Keir Dullea and Douglas Trumbull on the Making of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’

Keir Dullea:

The first day of shooting ended up being delayed because Kubrick didn’t like my shoes. The wardrobe came up with the right pair real fast. I felt awed working with him and he picked up that I was tense — which is terrible for an actor. After a week, he took me aside and said: “Keir, you’re everything I’m looking for.”

The rotating living quarters of the Discovery spacecraft were built by Vickers. They were 70ft across and turned at 3mph. The camera tricks the crew used to simulate centrifugal force were ingenious. There’s a scene where I climb down a ladder and, at the other side of the screen, you see the other astronaut sitting at a table upside-down. It looks as if I walk round towards him, until I’m upside-down too, but they actually rotated the set, and him, round to me. He seems to be eating normally — but only because they’d glued his food to his fork.

★ Tuesday, 13 March 2018