`Thank you for your time, and I hope someday I can meet you in person." So ends Robert Rodriguez' charming book, Rebel Without a Crew - a diary of the making of his first film, El Mariachi. Isn't that just sweet? This from a child-eating monster, a man so depraved that our censor felt obliged to ban his 1995 film From Dusk Till Dawn. And now I am meeting him in person. This menace to our society lies across the sofa in his Dorchester Hotel suite wearing a "beany" hat and a warm smile. The 32-year-old Tex-Mex director is in London to promote his new film, Spy Kids (currently number one at the US box office). It's a wonderfully entertaining romp which sees two perky Latino youngsters take on an evil empire headed by Alan Cumming's deranged kids' TV presenter. Though it is primarily aimed at the under-10s, adults will find plenty to enjoy. There are fun gadgets, gorgeous sets, kicking music and there's Antonio Banderas (steady there, Mums).
But hang on a minute. We endured the bloodbaths that were El Mariachi (1993) and Desperado (1995); we just about held our dinner down during his horror movie The Faculty (1998); (thankfully the state protected our delicate constitutions from From Dusk Till Dawn, phew!) and now he's made a kids movie. This can't be right.
"Actually, this is more of a Rodriguez film than the others," he explains. "This is what I started doing when I was 12. I made movies on video with my family. I'm from a family of 10 kids, and all my brothers and sisters were in these movies. They were just like Spy Kids; fun action-adventures."
You sense that he hasn't changed much from that 12-year-old. When I say he is lying on the couch, I mean just that. His sneakers are propped up at one end and he speaks to the ceiling during much of the interview. He continues: "So these videos began to win competitions and I started to get noticed. I thought I'd better teach myself to make a proper film. I financed it a bunch of ways. I sold my body to medical science. Austin, Texas, is a big college town and they'll pay you to test drugs." The pharmaceutically-financed film was El Mariachi, a contemporary western shot in Mexico for a reported $7,000. He only intended it as a learning exercise, never expecting it to be released. But then Columbia Pictures showed it to a test audience: "It did great. The audience loved it.
So the studio said, `let's take it to festivals. We can release this.' And I was like: `No you can't release this, this is my practise movie.' " Given its minuscule budget, in relative terms, the film proved a substantial hit and has become an enormous inspiration to low-budget film-makers. It demonstrated that with enough determination and ingenuity anyone can make a feature film. Almost uniquely among directors, Rodriguez has continued to use low-budget techniques in his studio pictures, doing as much of the work as possible himself.
"I edit myself and I always shoot the movies myself, picking the lenses etc. That's how I started - shooting on video, doing it all myself. I just found it hard to adapt to a world where it takes 100 people to move a table. I'll move the table!" Is it about control? "It's not about control, no. It's just more fun.
You get tired, but it's not like real work. It's a fun job." There's that kid again. He really has all the perky enthusiasm of a teenager. Actually, maybe he's a bit too cheery. Wait till I break it to him about his films being banished from our country, that'll sober him up. But for now he's still enthusing; "Yeh, I see these directors and they don't do anything on the set. Now what I think is, `If you're not in the trenches you're not in the war. Hell, you're not even in the battle.' " Beside him in the trenches on three films he has had Antonio Banderas, a sort of John Wayne to his John Ford perhaps? "Yeh, maybe," he ponders. "Along with George Clooney and a few others. "Oh, I've got lots of John Waynes." (George Clooney is in From Dusk to Dawn, which of course you haven't seen, because you're not allowed!). "I was lying in the hospital having these drugs tested on me and I saw Banderas in Tie Me Up Tie Me Down on TV. I thought this guy would be great in an action picture. So I cast him in Desperado. It was his first lead role."
As well as Desperado, Banderas appeared in Rodriguez' episode from the portmanteau film, Four Rooms (1995), and here he is again in Spy Kids. Banderas and Carla Cugino play the parents of the eponymous juvenile agents (the adorable Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara). All combine to give a zesty Latin atmosphere that is rare in Americas white-bread cinema. "It's not supposed to hit you over the head that it's Latin America. It's just a part of the characters' background. The locations are supposed to be a magical place, somewhere in the South; somewhere where all this could be happening. I didn't say exactly where it is." Wherever it is, it's a fairly scary place at times. "Well, I tried to keep my little three year-old in mind; he's really scared of everything. I mean it could have been really scary for some kids. I remember seeing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a kid and that was too dark. Even The Wizard of Oz is terrifying when you're little. So I hope it's not too scary." And the director's kids have paid the film the ultimate compliment. "I was in my bedroom getting some paperwork," he explains. "And I saw this shape run by. There was my son sneaking around. I asked him what he was doing. `Playing Spy Kids', he said. " Rodriguez beams with delight. With his playful, sweet demeanour one wouldn't be surprised if he had joined in the game. It's time to wipe that smile off his face. Did he know that From Dusk to Dawn had been banned in Ireland?
"No. Why's that then?" he asks, seemingly unmoved. Well, they won't say. One assumes it's because of the violence, though it is no more violent than 100 other films released that year. "Actually, I was surprised that it didn't get into more trouble. But in America, the censors didn't have a problem because of the amount of humour involved." The authorities should note that an American is suggesting that his own moral guardians have a greater sense of irony than ours. But he's almost agreeing with the censor here. Doesn't this anger him, even a little bit? "I don't know what could have got it banned. I mean they could just have given it the highest rating couldn't they? Just for adults, you'd think, wouldn't you!" Come on, this must infuriate you. This is happened in a democracy. (Ok, maybe I'm trying a little too hard). "No. It doesn't anger me. I guess it's just a different society."
All right then, I give up. He simply refuses to cause a scene. When he said that he hoped to meet his readers in person one day, I think he was sincere. He really is as simple and uncomplicated as that. Just the sort of man to entertain your kids this Easter.
Spy Kids is on general release