Chapter 7
Making Movies

Andy had actually started making movies in 1963. His first movie was called Sleep. In Sleep, Andy filmed one of his friends sleeping—for over five hours!

All of Andy’s early movies showed people doing ordinary things. One was of Billy giving someone a haircut. In another, Andy filmed artist Robert Indiana eating a mushroom. In Empire, Andy set up his camera to face the Empire State Building. For eight hours, the only action in the film is when the building’s lights are turned off. The movie continues for hours with nothing but the dark night sky on the screen.

Many people thought Andy’s movies were boring. He also thought they were boring, but boring in a good way. He said they showed what you would see if you looked out a window or sat on a park bench and watched people. Just like he thought soup cans could be art, he thought everyday events could be movies.

Andy thought he could create movie stars just as well as anyone in Hollywood. He didn’t want people to act for him, though. He thought the right kind of people would shine on-screen just by being themselves. Andy called his actors his “superstars.” Some were his friends from the East Village.

Others had heard about the Factory and came there hoping that Andy would make them famous.

Edie Sedgwick was one of the most famous Factory “superstars.” She was young. She was beautiful. She was wild. She came from a rich family in California and left college to come to New York to be a model. She wanted to be an actress, but she couldn’t act. That was okay with Andy. The people in his movies didn’t need to act. He just wanted them to look good and be themselves. Edie looked very good on-screen.

Andy and Edie went everywhere together. She dyed her hair to match Andy’s silver wigs. Newspapers and magazines called her the “Girl of the Year.” Someone asked Andy who should play him in a movie. He said Edie. Although it never happened, Andy was probably not joking. Sadly, Edie died in 1971 from a drug overdose. She was only twenty-eight.

Andy made dozens of movies throughout the 1960s. Even though he claimed he had retired from painting, he still created many silk-screen portraits. He also continued to work in advertising if the assignment interested him. Andy worked hard all day, and then he and his friends went out to parties at night.

Andy took diet pills to stay thin. But they also kept him awake for hours. So he took even more pills to help him sleep. At the time, it was very easy for Andy and many other people to get prescriptions from their doctors. Other people at the Factory took illegal drugs to make them feel good. They thought drugs helped them be more creative and more energetic. But the drugs were also very addictive and dangerous. Eventually, drug use ruined the lives of some of Andy’s closest friends in addition to Edie’s.

In 1965, an art museum in Philadelphia planned a big show of Andy’s paintings. They announced that Andy and some of his superstars were coming from New York for the opening. The museum was so crowded that night, museum security took the paintings down from the walls because they were worried they might get damaged. When Andy, Edie, and others from the Factory arrived, the crowd went wild. They pushed forward to get close to Andy. It was more like a rock concert than an art show. When Andy and his friends became trapped on a staircase, someone cut a hole in the ceiling to get them out.

It was scary, but Andy loved it. He had always wanted to be famous like the movie stars he worshipped when he was a boy. Now he was being treated like a star himself.