-It's like - I hate to say ist - but it's like all songwriters say, but it's true, You don't write the song, the song writes himself, and it just..kind of fall into your lap...and you say..geee..did I do this? It's that sort of thing..
-In my opinion, it has to be completely entertaining and has a linear sense of continuity. I like having a beginning, middle and an ending so that you can follow a story. Not just be a collage of images - sometimes thats great to, it depends on what the director has a visionary, what he sees realy..(?)
.I'm very much involved in complete making and creating of the piece. It has to be, you know, my soul. Usually, you know, it's an interpretation of the music....so I would think so, yes...
-I love working with John Landis cause we laugh a lot. We are never serious on the set. [LAUGHS] So it's fun working with John. I used to throw water balloons, and stink bombs and everything at him. That's a ritual for me. After we rap up each video, I throw a lot of stuff at everybody. [SMILING] So that's funny.
-I met John right before doing Thriller, I called him on the phone, I think he was in London - and I told him, what I wanted to do, what the concept was. And we came together and we wrote it - the two of us.
-My idea was to make a short film with conversation at the beginning and bookmark it with conversation at the end.
But John an I..he's such a fun guy, really love working with him, we just sat together and the chemistry started working...he' fun.
-Believe it or not, I'm afraid to watch scary movies. Honestly, I dont like to watch them very much. I never thougt i'll be involved in making that sort of thing - but I am.
I did see American Werewolf in London, which I thought war really fun. I haven't seen the classic Werewolf.
-Geee, I dont know..I thought about watching it again, but I..I dont..because I don't wanna scare the childen.
-My idea, I always try to be pioneer and innovator in whatever I do - and my dream was to make always short little films, 'cause I'm a big fan of The Three Stooges, and I love watching Curly, who I think is wonderful. They make this like 15 min. short and I said "gee" I would love to do something like that one day, with linear story, so this was my opportunity.
-Rod Temperton, who wrote Thriller..that was one of the first raps actually - he thought of having a rap at the end of it, and he called up Vincent Price, and he said "Yes"right away. So Rod was taking the Taxi from his hotel . he's the German fellow - to the studio, and he wrote it whithin transit, he did a great job.
-Yes, I know Vincent Price since I was 11. First time I met him was in the NBC studios. The first time I met him, it was at NBC studios. He said, "Come here!" like that [pointing his finger], in his kinda gruesome voice, and I started to cry because I was - I thought he was serious. I used to see him by turning the channels and those kinda things. I think he was in 'Raven' and 'House Of Wax' or something, so he scared me.
-PARDON :herz: .. no, there was never any talk about that.
-I like the scene when the girl....when all these zombies are coming toward us and she thinks she's safe with me, you know, being her boyfriend, and she looks over to me and I become one. And then we do these famous fall-in and pull-out movements. The Hitchcock move. And I love that moment that I become one. It's fun.
It was a delicate thing to work on. I remember my original approach was how do you make the zombies and monsters dance without being comical. So I said we have to do just the right kind of move, so it doesn't become somethinmg that you laugh at...it has to be taken to an other level So I got in a room with Michael Peters. He and I together kind of imagined how zombies should move by making faces in the mirror . I used to come to rehearsal some times with mask and make ip on, and I loved doing that. So he and I collaborated and we both choreographed the piece... I thought it should start, you know, like - that kind of thing ..going into this kind of jazzy stuff..not to much ballet or whatever...
-No, because I knew that we did something with substance and contend, that people would watch. And it had great entertainment value that held you. I knew it'll be ok., that was the idea.
-When I was in the editing room I knew I liked it. I enjoyed it..it has to be satisfying for me and I enjoyed what I see when we finished it. So i was happy with it...never totally satisfied.
-I know I was happy with certain cuts and angles and timing...those sort of things
..it has to be just right..
-Beat It..it makes me think of the song and working with Quincy Jones and all those wonderful people, I love Quincy, he's a wonderful guy to work with. And I remember him telling me to write a song that I would enjoy..with an edge..so I wrote Beat it, I don't remember Why, but i did.
- about, you know, two gangs coming together and the song is so self-explanatory that it's so easy to make this short film. And I'd seen - I think it was a McDonald's commercial - and I said: "God, I like the rhythm and the cut of this commercial." I said, "I want this director for this piece." So I reached out to him.
Bob Giraldi..jeah, Bob..Bob is cool..
-I think it was ‘Billie Jean’., because that came before Beat it. It was between Mickey Shoehoff (?) and MTV .. don't know the whole Story.
-It's kind of surreal and it's different. I didn't come up with that concept. It was - I think a British fellow - Steve Barron - and I thought he had wonderful ideas but I let him go with it. The only part I wrote in the piece was - I said: "I just want a section." I said: "Give me a section here I could dance on." 'Cause he said no dancing in the whole piece - so the whole section where you see this long street and this billboard of these two girls, one of them Billie Jean and I'm dancing - that's the only part I contributed.
-I wanted to do a dance number [and] I told my sister Janet, I said, 'You remind me of a black panther.' I said, 'Why you don't do something where you transform into a black panther and you transform into yourself again?' She said, 'I like it,' but she didn't go with it, so the two of us, we always think alike. So I told her, I was going to do it. So I did it. And in the dance, I said, 'I want to do a dance number where I can let out my frustration about injustice and prejudice and racism and bigotry,' and within the dance I became upset and let go. You Know. Thats what happened..and at the time people were concerned about the violent content of the piece, but it's, like, easy to look at. It's simple.
