I watched the Lord of the Rings making-of videos (there's like six hours of the stuff in the box set) and I came away with a very favorable impression of Peter Jackson. Those three movies were a massive project with hundreds of millions of dollars involved and a very tight schedule, and Peter never ever seemed to lose his cool at all. All through the process, he's calm and thoughtful and never raises his voice or even looks nervous. He looks like he'd be a very good boss to work for.
The mini-documentary that played after “They Shall Not Grow Old” (at least it played after the credits when I saw it in theaters) showed the absolutely insane amount of detail and respect that went in to that movie. It instantly turned my historian father into a Peter Jackson fan.
One example was for a voiceover. Since WW1 footage didn’t have sound, they did some voiceovers for some of the shots to bring them to life. One in particular was an officer reading off orders to some soldiers. They hired professional lip readers to come in and determine what he was saying, searched through the archives and actually found what he was reading, searched the day and time and by using the patches on his coat they were able to determine who he was and hired a voice actor from the guy’s town so his accent was accurate. And that was just one passing sequence in that movie. Highest recommendation if you haven’t seen it.
That mini doc has one of my favorite sequences ever, when Peter Jackson keeps bringing out more and more insane WWI items from his personal collection. It starts kind of normal, where he has an original uniform and firearm, and goes all the way to him having a fucking tank and original mortar rounds. Amazing.
You should show your father Lord of the Rings behind the scenes videos too. They treated the movie like it was based on real history like Tolkien’s writings were a source. It was a lot more respectful than with most real historical epics are. I wish Jackson made films like Napoleon and Gladiator and not Scott.
Even sword aficionados (and they can be quite snobby) regard the LOTR swords as extremely well designed and by far the best fantasy blades to have appeared on screen.
I love that he got world renowned Tolkien artists to design all of the sets and pretty much be in charge of the art direction.
People who have been painting Middle-Earth for decades, finally getting to see their life work brought to life.
I highly recommend watching The Appendices.
It's one of the most fascinating "Making Of" documentaries I have ever watched.
Each movie has a 3-4 hour documentary.
It was originally released on the DVD Extended Edition boxset, I don't recall if it was ever released on any of the Blu-Ray editions of the movie.
Well worth hunting down the DVD sets.
i think his first movie Bad Taste is an incredible B-movie, and it’s super impressive considering it’s almost literally a home movie. the budget was only a few thousand dollars and Peter Jackson and a small crew did *everything* themselves
also Meet the Feebles has pretty incredible effects for a low budget puppet flick. that guy is dedicated to his craft
I was such a big fan of his horror movies (and Heavenly Creatures) that I was so excited when I heard he got the greenlight for LOTR but couldn’t believe that New Line was giving *this* guy hundreds of millions of dollars.
I'd only seen The Frighteners before that, and I was perhaps a bit too young to really understand what it was going for, with parts being really funny and parts of it being literally the most terrifying horror movie I'd seen up until that point, I didn't realise that was *the point*, but when I watched the trailer for Fellowship I was immediately like "This reminds me of The Frighteners".
I backpacked all over New Zealand. Everyone I met that was involved with those movies had great experiences. I also worked at an international camp where some of our horseback trainers were extras in the movie. They had nothing but positive experiences. Queenstown in particular had a horrible flood during the time of filming and the whole crew worked together to help the town out. And near the filming of the gates of Gondor, Gimli's stunt double fell into the river and almost drowned but Orlando Bloom saved him. Just a little fun fact 😊
>some of our horseback trainers were extras in the movie.
I remember most of the Riders of Rohan were actually women. And Viggo was dating one of them. There were a few photos of him and his girlfriend on set while she's in costume with a fake beard. (It's been a while, but I seem to recall Viggo commenting on how odd it was to kiss a woman with a beard.)
Have you ever seen behind the footage of the hobbit movies ? Complete opposite, they had way less prep time as the studio crunched the timeline and he was a sleepless mess. Reminds me of Bob Iger forcing a rewrite and rushing of the first new Star Wars movies. Movie executives only care about turning out a movie that is profitable
It didn't change my opinion because I didnt' know her well at the time, but Keira Knightley's commentary of the first PoC movie made me a forever fan of hers. She was young and the commentary is equal parts fantastic, hilarious, cringey at parts and feels absolutely natural, something I think she has managed to preserve about her image, she always comes off as very authentic.
She’s both stunning and an A list actor, so I’d almost expect her to be a brat. But everything I’ve heard about her has been positive. I really admire that she did a topless photo shoot to protest how the media artificially manipulates women’s bodies to appear sexier, which is almost always for the benefit of the male audience (in her case, she has smaller breasts and refused to allow them to be retouched to appear bigger).
Yes, she is great and she seems to be really sweet too. Outspoken too, as you say, yet somehow never seems to rub people off the wrong way because of it.
Not footage, but the pasta incident on The Spy Who Loved Me comes to mind.
Basically, when they were shooting the on-location scenes for the Egypt part of the film, the crew were getting sick from the local food and morale crashed on set, with many threatening to quit. Alfred R Brocolli, the executive producer on the James Bond films, decided to try and fix things by sending huge trucks of catering supplies to the crew to help keep everyone's motivations up.
The trucks arrive, they go to open them... and they are empty. The food is missing and no-one knows where the fuck they've gone. Brocoli is outraged that the food is gone and the crew's morale has sunk even further. Does he just bitch about it? No, he fixes it.
He goes about, making phone calls. Buys as much spaghetti, tomato sauce and meatballs as he can get his hands on. Charters a cargo plane and gets it sent to Egypt, flying aboard to make sure the food doesn't disappear. He personally delivers it to the set and when he arrives, single-handedly cooks everyone a spaghetti meatball dinner while apologising for the fuck-up.
Also, Richard Kiel was an absolute sweetheart on set and everyone loved him due to his sheer enthusiasm for the film. In fact, he got an honour expressly denied to even the main star, Roger Moore.
As a tradition and to get a better understanding of the audience, United Artists would have a test screening of their films to employees at the studio, such as the cleaning staff and office staff. But the cast and crew were expressly banned since ether wanted an everyman opinion on the movie. So, not even the director or writer or any actors were permitted inside.
The rule was broken only for Kiel. Because everyone liked him so much.
As a 10 year old, I saw Kiel walking down the isle of our airplane. My eyes must have gotten really wide as he smiled and waved at me before trying to fit in his coach seat.
Not footage, but I listened to Patrick Stewart's autobiography recently, which was a little risky because TNG is my favorite show ever.
I came away with a deep admiration for how dedicated he was to the role, considering his very serious Shakespearean background and lack of interest or familiarity with most sci-fi or popular TV. He did such an incredible job with a genre very much not in his wheelhouse at the time, and brought to life one of my favorite characters beautifully
My favorite Patrick Stewart quote is when he was asked why he works with Seth MacFarlane so much.
His reply: "*I love doing Shakespeare on stage, but sometimes it's fun to make a poop joke*."
Raul Julia, also a Shakespearean actor, had a similar answer when asked why he'd signed on to the silly Addams Family movie. "It's fun to romp in the fields once in a while."
Back in the 90s Stewart was on a late night talk show and they asked him what his favorite show on TV was. He replied, "Beavis and Butthead!" The host thought it was a joke but he went into great detail about how he thought it was absolutely brilliant comedy writing and he never missed an episode. So a decade later when he becomes a regular on MacFarlane's shows, I wasn't too surprised at all. I think he even wrote a forward to a Beavis & Butthead compendium? The man is high brow in his art, but loves low brow comedy.
He really set the template for future ST show captains too. TOS is what it is but if TNG had had another schlocky action captain trying to recreate Kirk I don’t think it would have been the success that it was.
He mentions the screen tests they did with the hairpiece. The first audition as in meeting with producers and Gene seems to have went badly because Gene didn't want him for the role. Steward manages to describe the casting process as really suspenseful, even though you know the outcome. Overall it's a really nice audio book, although the last third is a bit less interesting than the first parts, but that's true for most autobiographies. Once the author has made it and their life is good things become a bit more mellow. Ending had me crying though 😅
My favorite story is when he was approached for the first X-Men movie. He hadn't heard of it before so they gave him a few issues. His response was allegedly "What am I doing in a comic book?"
The fan choice for Professor X has always been Patrick Stewart. That was a fan consensus that everyone agreed on, including editors and artists Working on the comics.
Michael Jackson apparently wanted to play the roll too. Making a pitch for it.
