Congo Diary
Tim Curry, "Herkermer Homolka"
Homolka is a character created expressly for the film. I think that John Patrick
Shanley (the writer) felt the story needed somebody more exotic lurking among the
rest of the expedition. I like to get exotic and lurk. I also think, for the
adventure of the story, it was good to have somebody who was a little more
ambiguous and whose motives were perhaps a tad more venal than everybody else's.
One of the things I tried to do with Homolka was not just have him be some kind
of cardboard villain. I wanted him to be funny and he IS, in fact, a little
funny. I tried to make him a bit more Peter Lorre, at times, just to make him
more interesting and accessible.
Excerpt from "The Making of CONGO: the Movie" by Jody Duncan and Janine Pourroy.
Ballantine/1995. (C) and TM 1995 Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved.
Congo Diary Entry
Congo Diary
Tim Curry, "Herkermer Homolka"
The actors and crew all liked each other a great deal and that made it enormous
fun to come to work. We all had different kinds of energies to play which made it
more interesting for us. This kind of Movie is very much about plot, about
discovering cities and big set pieces of cinematic excitement. If all the actors
are driving along together it makes the story seem more real.
One thing I did was ask the producers to find a Romanian actor to record the
dialogue on tape so that I could have a model for Homolka's dialect. I didn't
want a vocal coach because I think it is a nightmare to be haunted on the set by
someone saying, "No it's 'EECH' not 'IICH!'" I love dialects and I wanted this
one to be as accurate as possible.
Excerpt from "The Making of CONGO: the Movie" by Jody Duncan and Janine Pourroy.
Ballantine/1995. (C) and TM 1995 Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved.
Last revised on 07-22-1998 by Linda Fletcher