David Fincher Looks Back on Working With George Michael and Billy Idol

Last week, we took a look at David Fincher's work as a music-video director, which reminded us that the legendary filmmaker was the mastermind behind Paula Abdul's 'Straight Up' video.

Now, our colleagues at Moviefone have spoken with Fincher about his videos, as well as his upcoming surefire-blockbuster, 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.' In the Q&A, Fincher looks back at his treatment of Rick Springfield's 'Bop 'Til You Drop,' the first video he directed.

"That one got me out of ILM. I mean, I would make that video very differently today," he said of the odd video. "For a 22-year-old and the first $150,000 I've ever had to spend ... yeah, we did the best we could with what we had. Rick was incredibly sweet to me to give me that opportunity, but I honestly don't know what any of that had to do with that song. At least it was different."

Fincher also reveals the trouble he had working on Billy Idol's 'Cradle of Love' after the singer was involved in a motorcycle accident. "He couldn't stand. He was on crutches," Fincher recalled. "We shot him from the waste up and put him in a bunch of different Warhols, or whatever ... We knew he would be limited to the amount of hours he could be on set. We had to build a little brace that he could kind of hold on to and move himself around. He was fucked up. His leg was really, really atrocious."

Finally, Fincher looked back at his supermodel-filled cut for George Michael's 'Freedom '90,' which the singer didn't appear in. "He said, 'I don't need to be in a video again,'" Fincher said. "Yeah, there's a better cut of that. Our first cut of that was actually better. And it's one of those things that, you know, it is what it is. I was much more collaborative then.

Check out the full interview with Fincher over at Moviefone.