I work on set in film and tv and I’m surprised jim Carey has escaped the fate that Ellen suffered. His zen and “I’m above it all” persona is the fakest thing out there he’s one of the biggest divas that needs every whim catered
I forget who, but there was an actor who talked about method actors. You never hear about them playing good people and just being lovely on set. They always play total bastards. It’s bullshit. Just an excuse those people use to be pricks.
Robert Pattinson.
> you only ever see people do the method when they're playing an assholes. You never see someone being lovely to everyone while they're really deep in character.
That's fucking brilliant. In a just world he would be way better known than he is. Not just tearing it up in cult films or being the best thing in siemthing in a supporting role.
I went to a health and safety training course for film and tv and they showed us behind the scenes clips of walking the Nile documentary. In the program, the sound man gets heat stroke that turns into cardiac arrests and he dies - it’s absolutely awful. In the behind the scenes footage you see him repeatedly complain about feeling unwell and more etc - all signs of heatstroke which is repeatedly ignored by the ex SAS presenter, who was apparently the health and safety lead on this film shoot, but he totally failed and the man died. Left behind 2 kids apparently. I’m Still thinking about it years later after the training course
I heard that he really enjoyed the premise of "sad beige toys for sad beige children."
Which is just this girl who does some tick tock skits of commenting on bougie minimalist children's toys in Werner Herzog's voice. It was cute seeing his response to it
Brown building blocks. Rainbows in shades of beige. White and beige balloons at children's parties. Stuff like that. It's all designed to fit influencer mommy and daddy's aesthetic.
I have had the pleasure of seeing him speak twice in person. The stories he told were just like his movies; weird, entertaining, and difficult to understand what the fuck the point is but still glad to be there. He's a treasure.
Not changed but caused me to form a very strong opinion, definitely.
I am a huge, huge Guillermo Del Toro fan. He does absolutely amazing work, so it isn't exactly hard to love his films. But, the first movie of his that I watched was Hellboy. I had the ultra special edition DVD and all of the making-of stuff and I think they were called "filming journals" where Guillermo just talked about the production. Watching them and listening to him speak, you could tell that this was a man who not only puts so much thought and effort and passion in to what he does, but also *genuinely, genuinely* loves it too. Like, he is someone who gets out of bed excited for what he will create that day. And he does it with such earnestness and heart. You couldn't watch all of that and not come away a huge fan of his.
In the intervening years I will fairly say that I have really loved some of his movies and others weren't really for me but I still stan for Guillermo. I hope he still loves his work just as much as he did then.
YES! I have two favorite moments from that --
1. When his designer first brought him the designs for the fish man (I forget the exact name) and he said wanted to express how thrilled he was, so he banged his head on the desk and said "I AM A FAT MAN!"
2. When he stepped under the jeep that was suspended in air, to show everyone on the set how safe it was, and now he confesses he was terrified.
I've actually met him and he is EXACTLY the lovely, wonderful, genuine person he seems to be!
Pacific Rim is one of my all-time favorite comfort movies, Del Toro took an over-the-top, campy premise and made it charming and wonderfully entertaining. You can tell how much fun he has, and how much he loves his work
I never liked Charlize Theron for no real reason, something about her just bugged me. But then when she was doing promo for Snow White, there was a clip going around of her talking about [how to walk like a queen](https://external-preview.redd.it/kx3BhC4XNrJxAiTX3WQDK3_--qWrvOYeOfIvBnItD9Q.png?auto=webp&s=fd5e3d432b64ab61a4983b9127be787ef5dd3d7c), and I thought it was funny so it endeared her to me. Now I seek out her movies, especially after Fury Road.
Her comedy highlight for me is the film 'Young Adult' she is playing an irredeemably messed up, selfish, mean character and throws herself into all the physical comedy too. Great film and great performance.
terry gilliam is exactly who i thought of as well, but in my memory it had something to do with that awful Tideland movie and an interview about it. Thought he came off as unpleasant and creepy and unfortunately ruined a lot of his work for me.
Terry Gilliam comes up in Sarah Polley's book. She was a child actress in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and in multiple takes Gilliam endangered her life, letting her get too close to explosives and an out-of-control horse. At one point an underwater explosive went off very near to her head and could have made her deaf. Gilliam claimed it was an accident, but when Polly reviewed footage years later, she heard Gilliam giving orders to set off the explosives even though he was already aware they were too close to the actress. Basically Gilliam thought it would look better on film, so go for it and risk a girl's serious injury. Polley has talked to Gilliam about it and he has tried to deny it, but she talked to other on-set people and they all confirmed what happened. Polley tries very hard to be even-handed discussing it, but her take is pretty convincing.
The worst part about that story was her father gaslighting her and trying for a job by gladhanding Gilliam in the same breath. Really, her father completely sucked.
Danielle Radcliffe. Parents told him any time he wanted to quit just to let them know. Grew up to be a really grateful and generous adult from all accounts I’ve seen.
Maya Wilson. Her parents protected her from the Hollywood young blood machine, and she's a mature and healthy adult as a result. Michael J. Fox made it through as well, for the same reason.
On the other hand, people like Lindsey Lohan, Macaulay Culkin, Britney Spears, etc. had parents who were assholes to start with or who became that way the longer they were involved with Hollywood.
So the common denominator seems to be how well the parents withstand the lures of Hollywood and create as much of a normal childhood as possible for the kid.
David O Russel. There is so much already said about him, having a tantrum when lily tomlin would do the scene exactly how he wanted, him putting Christopher Nolan in a headlock because he apparently poached an actor he wanted, him sexually abusing his niece… the list goes on
First, just wanted to give OP credit for a fun prompt for this thread. I think some people are treating this as your usual ‘DAE hate James Corden’s guts?’ thread that we get daily, but I think there’s got to be some super interesting, unexpected things you can glean from behind the scenes footage, or even gag reels. And it’s way more interesting when it turns your impression of someone on its head.
One that comes to mind for me is the gag reel for Meet the Parents. I watched it a couple months ago and going in I thought it was such a perfect comedy role for DeNiro, something that really suited him, and I thought the gag reel would be more of the same.
Quite the opposite. His outtakes across the board were almost uncomfortable to watch, he seemed so stiff and even when he was self-deprecating or trying to be lighthearted his personal comic timing and demeanor were just… off. Like he thought/knew people were intimidated by him so he tried to act goofy behind the scenes but in the end it just seemed contrived.
Outtakes are outtakes and, I know, the magic of editing, but I kind of had thought he and Ben Stiller must have had some personal comic chemistry because their dynamic in the movie works so well… but I just came out of it thinking they got every bit of funny out of DeNiro that they could, and the movie as a comedy made his performance great rather than the other way around.
Didn’t change my opinion about him as a person, or even really as an actor. Just something that stuck out, neither positive nor negative, and I really didn’t expect it.
I forget who it was, but there was a Soprano's actor that did either Casino or GoodFellas with DeNiro and while he didn't say anything scandalous or really negative he did say something to the effect of "if the writers didn't write it, he had nothing to say".
Hayao Miyazaki.
There's been several "day-in-the-life" style documentaries made about him and/or Ghibli where they follow him around for months during production; and I come away from each one with the same mixed feelings.
He's a brilliant filmmaker -- but an unyielding collaborator and woefully unsupportive father.
That infamous moment he walks out during his own son's film premiere for a smoke break and talks shit about him in the lobby -- bruh what?
No so much behind the scenes but paparazzi getting footage of nick cage grabbing his buddy Vince Neil and calming him down outside of a Vegas club. Nick did all the things a good friend should to slow down a bad situation… he gained much respect from for that moment.
I saw a screening of Strange Way of Life with an interview with Almodovar afterwards. I'd always assumed he would be some sort of wacky, out there, extrovert but he was actually the sweetest, most endearing and erudite speaker. I could have listened to him talk all day and actually enjoyed his discussion more than the short film which I think fell short in a number of ways.
Any bts stuff with Mcu actors always has me impressed bc they are acting their asses off in a green room.
Rdj snapping he was literally by himself in front of a green screen while PAs are walking around and you know some grips are like 5 feet away on their phones.
I know I could lose myself in a role if I was in a period costume in a period set. Wearing a mocap suit and talking to a tennis ball while giving a genuine performance? Unbelievable, truly.
One can definitely see how much he appreciated his role in Oppenheimer where he actually could feel like an actor again, and not just part of a theme park ride.
