Lily Tomlin and David O. Russell in a bitch fight videos

Cafe Society
1

I love David O. Russell’s movies. Well, of the ones I’ve seen anyway. I loved the gentle, amusing, quirky and confounding I Heart Huckabees and loved even more his brilliant Gulf War dramedy Three Kings, one of the best movies in a year (1999) that was filled with great movies.

The man does seem hard to work with though. According to this article he got into a physical fight with George Clooney on the set of Three Kings and Clooney is such a laid-back, easy-going guy that it must take a lot to piss him off. That article also claims that Clooney is responsible for spreading around these videos, which are NOT SAFE FOR WORK.

The videos show Lily Tomlin losing her cool on the set of I Heart Huckabees and going into an F-word tirade. In the first one, she’s sitting at her character’s office desk and something sets her off. You can hear Russell yelling back at her, and then he goes on a rampage, sweeping things off the desk and storming in and out. The poor set workers scatter.

The second video is while filming a car scene, and Tomlin again goes ballistic. Visible are Tomlin, an uncomfortable-looking Dustin Hoffman and a bemused Isabelle Huppert in the drivers seat. In the back seat, though not visible, are Mark Wahlberg, Jason Schwartzman and Naomi Watts. If you listen carefully, at one point Naomi Watts snorts laughter as if she’s been trying to hold it in, and Tomlin lashes out at her too.

It’s all so bizarre, and, to me, fascinating in an admittedly voyouristic way, since we hardly ever get to see behind-the-scenes conflicts. We hear about it, how so and so didn’t get along, but rarely see it. It’s just one of those ‘I’ve never seen anything like it’ curiousities.

So Russell’s an asshole, but whatever he does that the actors don’t like, he gets good performances out of them and, IMO, puts out an excellent finished product. Lots of really talented people are assholes but they get the job done. More shocking is Lily Tomlin. Mouth like a sailor! And poor Naomi.

Word is that the two made up and are now friends.

Again, NOT SAFE FOR WORK unless you have a good, non-leaking pair of headphones on.

2

Russell has never got a good performance out of an actor who doesn’t typically give good performances anyway, so I’m not sure I’d necessarily suggest that was his strength. I love Flirting with Disaster and 3 Kings, but Huckabee’s was an incoherent mess through-&-through, and what was typically his strongest suit (his facility with tone and excellent writing) proved very questionable in that film. I generally like his movies, but anyone who can get a reaction like that out of Tomlin (who has a reputation of being most agreeable and collaborative onset) must be a real dick.

Huppert was hilarious, though (very French!) and I’ll bet you anything Russell never yelled at Wahlberg like that because he knew he’d get his ass handed to him in a heartbeat. Russell just comes across as a bully (further reinforcing the famous 3 Kings story that Clooney had to physically intervene when Russell was bullying and shoving around an extra) and he’s the only one that’s hurt by these videos.

3

I don’t think Lilly Tomlin came off nearly as bad as David O. Russell did.

I love this bit from the article.

"At a Hollywood party, Mr. Russell, a lean, muscular 46-year-old with dark, lanky hair, runs into Mr. Nolan and — in full view of the party guests — puts him in a headlock. Wrapping his arm around Mr. Nolan’s neck, Mr. Russell demands that his fellow director show artistic solidarity and give up his star in order to save ”Huckabees.”

4

I agree that Russell looks very bad and bullyish.

I liked Huckabees more than you did it seems, but I can’t argue that it’s kindofa mess. That’s partially why I like it though. I do think Three Kings is much better.

Russell and Wahlberg supposedly stayed on very good terms, but you’re absolutely right. The last person someone would want to dick with is Mark Wahlberg, so that’s probably why they stayed on good terms.

You’re right, Huppert is hilarious, looking straight at the camera and smiling, and checking herself out in the rear view mirror. Someone on Oscarwatch said that it was a broiling hot day, and they’d been in that car for hours. Tomlin supposedly had a crying jag earlier, then finally snapped.

Russell’s next movie, The H-Man Cometh, is a comedy starring Vince Vaughn (according to IMDB). I’ll bet he doesn’t yell at Vaughn that way either. Vaughn seems like an amiable easy-going guy too, but after seeing him as a serial killer in Clay Pigeons he can be very scary and intimidating.

5

Amen. And frankly, I think she described pretty well what the problem was. He was yanking them all around without making it clear what he wanted from them. I’ve never seen an actor who didn’t hate that in a director. It’s the same from the rest of us when we turn in a project to our boss, and he says to do it over again, but this time do it such-and-such a way. I mean, I know directors often do multiple takes, but it should never be simply because he has so confused the actors that they don’t know what to do.

6

Man, I so totally agree. I’m the only one at the vidstore I work at who did not like this movie, and yes I like Russell in general. But I<3H was just faux Kaufman, and a silly, amateurish mess. (Sorry, Eq.) Russell is a good enough writer that I was embarrassed for him trying to poach on Kaufman’s territory and making a fool of himself in the process. Too bad to hear that he can also be a jerk. Oh well. I’d still do him.

7

My favorite part was when Russel, at the end of his rant, declared that Lily Tomlin needed to be an adult. This from the guy who threw stuff and called her names I won’t mention here and basically acted like a spoiled child himself.

8

Hell, Vince Vaughn is a real-life badass. He and Steve Buscemi ended up in a barfight once (together against drunken local yokels), and Buscemi even got stabbed a few times (not by Vaughn, of course).

I enjoyed Three Kings, but mostly for the actors. I think that’s the only Russell movie I’ve see. I’m boycotting Huckabee’s because I’ve heard very negative reviews and it was co-written by this complete fuckwit I went to high school with.

9

Anyone else see Spanking the Monkey? That was Russell’s first feature, and not a bad showing, though it had a feeling of “this is my first movie and I need to do something shocking.”

Liked Flirting with Disaster, loved Three Kings, was mostly indifferent to Huckabees. I saw the latter not long after I got up and walked out in the middle of What the #$*! Do We (K)now!?, though, so I was in no mood for half-baked metaphysical crap.

Marky Mark was funny, anyway.