Movies: “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

July 1, 1965 - Next week in Hollywood, 33-year-old director Mike Nichols (left with Elizabeth Taylor) will start directing his first motion picture, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” from Edward Albee’s play. The cast will be headed by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, not the easiest performers to direct.

Yet if Nichols is worried about it, he doesn’t show it, perhaps with good reason. Even though he has never directed a movie, he has already become one of Hollywood’s hottest directors and has been signed for two more films, “The Public Eye” and “The Graduate.”

“Sure, Mike Nichols is chic now,” says Nichols. “But I have four plays running in New York now, so that’s no surprise. We’ll see whether I’m chic next season.” The four are “Luv,” “Barefoot in the Park,” “The Knack,” and “The Odd Couple.”

For the last few weeks, Nichols has been preparing himself for his film, poring over the script, studying a model of the set and renderings of scenes.

Most afternoons, he has closeted himself in a projection room, running and rerunning films by Truffaut, Fellini, George Stevens, and Elia Kazan. Yesterday at 5:15 p.m., after watching Fellini’s “8½” for the fourth time, his admiration was unbounded.

“The man’s an absolute genius,” Nichols commented. “The trouble is, I get so caught up in the picture, I forget to study the technique.”

Nichols has also sought advice about filmmaking from younger directors, including Norman Jewison and John Frankenheimer.

Despite his success on Broadway, Nichols said he had always yearned to make movies and that he would like to concentrate on films that comment on life today.

“Films are just more a part of peoples’ lives, that’s all,” he says. “I think the country is movie crazy. At least I am.”

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