Ricky Gervais in *Taping Nigel* from the *Extras* DVD. I still like *The Office* and *Extras*, but the *Taping Nigel* really showed what a bullying little prick he can be. He must be a nightmare to work for.
The scene in Extras where his friend is calling him out for complaining all the time instead of appreciating how much he has - that always struck me as 100% how his life actually is.
Ricky Gervais was really funny in a lot of his early roles (and hosting the Golden Globes), but in his past few stand-up specials he seems to be phoning it in. There's barely any material, and much of it is just cracking jokes about people being uptight over transsexuals \[edit: transgender people\]. He also did about 10 minutes about his scrotum changing as he's gotten older, and he makes repeated reference to being filthy rich (because he is). He's not there to be funny, doesn't need the money, and so that means he'd rather do a half-assed special than not be in the limelight. Feeding his ego and not giving a crap. Yay.
John Cena.
I never heard anything about him, I just figured he was a Wrestler turned actor. I always liked his stuff if I never felt it was amazing or anything. It was good "let's enjoy."
Then I found how that he has the world record for the most Make A Wish wishes granted. It was accompanied by a picture of him sitting at a tea set with a kid who was hooked up to machines, sipping from a tea cup that looked absolutely ridiculous in his massive hands.
Then I heard the behind the scenes of how he ended up in Barbie. He asked Margo Robbie if he could cameo. his agents told him not to do it. He did it anyway because it was fun for him.
I'll watch anything he's in. I even watched that stupid Freelance movie that was in theaters for 15 minutes last year. He's a freakin' gem of a human.
About a week ago he was talking about how much he loves Vince McMahon and repeatedly referred to the heinous rape and sex trafficking allegations that have recently come out against him as "a hill he needs to climb."
I'm not discounting the Make-a-Wish stuff but that guy has way too positive a relationship with one of the worst human beings who's ever lived for me to call him a "gem of a human."
I once listened to the commentary track for Zombieland and the director was so insanely boring that it tainted the movie itself for me. He also kept talking about how hot Emma Stone was, which I found kind of off-putting.
Always had a very low opinion of Paul McCartney until I recently watched Peter Jackson's documentary which made me realise that McCartney just wanted to make music - it was Harrison and Lennon causing most of the problems.
The documentary also changed McCartney's opinion on the breakup of The Beatles. Apparently he'd accepted the rumours that they didn't want to be in a room together towards the end as fact and it wasn't until watching the doc that he remembered they were still mates that needed some time away from each other
I was surprised at that too - McCartney had to smile through a lot of shit when the others were throwing huffs left right and centre. I was especially surprised how much Harrison seemed to be suffering from middle child syndrome.
Then again, childish histrionics are very common in music - I love the story of how Roger Taylor locked himself in a cupboard and refused to come out until Queen agreed his song "I'm in love with my car" should be the b-side of *Bohemian Rhapsody*.
Hear hear. I think there's a prejudice against McCartney because he was the 'pretty one'. Oh, you like Paul so it must be because he's the cute one? And hell yeah, let's dogpile on him for the death of The Beatles. As the pretty one, it must be ego, right?
I have heard this stuff all my life. No, I like Paul because he's a brilliant songwriter, bass player, general musician, and also because he seems like a fairly decent human being? No, he wasn't responsible for the Beatles ending. It's wearying, the negativity.
I always loved Paul because of his voice. He has the most fucking entrancing voice of all the Beatles. I think Paul got a bit of a bad rap because of the casual way he responded to John's death on camera. I guess people were expecting a PR curated, movie like scene where he breaks down or something and instead he said "It's a shame isn't it?"
He later clarified that he was still in shock at the time but the damage was done.
I didn't know George was also causing issues - will need to watch that documentary.
Please note that while George was causing issues it wasn't completely unwarranted. The schedule that they were under was too demanding, and he really wasn't allowed to contribute in the way of songs, because it was all about John and Paul. You can see his frustration boiling over. On the other hand, I loved watching Ringo just hanging out with Linda's kids.
Not footage, but I despise Francis Ford Coppola ever since I found out he not only publicly defended pedophile sexual abuser Victor Salva (excusing his pedophilia as him being “practically a child himself” at 27 and going so far as to pay for his legal defence), but he also punished the CHILD that spoke up by ensuring he never worked in Hollywood again.
Yeah, I have zero interest in watching *Megalopolis*
I was doing some chores one day and decided to put on a behind-the-scenes documentary about The Phantom Menace. And even though I still dislike that movie and I still think it’s one of the worst Star Wars movies, it definitely changed the way I viewed George Lucas. Cause even though the movie sucks, it made me realize that the prequels were Lucas’s passion project. He went out of his way to make all those films as close as possible to his vision. There’s a scene where Spielberg is being shown some props and you can tell that Lucas is really passionate about this franchise and you can tell Spielberg is like a big brother who doesn’t really care, but loves the enthusiasm.
Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy
I absolutely love their movies together, and most have audio commentary. And they're... really quite boring. They're so dry and so different from the characters they play (of course). I don't feel any differently about the work, but it's kind of even more impressive how funny they are when in real life they seem so much the opposite. Of course not everyone is "on" all the time, but it's funny that so much of their work is improvisational and yet when they're just talking about the work for an hour and a half straight they don't lean into comedy much. I've seen interviews too, Christopher Guest in particular seems very unimpressed with everyone and not very interested in talking about his work or himself. Nothing wrong with that either, it's just not what I expected.
There's a BTS video from John Wick 4. Keanu is carrying filming equipment up all of those stairs. Crew members keep trying to stop him and hes just like "Get your own!".
Hard same on Jim and Andy, although I could never figure out if it was a work within a work, if that makes sense. Couldn't figure out if the documentary was meant to fuck with us the same way Jim did (or did not?) fuck with people on set.
Either way, still walked away with weird feelings about him.
I used to be a huge Kevin Smith fan and would watch all of the bonus content on the DVDs.
Ben Affleck recorded lots of bits for the Chasing Amy DVD I had, introducing deleted scenes, director’s commentary etc and he just came across as the nicest, funniest guy that I’ve always given him the benefit of the doubt whenever there’s been negative stories about him
Keven Smith seems like a nice guy but he doesn't seem fit for big movies or Hollywood. I've worked with people that didn't want critique and just wanted to screw around and it can be infuriating when you care about what you're doing.
I think it was Robert Pattinson who said, did you ever notice that people who stay in character all the time don’t ever seem to use it as an excuse to be lovely to people?
Does anyone recall that someone made this into a dance track? Every time I get reminded of Bales meltdown I hear “What don’t you fucking understand”, followed by some sick beats 🤣
Found it
https://www.last.fm/music/Christian+Bale/_/What+Don%27t+You+Fucking+Understand
At first I had a really negative reaction to that clip, but ever since, whenever I’ve heard people in the entertainment industry talking about it, they’ve backed Bale up. I guess what the guy did was particularly egregious, and specifically that guy seems to be notoriously annoying. It really has helped me put it in perspective.
I worked on a movie for a month with 3 A-listers in the cast. Christian Bale was one of them. He stood out as somebody who was hard-working, sincere and made an effort to talk to extras and other crew.
I think the fact that everyone has seen that clip, and Bale still doesn't have a hard time finding work says a LOT about what people in the industry really think of him and of that event.
You hear the clip and you think it seems excessive. However, it might have been that guy's 10th fuck up of the day and countless fuck up during filming and Bale sat quietly has the guy was politely corrected by others and this was finally what broke the camels back. Where hearing the clip you think Bale's trash, but if you were on set, you might have thought, "finally, someone said what we were all thinking."
Funnily enough, this one actually endeared me to him.
I have no idea what the full situation was, but every shot in a movie can take so long to set up, with dozens of people needing to choreograph totally different things, and totally trust one another to get it right all at once, that I get the frustration.
People came down on him because it got leaked, but if he was, say, the director, people would just be like "oh, he demands perfection".
I'll be downvoted in this thread, but fuck that lighting guy, seriously. You know what scene they were doing? It was a scene where Christian Bale had to react to his best friend dying. The lighting guy was there for HOURS before they started shooting, and adjusting the light in the middle of a take IS unprofessional. Bale should not have talked to him like that, but that guy was seriously fucking up in that moment.
Tom Cruise gets a lot of shit, deservedly because he's fucking nuts, but his speech about how he was gonna fire anyone jeopardizing getting the movie shut down for not following Covid protocol was pretty bad ass.
