The moments Stanley Kubrick lost his mind on set
Everybody should strive for as close to perfectionism as they can possibly get within their chosen profession, but Stanley Kubrick took things to the next level during a career that repeatedly pushed the cast and crew to breaking point.
Obviously, the director achieved the results he was striving for, given his status as one of cinema’s greatest-ever filmmakers and the architect behind countless classic movies, but that constant desire to have the events on-screen unfold in a way that directly mirrored the way he envisioned it caused more than a few incidents.
The most infamous are Shelley Duvall’s experiences on The Shining, which have gone down in Hollywood legend for all the wrong reasons. In order to draw a convincingly fearful performance from his lead actress, Kubrick would torment her on set to the point where not only did she become physically ill, but her hair began falling out. Not only that, but the scene in which Duvall wields a baseball bat while gripped by the fear of Jack Nicholson’s oncoming Jack Torrance required over 100 takes until the director was satisfied.
Making movies isn’t an easy business, but in theory, the practice of dealing with a door should be. And yet, two members of the Eyes Wide Shut cast notched upwards of 200 takes between them for what should have been one of the simplest setups to shoot. Sydney Pollack spent two days walking across a room and answering a door, while Tom Cruise walked through another a reported 95 times. It’s mere seconds of screentime, but Kubrick still wouldn’t move on to the next scene until he was happy with such a simple action.
There’s even the urban legend of Kubrick leaving the crew of Dr. Strangelove so terrified of failing to do his vision justice that they may or may not have stolen classified secrets, depending on the veracity of the story. Again striving for the utmost realism, the filmmaker wanted his B-52 bomber to be a close to accurate as possible, despite the Pentagon keeping the interior top secret.
When the recreation was labelled as “absolutely correct” by pilots familiar with the craft – right down to the black box being exactly where it was supposed to be – Kubrick allegedly grew concerned that somebody had managed to break into a genuine B-52 so as not to fall on the wrong side of his wrath. This came after he’d demanded the table in the war room be covered in the exact same material – colour and all – as a snooker table, despite Dr. Strangelove being black-and-white.
He would also make the mistake of underestimating the British penchant for a tea break while on the set of Full Metal Jacket, with behind-the-scenes footage capturing Kubrick’s incredulity at the assembled crew informing him that they’re taking one a mere two hours after their last cuppa. He can’t quite seem to wrap his head around the concept, and the anger is bristling all over his face as a result.
That being said, he did show a softer side – by his standards, at least – by reversing his decision to deny Matthew Modine’s request to be present for the birth of his child. Then again, that was after the actor threatened to slice his hand open to secure a guaranteed trip to the hospital, with the caveat that he returned immediately after being anointed as a father.
As they say, there’s a very fine line between genius and madness, which was one that Kubrick skirted for virtually his entire life, both on and off set.
