Vincent Gallo’s twisted attempt to exploit Winona Ryder: “I knew she was going to jail”
Hollywood isn’t short of a few controversial figures, and Vincent Gallo is perhaps one of the most notorious. He’s a fascinating figure who seems to revel in contradictions, having starred in many great and subversive arthouse movies while also holding staunchly conservative and offensive views.
It’s a shame Gallo has tarnished his own reputation with constant scandals because his debut feature, Buffalo 66, which he both directed and starred in, is a beloved indie film that demonstrates real cinematic genius. It seems that some people just can’t abstain from controversy.
While Gallo is an undeniably talented man, having spent many years playing in bands, including Gray, which featured Jean-Michel Basquiat, painting, and even motorcycling racing, he is now best known for his infamous reputation. From his feud with Roger Ebert to his horrible treatment of Christina Ricci on the set of Buffalo 66, Gallo isn’t exactly well-respected, and his supposedly satirical website (which features sexist, racist, anti-Semitic, and fatphobic language) hasn’t helped his case, either.
One of the most infamous moments of his career came when his second directorial effort, The Brown Bunny, debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003. Gallo starred as a man who travels across America on his motorcycle as he tries, with difficulty, to forget his former lover. During his travels, he meets various women, but none of them can compare to Daisy, and he often impulsively abandons them.
Viewers were shocked, however, when Chloë Sevigny, as Daisy, performed oral sex on Gallo near the end of the film. With such a daring scene, Gallo wasn’t exactly going to earn widespread commercial success, but he came up with an idea to ensure that the movie received publicity, seemingly forgetting that an unsimulated sex scene was enough to guarantee people talking about it. His plan was to cast Winona Ryder in a small role, who was in the midst of a shoplifting scandal at the time.
“I knew she was going to jail, and this would have been good for the movie… I would never cast Winona Ryder in a significant role,” Gallo told the press at a Cannes conference.
Ryder’s career was left in a rather precarious position after she was arrested for stealing, and Gallo, being typically selfish, saw this as an opportunity for his film. “She flew in having not called her agent, which was great, but then she ball-busted me over her wardrobe and her make-up. At 9am, when we were supposed to shoot, she had a mask on and earplugs in. She had, let’s say, taken some tablets that seemed to have an impact on her behaviour … So I fired her,” he continued.
Clearly, his plan to exploit her backfired. The Brown Bunny didn’t need Ryder to give it publicity, though, and the genuine blowjob, paired with the negative reaction from many critics who found the film self-indulgent, seemed to do the trick. What’s more, Gallo became even more notorious when he responded to Ebert’s criticisms.
In an article written in response to Gallo, Ebert said, “He called me a ‘fat pig’ in the New York Post and told the New York Observer I have ‘the physique of a slave trader’. He is angry at me because I said his The Brown Bunny was the worst movie in the history of the Cannes Film Festival.”
