Rutanya Alda on Faye Dunaway's behavior during Mommie Dearest filming

Day. Made.

"You can put this on record: Faye made life very difficult. [Costume designer] Irene Sharaff, who had come out of retirement to do it, said, ‘That woman is on cocaine!’ She walked off the film midway and said, ‘I’m going back to New York and not returning, because of Faye. I have never walked off a movie in my entire career… You can enter Faye Dunaway’s dressing room, but first throw a raw steak in there to distract her.’ I never saw any drug use, but I saw the erratic behavior and mood swings, which happen for a reason.”

Rutanya talks Faye at the Castro:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k-VnMuaHglg
queerty link

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I heard a story about Ms. Dunaway about 15 years ago. Don't know if it is true or exaggerated but she was at a Koo Koo Roo in Los Angeles and ordered a chicken breast with a side. Well at Koo Koo Roo they give you a complimentary piece of lavash bread with your order. She told the order taker that she was on a carb free diet and wanted another side instead of the lavash. The cashier told her she would have to pay for another side. She demanded to speak to the manager who told her if she wanted another side she would have to pay for it. She directed a foul-mouthed rant toward the manager. I am told that people were calling their friends and holding up their cell phones like boom mikes in order to capture Faye's foul mouthed rant.

Updated On: 1/29/14 at 07:22 PM

"My thinking on this picture," he said, "is that we are selling glamour, fantasy and tragedy. We have these sets, we have Faye Dunaway in 57 costume changes by Irene Sharaff, we show one of the greatest Hollywood stars over a period of 38 years. This is a $9.4 million picture, and the money is in the costumes and the sets.

"Frankly, what I'm after is a Photo­play image. I want to give the audience what they perceive to be the scale of Joan's life. That's more important than the reality. Audiences imagine that stars live in rooms the size of movie sets, of movie ballrooms. Nobody lives like that anymore. But that was the Crawford image, in a cross between Art Moderne and Art Deco, with ev­erything compulsively perfect.”

Roger Ebert visits Mommie Dearest set

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One of my best friends was the publicist for MASTER CLASS and hated her so much he wanted me to come to opening night in my MOMMIE DEAREST costume, just to piss her off.

Another friend lived near her and called her DAY FUNAWAY, "because if you ever spent a day with her, the fun would go away". When he was showing me her newest house, near him. As we were standing out front, a very well manicured hand snatched the drapes and yanked them shut.

And, my final story is, ANOTHER friend used to work at Video West in West Hollywood, said she came in and pulled the tape for MOMMIE DEAREST from the shelf, read the cover and then threw her head back and laughed. She put the tape back and left the store.

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It seems every gay man north of 40 has at least one "my friend said..." stories about Faye Dunaway.



(got anymore?)

Well, "my friend" played the piano player during both of her tours. He made her sound like a strong personality, but hardly a monster. And certainly no worse certainly no worse than Yul Brynner, Lauren Bacall, Zero Mostel and others with whom I have worked.

Another friend took a job as her personal assistant. He lasted a week.

So I guess it depends...

ETA I can't take any pleasure in the decline of her career. She really was one of our greatest film actresses and who knows what she might be doing now?

Updated On: 2/1/14 at 08:10 PM