Bet You Didn’t Know: Secrets Behind The Making Of “Ray”

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Taylor on Ray Charles’ death

Ray Charles, who was heavily involved in the film and what would ultimately make it to the screen, was suffering from alcoholic liver disease and hepatitis C as the film was nearing its completion. But despite all of that he still made time to make sure that he oversaw the moves that were being made in production. Though he was close to the end of his life, Taylor Hackford, the director, who worked closely with Ray didn’t really let that fact sink in until after he was already gone.

I start to realize now that he probably knew he was sick, although he was vibrant and alive and completely on top of his game. There was no portrayal of any weakness. But that very time, he gathered all 12 of his children from around the world, for the first time, together. And I now realize, looking at that, what he was doing. We went to shoot the film and when I came back I saw him and he seemed to be in fine shape. He was there on the set with us when we were at RPM Studios in Los Angeles, he seemed fine. But I went into the editing room and I spent about 10 weeks to cut it and I took a rough cut to RPM to show him because he would say he wanted to see it but he sat next to the Šand I could tell that he was not the Ray Charles that I knew from before. And he was starting to deteriorate. Typical Ray Charles fashion, it went about 3 months more than the doctors ever thought possible. He was dying, dying; he’ll never make it past this. And he was proving them all wrong. And at certain point, Ray was going to do like always, he was going to do it his way. And he’s going to prove them wrong. And of course, when it happens, it’s a huge shock. Yeah, it’s painful he’s not hear to see the film. But ultimately he did see the rough cut. First thing he asked to see was, I want to see my mom, I want to hear what you put in for my mom. That was the most important thing to him. And he loved it.

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