‘DINNER’ DATE
The bizarre story behind ‘Fantasy Island’ star’s last interview
IN 1993, when 26-year-old British reporter Sacha Gervasi went to LA to interview actor Hervé Villechaize (“Fantasy Island”), he didn’t expect to be threatened with a knife. “I did a half-hour interview with him, and he was very charming and sweet,” says Gervasi, now 52. “As I was packing my stuff away, I turned and found that Hervé ...had a knife ... and he says, ‘I’ve told you all de bullshit stories, do you want to hear de real story of my life?’ ” I was like, ‘I’m about to be stabbed to death by the dwarf from ‘Fantasy Island.’ ”
Gervasi survived — but tragically just eight days after their ensuing 12-hour conversation, Villechaize committed suicide at age 50.
When Gervasi heard, “I started to cry because I knew listening back to the tapes that he was planning to do it. He was just trying to get some random person to listen before he took his exit from the world.”
Ever since then, Gervasi has tried to honor Villechaize as his own career transitioned from journalism to screenwriting. Twenty-five years later, he made the biopic “My Dinner with Hervé.”
Premiering Saturday on HBO (8 p.m.), the film is written and directed by Gervasi and cuts between a fictional depiction of their interview and flashbacks to Villechaize’s life, highlighting his roles in “Fantasy Island” (19771984) and the James Bond movie “The Man With The Golden Gun” (1974). Peter Dinklage (“Game of Thrones”) plays Villechaize. Jamie Dornan (“The Fall”) plays Danny Tate, a reporter based on Gervasi.
It took so long to make the movie, Gervasi says, because a film about a suicidal dwarf — famous for his goofy TV catchphrase (“De plane! De plane!”) — was a hard sell. “We had someone literally say to us, ‘You could not come up with a more uncommercial idea for a film.’ ”
Though Dinklage has teamed up with Gervasi to try to make the movie for the past 15 years, it even took convincing to get
him onboard, at first.
“He was intrigued, because he’d grown up as a dwarf knowing that Hervé had made this big success, but from Peter’s initial point of view, he thought this guy’s taken somewhat demeaning roles and is playing to the stereotype,” Gervasi says. “He felt there was a big difference between them, which is true. As we started working, he started to have a lot more empathy and understand where Hervé was coming from.”
Eventually HBO took notice, thanks in part to Dinklage’s increased clout from “Game of Thrones.” The movie’s dialogue is 50 percent from Gervasi’s tapes but details have been embellished. For example, at the time of his meeting with Villechaize, Gervasi was one year sober; in the film, Danny Tate is just one month sober.
“I wanted to give the actor freedom to make [the character] his own,” says Gervasi. “And also I think it would be tough for me and for the actor if I’m on-set directing someone playing me. So I needed to create a character based on the circumstance. I would say 50 percent of it is exactly factually what happened and 50 percent of it has been dramatized.”
“Hervé” was filmed in London and LA. For flashbacks to Villechaize’s time on “Fantasy Island,” they were able use the real location.
“It’s not a set,” says Gervasi. “It’s about an hour outside of LA. It’s a real place called the Queen Anne Cottage. We were able to go back and just shoot where they shot on the same location. Pretty wild, right?” Location aside, the film also features a cameo from Villechaize’s real-life brother Patrick (as a butler).
“Twenty five years and one month after we met, the film’s coming out into the world,” says Gervasi. “There is something destined about it all — I do feel like I’ve dispatched my karmic duty.”