Francis Ford Coppola names the cardinal sin of directing: “It’s a devastating decision”
Despite being heralded as the godfather of the New Hollywood movement, Francis Ford Coppola has committed a colossal number of creative blunders over the years, from the disastrous production of Apocalypse Now to the mismanagement of his production company American Zoetrope. But regardless of the endless mishaps that would have ended anyone else’s career, he became known as the risk-taker and maverick of the film industry, stretching the limits of both cast and crew to complete his outlandish visions, somehow succeeding at the expense of everyone else and creating cult classics such as The Godfather, The Conversation and Rumble Fish.
However, after the recent flop of Megalopolis, his lifelong passion project that spluttered into existence and only made a dent in our world through the laughable dialogue and egregious special effects, the director somehow didn’t list this film as the ultimate cardinal sin of directing, instead describing something else.
The process of filmmaking is littered with constant challenges and obstacles, from the tumultuous writing process in which you scrape ideas out of your head only to realise you hate every single one of them, to the increasingly painful process of finding funding and the final stress of actually shooting the damn thing. Not many directors escape completely unscathed from this experience, ranging from the mild end of creative turmoil that manifests in anxious thoughts and nightmares to the emotional upheaval caused by a catastrophic project, leading to divorce, mental breakdowns and sometimes, a complete departure from the industry as a whole.
But for Coppola, there is one specific aspect from the whole period of production that he finds most scarring, describing the uncomfortable experience of having to fire an actor who isn’t quite right for the project.
When describing this, Coppola said, “The worst thing a movie director ever does is when he feels he has to fire an actor. It’s a devastating decision. And it’s not one made lightly. I felt that because the character was basically an observer, there was going to be a lot of material just of his face looking and then something really interesting that he was looking at. Harvey Keitel is a wonderful actor, but he is very active, whereas this character had to have a kind of attractive face, and then he’s looking at something very interesting, and you put together what he’s feeling.”
Harvey Keitel was one of the most infamous household names to be fired from a Coppola production, with the actor being replaced by Martin Sheen while filming Apocalypse Now. This is arguably the least chaotic story from the film’s production, with countless anecdotes that have become Hollywood myths about the strength of creative resilience and unwavering vision.
However, Al Pacino claims that he was also nearly fired from The Godfather a week into filming, with the director telling Pacino that his performance wasn’t “cutting it” and had concerns about his ability to play the part. Maybe Coppola’s instinct is questionable at best, but regardless of these many controversies, he remains one of the most influential and notorious directors of all time.
