A costume is very important. Some mystical thing happens when you wear the right costume. I don’t know why, but listen. When I went over to Berlin to do Wings of Desire, it was a different experience.
On other pictures you have something to worry about because you have a script, but if you don’t have a script, what’s there to worry about? Nothing.
Well, I found something to worry about — my costume.
When I arrived, Wim Wenders was busy. When he makes a movie he reminds me of Cassavetes. I mean he would always meet me at night, three o’clock in the morning, in a bar somewhere. He never met in an office, and you always got messages, “I’ll meet you here,” and then another message would come, “No, it’ll be an hour later,” and it would be at the other part of town.” Everything was done in the middle of making the movie.
At any rate, I went to get the costume. I hadn’t seen Wim, so I brought it over to the hotel and waited for him. When he got there, I started telling him the toughest thing is to find a hat, a hat that I look good in, that fits my face, the brim is not too big, the top of the brim, the boop, the bup, everything.
So while I was putting it on, I’m saying how good it looks from the front, that it looks like I’m going to the opera, that I look like a rabbi, blah, blah.
When I got done, he said,” I don’t know about the costume, but I’ll use this scene in the film” – and he did.
Jack Tewksbury