Werner Herzog Gets Shot During Interview, Doesn’t Miss a Beat

Fast for­ward to the 47 sec­ond mark if you want to cut straight to the action.

Wern­er Her­zog moved to the Unit­ed States in the mid 1990s. He tried liv­ing in San Fran­cis­co, but found it “too chic and leisure­ly.” He gave thought to New York, but real­ized it is “only a place to go [to] if you’re into finances.” Look­ing for “a place of cul­tur­al sub­stance,” he end­ed up in Los Ange­les. The city is “raw, uncouth and bizarre,” but it’s a place of sub­stance,” he con­clud­ed.

By 2006, Her­zog dis­cov­ered that L.A. also has a lit­tle dan­ger going for it. Dur­ing an inter­view with BBC crit­ic Mark Ker­mode, the film­mak­er took a shot from an unknown gun­man armed with an air rifle. No mat­ter. Ker­mode and Her­zog quick­ly relo­cat­ed and con­tin­ued the inter­view. The unflap­pable Her­zog shrugged off the shoot­ing, sim­ply say­ing “It was not a sig­nif­i­cant bul­let. I am not afraid.”

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

Wern­er Her­zog: Movies Won’t Change the World

Wern­er Her­zog Reads “Go the F**k to Sleep” in NYC (NSFW)

Wern­er Her­zog Los­es a Bet to Errol Mor­ris, and Eats His Shoe (Lit­er­al­ly)