It's unlikely that I will be directing any movies in the near future. If I do find myself in the director's chair, I will ensure that my actors are competent and I trust them. What I won't do is put them through humiliation sans their consent because if they are actors, they can ACT humiliation. Playing a harrowing scene can be very tough on an actor. I'm aware Ned Beatty was unable to go through another take after shooting the 'squeal like a pig' scene in 'Deliverance'. 'Deliverance' is a fantastic and brilliantly acted movie, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Be warned, it's not a feel good one and you're not going to be dancing and singing to the soundtrack, and I'm yet to see it in the suggestions for a gift for Mum when all those Mother's Day ads are shown. By the way, Messrs 15 and 12, your mother would prefer a copy of 'Deliverance' to the schmaltzy schlock, always starring Hugh Grant, often suggested by the merchandising folk. Acting is a craft and I'm sure actors have to sometimes take themselves to a dark place. That being said, I have a dislike for actors who talk about their craft like it was on par with curing cancer. Thespians: it's not.
Sir Anthony Hopkins did not really eat people when playing Dr Hannibal Lecter. Indeed, to my knowledge, the actor is vegetarian. You see, what he did was ACT.
If someone is directing a movie wherein the main character is a returned soldier dealing with PTSD, then the director is unlikely to drop the actor unaware into a war zone so the actor can feel the effects of PTSD, rather than acting them competently having carried out the research warranted to adequately play the role.
As you can probably tell, I'm getting my two cents worth on the revelations that have just surfaced about the 'butter' scene in 'Last Tango In Paris'. Sure, Brando might not have actually performed penetrative sex during the filming, but for the director and senior actor to conspire and not tell the much younger (nineteen) actress Maria Schneider what was planned in order to achieve a more visceral and genuine humiliation, well, that is just totally revolting. Bernardo Bertolucci said he wanted the humiliation of the girl, not the character. Bertolucci, you are a fucking prick. If Marlon Brando's character was to be raped, would you have conspired with other actors to humiliate him? Somehow I doubt it. I haven't sat through 'Last Tango In Paris' in its entirety, but now that I am aware the infamous scene was not consensual, I don't believe I will. I am perfectly happy to watch confronting and harrowing scenes if they are performed by actors who have made informed consent to play the roles in their contribution to art. Bertolucci's method does not sit well with me, and I am not inclined to watch a young woman feeling genuinely degraded because the conceited fuckwit of a director didn't trust her to simply ACT.
This does not mean I am going to eschew all Bertolucci's work because anybody who knows me knows I am a firm believer in ars gratis artis. I still watch Roman Polanski's movies because I believe in separation of art from artist, notwithstanding I think Polanski is a sleazy prick. However, if I hear someone has been treated as Ms Schneider was treated, then I will quite likely view something else. As I mentioned, I don't care what the movie's subject matter is because as a rule, the actors are consenting to the role, and doing this funny little thing called 'acting'. You do understand that, don't you, Bertolucci?
How big a pair of fuck ups must Brando and Bertolucci have been, if they thought that was okay?
You know what might be funny? If someone, somewhere, some day when he's least expecting it - no, it's not Candid Camera - someone steps up to Bertolucci and shoves a stick of butter straight up his arse.
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