Ridley Scott's Mideast Moves

Speaking of his 1979 sci-fi hit "Alien," it was "fresh blood. One of the ushers fainted. People got angry, which I found very interesting." Scott's favorite scene remains the one where the creature burst out of John Hurt's stomach (and John Hurt complaining). "It was one shot," he recalls. "The first time we used five cameras. That gave me my first sense of responsibility as a filmmaker."

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Scott – a self-avowed businessman – began his career in advertising. He directed "1984," the first TV commercial of the Macintosh personal computer. Although now hailed as a "masterpiece," he concedes "Jobs didn't like it. He didn't get it and the agency had to run it" -- at the Super Bowl no less. Scott's reputation as a commercial director earned him the sobriquet of "decorator not filmmaker" after "Alien" and "Blade Runner" came out. To which Scott cheekily responds, "I don't give a ****."

He reminds Travers that when "Alien" was "brutal – a huge success," and "Blade Runner" followed, he was still being treated in Hollywood as the "new kid on the block." He protests, "I'm not a kid. I'm a businessman. So I see things in a certain way. I was naturally met with 'you can't do this and do that and oh by the way you can't operate your camera.'" Scott believes his success as a director is because he has "always worked like a photographer, that being a cameraman is "where the magic happens."

Throughout his long career, Scott has withstood Hollywood pressure. When asked to change the now iconic ending of "Thelma and Louise," he calmly suggested they "call me on Monday with a better suggestion." When Travers expressed surprise at his atypical calm response, he smiled and said, "I never draw the line in the sand. You get more by defusing the bomb."