Listen to Geoff MacCormack talk about his time with Bowie on the movie set, ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’
Transcript of interview:
Geoff: In order for me to hang around on the film, I would have got paid for it, yes I did get paid for it. I had a couple of jobs. One job was driving the Winnebago which I’d never driven before. I drove it from LA to Albuquerque in one hit, 800 miles. I don’t know why I didn’t just pull over and sleep in the double bed but I didn’t so that was one job I had on the film The other job was a stand-in, now, we were the same height basically David and I, but obviously my complexion was completely different and I didn’t have red hair.I think they got fed up with me even though they gave me a red wig, they got fed up with me after a while, mercifully, which gave me time to take all these pictures which was great. My other job, which I was good at, was morale booster.
Interviewer: It’s quite a lot of waiting around on a film set isn’t it?
Geoff: People don’t understand, unless you actually been involved in a film, that it’s 99% hanging around and being bored, 1% action. That’s me morale boosting, and winding up. He’s trying not to smile.
Interviewer: Why is he trying not to smile?
Geoff: He’s humouring me. It was horrible, he had to have these huge lenses put in his eyes. It was really uncomfortable, it was nasty.
Interviewer: Is that the actual contact lens? It’s enormous.
Geoff: Anyway so he wasn’t at his best at this point, he wasn’t feeling his most good humoured, he wasn’t his usual good-humoured self. So that’s me winding him up up and that’s him standing it to a degree but he could also see the funny side and he’s trying not to laugh, bless him.