For those who knew him and others, I’d like to pay tribute to one of the greatest First Assistant Directors (1st AD) and a great friend who has just suddenly left us and far too soon : Adam Somner...
Some of us at AFAR knew him and worked alongside him, including : Laurent Herbiet, Jérôme Borenstein, Valérie Aragües and myself... and perhaps others...
I began my career as an assistant director with Adam as my model and mentor on my first projects in Morocco : The Mummy (1998), Gladiator (1999), Spy Game (2000/2001) where Adam was the brilliant Key2nd AD on these projects, then Black Hawk Down (2001) which was one of his first project as 1st AD on 2nd Unit.
Adam was a one-man film school. With him, I have learned and fully realized the importance and centrality of the Key 2nd AD position, which Adam exercised at that time with precision and panache...
With him, as a 2nd AD at that time, I learned and discovered the importance of coordination : a key and central function of the Key 2nd AD especially on anglo-saxons high budget films...
And far beyond his profession, Adam was exceptionally friendly, kind, loyal and generous...
He taught me that assistant directors teams are like a big family that will always be stronger if we stick together, and he always stood up intelligently to effectively defend our requests for enough prep time and ADs crew positions with the production on the various films we made together...
In the years following Black Hawk Down, Adam embarked on what turned out to be an exceptional career as an assistant director, becoming 1st AD for Steven Spielberg (12 films), Paul Thomas Anderson (6 films), Martin Scorsese (3 films), Alejandro Inarritu (3 films), Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, James Mangold, Steve Mc Queen... and so many others...
Jérome Borenstein and myself were delighted to meet him again in 2005 on the Paris set of Steven Spielberg’s MUNICH... It was his third film with Spielberg, and he was as good as his old self...
I still have this beautiful image of that Saturday morning in September 2005, on the first day of shoot in Paris for “Munich“, when he broke the “Hollywood over-protocol” by dashing through the circle of multiple “bodyguards” surrounding Spielberg to first introduce us to “Steven”before anything else...
We lost contact at times, but always kept in touch and had continued to exchange regularly year after year...
In 2018, I was truly honored to be endorsed by him when joining the DGA... And during a later stay in Los Angeles, he warmly invited me to his home in Studio City, where he lived a simple life with his wife Carmen and his children...
He had just finished shooting “Ford vs Ferrari” with James Mangold, and was about to start prepping “West Side Story” with Spielberg, all the while trying to manage his schedule as best he could to do Inarritu’s next project...
After such an immense career, nothing had changed in him : the same generosity, the same simplicity... I left his home with a smile on my face and the strong feeling of passion for our profession that emanated from him and that unites us all also at AFAR...
Adam was 57 years old... He was an exceptional human being with strong values... and will always remain for me, a role model... I/we will miss him terribly...
Take care of yourselves and let’s continue to cultivate this passion and the values of our profession with loyalty, generosity and the desire to share !
Ali CHERKAOUI - 1st AD, AFAR, DGA
➜ See online : Conversations with First Assistant Director : Adam Somner
