the guy above got it totally right…cruise put his fucking cash cow MI franchise on hold to finish the film…..

i completely disagree with you that actors should just show up and do what the director says and just stand there getting yelled at….that is absolutley ridculous…..

As for Kubrick being shy and timid, that’s hilarious. One thing that everyone who ever worked with and knew Kubrick agree upon is his absolute control and mastery over every single aspect of his films and that he would never settle for less than what he wanted. One of the anecodtes from the documentary is about Kubrick’s reaction to the director of photography on The Killing who wouldn’t do as he was told. Kubrick said “Put the camera back where I told you with the lens that I asked for or get off the set and don’t come back.”

The idea that Cruise and Kidman could “have their way” with Kubrick is ridiculous. Kubrick fired Harvey Keitel and Jennifer Jason Leigh (they were replaced by Sydney Pollack and Marie Richardson) and Cruise had to delay Mission Impossible 2 because of the lengthy shoot. If Cruise had control over EWS, do you REALLY think he would have allowed that scene of him being taunted in the street by the college kids who call him a “fag”?! I’m amazed he was happy to do that scene, given all the gossip and lawsuits he’s gone through.

Why has Ermey waited 7 years to reveal this? I’m not disputing that Kubrick might have had the typical last minute anxieties of any artist who’s been working on something for a long time. But I’d take his version of the conversation with a pinch of salt. In the same interview, Ermey says everything is going great in Iraq and calls all liberals communists! I’m surprised he doesn’t think that of Kubrick for having made Dr. Strangelove.

Believe it or not…
I completely agree with everything you said.

…what’s this?
…a letter from hell with a snowball in it?
…what’s this all about?

YOU HAVEN’T SEEN ANY KUBRICK FILMS!!!!?

You’re right! That’s sick. Rent these now…NOW DAMMIT!:

A Clockwork Orange
The Shining
Spartacus
Dr. Strangelove
Barry Lyndon

That’s a good start. TAKE TWO OF THESE AND CALL ME IN THE MORNING!!

~Drewbacca
MoviePatron.com

If Kubrick directed actors that way, who the fuck cares? It’s well documented the Kubrick didn’t like working with actors, but if he needed to scream at them or do 70 takes of one shot to get what he wanted, let him. Actors should have NO say, unless the director wants to take their advise. Kubrick didn’t want to, and most of his films are some of the best ever made.

but a decent actor should be able to have an opinion and try things the director may not have thought of….

A prime example is johnny depp in pirates…..the character was not written to behave the way depp played it..in fact in the script the character was much more of a straight played character..he was a “rogue” but the way depp played it was not thought up by verbanski or the script…..that was entirely his creation and lets face it..he made the movie what it is…if it had been played straight ..if he had played it how it was originally envisioned I doubt the film would have been as big as it was and it probably would have been boring…

sparrows mannerisms were entirely depps creation

I don’t think actors should take over all the time but to say actors should just shut up and act is ridiculous and if you feel that way then stick to documentary film making…

obviously there has to be a line…if an actor is playing say i dunno hitler and decides that he shouldn’t have a moustache and wants to play it with a russian accent then the director should step in and stop it but actors bring a hell of a lot more to the table than just showing up and reading lines exactly as a director says he/she should…

Kubrick made cruise do close to 70 takes of a simple scene of crossing the road in that film….it took a year too make….go read about kubrick style of directing….it was genrally torturous…he made scatman crothers cry on the set of the shining….he took 5 days to shoot a 30 second scene in full metal jacket because the moon was only reflecting through a window for a short amount of time at night and he wanted it perfect…he didn’t want the lighting guys to recreate the same look he wanted the actual moonlight….the guy was hardly the easiest director to work with……

Don’t know about the story, but it makes a very good point; actors are there to ACT! Without directors, actors are shit… almost.

Bless his soul, Kubrick was very good. I wish there was a studio back then with the balls to make Napolean. Hell, after hearing that Jack Nicholson was cast as the main guy, it makes me even wonder “what if”?

On a side note, “Eyes Wide Shut” wasn’t as brilliant as Kubrik’s other work but I still enjoyed it. I actually liked it quite a lot and still think it’s the ONLY film that Cruise and Kidman did together in which they BOTH gave us some excellent acting.