“The man is an absolute moron!”: the actor who hated every second of working with Mel Brooks
These days, Mel Brooks is celebrated and almost deified as one of Hollywood comedy’s most iconic and awards-laden living legends, which is a status that he absolutely deserves.
After all, not only is he an EGOT winner who conquered sketch comedy, film, television, and theatre, but he’s also responsible for several of the greatest comedy movies ever made, never mind the multiple generations of comics who’ve cited him as one of their most important and profound inspirations.
Brooks deserves to be sitting on the pedestal he’s been placed upon, but that doesn’t mean he’s always been the easiest guy to work with, or for. Even back in the 1960s, his diminishing of co-creator Buck Henry in the credits of Get Smart created a rift between the former friends that took decades to heal.
He lost his shit at Bill Pullman on the set of Spaceballs after John Candy tried to convince the director that the movie’s straight man could be funny, a sentiment that Brooks didn’t buy for a second, which can’t have been a great feeling for the relatively inexperienced actor’s brittle confidence.
The Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein creator even committed one of filmmaking’s unforgivable scenes when he ignored that he was only involved in Anne Bancroft’s directorial debut, Fatso, as a producer, calling ‘cut’ right in front of the crew, and demanding one of the camera operators be fired.
Obviously, you don’t enjoy the success that Brooks has for such an extended period of time without having a vicious streak, something Lewis J Stadlen discovered much to his detriment on his very first day on the set of 1983’s To Be or Not to Be, when he eased himself into the production by delivering a lengthy spiel.
That said, he acknowledged that he was at least partly to blame. “It wasn’t very good,” he noted. “My performance was self-conscious and over-gesticulated.” However, the film’s producer and star wasn’t quite as low-key in his criticism. “What is that idiot doing?” Brooks asked. “The man is an absolute moron!”
Even though Stadlen was standing right next to him, the barrage continued: “The man is an absolute moron!” At the third attempt, he finally performed to Brooks’ satisfaction, but it was only a small mercy. “It was an ugly moment,” he admitted. “And as soon as Mel walked away, several colleagues came over to see if I was still breathing.”
He told them he was OK, but he really wasn’t. “No one had ever bullied or embarrassed me that way,” and it was a hammer blow to his confidence. Understandably, Stadlen was “hurt and disillusioned” by what transpired, but more importantly, “I was also really pissed at Mel Brooks.” The fences must have been mended, though, seeing as he’d play Max Bialystock in a Broadway run of The Producers 20 years later.
