As a journalist, there are certain interviews that are a capital E, experience, and make an indelible impact on you long after they’re done. Such was the case for a young, pre-filmmaking Sacha Gervasi with renowned diminutive actor Hervé Villechaize of “The Man with the Golden Gun” and “Fantasy Island” fame who conducted an epic, days-long interview with a very candid Villechaize in the later years of his life. One could say both Gervasi and Villechaize were troubled enigmas, brought together by some cosmic twist of fate, if one subscribes to such a notion. Some 25 years later, Gervasi, screenwriter of “The Terminal,” and director of the metal documentary, “Anvil: The Story of Anvil,” has skillfully recreated his entire interview with the actor, the good, the bad, and the ugly, in “My Dinner with Hervé” which premiered earlier this year on HBO.

Fresh off of his Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Television Movie, which he shares with Peter Dinklage (who plays Villechaize) and co-producer/legendary screenwriter Steven Zaillian (“Gangs of New York“), Gervasi spoke to me about the long odyssey to get “My Dinner with Hervé” made, Dinklage and Zaillian’s integral roles in the production, balancing CGI with practical effects, Jamie Dornan‘s acting chops, “The Terminal,” and more.

What compelled you to recreate this interview you conducted with Hervé after 25 years?

I felt like I had to tell the story because the magazine I was writing for at the time had published a version of all of the best parts of that, the heart and soul had been stripped out. I felt the actual encounter I had with Hervé, this personal side was missing from the article that was ultimately published. I had to really tell the story of our encounter and also tell the story who Hervé really was. There were many, many aspects, his personality, often quite contradictory. But there was an incredible heart there and an incredible warmth as well as the madness and the crazy anger and insanity [laughter].

Read the rest of the interview at The Playlist.