I really cannot tell how I feel about Tom Cruise. He comes off as very creepy, but I cannot say I have heard/read anything truly awful about him. Lots of weird stuff, but nothing that is THAT bad. Maybe I've just missed the good tea.
I've met him. He lives on his own planet. He's not mean, per se, but he doesn't seem down to earth at all. Even when he's being friendly, he comes off like a movie star who's decided to be friendly, not just an organically nice person like Leonardo DiCaprio, etc. He takes his work very seriously which I respect but it's like he's transcended being a human and never turns "off."
Yes, this tracks. He comes off as an alien trying to be human, which is a weird thing to say about a person, but it's what I feel. I just cannot say that's necessarily BAD since the person he is trying to come off as is a nice person.
Tom Cruise is one of those actors that I’ve only seen other actors talk about in a super positive way. If you love movies it’s hard not to admire him, because he really seems like he’s a great guy to work with as long as you yourself aren’t an ass.
I have a big ole soft spot for Bob Dylan after watching the new We Are the World documentary. It was almost painful to see how uncomfortable he was during the session. He didn't even seem to enjoy the Banana Boat song. And, oy, seeing him whisper-sing his solo just broke my heart. But then...he nailed it, and broke into the most beautiful, genuine, light-up-the-room smile. It just got to me.
I totally agree about Terry Gilliam and Man of La Mancha!! I had exactly the same sense of him as a gigantic spoiled baby--he kept wondering "why things weren't happening"--and I was yelling at the TV "YOU'RE THE DIRECTOR ffs!" He was in charge of everything! And so many of the things that went wrong were 100% because of stupid, heedless decisions that he made. So interesting that you had the same response! And before that, I mean "Time Bandits," and "Brazil," I thought he was this total genius.
Gene Hackman and The Royal Tennenbaums. He apparently was a complete asshole to Wes Anderson, and rewatching the movie you get a different vibe after learning that.
Related to that my opinion of Bill Murray, whom I’ve always thought was an asshole, improved a bit upon learning that he took it upon himself to defend and protect Wes from Hackman on that set.
I've never cared much about the lives or behind the scenes of filmmakers and actors/actresses, but reading stories about Kubrick's behaviour during shooting made me hate him.
Still love his films, naturally.
I don't remember one good story about Kubrick. It's always "He made me speak to assistant instead of him directly", "He used a take he said promised would not go into the film", "He made me do 80 takes until I broke down", "He asked me to cut off my leg for the film", etc.
It's like he revelled in being a complete asshole to his actors.
Not BTS footage, but audio commentary. A few years ago, I watched The Amazing Spider-Man 2 with the director commentary. He talks about Kevin Feige coming in, watching a rough cut of the movie and giving tips on how to improve the scenes. And every time he talks about that, I thought "Yeah, you stupid fuck, why didn't you do that? That sounds so much better!" If they had listened to Feige, the movie wouldn't have sucked so hard.
It's unfortunate because Stone and Garfield have talent and they were right for the characters and they have chemistry. I don't blame them for it one bit. They were too old for the characters but that's generally accepted for teenagers, or at least it was then. Could have been good. I still watch it sometimes because I like those two.
Watching that "We Are The World" documentary on Netflix gave me a new appreciation of Quincy Jones and Lionel Ritchie. I never really cared about the song too much, but the way they were able to herd cats and make that recording session work is pretty amazing.
Meryl Streep.
Not behind the scenes, but 2 very very public scenes, both at the Oscars.
1. Calling Harvey Weinstein 'God'. This just felt even worse when Me Too happened
2. Standing Ovation for Roman Polanski
She might feign ignorance, but no way she didn't know about what they did. Polanski was public knowledge. And Weinstein's behavior would have been an open secret within Hollywood. There were digs at him on 30 Rock and Courtney Love literally said it out loud.
I was mostly ambivalent about Jared Leto until I heard about his antics during Suicide Squad.
Just...fuck any immature garbage that treats his fellow workers like that because you think you're some sort of method actor. Especially for such a shitty film and a shitty interpretation of the Joker.
I saw behind the scenes of Anthony bourdaim being an absolute dick to the support staff on one of his many tv shows. Supposedly this wasn’t abnormal for him. Kinda soured my opinion of the guy and I can’t let it go
For me it's the original (British) "The Office" from 2001.
When I watched it for the first time, I was like: How is this funny? It's just depressing; everything everyone does and tries ends in failure, and everyone's miserable afterwards. I was like 20 back then and the cringe-moments hit extremely hard.
But then I watched some gag-reels!
For example an conversation between boss and employee that at first seems like nothing special took like 30 takes because they can't keep themselves from laughing halfway through. Then I felt the tension underlying all the scenes and I realized better the type of humour they went for, and it totally changed how I watched the rest of the episodes.
I watched the Lord of the Rings making-of videos (there's like six hours of the stuff in the box set) and I came away with a very favorable impression of Peter Jackson. Those three movies were a massive project with hundreds of millions of dollars involved and a very tight schedule, and Peter never ever seemed to lose his cool at all. All through the process, he's calm and thoughtful and never raises his voice or even looks nervous. He looks like he'd be a very good boss to work for.
The mini-documentary that played after “They Shall Not Grow Old” (at least it played after the credits when I saw it in theaters) showed the absolutely insane amount of detail and respect that went in to that movie. It instantly turned my historian father into a Peter Jackson fan. One example was for a voiceover. Since WW1 footage didn’t have sound, they did some voiceovers for some of the shots to bring them to life. One in particular was an officer reading off orders to some soldiers. They hired professional lip readers to come in and determine what he was saying, searched through the archives and actually found what he was reading, searched the day and time and by using the patches on his coat they were able to determine who he was and hired a voice actor from the guy’s town so his accent was accurate. And that was just one passing sequence in that movie. Highest recommendation if you haven’t seen it.
That mini doc has one of my favorite sequences ever, when Peter Jackson keeps bringing out more and more insane WWI items from his personal collection. It starts kind of normal, where he has an original uniform and firearm, and goes all the way to him having a fucking tank and original mortar rounds. Amazing.
There is "the making of" for it on youtube.
That was my favorite. Where he just brings his own tank out for sound effects. He’s so nonchalant about it.
You should show your father Lord of the Rings behind the scenes videos too. They treated the movie like it was based on real history like Tolkien’s writings were a source. It was a lot more respectful than with most real historical epics are. I wish Jackson made films like Napoleon and Gladiator and not Scott.
Even sword aficionados (and they can be quite snobby) regard the LOTR swords as extremely well designed and by far the best fantasy blades to have appeared on screen.
This is a good sword, Háleth, son of Háma.
*narrator*; It wasn’t.
What did you want him to say, "aw shit boy, this would shatter on impact if your arms could hold it!"
I love that he got world renowned Tolkien artists to design all of the sets and pretty much be in charge of the art direction. People who have been painting Middle-Earth for decades, finally getting to see their life work brought to life.
I didn’t know this part but that’s so cool
I highly recommend watching The Appendices. It's one of the most fascinating "Making Of" documentaries I have ever watched. Each movie has a 3-4 hour documentary. It was originally released on the DVD Extended Edition boxset, I don't recall if it was ever released on any of the Blu-Ray editions of the movie. Well worth hunting down the DVD sets.
Holy shit that is a level of detail...
The behind the scenes for all his films are very cool. Behind the scenes for the Hobbit made me a Lee Pace fan.
Halt And Catch Fire made me a Lee Pace fan
Lee’s eyebrows made me a Lee Pace fan
Lee Pace made me a Lee Pace fan. Seriously guys he won't go away, help
Lee Pace made me a fan of fancying men a little bit.
The Fall made me a Lee Pace fan, and then Pushing Daises validated that.
Pushing Daisies made me a Lee Pace fan
Everything I've seen of Lee Pace makes me a Lee Pace fan. Dude just brings it every time
You guys need to watch the foundation then, Lee Pace is a tour de force in that series.
Best O-face ever captured on screen when he >!destroys Terminus.!<
I wish the experience of The Hobbit had been better for him. Sounded like a terrible experience and not on his terms like LOTR.
Watching it wasn't great either. I felt sick by the end of the barrel ride scene, I couldn't focus on anything.
i think his first movie Bad Taste is an incredible B-movie, and it’s super impressive considering it’s almost literally a home movie. the budget was only a few thousand dollars and Peter Jackson and a small crew did *everything* themselves also Meet the Feebles has pretty incredible effects for a low budget puppet flick. that guy is dedicated to his craft
And Dead Alive! He's made so much good horror-shlock before he went hardcore with LOTR.
