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Clash of the Egos: On-Set Drama and Feuds


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Back in the 30's there was no love lost by Joan Crawford for Norma Shearer, though some of that could have been sheer frustration as to how her fellow MGM star got the choice of movie roles while married to MGM's head of production, wonderkind Irving Thalberg.

 

Joan was famously quoted as saying of Norma, " “How can I compete with Norma when she's sleeping with the boss,"

 

When they finally made a movie together, 1939's  "The  Women" supposedly while Norma was doing her close up reactions to their one scene together, while Joan was feeding her the lines off screen  Joan was knitting quite loudly to the point of distraction for Norma.   Sounds rather tame by some standards, but the Director later chewed out Joan for unprofessionalism.

Edited by caracas1914
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From a 2013 Virgina Madsen interview, where this is all she had to say about filming Class (1983) with Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy:

 

 

Class (1983)—“Lisa”
VM: Oh. Ew. I don’t want to talk about that.

AVC: No problem.

VM: Those guys were assholes. They were really shitty to me. It was bad. Bad memories.

 

Rob Lowe really did seem like a piece of work when he was a young guy. And he wasn't even a star yet.

Edited by methodwriter85
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All this talk about the Jennifer Anniston/Brad Pit/ Angelina Jolie triangle got me to thinking of a 'classic ' one. Bogie/Bacall and Bogie's then[3rd] wife Mayo Methot.  Bogie had been somewhat stormily wed to Methot for a few years when he met the 19-year-old bombshell  Lauren [actual name Betty] Bacall and fell hard for her. It wasn't long before their torrid affair became an open secret in Hollywood and everywhere else with their on-screen chemistry being so strong that the public in general rooted for them and cheered them while Miss Methot [a one-time promising onscreen performer ]did her best to hang on as long as she could before finally agreeing to a divorce. It's well known that she finally agreed to it and soon Bogie and Bacall made things 'legit' by marrying and, to his surprise [since he'd had none by his previous unions] having two kids.  And, by Bacall's account, being totally devoted to each other until Bogie breathed his last . Now, here's the terrible irony. In her account of the affair in her bio written decades after the fact, she didn't have even the slightest sympathy for what the 3rd Mrs. Bogart was going through nor any acknowledgment of helping to pour coals on Miss Methot's head. Yes, she actually admitted how sad Bogie was in hearing of his former wife's death from acute alcoholism but didn't feel any regrets for having been a contributing factor.

        Oh, and after she wed Jason Robards and found out HE was cheating on her, she totally vilified him and his co-adulterer yet refused to own up to her own  previous role. I know she only recently left us but it would have been nice had Miss Bacall just said at some point  'Mayo Methot wasn't as worthless as I wanted to think and I'm sorry I was part of her downfall since I later became the wronged wife and gained some insight in what that was life.'

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Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins weren't exactly bosom buddies in the 2 films the made together, and it didn't help Miriam that her characters were the Bitches to Bettes more sympathetic heroines. Supposedly because of their antagonism the set was packed the day of filming during "Old Acquaintance" when Bette's character has had enough and slaps Miriam's. LOL

Edited by caracas1914
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According to Leah Thompson, Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze hated one another in Red Dawn and she was always surprised they agreed to do Dirty Dancing together.

This was confirmed in the behind-the-scenes story that they did on Dirty Dancing- it got so bad at one point, that the producers sat Jennifer and Patrick down to watch this screen test to remind them of why they got casted in the first place:

 

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I think literally the only actress who had any real positive relationship with Hitchcock was probably Grace Kelly, and I will say that nobody understood her strengths in acting more than he did.

 

Of course, the strong chance that he was very much in love with her may have helped in that experience, too (which, by contrast, could have led to the crap behavior of his towards Tippi Hedren--with Grace in Monaco, he tried everything he could to make TH his substitute for Grace).

 

He also was NOT happy with Kim Novak in Vertigo--he had wanted Vera Miles in that role, but she was pregnant and unable to take it--and he took it out on poor Kim to the extreme, making her dive into the bay over and over in the suicide attempt scene despite her fears. 

Edited by UYI
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E.L. James has already done 50 Shades of Grey from the point of view of Christian.

