Man on the Moon

• Valur Gunnarsson, Miloš Forman’s Masterclass, The Reykjavík Grapevine, October 6, 2009

“I (ALMOST) SHOT BOBBY FISCHER” Do you think that to become really good at something, you have to concentrate on that exclusively and don’t manage to become a full rounded person? Bobby Fischer could be another example. “Absolutely. But Bobby Fischer was certifiably... his genius as a chess player affected something else in his brain. I met him many times. I wanted to make a film about the match. He lived then with some nuns in some kind of a cult. I talked to a nun about making a film with Bobby Fisher. The nun said ‘alright, Mr. Fischer will meet you at three o clock in the afternoon’. I said ‘where?’ and she said: ‘We will call you half an hour before and tell you where’. She called at 14.30 and told me to come to a motel at the outskirts of Los Angeles. I drove to be there at three o’ clock and came to this little, dingy hotel. Bobby Fischer came in the room. I tried to say hello and he put a transistor radio on the table and put it on full blast. Then he started talking. He was paranoid and thought they might be listening on hidden microphones somewhere. Very strange character. This was before he went to Belgrade to have the match with Spassky during the embargo”. So was it after Bobby Fischer came to the set that you decided not to make a movie with him? “No, I was shooting and invited him to come to see the dailies in Los Angeles. He would only come after dark. Afterward, I met him in his hotel room and the only thing he said was: ‘That actress is fat’”. It seems that Bobby Fischer sacrificed a part of his humanity to become a great chess player. Andy Kaufman may have done the same. So did Salieri in the film, but then he can’t even make music. “I was not aware of these connections, but there they are. Being a genius, they have to pay something for it. Bobby was a genius. I think it’s wonderful that Iceland took care of him and gave him the citizenship. I’ve heard he’s buried here. Is it far? I want to see his grave”. “We can arrange that”, interjects his handler. [Read more].

Film director Miloš Forman paying a visit to Robert James “Bobby” Fischer’s grave in Selfoss, Iceland. Photo: Egill Bjarnason/Alamy Stock Photo.