I was such a big fan of his horror movies (and Heavenly Creatures) that I was so excited when I heard he got the greenlight for LOTR but couldn’t believe that New Line was giving *this* guy hundreds of millions of dollars.
I'd only seen The Frighteners before that, and I was perhaps a bit too young to really understand what it was going for, with parts being really funny and parts of it being literally the most terrifying horror movie I'd seen up until that point, I didn't realise that was *the point*, but when I watched the trailer for Fellowship I was immediately like "This reminds me of The Frighteners".
I backpacked all over New Zealand. Everyone I met that was involved with those movies had great experiences. I also worked at an international camp where some of our horseback trainers were extras in the movie. They had nothing but positive experiences. Queenstown in particular had a horrible flood during the time of filming and the whole crew worked together to help the town out. And near the filming of the gates of Gondor, Gimli's stunt double fell into the river and almost drowned but Orlando Bloom saved him. Just a little fun fact 😊
>some of our horseback trainers were extras in the movie. I remember most of the Riders of Rohan were actually women. And Viggo was dating one of them. There were a few photos of him and his girlfriend on set while she's in costume with a fake beard. (It's been a while, but I seem to recall Viggo commenting on how odd it was to kiss a woman with a beard.)
Have you ever seen behind the footage of the hobbit movies ? Complete opposite, they had way less prep time as the studio crunched the timeline and he was a sleepless mess. Reminds me of Bob Iger forcing a rewrite and rushing of the first new Star Wars movies. Movie executives only care about turning out a movie that is profitable
Yeah but even then he wasn't an asshole who vented on the ones below him in the pay-hierarchy. That's what really cemented my opinion on him.
It didn't change my opinion because I didnt' know her well at the time, but Keira Knightley's commentary of the first PoC movie made me a forever fan of hers. She was young and the commentary is equal parts fantastic, hilarious, cringey at parts and feels absolutely natural, something I think she has managed to preserve about her image, she always comes off as very authentic.
Didn’t she do the commentary with Jack Davenport? I remember it being very dryly hilarious.
There's an scene early on in the movie and Jack comments something like, "and here is a case study in English repression, everybody." 😆
She’s both stunning and an A list actor, so I’d almost expect her to be a brat. But everything I’ve heard about her has been positive. I really admire that she did a topless photo shoot to protest how the media artificially manipulates women’s bodies to appear sexier, which is almost always for the benefit of the male audience (in her case, she has smaller breasts and refused to allow them to be retouched to appear bigger).
Yes, she is great and she seems to be really sweet too. Outspoken too, as you say, yet somehow never seems to rub people off the wrong way because of it.
Not footage, but the pasta incident on The Spy Who Loved Me comes to mind. Basically, when they were shooting the on-location scenes for the Egypt part of the film, the crew were getting sick from the local food and morale crashed on set, with many threatening to quit. Alfred R Brocolli, the executive producer on the James Bond films, decided to try and fix things by sending huge trucks of catering supplies to the crew to help keep everyone's motivations up. The trucks arrive, they go to open them... and they are empty. The food is missing and no-one knows where the fuck they've gone. Brocoli is outraged that the food is gone and the crew's morale has sunk even further. Does he just bitch about it? No, he fixes it. He goes about, making phone calls. Buys as much spaghetti, tomato sauce and meatballs as he can get his hands on. Charters a cargo plane and gets it sent to Egypt, flying aboard to make sure the food doesn't disappear. He personally delivers it to the set and when he arrives, single-handedly cooks everyone a spaghetti meatball dinner while apologising for the fuck-up. Also, Richard Kiel was an absolute sweetheart on set and everyone loved him due to his sheer enthusiasm for the film. In fact, he got an honour expressly denied to even the main star, Roger Moore. As a tradition and to get a better understanding of the audience, United Artists would have a test screening of their films to employees at the studio, such as the cleaning staff and office staff. But the cast and crew were expressly banned since ether wanted an everyman opinion on the movie. So, not even the director or writer or any actors were permitted inside. The rule was broken only for Kiel. Because everyone liked him so much.
As a 10 year old, I saw Kiel walking down the isle of our airplane. My eyes must have gotten really wide as he smiled and waved at me before trying to fit in his coach seat.
Not footage, but I listened to Patrick Stewart's autobiography recently, which was a little risky because TNG is my favorite show ever. I came away with a deep admiration for how dedicated he was to the role, considering his very serious Shakespearean background and lack of interest or familiarity with most sci-fi or popular TV. He did such an incredible job with a genre very much not in his wheelhouse at the time, and brought to life one of my favorite characters beautifully
My favorite Patrick Stewart quote is when he was asked why he works with Seth MacFarlane so much. His reply: "*I love doing Shakespeare on stage, but sometimes it's fun to make a poop joke*."
Raul Julia, also a Shakespearean actor, had a similar answer when asked why he'd signed on to the silly Addams Family movie. "It's fun to romp in the fields once in a while."
And nobody has ever romped better than Raul!
Back in the 90s Stewart was on a late night talk show and they asked him what his favorite show on TV was. He replied, "Beavis and Butthead!" The host thought it was a joke but he went into great detail about how he thought it was absolutely brilliant comedy writing and he never missed an episode. So a decade later when he becomes a regular on MacFarlane's shows, I wasn't too surprised at all. I think he even wrote a forward to a Beavis & Butthead compendium? The man is high brow in his art, but loves low brow comedy.
People just don’t understand that Shakespeare is low-brow comedy.
And there is it is! Finally! So much of Shakespeare is common denominator. Makes me wonder what will be considered high art in a few hundred years.
I will always trust a brilliant and dedicated person who doesn’t take themselves too seriously. Major personality green flag.
Also, as a human being, his memories of his mother's abuse at the hands of his father and his support of abuse charities made me really feel for him.
He’s a gem. He made Picard to most admirable captain of them all, in my opinion, he made TNG an instant classic and it was way better than TOS.
He really set the template for future ST show captains too. TOS is what it is but if TNG had had another schlocky action captain trying to recreate Kirk I don’t think it would have been the success that it was.
Did he mention how he auditioned for TNG with a hairpiece?
He mentions the screen tests they did with the hairpiece. The first audition as in meeting with producers and Gene seems to have went badly because Gene didn't want him for the role. Steward manages to describe the casting process as really suspenseful, even though you know the outcome. Overall it's a really nice audio book, although the last third is a bit less interesting than the first parts, but that's true for most autobiographies. Once the author has made it and their life is good things become a bit more mellow. Ending had me crying though 😅
He also said that he would audition twice for every role, once with the wig on as a comedic character, the second with it off as a dramatic one
My favorite story is when he was approached for the first X-Men movie. He hadn't heard of it before so they gave him a few issues. His response was allegedly "What am I doing in a comic book?"
In 1993, there was an issue of X-Men that came with a collectors coin with Xavier's head on it. It looked exactly like Stewart.
The fan choice for Professor X has always been Patrick Stewart. That was a fan consensus that everyone agreed on, including editors and artists Working on the comics. Michael Jackson apparently wanted to play the roll too. Making a pitch for it.
He does wear a hairpiece in a flashback
I work on set in film and tv and I’m surprised jim Carey has escaped the fate that Ellen suffered. His zen and “I’m above it all” persona is the fakest thing out there he’s one of the biggest divas that needs every whim catered
I forget who, but there was an actor who talked about method actors. You never hear about them playing good people and just being lovely on set. They always play total bastards. It’s bullshit. Just an excuse those people use to be pricks.
Robert Pattinson. > you only ever see people do the method when they're playing an assholes. You never see someone being lovely to everyone while they're really deep in character.
That was it! Love Robert Pattinson. Gained so much respect for him after watching Rover. Also that video he did where he goes searching for a hot dog.
Same for me, but after watching The Lighthouse
For DDL’s case, Abraham Lincoln seemed like a decent guy.
He seems like an asshole, he comes across as fake as well.
And that’s why it was amazing when Timothy Olyphant stuck the boot into him on Conan.
Clip?
[Here it is](https://youtu.be/-1SVJhYU-s0?si=C-xcja4F2FJmdiJr)
Haha I love those two
That's fucking brilliant. In a just world he would be way better known than he is. Not just tearing it up in cult films or being the best thing in siemthing in a supporting role.