 

The Girl was a really good film. I honestly think that it rejuvenated Sienna Miller's career.

 

No, the reverse Twilight is a different thing than what Meyer already did in the unfinished "Midnight Sun", telling the first story from Edward's POV (which EL James summarily copied for Grey). This one makes the girl the vampire, so the inevitable reverse Fifty Shades of Grey would (theoretically) have an older female character introduce a naive guy to the world of BDSM.

 

I can't wait to hear the stories out of the Fifty Shades Darker shoot. I hate to say it, but I wonder if EL James won't feel so comfortable trying to tell an older, male director how to do his job. I'm not blaming Sam Taylor-Johnson at all, by all accounts, she hardly let ELJ walk over her, but FSoG was her second feature-length film and women just aren't given the same chances as men to direct big studio movies so I think there's a certain amount of...stuff, STJ simply had to put up with or else be labeled "difficult", in a way that a man never has to worry about.

Edited by Dejana
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No, the reverse Twilight is a different thing than what Meyer already did in the unfinished "Midnight Sun", telling the first story from Edward's POV (which EL James summarily copied for Grey). This one makes the girl the vampire, *snip*.

 

That's the one.  Beaufort and Edyth.  *shudder*  When I first read about it, I thought someone was pulling a massive practical joke.

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That's the one.  Beaufort and Edyth.  *shudder*  When I first read about it, I thought someone was pulling a massive practical joke.

I mean, John Hughes basically did a gender-swapped Pretty In Pink with Some Kind of Wonderful, right down to Craig Sheffer trying really hard to do his best impression of James Spader. So it's been done, but never this baldly.

 

I'm going to laugh my ass off if this is so successful that people want to adapt it. I'm going to nominate Asa Butterfield as Beau and Haillee Steinfield as Edyth.

 

 

I can't wait to hear the stories out of the Fifty Shades Darker shoot. I hate to say it, but I wonder if EL James won't feel so comfortable trying to tell an older, male director how to do his job.

I mean, on one hand, I can't picture her husband to put anything in there she doesn't want (Which apparently included giving Ana some semblance of a brain and personality in the first picture) in the script. But on the other, you're right- I can't picture James Foley rolling over. I mean, if the guy can handle Sean Penn at his peak hotheaded youth, he can handle anything.

 

I really do hope that Dakota and Jamie figure out whatever issues they might have had out by the time they start shooting again, because they're basically locked into this for the next two years of their lives.

 

But back to the original casting...Charlie Hunnam talks about the drama surrounding his dropping out of the film:

 

Fifty Shades of Grey Original Christian Speaks

 

Honestly, I think he probably could have nailed the role, but it might be for the best. The success of the second film is pretty much in question, and a lot of enthusiasm for the franchise has basically gone down the drain.

 

I am salivating over the prospect of stories from the Darker set. They're under enormous pressure to address the problems people had with the first movie, everybody already knows what a pain in the ass E.L. is plus she's working with her husband, and you've got two co-stars who can't stand each other but know they need to do a better job at pretending to be in love.

Edited by methodwriter85
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God, you gotta love Old Hollywood...never fails to produce the drama...from the Wikipedia page about Suddenly, Last Summer, 1959:

 

Elizabeth Taylor selected Suddenly, Last Summer as her first project after having recently ended her contractual commitment to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. At the time, she was the biggest box office draw in Hollywood, and she used that power to insist that Montgomery Clift be hired for the film.[6] As a result of a May 1956 car crash near the home of Taylor and her then-husband Michael Wilding, Clift had become heavily dependent on drugs and alcohol. When he was unable to find a doctor willing to attest to his insurability, producer Sam Spiegel approved his casting and went ahead with filming anyway.[7]

Clift found the long scenes exhausting and had to have his longest scene shot in multiple takes, one or two lines at a time. His shaky performance led director Joseph Mankiewicz to ask Spiegel several times to replace the actor.[3] Most of the crew were sympathetic toward Clift,[8] but Katharine Hepburn was especially resentful of the poor treatment to which Mankiewicz subjected him. Indeed, Hepburn found Mankiewicz's conduct so unforgivable that as soon as he called the final "cut" of the film, she asked him to confirm that her services were no longer required, and when he did, she spat in his face.[9] Sources differ as to whether she also spat in Sam Spiegel's face.[10]

