Jim Jarmusch Speaks On Wu-Tang Clan

Independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch has stories to share about working with Wu-Tang members. After collaborating with RZA for his Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai film, he decided to speak to The Village Voice about his experiences with Wu’s RZA, the GZA and the late ODB.  

According to Jarmusch, he had to look for RZA.

“I had to hunt RZA down,” he shared. “I wasn’t getting anywhere through the management–normal things. I just started asking some friends, and within two days, I was sitting with RZA in a studio in Midtown at 3 a.m., meeting for the first time. We got along really well, and we just started talking about everything, and by the end of that night, he was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m down. When should we start? What should I do?’ Him and GZA are like encyclopedias of martial-arts film. They don’t just know every director and actor; they know who choreographed the fight scenes, who did the design, who did this and that.” 

Respecting their knowledge, he also decided to collect Wu beats to help him in giving RZA directions. 

“I had collected all the Wu-Tang vinyl with the instrumental B-sides, so I could say, like, ‘I like this floating, damaged beat. I like this stutter, this trippy slow thing.’ We decided that we won’t do cues to the film. You’ll hand me off music, I’ll put it in the film, but don’t score to certain sections. . . . One of the coolest times: He came in with ODB, and we spent the whole day with ODB watching the placement of the music. That was amazing.”

Jarmusch went on to add that he felt the two emcees were on something when they came to visit him.

“I think they were on mushrooms or something, though—they were acting very peculiar. Every five minutes or so, ODB would jump up and go, ‘Yo, yo! Stop the machine! Earth, Mars, Venus: Pick one!’ And RZA would go, ‘I got this. Earth.’ And he’d go, ‘OK, start it up again.’ He was amazing. I wanted to go in and film him—we were going to go in when he was locked down. Go put a camera on ODB and let him talk about any fucking thing he wants. We never got to do it. That’s a big regret.I had to hunt RZA down. I wasn’t getting anywhere through the management–normal things. I just started asking some friends, and within two days, I was sitting with RZA in a studio in Midtown at 3 a.m., meeting for the first time. We got along really well, and we just started talking about everything, and by the end of that night, he was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m down. When should we start? What should I do?’ Him and GZA are like encyclopedias of martial-arts film. They don’t just know every director and actor; they know who choreographed the fight scenes, who did the design, who did this and that.”

For more of the interview with the director, check The Village Voice.