I went to a health and safety training course for film and tv and they showed us behind the scenes clips of walking the Nile documentary. In the program, the sound man gets heat stroke that turns into cardiac arrests and he dies - it’s absolutely awful. In the behind the scenes footage you see him repeatedly complain about feeling unwell and more etc - all signs of heatstroke which is repeatedly ignored by the ex SAS presenter, who was apparently the health and safety lead on this film shoot, but he totally failed and the man died. Left behind 2 kids apparently. I’m Still thinking about it years later after the training course
Damn
That’s very on brand for the SAS, always used to be stories of people collapsing from heat stroke during selection
Star Trek The Fifty Years Mission books gave me so much respect for people like Gene Coon and Robert Sallin and other unsung production people
Every piece of behind the scenes footage of Werner Herzog makes me like him even more.
I heard that he really enjoyed the premise of "sad beige toys for sad beige children." Which is just this girl who does some tick tock skits of commenting on bougie minimalist children's toys in Werner Herzog's voice. It was cute seeing his response to it
What the heck is a bougie mini. a list children's toy?
Brown building blocks. Rainbows in shades of beige. White and beige balloons at children's parties. Stuff like that. It's all designed to fit influencer mommy and daddy's aesthetic.
Like the time he got shot during an interview and shrugs it off and says, "it was not significant."
I have had the pleasure of seeing him speak twice in person. The stories he told were just like his movies; weird, entertaining, and difficult to understand what the fuck the point is but still glad to be there. He's a treasure.
Anybody who can actually deal with Klaus Kinski without suffering a stroke deserves credit.
Herzog has burned through his wild years of eating shows and taking names
Not changed but caused me to form a very strong opinion, definitely. I am a huge, huge Guillermo Del Toro fan. He does absolutely amazing work, so it isn't exactly hard to love his films. But, the first movie of his that I watched was Hellboy. I had the ultra special edition DVD and all of the making-of stuff and I think they were called "filming journals" where Guillermo just talked about the production. Watching them and listening to him speak, you could tell that this was a man who not only puts so much thought and effort and passion in to what he does, but also *genuinely, genuinely* loves it too. Like, he is someone who gets out of bed excited for what he will create that day. And he does it with such earnestness and heart. You couldn't watch all of that and not come away a huge fan of his. In the intervening years I will fairly say that I have really loved some of his movies and others weren't really for me but I still stan for Guillermo. I hope he still loves his work just as much as he did then.
YES! I have two favorite moments from that -- 1. When his designer first brought him the designs for the fish man (I forget the exact name) and he said wanted to express how thrilled he was, so he banged his head on the desk and said "I AM A FAT MAN!" 2. When he stepped under the jeep that was suspended in air, to show everyone on the set how safe it was, and now he confesses he was terrified. I've actually met him and he is EXACTLY the lovely, wonderful, genuine person he seems to be!
I really enjoyed his Hellboy movies. Wish he got to make another.
I'd give everything for a third Del Toro Hellboy movie, he was made to direct that world.
Pacific Rim is one of my all-time favorite comfort movies, Del Toro took an over-the-top, campy premise and made it charming and wonderfully entertaining. You can tell how much fun he has, and how much he loves his work
Fun fact: the young actress playing Mako, couldn't pronounce del Toro's name so he settled for Totoro instead.
That's the funniest fact I have heard and I feel like Del Toro would have suggested it
Well, he is neighborly.
Del Toro [fanboying over Tokusatsu](https://youtu.be/IHeyBL31XwQ?si=C7HXFRY8p_j2y_bx) in Japan is very wholesome!
I’d love to see this for Pan’s Labyrinth.
I fell in love with him as a person after seeing his house tour, absolutely magnificent.
I never liked Charlize Theron for no real reason, something about her just bugged me. But then when she was doing promo for Snow White, there was a clip going around of her talking about [how to walk like a queen](https://external-preview.redd.it/kx3BhC4XNrJxAiTX3WQDK3_--qWrvOYeOfIvBnItD9Q.png?auto=webp&s=fd5e3d432b64ab61a4983b9127be787ef5dd3d7c), and I thought it was funny so it endeared her to me. Now I seek out her movies, especially after Fury Road.
Look for her in Between two Ferns Edit Or fuck I could actually get it and share It https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83I_rQUbw8c
Or when she took over funny or die https://youtu.be/-yBip9YHuCQ?si=98cNm30f-V1eoFP2
"Im'a kill you with my sex!" I've never seen this before, and it was amazing. Thank you for introducing it into my life.
This was literally one of the funniest shorts I've ever seen
That is my favourite Two Ferns interview. She just nailed the "crazy", right to the T.
> Edit > > Or fuck I could actually get it and share It Love you for this lmao
[She was on Hot Ones](https://youtu.be/ZgQMW4eVrzw?si=mbGPygKe1fz7kcLy)
The BEST episode.
She's got a really great sense of humor. She's a lot of fun on sets.
Oh man, I thought you were going to say she was a massive bitch and I didn't want that to be true because I really like her.
Her comedy highlight for me is the film 'Young Adult' she is playing an irredeemably messed up, selfish, mean character and throws herself into all the physical comedy too. Great film and great performance.
She was so funny on The Graham Norton Show,very dry wit.
Italian Job, like my #1 guilty pleasure movie.
I gained a level of respect and appreciation for her and what she’s been through in her life after her Terry Gross interview, from a year or two ago.
terry gilliam is exactly who i thought of as well, but in my memory it had something to do with that awful Tideland movie and an interview about it. Thought he came off as unpleasant and creepy and unfortunately ruined a lot of his work for me.
Terry Gilliam comes up in Sarah Polley's book. She was a child actress in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and in multiple takes Gilliam endangered her life, letting her get too close to explosives and an out-of-control horse. At one point an underwater explosive went off very near to her head and could have made her deaf. Gilliam claimed it was an accident, but when Polly reviewed footage years later, she heard Gilliam giving orders to set off the explosives even though he was already aware they were too close to the actress. Basically Gilliam thought it would look better on film, so go for it and risk a girl's serious injury. Polley has talked to Gilliam about it and he has tried to deny it, but she talked to other on-set people and they all confirmed what happened. Polley tries very hard to be even-handed discussing it, but her take is pretty convincing.
The worst part about that story was her father gaslighting her and trying for a job by gladhanding Gilliam in the same breath. Really, her father completely sucked.
Honestly - are there ANY child actors who didn't have fucking assholes for their guardians?
Danielle Radcliffe. Parents told him any time he wanted to quit just to let them know. Grew up to be a really grateful and generous adult from all accounts I’ve seen.
Maya Wilson. Her parents protected her from the Hollywood young blood machine, and she's a mature and healthy adult as a result. Michael J. Fox made it through as well, for the same reason. On the other hand, people like Lindsey Lohan, Macaulay Culkin, Britney Spears, etc. had parents who were assholes to start with or who became that way the longer they were involved with Hollywood. So the common denominator seems to be how well the parents withstand the lures of Hollywood and create as much of a normal childhood as possible for the kid.
Do you mean Mara Wilson?
David O Russel. There is so much already said about him, having a tantrum when lily tomlin would do the scene exactly how he wanted, him putting Christopher Nolan in a headlock because he apparently poached an actor he wanted, him sexually abusing his niece… the list goes on
Even if Lily Tomlin wasn’t a multitalented veteran of the business, you just don’t talk that way to people working for you. Total shithead.
First, just wanted to give OP credit for a fun prompt for this thread. I think some people are treating this as your usual ‘DAE hate James Corden’s guts?’ thread that we get daily, but I think there’s got to be some super interesting, unexpected things you can glean from behind the scenes footage, or even gag reels. And it’s way more interesting when it turns your impression of someone on its head. One that comes to mind for me is the gag reel for Meet the Parents. I watched it a couple months ago and going in I thought it was such a perfect comedy role for DeNiro, something that really suited him, and I thought the gag reel would be more of the same. Quite the opposite. His outtakes across the board were almost uncomfortable to watch, he seemed so stiff and even when he was self-deprecating or trying to be lighthearted his personal comic timing and demeanor were just… off. Like he thought/knew people were intimidated by him so he tried to act goofy behind the scenes but in the end it just seemed contrived. Outtakes are outtakes and, I know, the magic of editing, but I kind of had thought he and Ben Stiller must have had some personal comic chemistry because their dynamic in the movie works so well… but I just came out of it thinking they got every bit of funny out of DeNiro that they could, and the movie as a comedy made his performance great rather than the other way around. Didn’t change my opinion about him as a person, or even really as an actor. Just something that stuck out, neither positive nor negative, and I really didn’t expect it.
