I did my very first film with Kirk in Detective Story when he was the greatest, greatest star in the world. I fell in love with him, had a crush on him then.

I am proud of Kirk. I think he drums to his own drummer in every way.

A lot of very, very big stars were going down and not being seen or heard from again. Kirk took a huge chance in putting a blacklisted writer's name on the screen and somehow or other, he survived it, like he survives everything.

But the first published thing I did was a detective story, detective novel, and I did that on my own.

I think there was a longing in both of them to do a film together,

Schumacher wouldn't have let him past voluntarily. Of course he did it voluntarily, but he had to do it.