Problems beset the film's musical score, as well. Malcolm Arnold was originally retained to work on it, but he apparently found certain aspects of the story so disturbing that he withdrew from the project after composing only the main themes. Buxton Orr was brought in to complete the score.[11]

Taylor, following her final monologue wherein she describes Sebastian's murder, burst into tears and could not be consoled: using Method acting techniques, she had tapped into her grief over the 1958 death of her third husband, Mike Todd.[12]

Gotta love Method actors.

Edited by methodwriter85
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I've heard that Chevy Chase is not easy to work with.  I think during Vegas Vacation, the reason he and Beverly D'Angelo's character had so many scenes apart was because she said she wouldn't do the movie otherwise (don't quote me, though--I just remember hearing that somewhere).

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About the Montgomery Clift story, I know Elizabeth Taylor's heart was in the right place, but if Clift wasn't healthy enough to work right after his car crash, he shouldn't have been cast.

Edited by VCRTracking
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I've heard that Chevy Chase is not easy to work with.  I think during Vegas Vacation, the reason he and Beverly D'Angelo's character had so many scenes apart was because she said she wouldn't do the movie otherwise (don't quote me, though--I just remember hearing that somewhere).

 

They're still friends, because they were recently together and very companionable at a memorial service, but even if she likes him personally, that wouldn't surprise me because basically everyone who's ever passed by him on a studio lot and spoken about it has said he's a pain in the ass professionally.

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Peter Jackson Freely Admits The Hobbit's Production Was a Shambles

 

 

 

However, in a new video from the Blu-ray release of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Peter Jackson and his team are so candid as to their lack of preparation when making these films that it almost feels like a Saturday Night Live sketch. They can’t actually be saying these things can, they?

Peter Jackson didn’t just say “I started shooting the movie with most of it not prepped at all,” did he? Did they just admit that most of the props and costumes weren’t completed until the day of shooting? That there were no storyboards? The scripts weren’t ready? That the planning was so spontaneous sometimes the crew would have to take an extended lunch to let Jackson figure stuff out?

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OK, since Kirk Douglas just celebrated his 99th [!] Birthday , I thought I might bring up this ironic clash from the past!

 

  WAY back in 1950, Mr. Douglas starred in "Young Man With a Horn" about a rising big band trumpet player who, amongst other challenges, had to suffer the flak of his cold, rejecting wife played by Lauren Bacall but eventually found his way back  from the gutter  thanks to the eager, worshipful support of a young singer played by Doris Day. So where's the ironic clash? Almost as soon as the film was released and from that point onwards, Mr. Douglas and Miss Day each have snipped out how cold and distant the other was towards them.  HOWEVER; from as far back as Miss Bacall's teens in NYC, Mr. Douglas and Miss Bacall had been great friends and would remain so until her  death last year. Point being, it might have helped the movie had the two actresses switched roles.

Edited by Blergh
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Bruinsfan,

   Not an invalid point but perhaps they may have just had Miss Bacall be the adoring, worshipful girlfriend but cast someone else as the cold rejecting wife. Although they may have had to have someone else dub her singing.

 

 DeLurker,

 

 I would agree but it DID happen. What's also odd is that the performers' two characters started out in the movie as best friends -yet they had absolutely zero chemistry in that regard and THAT was yet another of the movie's fails. Still, at least, Miss Bacall and Miss Day just kept quiet their POVs re the other instead of commenting on this. I will say that regardless of the miscasting of the women performers, Mr. Douglas himself DID do a fairly cathartic and dynamic job in this somewhat biographical movie [NOT his but an actual big band performer].

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Young Man with a Horn was based on the life of Bix Beiderbecke, no? (I don't know that much about him, just always loved saying his name.)  I've read that Day felt shut out by the Douglas/Bacall friendship; and while I loved Bacall and her ballsy attitude, I could picture her kind of rubbing Day's nose in it.  I think almost anyone, or at least a whole bunch of others who could have played the Day role, might have encountered the same dynamic.  

