ANGER: There are a lot of things that I would have done if I’d had an adequate budget available. For a time, I had one of the richest men in the world as my sponsor, Sir Paul Getty. He was also was very fond of Mickey Mouse. So I made Mouse Heaven for him. But he’s no longer with us. He died at age 70.

KORINE: What’s your feeling on Disney, the man?

ANGER: Walt Disney? He was a grabber of power, but he also had some very admirable qualities. So it was a mixture. I suppose we’re all mixtures. But in his case, it was a bit of like a Jekyll-and-Hyde thing. I loved some of his early films, but then he sort of got distracted by Disneyland. He always wanted to make some sort of place like Disneyland, and there was a rumor that he planned to take over Catalina Island. But it was owned by the Wrigley chewing gum family, and they wouldn’t do a deal with him.

KORINE: Wow.

ANGER: But the idea of taking your boat to an island where the whole thing is an amazing place—it’s an interesting idea.

KORINE: Did you like the original Disney cartoons?

ANGER: Disney had a genius working for him named Ub Iwerks. Iwerks designed the early Mickey Mouse as just this series of circles. But of course, Disney got credit for it. [laughs]

KORINE: Have you ever had any experiences with aliens? UFOs?

ANGER: Oh, I had three very good sightings. I guess you have to call that an experience. In one case I was with three people, so it wasn’t just me who saw it. It was at the beach in San Francisco, near the Cliff House. We were there in the early morning and a round shape came up off the horizon and flew right over it.

KORINE: Whoa!

ANGER: It wasn’t just me. Three people saw it. It was completely quiet. In any commercial films where they try to have a saucer, they ridiculously put in a bunch of humming noises. The marvelous thing about the one we saw was it was totally silent. There was no sound whatsoever. When it flew over, you could see into a large oval window and, in there, there was some kind of flashing, pure color. It went from a red to green—like an emerald green from a ruby red—and flashed on and off. It seemed like that color had something to do with the way the craft operated. I had two or three other sightings in England when I was there. Again I wasn’t the only person to see them. They were seen by people in Scotland and England at the time. I’m waiting for them to come back. But maybe they finished what they had to do here, and their little visits to planet Earth are over.