movie with so many adults, I've never seen that kind of professionalism and dedication. I would say to Suzuka, "Today you're going to have water thrown on you and you're going to be whipped and you're going to do a scene where your parents die," and she'd say [very meekly], "Okay." She and Ziyi are fearless and they have that as a bond. It was because of Ken, because he worked with her and said she was someone to look at, he was our saving grace.
Memoirs Of A Geisha is released in UK cinemas on Friday 13th January 2006.
