A clinical sociopath…?
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equinoxxx — 13 years ago(August 12, 2012 10:19 PM)
The same could be said of John Ford. It's not clear to me that they were incapable of feeling remorse, but at the very least they were flaming narcissists. For a time, one of Preminger's favorite on-set lines was "Im the man with no hair who shoves around the people with hair." That just tickled him no end.
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jsrrtzjr10 — 12 years ago(November 04, 2013 10:35 AM)
What can you expect from a Germanic guy [he was really born in Austria]. I have met Germans and most tend to be rather serious, cold, arrogant, tyrannical and abusive in cases. Of course you got your more tame ones, too. Honestly, the moment I meet Germans I tend to keep a distance from them most of the time.
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ecarle — 10 years ago(October 18, 2015 08:13 AM)
Some Hollywood insider somewhere made the point that most ALL major directors were sociopaths. And sadists.
Otto Preminger tended to bully everybody below star level on his movies. He would leave James Stewart and John Wayne alone, but destroy Tom Tryon and Faye Dunaway.
Alfred Hitchcock DID choose one actor per movie to belittle, ignore or torment. Edith Evanson (the maid) on Rope. John Gavin on Psycho. And some poor extra on Torn Curtain, whom Hitchcock made jump off a bus for take after take after take.
Joshua Logan evidently chose actors to belittle as well. He told one young unknown actor after a scene that he was awful and should quit the business and do something else. The actor was Jack Nicholson.
John Ford was unforgivingly cruel to many of his actors.
On The Exorcist, William Friedkin had star Ellen Burstyn tied with a hidden harness to be pulled back suddenly as if flying across the room. When Burstyn complained about how the pulling of the harness by rope hurt her back and begged not to have to do it again or so hard..Friedkin ignored her wishes and had it done again. Her back was broken.
And it has been suggested in many a book on many a director that the "perfectionism" of some - take after take after take after take being required of their actors is really just another from of sadism and control.
I'm not sure we have quite so many sociopathic directors todaypowerful stars tend to run their movies and bully their directors. -
suicidea — 10 years ago(April 05, 2016 04:18 PM)
They committed suicide AFTER working with him? Obviously you have read too many bad things about Preminger and they got to you.
If they did commit suicide
because of
working with him, as you imply, Preminger wouldn't just be a "hated director." He'd have gone to prison.
Nobody commits suicide because their director / boss shouts at him. They have problems, deep problems that people around them either can't notice, or can't help, or don't care.
Otto Preminger was mean to some people, polite to others. Simple as that. I can say that for pretty much half the people I know. But people like to build up every story to ridiculous degrees. Yes, there are a lot of actors with bad memories with him. But just do a little research and you'll find similar stories (although probably not that many) for almost every director / movie maker, even the ones with the nicest images. Does that make them sociopaths as well?
Some person even goes so far as to suggest that he's a pedophile because "he looks like one." No sarcastic reply can be as funny as this comment itself.
Never be complete.