William Friedkin is not a very sentimental man, said Sean Macaulay in The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). The director of The Exorcist and The French Connection has been married four times, and refuses to discuss his three ex-wives—who include screen sirens Jeanne Moreau and Lesley-Anne Down. “They were insignificant relationships,” says Friedkin, 77. “Which is how I look at them now—as blips.” In writing his memoirs, he reviewed 100 pages of notes he took over the years about affairs and one-night stands, but decided that none of the women were worth mentioning. The one past affair he will discuss occurred in the 1970s while he was scouting film locations in the Dominican Republic. One night, he wound up on the beach having sex with the mistress of a local colonel—who’d recently gunned down another man in a restaurant. “She was very persuasive,” he says. “After a few minutes of bliss, well, more than a few minutes, I hear the click of rifle bolts and screaming in Spanish. I open my eyes to six rifles pointed at my head. I thought, ‘It’s all over. They’re going to kill me on the beach.’ Then this woman stood up, still naked, and yelled at them. Words to the effect of, ‘Get your asses out of here or I’m going to have the colonel take your heart out!’” Friedkin takes a sip of coffee. “I continued to see her, obviously. Just not on the beach.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Georgia's new foreign influence billUnder the Radar Critics claim the 'Russian law' could stifle dissent and wreck the country's chances of joining the EU
-
'Making a police state out of the liberal university'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
8 looming climate tipping points that imperil our planetThe Explainer New reports detail the thresholds we may be close to crossing
