The forgotten thriller that ended in a stalking charge and a “jihad of terror”
Sean Young had all of the talent and potential in the world to be a major star, but after the actor constantly found herself in the headlines for the wrong reasons, her mainstream career had effectively ended before it had a chance to even begin in earnest.
Playing Rachael in Ridley Scott’s seminal Blade Runner was a doozy as far as breakthrough roles go, but Young never managed to recapture that momentum again. She was initially cast as Vicki Vale in Tim Burton’s Batman but was forced to drop out after breaking her arm, claimed she was fired from Dick Tracy for spurning the advances of Warren Beatty, and then terrified Burton when she showed up unannounced and in full costume to lobby for the part of Catwoman in Batman Returns.
None of those incidents have a thing on The Boost, though, which starred Young and James Woods as a married couple. After he loses his job and begins falling deeper and deeper into debt, the suburban spouses’ recreational cocaine use takes a turn for the more addictive. It was far from a success, and nobody would remember the film at all if it wasn’t for what happened afterwards.
Rumours emerged that the two leads were having an affair, and while that was never confirmed in an official capacity, what can’t be argued is that Woods slapped Young with a $2million lawsuit accusing her of stalking him after the shooting had wrapped. The actor’s then-fiancée Sarah Owen alleged that Young had also left a headless baby doll on their doorstep, too, which was roundly denied.
The issue was settled out of court, and Young was awarded $227,000 to cover her legal costs, but Woods referred to the emotional turmoil inflicted upon himself and his soon-to-be wife as a “jihad of terror”. That’s a hyperbolic way of putting things in one respect, especially when the defending party always maintained that there was no affair, no harassment, and no stalking.
Still, Young referred to the situation as one that “boils down to two people plotting to set me up and make me look like I was a crazy person, partially because of their own mental illness, partially because of revenge” in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. That drew a response from Woods, who, having married and subsequently divorced Owen by that time, admitted “she’s actually half right”. He doesn’t clarify which half, but it’s a bizarre addendum to an altogether strange situation.
That doesn’t even mention the scuttlebutt – which was denied in a recurring theme of the battle between them – that Young superglued Woods’ penis to his leg in an act of retaliation, with the former maintaining the entire lawsuit was instigated by the latter trying to instigate a romantic relationship between them that was rebuffed.
It’s a strange footnote in cinema history, but the aftermath and tabloid frenzies caused by the courtroom battles dealt a huge blow to Young’s standing in Hollywood, even if it wasn’t the last time her off-camera behaviour would prove detrimental to her career.
