When David O. Russell made Amy Adams cry on set
Hollywood may make the movie industry look like a glitzy land of sparkly dresses, fabulous film stars and epic adventures, but the truth is that the industry is far more cruel. Feuds between editors and studios, producers and writers, and directors and actors are not uncommon, with countless duos having been through cinematic war just to get their creative vision through the door.
There are countless cases of infamous clashes on set, with Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski forming a savage relationship, Stanley Kubrick pushing Shelley Duvall to great lengths, and David O. Russell seemingly clashing with every single actor he’s come face-to-face with. Known as one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers, recognised for such modern classics as 2010’s The Fighter and 2012’s Silver Linings Playbook, Russell isn’t without his industry enemies.
Russell’s arrogant attitude clearly reared its head at the very start of his career, annoying George Clooney on the set of the 1999 film Three Kings. A considerable step-up for the director; many considered the stress of the film to explain his outburst towards the actor, with Clooney coming to the defence of the production team when the filmmaker went off on multiple rage-fueled spats.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Clooney recalled one specific event, “We were trying to get a shot, and then he went berserk. He went nuts on an extra…Will I work with David ever again? Absolutely not. Never. Do I think he’s tremendously talented, and do I think he should be nominated for Oscars? Yeah”.
Clooney wasn’t the only one who had a problem with the director either, after the release of the comedy I Heart Huckabees in 2004, actor Lily Tomlin revealed the arguments she shared with Russell on the set of the movie. Once again, Tomlin described the filmmaker’s erratic temper and rage, with Russell quickly developing a bad reputation in the industry.
This, once again, reared its head upon the release of American Hustle in 2013, when the director seemed to irritate everyone in the cast of the movie, which follows con artists living in 1970s America. Following the Sony hacks of 2014, this information was publicly released, with it being revealed that Russell physically manhandled actors and was so abusive to Amy Adams that her co-star Christian Bale had to step in.
Speaking in an interview with GQ, Adams stated that the director made her cry multiple times on the set of American Hustle, recalling: “He was hard on me, that’s for sure. It was a lot…I was really just devastated on set…I mean, not every day, but most”.
When asked if she would be keen to collaborate with Rusell again, she admits: “Not in the near future, no. I’ll never say never, but with my daughter being where she’s at, unless the role is less damaged and there’s a way to mitigate the insanity, then probably not. I just want to be a good mom, you know?”.
Who else will join George Clooney and Amy Adams on the list of actors who would never work with David O. Russell again?