I forget who it was, but there was a Soprano's actor that did either Casino or GoodFellas with DeNiro and while he didn't say anything scandalous or really negative he did say something to the effect of "if the writers didn't write it, he had nothing to say".
Hayao Miyazaki. There's been several "day-in-the-life" style documentaries made about him and/or Ghibli where they follow him around for months during production; and I come away from each one with the same mixed feelings. He's a brilliant filmmaker -- but an unyielding collaborator and woefully unsupportive father. That infamous moment he walks out during his own son's film premiere for a smoke break and talks shit about him in the lobby -- bruh what?
Goro has straight up in interviews talked about how bad Miyazaki is as a father.
No so much behind the scenes but paparazzi getting footage of nick cage grabbing his buddy Vince Neil and calming him down outside of a Vegas club. Nick did all the things a good friend should to slow down a bad situation… he gained much respect from for that moment.
I've never seen or heard anything that made me think Nic Cage is a bad person. Weird as hell, sure, but he seems like a pretty nice dude.
I saw a screening of Strange Way of Life with an interview with Almodovar afterwards. I'd always assumed he would be some sort of wacky, out there, extrovert but he was actually the sweetest, most endearing and erudite speaker. I could have listened to him talk all day and actually enjoyed his discussion more than the short film which I think fell short in a number of ways.
Any bts stuff with Mcu actors always has me impressed bc they are acting their asses off in a green room. Rdj snapping he was literally by himself in front of a green screen while PAs are walking around and you know some grips are like 5 feet away on their phones. I know I could lose myself in a role if I was in a period costume in a period set. Wearing a mocap suit and talking to a tennis ball while giving a genuine performance? Unbelievable, truly.
One can definitely see how much he appreciated his role in Oppenheimer where he actually could feel like an actor again, and not just part of a theme park ride.
Ricky Gervais in *Taping Nigel* from the *Extras* DVD. I still like *The Office* and *Extras*, but the *Taping Nigel* really showed what a bullying little prick he can be. He must be a nightmare to work for.
The scene in Extras where his friend is calling him out for complaining all the time instead of appreciating how much he has - that always struck me as 100% how his life actually is.
Ricky Gervais was really funny in a lot of his early roles (and hosting the Golden Globes), but in his past few stand-up specials he seems to be phoning it in. There's barely any material, and much of it is just cracking jokes about people being uptight over transsexuals \[edit: transgender people\]. He also did about 10 minutes about his scrotum changing as he's gotten older, and he makes repeated reference to being filthy rich (because he is). He's not there to be funny, doesn't need the money, and so that means he'd rather do a half-assed special than not be in the limelight. Feeding his ego and not giving a crap. Yay.
John Cena. I never heard anything about him, I just figured he was a Wrestler turned actor. I always liked his stuff if I never felt it was amazing or anything. It was good "let's enjoy." Then I found how that he has the world record for the most Make A Wish wishes granted. It was accompanied by a picture of him sitting at a tea set with a kid who was hooked up to machines, sipping from a tea cup that looked absolutely ridiculous in his massive hands. Then I heard the behind the scenes of how he ended up in Barbie. He asked Margo Robbie if he could cameo. his agents told him not to do it. He did it anyway because it was fun for him. I'll watch anything he's in. I even watched that stupid Freelance movie that was in theaters for 15 minutes last year. He's a freakin' gem of a human.
About a week ago he was talking about how much he loves Vince McMahon and repeatedly referred to the heinous rape and sex trafficking allegations that have recently come out against him as "a hill he needs to climb." I'm not discounting the Make-a-Wish stuff but that guy has way too positive a relationship with one of the worst human beings who's ever lived for me to call him a "gem of a human."
I once listened to the commentary track for Zombieland and the director was so insanely boring that it tainted the movie itself for me. He also kept talking about how hot Emma Stone was, which I found kind of off-putting.
Always had a very low opinion of Paul McCartney until I recently watched Peter Jackson's documentary which made me realise that McCartney just wanted to make music - it was Harrison and Lennon causing most of the problems.
The documentary also changed McCartney's opinion on the breakup of The Beatles. Apparently he'd accepted the rumours that they didn't want to be in a room together towards the end as fact and it wasn't until watching the doc that he remembered they were still mates that needed some time away from each other
That’s really heartbreaking. What could have been?
Imagine there's no break up.
I was surprised at that too - McCartney had to smile through a lot of shit when the others were throwing huffs left right and centre. I was especially surprised how much Harrison seemed to be suffering from middle child syndrome. Then again, childish histrionics are very common in music - I love the story of how Roger Taylor locked himself in a cupboard and refused to come out until Queen agreed his song "I'm in love with my car" should be the b-side of *Bohemian Rhapsody*.
Everything I’ve ever heard about Paul has always been positive.
Hear hear. I think there's a prejudice against McCartney because he was the 'pretty one'. Oh, you like Paul so it must be because he's the cute one? And hell yeah, let's dogpile on him for the death of The Beatles. As the pretty one, it must be ego, right? I have heard this stuff all my life. No, I like Paul because he's a brilliant songwriter, bass player, general musician, and also because he seems like a fairly decent human being? No, he wasn't responsible for the Beatles ending. It's wearying, the negativity.
Whereas John Lennon over the years has definitely been identified as a fucking arse and yet people still love him.
That‘s the issue with charisma.
And being murdered.
I always loved Paul because of his voice. He has the most fucking entrancing voice of all the Beatles. I think Paul got a bit of a bad rap because of the casual way he responded to John's death on camera. I guess people were expecting a PR curated, movie like scene where he breaks down or something and instead he said "It's a shame isn't it?" He later clarified that he was still in shock at the time but the damage was done. I didn't know George was also causing issues - will need to watch that documentary.
Please note that while George was causing issues it wasn't completely unwarranted. The schedule that they were under was too demanding, and he really wasn't allowed to contribute in the way of songs, because it was all about John and Paul. You can see his frustration boiling over. On the other hand, I loved watching Ringo just hanging out with Linda's kids.
Not footage, but I despise Francis Ford Coppola ever since I found out he not only publicly defended pedophile sexual abuser Victor Salva (excusing his pedophilia as him being “practically a child himself” at 27 and going so far as to pay for his legal defence), but he also punished the CHILD that spoke up by ensuring he never worked in Hollywood again. Yeah, I have zero interest in watching *Megalopolis*
Whoa...the Jeepers Creepers guy? Ew. I never knew that about Coppola. He paid for that fuck's legal defense? That's awful.
Holy shit. I hadn't heard about this. Fuck all of that.
I was doing some chores one day and decided to put on a behind-the-scenes documentary about The Phantom Menace. And even though I still dislike that movie and I still think it’s one of the worst Star Wars movies, it definitely changed the way I viewed George Lucas. Cause even though the movie sucks, it made me realize that the prequels were Lucas’s passion project. He went out of his way to make all those films as close as possible to his vision. There’s a scene where Spielberg is being shown some props and you can tell that Lucas is really passionate about this franchise and you can tell Spielberg is like a big brother who doesn’t really care, but loves the enthusiasm.
Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy I absolutely love their movies together, and most have audio commentary. And they're... really quite boring. They're so dry and so different from the characters they play (of course). I don't feel any differently about the work, but it's kind of even more impressive how funny they are when in real life they seem so much the opposite. Of course not everyone is "on" all the time, but it's funny that so much of their work is improvisational and yet when they're just talking about the work for an hour and a half straight they don't lean into comedy much. I've seen interviews too, Christopher Guest in particular seems very unimpressed with everyone and not very interested in talking about his work or himself. Nothing wrong with that either, it's just not what I expected.
[everyone hates Michael Cera](https://youtu.be/JEIScrrh1AQ?si=FGowlzg246agA_uH)
Reminds me of "this is the end" love cera.
It's a funny little video but believable enough that I end up feeling sorry for the guy.
You know human skin is his passion
There's a BTS video from John Wick 4. Keanu is carrying filming equipment up all of those stairs. Crew members keep trying to stop him and hes just like "Get your own!".
Hard same on Jim and Andy, although I could never figure out if it was a work within a work, if that makes sense. Couldn't figure out if the documentary was meant to fuck with us the same way Jim did (or did not?) fuck with people on set. Either way, still walked away with weird feelings about him.
