Nelly Kaplan, film-maker. London, 1982.

This is the second selection of photographs I took in the 1980s and 1990s of assorted film-makers, actors, writers and musicians. The first selection is here. The photographs in this gallery were published in a Japanese magazine I can’t remember the name of, The Soho Weekly News, Event and Time Out.

In 1982 I turned up at The Sanctuary in London to photograph Kathleen Turner, who had just made a stunning big screen debut in Body Heat (1981) – only to find it was a full-blown photo-call packed with experienced Fleet Street photographers equipped with massive cameras and long lenses. Unlike the femme fatale she plays in the film, Turner was very sweet and shy, and seemed as ill-prepared as I felt, with my tiny Olympus OM-1; she was dressed in white, which is hard to photograph well (for me, anyway). The other photographers quickly got her to remove her jacket. But she did flash me a smile.

In 1990, Elle (U.K.) sent me to Italy to interview Rutger Hauer on location for one of a series of TV commercials he made for Guinness. The shoot was in the grounds of a villa just outside Rome. I managed to squeeze in a couple of snaps of him, but I don’t think they’ve ever been published anywhere. There was a full film crew present, and the footage I saw being shot ended up lasting five milliseconds in the ad, which you can see here, from 1:39 to 2:07. The writer of the ad was there, he looked down his nose at me when I told him I was writing a novel (not a sufficiently remunerative venture, in his opinion – and yeah OK, he turned out to be right) and Hauer had to consult with him when he wanted to change a word of the dialogue. Great ads though.

Elsewhere, you can see my penchant for unwittingly making things as difficult as possible for myself – posing subjects in bright sunlight or against windows. I look at these pictures now and go, “Why? Why? Why?” Also, since many of these photographs were taken during or just after interviews, the sofa tends to be a recurring motif. Gene Wilder nearly fell asleep on his; he was jet-lagged and grumpy (“I am not a comedian – I’m an actor“), but I think mine was about the fiftieth interview he’d done that day, so I can’t say I blame him. Sometimes, interviewers do ask the stupidest questions, and mine were probably stupider than most.

Kathleen Turner, actor. London, 1982.

Plastics, musicians. Tokyo, 1980.

Anthony Perkins, actor. London, 1983.

Gene Wilder, actor. London, 1984.

Vincent Spano, actor. London, 1983.

Neil Jordan, film-maker. London, 1982.

Amy Robinson & Griffin Dunne, actors & film-makers. New York, 1983.

Alexander Kaletski, writer & artist. London, 1985.

Rutger Hauer, actor. Rome, 1990.

Ray Bradbury, writer. London, 1984.

Matthew Modine & Nicolas Cage, actors. London, 1985.

Carroll Baker, actor. London, 1984.

Tony Curtis, actor. London, 1985.

Shaun Hutson, writer. London, 1982.

Aswad, musicians. London, 1984.

Rosanna Arquette, actor, New York, 1983.