After a highly-lauded foray into documentary, Werner Herzog returns to drama this weekend with Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, a remake of Abel Ferrara’s recent movie of the same name. The infamous wild card recently sat down with our friends at Vulture to discuss one of the film’s more Herzogian scenes, leaving us assured that his charming German accent will ring through once more, even without any cameos.
“It can’t look more stupid than that,” Herzog says of the starring lizard. And that sounds about right. Nature has long been a point of interest for Herzog, who’s found beauty in the chaotic, virile and murderous tendencies of bears, the universe or Klaus Kinski. This time around, we get iguanas.
According to Nicolas Cage, the film, and perhaps Herzog’s future as a filmmaker, hinged upon the inclusion of this iguana scene. “Werner had had a couple of drinks,” Cage told the LA Times, ‘He said in this distraught voice, ‘The iguanas are the best thing in the movie. And I must have five minutes of iguana time! And if I don’t have my full five minutes of iguana time, I will never make another movie again!'” Rational? Barely. It’s just Herzog being Herzog again.