The ‘Saving Private Ryan’ actor who told Steven Spielberg how to direct: “What? Why?”
Most actors, especially relative unknowns, would be happy just to work with Steven Spielberg in any capacity, given his status as one of the all-time greats. That said, one Saving Private Ryan cast member took it upon themselves to inform the director there was a better way to shoot a particular scene, which was a bold call that could have backfired spectacularly.
The performer in question had appeared in precisely three films before the seminal World War II epic, whereas Spielberg had already helmed the highest-grossing release in cinema history three times, made a career of pushing the medium to new heights, and collected an Academy Award for ‘Best Director’ for Schindler’s List.
With that in mind, Spielberg would have been well within his rights to tell the rookie to shove their ideas up their arse when his mastery of the craft spoke for itself. And yet, once again underlining his reputation for being an open and engaged collaborator, the veteran decided to heed the unsolicited advice.
As mentioned above, most untested thespians wouldn’t think twice about accepting an offer to be in a Spielberg picture, and very few of them would even contemplate telling him how to do his job. However, Vin Diesel isn’t like most actors and didn’t have a problem weighing in with his two cents.
In his defence, Diesel wrote, produced, and directed two of the three pictures he’d starred in before the part of Adrian Caparzo was written specifically for him to play at Spielberg’s request. Of course, the intimate and micro-budget surroundings of Multi-Facial and Strays were a million miles away from the bombastic depictions of the horrors of war, not that Diesel cared.
When his character is lying prone on the ground after being shot, a rain-soaked death scene that leaves Carpazo slowly bleeding out on the ground while his fellow soldiers are unable to do anything to help him, he had a suggestion. “Hey, Steven, where’s your C-camera?” he remembers asking Spielberg, per Men’s Health.
Confused by the line of inquiry from a guy in the middle of shooting his own demise, the director offered an incredulous, “What? Why?” in response. Diesel then suggested that he “put a C-camera in that second-floor window” to offer a wider variety of shots and capture a birds-eye view of the action, which, according to the Fast & Furious figurehead, Spielberg took on board.
Not only that, but the shot Spielberg wasn’t planning on shooting at all until Diesel chimed in was featured prominently in the trailer for Saving Private Ryan and the finished film. The chrome-domed action star insists that the filmmaker told him that it’s a crime against cinema that he hasn’t directed in three decades, and maybe that’s one of the reasons why.
