George Clooney Calls Out Director For Awful Treatment Of Cast And Crew
By all accounts, George Clooney is just a good guy. For the last ten years at least, Clooney has carefully chosen his projects and presented himself as a man of taste, wisdom, and class. Still, in a recent interview with GQ magazine for his new film, Wolfs, in which he stars with longtime friend Brad Pitt, Clooney had a few choice words to share about director and former collaborator, David O. Russell, about his treatment of cast and crew members while working on 1999’s Three Kings.
It Started With Three Kings
In 1999, George Clooney starred in Three Kings alongside Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube. The film was written and directed by David O. Russell, who has since that time established a firm reputation for being impossible to work with. By all accounts, it started on that set more than 20 years ago.
According to Clooney, Russell yelled, screamed, flung objects across the set, and berated actors and assistant directors. At one point, Clooney says Russell shoved an extra who was supposed to tackle Clooney in a scene because the guy was nervous.
Russell’s On-Set Behavior Called Into Question
George Clooney says Russell shoved the guy down, kicked him, and screamed, “Do you want to be in this f*cking movie or not?!” At this point, Clooney went to try to calm Russell down. He says he put his arm around him and asked him to consider the movie, telling him that he can’t just push and shove people who don’t have the option to retaliate because they have no power.
Instead of calming down, Russell then allegedly turned on Clooney and told him to worry about his own performance, head butted him, and grabbed him by the throat.
Clooney Has Become More Selective With His Role Choices
George Clooney, all these years later, has said that while he and Russell have agreed to stop officially feuding, he still has no interest in working with him or anyone like him. He’s 63 years old now, and he notes that, in the last ten years or so, he’s really come to consider how he spends his time.
“Time allotment is very important to me,” he stated in the interview. Clooney explained that working on a project for five months now is very different from how it was 20 years ago now that he has a wife he loves and children he adores.
Not mincing words, Clooney stated that if he’s going to take time away from them, it’s not going to be with a “miserable f*ck like David O. Russell making my life hell. Making every person on the crew’s life hell. It’s not worth it. Not at this point in my life. Just to have a good product.”
It’s Not Just George Clooney Making These Claims
George Clooney is not the only one who has butted heads with Russell. The writer and director, while clearly brilliant when it comes to making films, has had more than one screaming match with more than one A-list actor.
There’s a notorious video circulating the internet of him and Lily Tomlin going head to head on the set of I Heart Huckabees. He’s been accused of acting inappropriately with his niece. And Amy Adams has said she finds him impossible to work with.
Is The Final Product Worth The Struggle?
Still, actors like Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence seem to see what George Clooney sees and still consider Russell worth working with. It seems there is still a sense that some genius comes with madness, and that it is indeed worth riding the waves of mania to get an excellent product. And with films like Silver Linings Playbook, Joy, and American Hustle under his belt, Russell has certainly proven his genius.
Source: GQ
