It appears James Caan had enough of the on set antics during the production of Nailed and has bailed on the project! We get word of this walk-off thanks to our good friends over at cinematical:
We are all well aware that David O. Russell doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to working with actors. We’ve heard the stories about near fist-fights on the set of Three Kings, and everyone has seen the meltdown during I Heart Huckabees. The latest casualty of Russell’s people skills is celebrated actor James Caan, who has officially quit Russell’s political comedy, Nailed.
What caused the irreconcilable rift, you might ask? It was all over a cookie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the final straw for Caan was during a scene in which his character is supposed to be choking on a cookie. Russell instructed Caan to cough and choke at the same time during the scene, which Caan thought was impossible for a human being to do both. The two couldn’t come to an agreement and Caan left the set never to return. The film’s producer got to work on the damage control and was quoted as saying the disagreement was “part of an ongoing creative conversation between the actor and director”, and that Russell had been nothing but professional throughout the shoot.
It’s always big news when someone walks off of production, but James Caan is certainly a surprise. This isn’t a young up and coming hothead with delusions of godhood – this is a seasoned, decorated veteran that has thrown in the towel and said “fuck you” in a big way.
David O. Russell has been rumored to be a douche with his co-workers, and it looks like his chicken shit bitch tactics finally ran into the wall of man that is James fuckin’ Caan. I can appreciate someone wanting to get their vision on screen but manners, professionalism and dialogue are the tools you use in order to achieve that. Insults, yelling and disrespect will get you the disdain of cast and crew and on occasion – you will meet a person who doesn’t need the work, and will not take your shit. James Caan is such a man; he called the bluff and now everyone involved on this project has to play damage control. This guy was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in The Godfather and you are going to disrespect him? Bad fucking idea.
According to cinematical, this film still has a release date of 2009, we will be sure to keep you up to speed on the progress.
I agree with Mozzerino. After spending 3 days as a mother and extra, I was disappointed at the handling of everything except the crew was extremely pleasant. I would definitely pay to see the doc. I can’t say too much about it cause I don’t have that much experience, but I will find out about the director before I do this again.
I think David O. Russel’s next movie should just be a documentary, following him around on a film set constantly hassling everybody.
I’d pay to see that. It would certainly be more entertaining than any of his “real” movies. The guy is obviously a lunatic, you should read the stories George Clooney tells about filming THREE KINGS. I wouldn’t put up with this shit as well.
I don’t get why he does get work anyway. It’s not like any of his films were big hits and HUCKABEES was an unwatchable mess.
Caan should have stuffed the cookie down that douche’s throat.
O’Russell is an asshole and a lousy director
ZING!
The diplomatic thing would have been for David to eat a cookie and cough and choke on it at the same time, thus proving that it’s not impossible (if indeed it isn’t). But i guess that’s not the O. Russell way.
Today’s lesson is don’t incur the wrath of Caan.
Thank you, thank you, i’m here all night :)