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To be fair, the original post was about friction between Day and Douglas; no mention was made of problems between Day and Bacall, just that each one's individual relationship with Douglas was more suited to the other's role.

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If I came off as knocking Bacall or dragging her into this, that was not my intent; I love and admire her for her candor and refusal to take crap (I know she's passed, but I'm keeping the love in the present tense).  However, Day has commented that she felt shut out by both Douglas and Bacall during the making of YMwaH; if my contribution was somehow offensive or off-topic, I apologize. 

 

From IMDB because I don't have her book any more:  Doris Day wrote that she was unhappy making this film, which brought back stressful memories of her early career as a band singer, and also because Kirk Douglas and Lauren Bacall (having dated at one time in real life) seemed to intentionally shut her out, making her feel unwelcome.

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To bring this to a more 'current' mode, I think Shia La Beof dissed the last 'Indiana Jones' movie to the press which incurred the wrath of Harrison Ford. Not that IMO it was any good (besides the 'family reunion' itself) but alas this virtually guaranteed that there will be no more 'IJ's made and, if Spielberg can just keep Lucas and his annoying effects away from it, another movie may have had a chance to redeem #2 and even #4.

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To bring this to a more 'current' mode, I think Shia La Beof dissed the last 'Indiana Jones' movie to the press which incurred the wrath of Harrison Ford. Not that IMO it was any good (besides the 'family reunion' itself) but alas this virtually guaranteed that there will be no more 'IJ's made and, if Spielberg can just keep Lucas and his annoying effects away from it, another movie may have had a chance to redeem #2 and even #4.

 

Actually, not only did he trash the film, he specifically called out Spielberg as "dropping the ball."  I think KotCS itself kind of guaranteed no more Indy films, regardless of Shia's later stupidity.  However, Harrison Ford has said he would do a fifth, so if they can get their shit together I see no reason not to recast Mutt.  (I already had a hate on for Shia at the time, as he seemed an over-praised hack with douche tendencies, and was tremendously disappointed that the Jones mantle was being passed to him.)

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I wonder how bitter Tom Hardy is that he had to drop out of Suicide Squad because the Revenant way overran its shooting schedule.

 

How Leonardo DiCaprio's The Revenant Shoot Became A Living Hell

 

Honestly, that sounds like an epic, dramatic movie shoot. Any time a movie more than doubles what it was originally budgeted for is never good.

 

I can't speak for Hardy but, based on his past film choices, I think he'd be okay with skipping Suicide Squad in favour of the experience of The Revenant.  Although, I'm biased, as I strongly suspect that the DC film universe, while it may make money, will be comprised of really bad films full of wasted talent.

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I wonder how bitter Tom Hardy is that he had to drop out of Suicide Squad because the Revenant way overran its shooting schedule.

How Leonardo DiCaprio's The Revenant Shoot Became A Living Hell

Honestly, that sounds like an epic, dramatic movie shoot. Any time a movie more than doubles what it was originally budgeted for is never good.

It does look like The Revenant will make back its budget (though there are whispers it's even higher than the reported $135m), and Hardy got his first Oscar nomination out of it, so that will take away some of the sting. OTOH, Iñárritu's ego and exceseive ways might only increase, so good luck to his next cast.

Edited by Dejana
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OK- here's another classic feud.

  

 WAY back in 1936, the movie "Garden of Allah" starring Charles Boyer and Marlene Dietrich was filmed in Death Valley under 100F+ temps. In spite of the fact that it was one of the very first Technicolor movies, with its rather convoluted storyline, it bombed in the US. Anyway, Dietrich scoffed at Boyer putting ice cubes on his hands to combat the horrible heat while she herself stoically endured until finally she had enough and staged a dramatic faint in front of the entire cast and crew. This achieved her desired effect of having the rest of the movie shot back in Hollywood on studio sandboxes. Not too long after the movie's release, it's director Charles Boleslawksi  suddenly died at age 48. This prompted Dietrich to say that 'We ALL should have died shooting that movie but he should have died BEFORE. '

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It does look like The Revenant will make back its budget (though there are whispers it's even higher than the reported $135m), and Hardy got his first Oscar nomination out of it, so that will take away some of the sting. OTOH, Iñárritu's ego and exceseive ways might only increase, so good luck to his next cast.

