12/11/08
Text: Scott Indrisek
When we sat down to chat with Steven Soderbergh, director of the forthcoming Che, we knew it wouldn’t be a dry conversation about revolutionary tactics and the morality of Communism. As occasionally happens, the conversation came around to porn. That’s not much of a surprise for anyone who’s been keeping score—Soderbergh contributed exclusive photos of hotel porn screenshots for Anthem a while back, along with an essay extolling his love of the adult medium. And his next film, G.F.E., stars a deep-throating Godard fanatic: the porn actress Sasha Grey.
Anthem mentioned Che Guevara’s established reputation as a lady’s man. “Yeah,” Soderbergh agreed. “But [Che] doesn’t strike me as a big masturbator, I have to say. That was an impression that I felt early on. All of my research confirms it. Not a big masturbator.” The conversation then evolved into a hypothetical Soderbergh vs. Guevara showdown. “What could I do that he couldn’t do? I know I could out drink him. There’s no question. He used to dilute his wine with water, which is really strange. I know I can drink him under the table—and then I could take his gun. Better baseball player than him, for sure. I think I know more jokes than him. That’s about it, I think. I’d have a really hard time getting up every day and putting on fatigues and walking around and not having people laugh at me. I’m fascinated by people [who] can do that. I mean from the point of the revolution until he died, unless he was in disguise and traveling, he wore fatigues and military boots every day. I would have a hard time doing that without a heavy dose of irony.”
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