Plus, Stephen Bogart talks the 70th-anniversary big screen return of his father’s Oscar-winning film.
The African Queenis returning to the big screen in more ways than one.
But in some ways, it’s returning in an even more subtle way whenJungle Cruisehits theaters July 30.
Everett Collection; Frank Masi/Disney
“The Rock is fine,” he tells EW.
“He’s got a great personality.
He seems like a very good person.
courtesy Turner Classic Movies
I think he works hard; he cares about it, and I’ll go see the movie.
It’ll be fun.
“But 70 years later, they probably won’t be doing a re-release ofJungle Cruise.”
courtesy Turner Classic Movies
The African Queenremains a stone-cold classic, often cited on lists of the greatest films of all time.
It paired screen legends Humphrey Bogart andKatharine Hepburnfor their only collaboration and won Bogie his sole Oscar.
STEPHEN BOGART:First of all, because it’s a great movie.
It’s interesting; it’s well written; it’s well-directed; it’s well-acted.
And you see my father in color for the first time, which I think is important.
Any really great movie stands the test of time because it stands alone.
And this does too.
It’s two of the great actors ever.
As part of that, your dad won his Oscar for this.
Did you have a sense of what that meant to him?
If it was important or meaningful to him in any way?
I think that he probably would not admit it, but it was important.
He should have won one before.
Finally, they decided to give him an Oscar.
And I think it was.
If you look at his Oscar speech, it was short.
Most of them were then.
I think it was important to him to be recognized for his craft.
Because he was a great picker of movies.
Because his filmography is second to none.
Do you think this is the role he most deserved to win for?
It sounds like maybe you think it should’ve been forThe Caine Mutiny.
He could’ve won for any of them.
He could’ve won forCaine Mutiny; he could’ve won forThe Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
He could’ve won forCasablanca; he could have won forDesperate Hours.
I was 2 years old, so I really don’t remember anything.
And so, none of those discussions that you would have with a teenager were really discussed.
My father came back; he makes another movie.
Your father and John Huston were an incredible team, including on this film.
Why do you think they were so well suited to each other as an actor and director?
They had the same attitude about life.
He was a great family friend.
He gave the eulogy at my father’s funeral.
I’ve known Anjelica [Huston] for forever.
I just think that my father got John Huston, and my father also was not stupid.
He knew when he had hooked onto something that’s really good great writer, great director.
And they were going to have fun at those shoots.
They were going to work their asses off, but they were going to have fun.
That’s what’s important.
It’s pretty well-established that everyone on set got sick during filming, except Huston and your dad.
Can you tell me more about that?
They were drinking booze and everybody else was drinking that horrible water.
They weren’t boiling it, not the way that they would do today.
They were just roughing it.
It was 1951 in Africa, and nobody knew about that stuff and how careful you had to be.
My father and John Huston imbibed the correct way.
They didn’t get sick.
It was Africa in 1950.
I mean, you’ve got the option to imagine how difficult it would be today.
They were living in tents; they had food they continually brought in from villages.
They had to worry about being attacked by animals.
It wasn’t as if there were a couple of lions in a game preserve.
There were lions and piranhas and crocodiles.
All this sort of stuff, and it was really wild Africa.
Everything made it so difficult.
But that was the adventure too.
Your mom went along for the trip.
Do you know why she wanted to go?
Yeah, I’ll be doing that.
What are you going to do?
Sit at home in L.A. and wait?
It’s not even a question.
Definitely, she went for the adventure.
It was an adventurous time, and she was 27 years old.
Do you think facing all of those challenges together brought your parents even closer together?
I doubt it brought them closer together.
They both thought it was great.
It was fun; it was exactly what it should be.
And they were pretty darn close anyway.
Do you remember any particular horror stories they told later on?
And she went running out of the tent.
But I never really got any of that.
The shoot was just a difficult shoot.
Food had to be brought in from all over the place.
He had a chemistry.
They were great friends, him and my mother were great friends with Katie and Spencer Tracy.
And I remember going over to their house.
Katie was my brother Sam’s godmother.
It was a longtime friendship.
My father always admired talent, and Katie was a great, great actress.
They were friends forever.
Do you think them playing off of each other brought anything different or new out in the other?
I’m sure it did.
I don’t think that any of his movies are like his real life.
He was an actor, that’s what they do.
That wasn’t him.
It’s really not like he was in real life.
My favorite memory is being on the boat.
I don’t remember a whole lot.
But just being around the boat, being on the Santana.
That’s the only memory that I have, really.
