by Nathaniel R
Here's a little teaser for a forthcoming interview with Rodrigo Prieto, the two-time Oscar nominated DP whose latest film is Martin Scorsese's The Irishman. The famed Mexican cinematographer turns 54 next month. We'd always seem him in photos, handsome, crouched down behind cameras with tightly cropped hair. In person he's a tall silver fox and he's let his hair grow out. He could have been in front of cameras but instead got behind them from an early age. And what a career he's had. Standing majestically amongst his classics is Brokeback Mountain (2005) so during a lengthy sit down we had at the Middleburg Film Festival this past weekend, we asked him how he ended up with his only onscreen role.
We don't know if you knew this but he plays the Mexican hustler who Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) picks up during a quick trip south of the border. That's the trip that Ennis and Jack fight about, later in the movie, lighting a bonfire of scorched feeling in that famous 'I wish I knew how to quit you' scene...
That's Rodrigo Prieto to the right there. The fourth member of the cast to be Oscar nominated, though his nomination was from the Cinematography branch.
"In preproduction it was a joke that I would play that character," Prieto tells, us, chuckling when we broached the subject of the cameo. "But it was a joke. There was a person that was hired." He had even seen the man's photo on the cast board in the pre-production offices. They were shooting the scene in Calgary though it was supposed to be taking place in Mexico. The night did not go as the filmmakers were expecting.
"I'm preparing the lighting and Ang Lee comes up to me and says 'I need a favor.' Immediately I knew. 'Why, no please -- I have to light the scene! We don't have time'," he says remembering his embarrassed avoidance of the inevitable.
But what had actually happened?
"The actor he hired was through video and in photos. He never saw him in person. When he showed up he was short. Ang thought it was strange visually for Jake, who is tall, to be going away with this shorter guy. Soooo..." he trails off for a moment, laughing.
"You start looking around. There's no other Mexican. And that's how he talked me into it!"