Graydon Carter: Vanity Fair's main man talks to Hollywood's brightest star about magazines, moguls, movies and much more

Graydon Carter knows a good thing when he sees it. As editor of Vanity Fair for the past 10 years, his sense of what matters most in the world (and how best to cover it) has taken the magazine to a new level of success. In a natural extension of his interests in the movie world, he helped broker a deal for two French filmmakers, Gedeon and Jules Naudet, to broadcast their exclusive footage shot inside the Twin Towers on September 11. The resultant documentary, 9/11, an extraordinary film which Carter executive produced, screened earlier this year on CBS. Nominated for five Emmy Awards, it will be rebroadcast on CBS on Sunday, September 8, and will also be screened this month in over 100 countries. Carter's latest project as a producer, The Kid Stays in the Picture, based on the memoirs of legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans (and directed by Oscar-nominated duo Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen), has just opened in theaters across the U.S. As Carter and his interviewer, Nicole Kidman, discuss here, the d ocumentary is a unique take on Hollywood's fabulous past--and casts the present in a new light.

NICOLE KIDMAN: So Mr. Carter. what we're interested in talking to you about today is the documentary you produced, The Kid Stays in the Picture. How did you get involved with this project?

GRAYDON CARTER: It happened accidentally. I've known Robert Evans [former Hollywood studio chief and producer of films including Chinatown, 1974, and Marathon Man, 1976, and subject of the documentary] for a decade and I, like everybody else, read his autobiography [The Kid Stays in the Picture, Hyperion], and listened to it on tape. It was like being on the other end of an eight-hour telephone message. [Kidman laughs] It felt like Bob was just talking to one person. So I said to him, "Bob, we could do a documentary of this." He resisted my suggestion at first, so I let it sit for a year. Then I was out in California and brought it up again. I went over to Bob's house and there were two kids there, Brett Morgen and Nanette Burstein, who had been nominated for an Oscar for their documentary, On the Ropes, that year [1999]. Brett and Nanette had this idea of making a movie of Bob Evans making a movie. Now I didn't think Bob was going to be making too many more movies, as he'd had a stroke and was not in the best shape. Acting on gut instinct, I said, "Why don't we make the movie based on the book on tape first and you can make your movie after that, if and when Bob makes a movie?" [Kidman laughs] They said, "Great!" and we agreed that they would direct it. I hadn't even seen their movie, but I liked the look of them.

NK: But why did you want to make a documentary? Why are you interested in making documentaries?

GC: I have no idea why I suggested that. I like documentaries but I didn't have a clue how to make one. I thought I could probably do it. I had the great benefit of not knowing anything about anything, so I could ask a million stupid questions. And, over the course of making the thing, I learned how it's done.

NK: So after you decided to make the documentary, what happened next?

GC: Well, I had to get the money to pay for it--

NK: --Who'd you hit up for that? [laughs)

GC: I'd talked about it a year before with Barry Diller [chairman and CEO of Vivendi Universal Entertainment]. So I was in my car, going home from the office one night, and I called him and said, "Look. You have no obligation, but I'm going to do this. Do you want to finance and release it?" He goes, "Absolutely." And he hangs up the phone and I get a call from Scott Greenstein [former chairman of USA Films] within two minutes. The whole thing took as long as it takes to get from 42nd Street to the West Village.

NK: Wow.

GC: And then Scott Greenstein said, "We'll do it," and he said, "Come up with a budget." Now I had no idea how to do a budget, so Brett and Nanette and I figured how much money we needed and Scott said, "OK." Next we had to tie up the rights to Bob's life story. Over the course of two years, calling in a lot of favors for music and clips, we went through about 60 versions of the edited material, trying to tell Bob's story in three acts. To me the result doesn't feel like a documentary. It feels like a real movie. And very intimate, too.

NK: Exactly. And quite candid.

GC: Very candid. Bob's voice is kind of the star of the movie. And the co-star is that house of his.

NK: [laughs) Yes! The film's very entertaining. What kind of reception have you had to it so far?

GC: Bob got a standing ovation at Sundance, which is very sweet. He is one of the great assets of this movie. He is just one of the most charming, charismatic men I've ever met in my life. Bob literally can change gears and work a room, so for foreign sales I think he will be invaluable. He's done it before--when he ran Paramount and again when he was an independent producer. One of the things that I wanted to say about this movie is that for kids (including my own, who've already seen the film), it is such a good anti-drug movie, because Bob's life was perfect until he started doing cocaine. In fact, if Bob had not gotten involved in cocaine, I think he'd easily be running a studio now. (continued from page 221) He has great taste; he has great energy and profound enthusiasm. All the things one likes in a person in that sort of position.