When the documentary Out of record, about the life and career of super-producer David Foster, was about to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival last year, Foster admitted he wished “some of the personal stuff” including details of his various marriages and their parental regrets T made the cut. “In almost 50 documentaries, I have never been so nervous in my life to show a movie,” director Barry Avrich told Yahoo Entertainment. “We sat together in a screening room in the dark and I said, ‘I’m really nervous.’ And then it put me on a comfort level. He says, ‘I’m nervous too.’ And we saw him and went to dinner later and he said, ‘Look, there are a lot of things in there that I’m not comfortable with, but I know the rules. I know what you’ve been telling me for the past few years about what makes a great documentary. So let’s roll. “
However, one of the segments that was not part of that September 2019 issue, but now it’s in the version of David Foster: Off the Record which premieres on Netflix this week, is the story of one of the bleakest moments in Foster’s life, when he hit actor / singer / dancer Ben Vereen with his car on the Pacific Coast Highway while driving home from a shooting session. night study. The strange accident in 1992 caused Vereen to suffer serious injuries and have to undergo months of rehabilitation, but unexpectedly, the accident finally saved Vereen’s life.
“I have personally distanced myself from the story now because many years have passed, so I can be objective about it,” Foster tells Yahoo Entertainment. “I will tell you that the night I hit Ben Vereen, that night and the next day or two were the worst days of my life, other than when my father died. It was absolutely the worst. I never believed in flashbacks until that happened. And for three days, every 20 seconds or 30 seconds, I had burning pain in my brain and I would [jump] for three days. It was crazy. I thought I was going to the hospital. “
As it turned out, Vereen had already been in an accident that same day, when her car hit a tree, causing her to hit her head on the roof of her car and suffer a stroke; This was the reason why a Vereen out of class wandered in the middle of the dark PCH. But after Vereen was rushed to the hospital, doctors discovered he had a brain hemorrhage and intervened just in time.
“He believes [I saved him]from all my heart. I think the truth is that they scanned his entire body and found a six-hour-old subdural hematoma, and that he would have died at 7 in the morning from bleeding in the brain. So he credits me with that, which is the strangest way to save someone, “says Foster.
“We were friends, and his recovery was my recovery. … I thought I had killed him for sure. But when he started to improve, I started to improve. And then, three months later, as he says in the documentary, he called and said: “David Foster?” I said yes?’ He said, ‘Man, that’s one of your best hits!’ That just leveled him up, made everything okay. ”
As Foster tells this story during a remote interview from home, his off-camera wife Katharine McPhee advises him to make it clear that he was not intoxicated when the Vereen accident occurred. “Sorry, that’s my wife, covering my ass,” Foster laughs.
In Out of recordThe loyal McPhee gives several “incredibly open and sincere” interviews, as Avrich says, about her relationship struggles with Foster, whom she met 14 years ago when, ironically, he was a guest mentor on an episode of “The Best Love Songs ” her American idol season and she sang a ballad that Foster had written for his third wife Linda Thompson, “I Got Nothing” by Whitney Houston. (“We always kept in touch and worked together, at charity events, but you know, I was married, she was married, and we were good,” says Foster with a smile.)
McPhee is 34 years younger than Foster and is his fifth wife, but against all odds, their union appears to be strengthening so far. This week they celebrated their first wedding anniversary in “pure classic COVID style” at home. “And they said it wouldn’t last,” Foster jokes. Kat is super evolved. We like to say that there are 10 things that can bring down a marriage. It could be geography, it could be finance, it could be children, it could be cheating. There are so many things. The age difference, which we clearly have, is one of the 10, but the other nine are solid. Then you have a real chance to stay together.
Avrich tells the moments he captured of the musical power couple on camera for Out of record They are among his favorites: “It is wonderful to see that chemistry, not only in a relationship, but in the symmetry of talent.” But Foster is amused that the film’s visions in her personal life seem to be generating the biggest stir. “Do you think it’s more interesting for my wife to say that I can be difficult than Barbra Streisa and say that I can be difficult?” he asks incredulously.
Foster’s documentary is full of fascinating stories about Streisand, Houston, and more, as is Yahoo Entertainment’s extended interview with Foster and Avrich below, in which the producer / songwriter / musician recalls working with those artists, as well as with Celine Dion, Natalie Cole, Neil Young and Chicago, and in the iconic score of another unmissable movie, Saint Elmo’s Fire. David Foster: Off the Record is now available on Netflix.
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