 

It's funny -- I haven't seen any film by Inarritu but somehow I feel like his ego and excess are less egregious than (thread favourite) David O. Russell.

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It's funny -- I haven't seen any film by Inarritu but somehow I feel like his ego and excess are less egregious than (thread favourite) David O. Russell.

 

Hey, he's just trying help you, okay bitch? He's just being a fucking collaborator!

 

Seriously though, a comic mocked David by quoting that entire speech at a smaller awards show. I would have given anything to have seen audio or video of that.

Edited by methodwriter85
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And this week, in "David O. Russell is an asshole", Amy Adams talks about her American Hustle experience and basically burns that bridge.

 

For Amy Adams, who has always seemed pretty cautious, it's actually saying something that she did this. I guess she's needed two years to be able to speak eloquently about her situation.

 

But in any event, Joy seemed to kill David O. Russell's box office streak, so I don't think Hollywood's going to be breaking down doors for him any time soon. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

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I just seen the movie Nighthawks from 1981 recently and it's a good thriller with some great early 80s NYC atmosphere. Reading about it it seemed to have been a troubled production and the studio had to do some re-editing on it becasue of the violence and pace. The stars Sylvester Stallone and Rutger Hauer reportedly hated each other and it was due to the shooting of the ending which was shot early. Wikipedia:

 

First scene that Hauer had to film was his death scene that happens in ending of the film. While filming the scene, Hauer was injured twice. In one instance a squib meant to simulate a gunshot wound exploded on the wrong side and severely burned him. In the other, a cable that would yank him to simulate the force of being shot was pulled too hard, straining his back. Afterward, Hauer discovered that the cable was pulled with such force on Stallone's orders. This was the last straw for Hauer, who then threatened Stallone that he's gonna "Break his balls" if he ever does something like that again; their working relationship afterward was marked by numerous arguments.

 

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I have spent the last couple days immersing myself in The Room, a 2003 film that is considered the Citizen Kane of bad movies. It is so bad, in fact, that it's become a cult film with frequent midnight screenings for over the past decade. It was written, directed, and starred by the bizarre figure Tommy Wiseau, a vaguely vampiric middle-aged man with an accent that suggests he originated somewhere in the Eastern Communist bloc. Greg Sestero, who starred as Mark, decided to write a book about his experiences making the film, called the Disaster Artist. The book is being made into a film starring James and Dave Franco. This vlogger points out some of the highlights:

 

 

I also suggest looking up the IMDB trivia page.

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I just seen the movie Nighthawks from 1981 recently and it's a good thriller with some great early 80s NYC atmosphere. Reading about it it seemed to have been a troubled production and the studio had to do some re-editing on it becasue of the violence and pace. The stars Sylvester Stallone and Rutger Hauer reportedly hated each other and it was due to the shooting of the ending which was shot early. Wikipedia:

Rutger Hauer vs Sly? That sounds better than the actual movie. (Although, as I've said elsewhere, that's one of my favorite movie endings ever.)

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That is crazy. I get that actors do weird things to get into character, but Dustin taunting her about her dead partner and picking away at the child's insecurities seems way over the line. Its good they ended up in an okay place, but yikes that set sounds so tense.

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This has less to do with the rivalry itself, but it stood out to me how Meryl openly referred to herself as a feminist at the time, when she just recently publicly rejected the term and called herself a humanist. I guess that really belongs more in the Gender in Movies thread. 

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Kate Jackson must have pissed at Aaron Spelling for not letting her do the movie since Meryl ends up with the Oscar for the role.

She probably was, but there's no guarantee that she would have won the Oscar if she had done the role instead, especially since it seems like Meryl had done a LOT to change the role into what it became, instead of what it was written as.

 

Honestly, that would be an interesting "making of movie" movie, although I can't picture who could play Dustin or Meryl. (And no, not Mamie Gummer. I've yet to be impressed with anything she's done.)

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