David O. Russell and Lilly Tomlin LOSE IT!

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 12:09pm

Oh, my. There are some extremely intense videos circulating you-know-what-tube featuring Tomlin on the set of I HEART HUCKABEES getting very pissed and Russell topping her by about a thousand. I thought he was going to hit her!!!

Must see TV.

[Kringas]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 12:11pm

Are they back? I thought they'd been taken down.

[DG]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 12:15pm

Wow.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 12:16pm

Check 'em fast. There's also one of Tomlin ranting in a car...after hours of shooting in reportedly 110 degree weather. Hoffman tries to be a buffer, Huppert looks like she's pretending to be somewhere else, and in one strange moment, Naomi Watts starts to giggle nervously from the back and is met with a solid "f**k you".

[AC126748]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 12:16pm

Poor Isabelle Huppert looks TERRIFIED in that one video.

[Kringas]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 12:19pm

Yeah, they are still there. A friend of mine mentioned them the other day, but they disappeared before I could see them. Craziness. It's still a great movie, though.

[fflagg]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 12:21pm

Howard on SIRIUS played them. She says "f**k" and he calls her a "cu*t" who should "do another one woman show no one will care about." Poor Dustin H tries to calm her down.

They should have released this instead of that dull film.

[AC126748]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 12:24pm

Doesn't Tomlin have a longstanding reputation for being difficult?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 12:27pm

Possibly. It sounds like he was overdirecting her and she got hopelessly lost, which on a film set, costs money.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 12:38pm

I think David Lynch has the right idea: You get better results if you are nice to your crew and nice to your actors. Yelling at them doesn't do anything.

I, as it possibly may seem, am an incredibly non-confrontational person. I rarely, if ever, yell at anyone. When I do, I feel so horribly bad for hours on end. When I direct my plays and my films, I luckily am fortunate enough to have actors and crewmembers who are dedicated and hard-working but eventually I will meet someone who is the opposite. Yelling at those people is not something you want to do to get them back on track.

I realize many on this board want to direct. Here is my advice: Be nice.

[tazber]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 12:40pm

Didn't Clooney fight with Russell on the set of Three Kings?
Sounds like a very sensitive auteur.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 12:41pm

OMG. I loved that film. Had no idea how much it took to make it.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 12:42pm

Huckabees wasn't amazing but it was enjoyable. Perhaps if O. Russell was nice to his actors, the movie WOULD be amazing?

[MatthewAddison]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 12:45pm

Wow. That makes me nervous watching it.

I hate arguments like that.

Very unprofessional.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 12:49pm

Cruel, I don't see how the movie could have been better based on the actors. I thought it was phenominal. If improvements are needed, I would suspect they would be in the writing or editing department if the film wasn't completely one's cup of tea. But the actors were fab.

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 12:51pm

Good lord. I gotta say, Russell comes out looking like the world's biggest a**hole.

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 12:53pm

I love the one where she rants at the camera in the car and Dustin Hoffman just LOOKS at her.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 1:18pm

Jeez...how old are these people?! How many times can you say f**k in once sentence?

[DG]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 1:33pm

Obviously, Jane Wagner wasn't on the set, or he would have been TOAST!

[Kringas]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 2:02pm

Excerpt from an article about the shoot, via Defamer.

So far, the actors have been remarkably tolerant of Mr. Russell's mischief. As Ms. Huppert later observed in a phone interview, the actors knew Mr. Russell was intentionally trying to destabilize them for the sake of their performances. 'He is fascinating, completely brilliant, intelligent and very annoying sometimes, too,' she said. They also know he has created superb films from chaotic-seeming sets before. Besides, he's the director and the writer; now that they've cast their lot with him, they really don't have a choice.

But on what is meant to be the last take of the day, Ms. Tomlin, who recently ended an exhausting run of her one-woman play, collapses into Mr. Hoffman's arms crying and doesn't stop. As he embraces her, the wails grow louder and louder, and finally it becomes clear that she is not in character. After long moments, Ms. Tomlin breaks the tension by shouting at Mr. Hoffman: 'You're driving a hairpin into my head!' Everyone collapses in laughter and the take is trashed.

But the drama is not over. The car scene takes several more hours to shoot, and as the sun fades, the accumulated tension erupts. Ms. Tomlin begins shouting at Mr. Russell: she is unhappy with the way she looks. She wants to try the scene a different way. She taunts him with a few expletives and curses at the other actors too. Their patience worn, the other actors laugh at her outburst.

Later, unfolding himself from the back seat of the Chevrolet, Mark Wahlberg jokes that his next project will be a nice, easy action film.

July 31, 2003: Candid Camera

The production has moved from the dried-up swamp to the set of the detectives' office. It is hot and cramped, and the hour is getting late. To pass the time while a shot is set up, Mr. Russell treats the crew to a description of a baby passing through the birth canal.

And then Ms. Tomlin is berating Mr. Russell again.

This time, the director turns on her angrily, calling her the crudest word imaginable, in front of the actors and crew. He shrieks: 'I wrote this role for you! I fought for you!' Mr. Russell ends his tirade by sweeping his arm across a nearby table cluttered with production paraphernalia. He storms off the set and back on again, continually shouting. Then he locks himself in his office, refusing to return. After an uncomfortable, set-wide pause, Ms. Tomlin goes in to apologize, and Mr. Russell returns to the shoot.

Unbeknownst to both of them, a member of the crew has videotaped his tirade. The recording makes its way around the Hollywood talent agencies. Asked about the incident later, Mr. Russell says: 'Sure, I wish I hadn't done that. But Lily and I are fine.' For her part, Ms. Tomlin admits that both she and Mr. Russell lost control. 'It's not a practice on his part or my part,' she says. 'I'd rather have someone human and available and raw and open. Don't give me someone cold, or cut off, or someone who considers themselves dignified.'
Defamer

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 3:46pm

I try not to nitpick things like this because nobody's perfect but any man who would call a woman a c***, in front of other people no less, is...it must be said...a d***k.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 7:23pm

call me a freak, but i love Lily even more after seeing this side of her.

[wonderwaiter]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 7:40pm

I can't wait to see her next month in "another one woman show no one will care about."

[kyguy78]

Posted: 3/21/07 at 10:04pm

I just heard the audio on Howard Stern's show this morning and I was laughing so hard tears were running down my face.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 3/23/07 at 12:03pm

His tirade was so much worse! You don't call a woman a c*nt or a whore. Ever. Plus, it looked like he hit part of the crew with the stuff he knocked off the table.