The reason Sydney Pollack thought Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ was “unbearable”
In the glittering realms of Hollywood, a few names shine brighter than others, and Sydney Pollack was certainly a figure who took the centre of the American film industry by storm. Admired as an actor, producer and filmmaker, it was Pollack’s directing work that drew the most acclaim throughout his career.
The likes of Pollack’s movies Out of Africa, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They and Tootsie were all recognised at the Academy Awards, while his efforts with Jeremiah Johnson, The Way We Were and The Firm drew critical acclaim and afforded Pollack a reputation as one of the most talented filmmaker of his generation.
While his work as a director was what Pollack became best known for, the fact remained that he had occasionally tried his hand at acting, particularly in the films of some of his contemporary directors. For instance, he starred in Robert Altman’s The Player, Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives and Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, all of which were released in the 1990s.
Concerning the latter film, Pollack took on the role of Victor Ziegler in Kurbick’s final movie, a wealthy New Yorker involved with a secret orgiastic society in which Tom Cruise’s Dr Bill Harford becomes involved. Pollack was glad to perform for his friend Kubrick, and he once spoke of his impression of the director in a feature with the BFI.
“The only real perfectionist I ever met in my life was Kubrick, where there was no limit, literally no limit to the lengths he went until he was satisfied,” Pollack noted, referring to Kubrick’s notorious quality of driving his actors to give countless takes until he felt he had captured the perfect one. “With no sense of anything other than the ability to continue until he’d got what he wanted.”
According to Pollack, Kubrick was often asked by his producers how long he thought the shoot would take, well after it had first begun to run over, and the director would always reply, “It’ll take as long as it’ll take.” Pollack noted, “And he believed that, and he didn’t budge. He was literally intransigent. You couldn’t budge him.”
Of course, Pollack then had to contend with playing by Kubrick’s rule on Eyes Wide Shut, and he quickly found the production difficult to stomach. “Now I personally found it unbearable,” he said. “I couldn’t stand it. I mean, I wanted to escape. I wanted to run away. On take 80 or 90, I was going crazy.”
Still, Kubrick’s methods left Pollack feeling “fascinating” in the way he “just kept going”. Looking on at the other actors suffering as their take numbers approached triple digits, Pollack was grateful that Kubrick did not force him to take part in any more takes than he thought were reasonable, noting, “He didn’t do it on my angles because he knew better. I couldn’t do any more. I’m not a professional actor.”
However, the likes of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were made to perform take after take after take, something that Pollack personally found hellish to look upon. “This would go on for weeks — weeks!” he said. “I mean, you thought you were in a nightmare. You thought you’d taken some kind of drug. I’m hallucinating that I’m making a movie with Stanley Kubrick.”
Sure enough, Kubrick set about grinding his actors into the ground even though his contemporary director Pollack was looking on, and even though Kubrick did not make Pollack do anything he was uncomfortable with, it still left a bitter taste in his mouth. Still, Pollack couldn’t help but admire Kubrick as an artist and spoke glowingly of his prowess as a director and also his personal qualities.
“He was a genius,” Pollack explained. “He was a brilliant, brilliant man to talk with. He was the most generous guy in the world. He loved to get on the telephone and talk about your problems. He was a great guy. Really interesting man”.