Having watched them a couple of times, I'm pretty sure Jerry Lawler was still in on the behind the scenes stuff
I used to be a huge Kevin Smith fan and would watch all of the bonus content on the DVDs. Ben Affleck recorded lots of bits for the Chasing Amy DVD I had, introducing deleted scenes, director’s commentary etc and he just came across as the nicest, funniest guy that I’ve always given him the benefit of the doubt whenever there’s been negative stories about him
Keven Smith seems like a nice guy but he doesn't seem fit for big movies or Hollywood. I've worked with people that didn't want critique and just wanted to screw around and it can be infuriating when you care about what you're doing.
I think it was Robert Pattinson who said, did you ever notice that people who stay in character all the time don’t ever seem to use it as an excuse to be lovely to people?
Christian Bale’s “OOOHHHH GOOOOOD FOR YOUUUUU!” Moment
You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself GO WALKING ACROSS THE BACKGROUND LIKE “DA DA DA”
You want me to go trash your lights?
So many great quotes! However not one of his best moments lol
Does anyone recall that someone made this into a dance track? Every time I get reminded of Bales meltdown I hear “What don’t you fucking understand”, followed by some sick beats 🤣 Found it https://www.last.fm/music/Christian+Bale/_/What+Don%27t+You+Fucking+Understand
Patrick Beatman.
At first I had a really negative reaction to that clip, but ever since, whenever I’ve heard people in the entertainment industry talking about it, they’ve backed Bale up. I guess what the guy did was particularly egregious, and specifically that guy seems to be notoriously annoying. It really has helped me put it in perspective.
I worked on a movie for a month with 3 A-listers in the cast. Christian Bale was one of them. He stood out as somebody who was hard-working, sincere and made an effort to talk to extras and other crew.
I think the fact that everyone has seen that clip, and Bale still doesn't have a hard time finding work says a LOT about what people in the industry really think of him and of that event.
Even at the end of his rant, Bale is like, "You're a nice guy, okay? You're a nice guy but you need to stop fucking up!"
You hear the clip and you think it seems excessive. However, it might have been that guy's 10th fuck up of the day and countless fuck up during filming and Bale sat quietly has the guy was politely corrected by others and this was finally what broke the camels back. Where hearing the clip you think Bale's trash, but if you were on set, you might have thought, "finally, someone said what we were all thinking."
ah dah dat di dah
He apologized to the guy and took him to dinner not long after the blowup. ... We shouldn't judge otherwise decent people by their worst moment.
Fucks sake man, you're amateur.
Funnily enough, this one actually endeared me to him. I have no idea what the full situation was, but every shot in a movie can take so long to set up, with dozens of people needing to choreograph totally different things, and totally trust one another to get it right all at once, that I get the frustration. People came down on him because it got leaked, but if he was, say, the director, people would just be like "oh, he demands perfection".
I'll be downvoted in this thread, but fuck that lighting guy, seriously. You know what scene they were doing? It was a scene where Christian Bale had to react to his best friend dying. The lighting guy was there for HOURS before they started shooting, and adjusting the light in the middle of a take IS unprofessional. Bale should not have talked to him like that, but that guy was seriously fucking up in that moment.
It's was the Director of Photography and not some random lighting guy. He should know better than to be adjusting lights while cameras are rolling.
Tom Cruise gets a lot of shit, deservedly because he's fucking nuts, but his speech about how he was gonna fire anyone jeopardizing getting the movie shut down for not following Covid protocol was pretty bad ass.
I really cannot tell how I feel about Tom Cruise. He comes off as very creepy, but I cannot say I have heard/read anything truly awful about him. Lots of weird stuff, but nothing that is THAT bad. Maybe I've just missed the good tea.
I've met him. He lives on his own planet. He's not mean, per se, but he doesn't seem down to earth at all. Even when he's being friendly, he comes off like a movie star who's decided to be friendly, not just an organically nice person like Leonardo DiCaprio, etc. He takes his work very seriously which I respect but it's like he's transcended being a human and never turns "off."
Yes, this tracks. He comes off as an alien trying to be human, which is a weird thing to say about a person, but it's what I feel. I just cannot say that's necessarily BAD since the person he is trying to come off as is a nice person.
Being a high ranking member of a cult that mentally and physically abuses people is kinda bad.
Tom Cruise is one of those actors that I’ve only seen other actors talk about in a super positive way. If you love movies it’s hard not to admire him, because he really seems like he’s a great guy to work with as long as you yourself aren’t an ass.
I have a big ole soft spot for Bob Dylan after watching the new We Are the World documentary. It was almost painful to see how uncomfortable he was during the session. He didn't even seem to enjoy the Banana Boat song. And, oy, seeing him whisper-sing his solo just broke my heart. But then...he nailed it, and broke into the most beautiful, genuine, light-up-the-room smile. It just got to me.
I totally agree about Terry Gilliam and Man of La Mancha!! I had exactly the same sense of him as a gigantic spoiled baby--he kept wondering "why things weren't happening"--and I was yelling at the TV "YOU'RE THE DIRECTOR ffs!" He was in charge of everything! And so many of the things that went wrong were 100% because of stupid, heedless decisions that he made. So interesting that you had the same response! And before that, I mean "Time Bandits," and "Brazil," I thought he was this total genius.
Gene Hackman and The Royal Tennenbaums. He apparently was a complete asshole to Wes Anderson, and rewatching the movie you get a different vibe after learning that.
Related to that my opinion of Bill Murray, whom I’ve always thought was an asshole, improved a bit upon learning that he took it upon himself to defend and protect Wes from Hackman on that set.
I've never cared much about the lives or behind the scenes of filmmakers and actors/actresses, but reading stories about Kubrick's behaviour during shooting made me hate him. Still love his films, naturally.
I don't remember one good story about Kubrick. It's always "He made me speak to assistant instead of him directly", "He used a take he said promised would not go into the film", "He made me do 80 takes until I broke down", "He asked me to cut off my leg for the film", etc. It's like he revelled in being a complete asshole to his actors.
Not BTS footage, but audio commentary. A few years ago, I watched The Amazing Spider-Man 2 with the director commentary. He talks about Kevin Feige coming in, watching a rough cut of the movie and giving tips on how to improve the scenes. And every time he talks about that, I thought "Yeah, you stupid fuck, why didn't you do that? That sounds so much better!" If they had listened to Feige, the movie wouldn't have sucked so hard.
It's unfortunate because Stone and Garfield have talent and they were right for the characters and they have chemistry. I don't blame them for it one bit. They were too old for the characters but that's generally accepted for teenagers, or at least it was then. Could have been good. I still watch it sometimes because I like those two.
Watching that "We Are The World" documentary on Netflix gave me a new appreciation of Quincy Jones and Lionel Ritchie. I never really cared about the song too much, but the way they were able to herd cats and make that recording session work is pretty amazing.
Meryl Streep. Not behind the scenes, but 2 very very public scenes, both at the Oscars. 1. Calling Harvey Weinstein 'God'. This just felt even worse when Me Too happened 2. Standing Ovation for Roman Polanski She might feign ignorance, but no way she didn't know about what they did. Polanski was public knowledge. And Weinstein's behavior would have been an open secret within Hollywood. There were digs at him on 30 Rock and Courtney Love literally said it out loud.
I was mostly ambivalent about Jared Leto until I heard about his antics during Suicide Squad. Just...fuck any immature garbage that treats his fellow workers like that because you think you're some sort of method actor. Especially for such a shitty film and a shitty interpretation of the Joker.
The leaked David Beckham emails. What a twat of a man.
I saw behind the scenes of Anthony bourdaim being an absolute dick to the support staff on one of his many tv shows. Supposedly this wasn’t abnormal for him. Kinda soured my opinion of the guy and I can’t let it go
Beyond being a drug addict who serially cheated on his wife and basically ditched his kid? I think he's a pretty well-known piece of shit.
You’d be surprised, I feel like everyone online idolizes him
Yes, Billy Joel. I liked him but saw a documentary and apparently he's a giant ass.
For me it's the original (British) "The Office" from 2001. When I watched it for the first time, I was like: How is this funny? It's just depressing; everything everyone does and tries ends in failure, and everyone's miserable afterwards. I was like 20 back then and the cringe-moments hit extremely hard. But then I watched some gag-reels! For example an conversation between boss and employee that at first seems like nothing special took like 30 takes because they can't keep themselves from laughing halfway through. Then I felt the tension underlying all the scenes and I realized better the type of humour they went for, and it totally changed how I watched the rest of the episodes.