Ben Kingsley, an “awful” director, and the ceremonial burning of his own script
If Ben Kingsley had just been in Gandhi, then that would have been his legacy secured, but instead, he’s been a part of more than a handful of the most memorable and important movies ever made.
From a Jewish bookkeeper in Schindler’s List to a foul-mouthed psychotic gangster in Sexy Beast, the ever-reliable knight of the realm has been at the top of his game for so long, it’s hard to remember a time before him. Unfortunately, nobody gets it right 100% of the time.
According to IMDB, Kingsley has acted in 163 different films, so there’s going to be more than a few stinkers in a batch that big. His recent turn in The Thursday Murder Club was nothing special, then there’s his regretful appearance as Guru Tugginmapuddha (yes, that’s really what his character was called) in The Love Guru. Just be grateful that it didn’t kill his career in the same way it did Mike Myers’.
In an interview with Collider, the Oscar-winning star was asked to name his worst role of all time, and while he didn’t directly answer the question, he did speak about an experience he had that was so traumatic, he was forced to take drastic action.
“I actually burned the script,” he confessed, “I had a ceremonial burning of the script. The director was such an awful person who was so discourteous to the cast and so amateurish. It was a colossal waste of good energy and time. All actors want to do is please and get it right, and it was so difficult.”
I would love nothing more than to dedicate this next paragraph to slagging off the movie in question, but unfortunately, Kingsley is far too honourable to name and shame, and when asked if he’d reveal the name of the film, the icon simply shook his head.
The interview was conducted in 2014, so it rules out some of his more recent work, but as I said early, that still leaves well over 100 films that it could be. It’s not even a case of narrowing it down to Kingsley’s worst outings, either, as his problem seems to be with the director rather than the finished product. To make matters even worse, he doesn’t even specify that he’s talking about a movie, so this could have been a TV show, a play, or even an advert, for all we know.
In the name of journalistic integrity, I have made some effort to try and track this mystery movie down: Kingsley was part of Roman Polanski’s version of Oliver Twist, so there’s every chance he’s referring to the infamous exile, or he could even be referring to Iron Man 3. He’s spoken about how much he loved playing a version of The Mandarin, but perhaps he was unhappy with how the film came together.
However, if I had to put money on it, I would wager that he’s talking about BloodRayne, released in 2005, the adaptation of the popular video game, directed by Uwe Boll, who was widely regarded as one of the worst filmmakers who ever lived, and also a prickly customer, to say the least. This is pure speculation on my part, so please don’t take it too seriously, for the last thing I want is Herr Boll to challenge me to a boxing match.
