demiurgent (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
demiurgent) wrote2009-02-04 04:35 pm
demiurgent) wrote2009-02-04 04:35 pm
On long, involved movie rants.
So, I finally got around to listening to the Christian Bale rantfest that's... um... 'news.' For those who haven't, essentially Bale and his costar were playing an intensely emotional scene, and the director of production -- who'd been warned to not cross onto the set and make light adjustments while rolling before -- walked into Bale's field of vision and broke his concentration. Bale went apeshit on the guy. Many examples of 'fuck' and 'amateur' were thrown around.
This is now... apparently... some kind of controversy.
I dunno, man. I've been in a lot of theater. In the middle of rehearsals -- much less when it goes up -- what you're doing becomes disproportionately important to you. I've heard probably forty explosive rants of that kind over the last twenty five years. There is, to use the theater aphorism, a reason they call it drama.
People are coming down on Bale for 'taking it out on a coworker.' Only this isn't the office. This is a creative endeavor. Actors are napalm at the best of times -- get them worked up for a highly emotional scene and you're lucky no one gets knifed. This is just how it goes. This is how it goes in penny-ante community theater productions that less than a hundred people will ever see -- are you telling me it's going to be way more mellow when you're shooting a movie that's expected to make hundreds of millions of dollars?
It's just theater. Everyone's embarrassed for about two hours and there's whispering for a day and then you move on. Being a prima donna is walking off the set and not coming back. Blowing up at a DP is news?
Oh, wait. He's a big star. That makes it news, because we can 'tsk' at his potty mouth. Fucking cultural puritanism.
This is now... apparently... some kind of controversy.
I dunno, man. I've been in a lot of theater. In the middle of rehearsals -- much less when it goes up -- what you're doing becomes disproportionately important to you. I've heard probably forty explosive rants of that kind over the last twenty five years. There is, to use the theater aphorism, a reason they call it drama.
People are coming down on Bale for 'taking it out on a coworker.' Only this isn't the office. This is a creative endeavor. Actors are napalm at the best of times -- get them worked up for a highly emotional scene and you're lucky no one gets knifed. This is just how it goes. This is how it goes in penny-ante community theater productions that less than a hundred people will ever see -- are you telling me it's going to be way more mellow when you're shooting a movie that's expected to make hundreds of millions of dollars?
It's just theater. Everyone's embarrassed for about two hours and there's whispering for a day and then you move on. Being a prima donna is walking off the set and not coming back. Blowing up at a DP is news?
Oh, wait. He's a big star. That makes it news, because we can 'tsk' at his potty mouth. Fucking cultural puritanism.
no subject
they pay this guy a lot of money. They expect him to carry an entire movie that is supposed to make millions of dollars.
they know he's an intense actor who really gets into his scenes.
they wait til one of the biggest, more emotional scenes in a movie, and then they break his concentration.
I dunno - what do you expect?
I liken it to me being the lead programmer on a piece of software that can make or break the company's bottom line. We have a tighttight schedule, and I'm right in the middle of coding one of the most critical architectural functions the application has - then all of the sudden I notice that one of the junior programmers is tweaking the APIs I'm using (even though I asked him not to because I was doing some big development today).
I'd break his fucking hands.
and, well - it's not all true. But close.
sometimes - it's okay to get right up in someone's face and express your displeasure. Especially when you've been talking and talking, and it seems like you're not being listened to.
I remember when a British? Times writer published an AMAZING rant about an editor who didn't listen to what he had to say when he cautioned about messing with his work.
That article was looked at as "Wow - that's a cool way to fight back."
Why is this any different?
just my rantyness.