Alleged Heston-Loren Personality Clash
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roman8 — 17 years ago(July 16, 2008 10:57 AM)
Only thing I ever heard about it is that she was very much a star when not filming while they were working on El Cid. But he always insisted that - other than that - she was an absolute pro and dead-on in her work.
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DarthBill — 17 years ago(December 14, 2008 09:06 PM)
I heard somewhere that Heston found Sophia to be a little too vain (such as when she refused to be "aged"), which annoyed him, and Sophia in turn found Heston aloof & distant, which annoyed her. I still don't have all the details, so don't quote me on that.
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telemoondo — 16 years ago(March 07, 2010 09:29 AM)
On the DVD extras, Heston confirmed the aging thinghe aged through the course of El Cid, but she didn't. In his interview years later, he acknowledged that she was probably right considering she (Loren) looks practically the same today as she did 40 years ago.
Some of the other insiders said it was mainly about salary, though, which another poster suggested.
Another specific example mentioned was when the sound director asked that Loren's costume be changed at the last minute making her late to the set, and Heston grew furious waiting around while everyone catered to Loren. -
mitchflorida — 15 years ago(January 06, 2011 10:09 PM)
According to a feature on the El Cid DVD, Heston complained that Sophia Loren ate too much garlic . . and he refused to look at her during most of the love scenes . . he just looked straight ahead.
Loren made $1 million for the role, which was more than Heston was paid . . and Heston resented that as well. -
ChuckHestonFan — 15 years ago(January 31, 2011 08:37 AM)
According to someone else, it was purely speculation that it was the money that bothered him. I also believe the only time the person referred to him not looking her in the eyes is in their last scene together.
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mitchflorida — 15 years ago(March 02, 2011 04:11 PM)
Sophia Loren skipped out early in the filming because of other commitments, and they weren't able to do various "mop-up" scenes as a result. Also, she wasn't there to help Heston on his various solo close-up scenes .. she was long gone by that time.
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ameckst1 — 14 years ago(January 10, 2012 07:47 PM)
According to Norma Barzman, who worked as a script-doctor on the film, Heston was repelled because Sophia had garlic-breath. Their first scene together was the death-scene, and he kept turning his head away. That's why their eyes don't meet in that scene.
Norma didn't intend this as a put-down of Sophia whom she loved, nor of Heston either. And she denies that Sophia was stuck-up: she says Sophia used to cook spaghetti for Norma and her husband at breaks during the filming (they were blacklisted exiles from Hollywood, and no doubt their politics were more agreeable to Sophia than were Chuck's). -
rye-bread — 15 years ago(March 11, 2011 06:01 AM)
I saw the same entry. So I googled.
I found an article. In interviews with Charlton Heston, the subject was noses by Barbara Cloud at the post-dash-gazette-dot-com website, dated Sunday, February 16, 2003
In it was this quote.
And when I asked what it was like working with Sophia Loren, he smiled and said respectfully, "Well, I will tell you one thing. She's a double helping of woman."
It could still be true about their bad vibes. But he's a class act. And the Youtube entry to the "Empire" movie alludes to how ineven th script was. And how it sort of deep-sixed Stephen Boyd's career. In addition, he and Heston were also great friends. -
jhvaughan2 — 14 years ago(June 26, 2011 05:37 PM)
Just re-watched the extra on the dvd. According to it there were 3 reasons they did not get along.
- SL - Showed up early wanting to get started, CH showed up later. This made here mad. Once when she had to go back to wardrobe because her costume made too much noise, he came in ready (after she was gone) and got mad that she had not shown up yet. This made her mad that he would accuse her of that
- SL - Was getting 1M to make the movie, CH was getting less (did not say how much)
The Garlic thing was what the director thought why CH would not look at her. When he asked her to cut back, she said she had done so from the start.
Much as I love CH, I'm guessing most of it was on his part.
CH states in this "extra" that later in live he realized that he did not treat his leading ladies as well as he should have. He did not realize that they had "needs" that were different than Actors'
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turtletommy — 14 years ago(June 27, 2011 03:58 PM)
I keep hearing about this $1 million salary for Loren but I believe she was paid far less than that, like in the $200,000 (?) range. Liz Taylor in Cleopatra was I believe the first actress to get $1 million or more for a movie.
I don't think Heston for whatever reason had good chemistry with his leading ladies- I can't give a reason other than to me compared to many other leading men he didn't seem that natural with or comfortable opposite women. Supposedly the lively and opinionated Ava Gardner thought he was as stiff as a board. Doesn't mean he was a bad person. -
ChuckHestonFan — 14 years ago(July 30, 2011 05:46 PM)
jhvaughan2: I think you got that backwards, I believe Heston was the one who showed up early/on time and wanted to get things started.
As far as Ava Gardner is concerned, she was awful to the cast & crew on 55 Days at Peking, Heston had a lot to do with the production of that movie because of her behaviour. I'm surprised they worked again on Earthquake. I wouldn't trust her judgment of other actors.
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Ken K. — 12 years ago(February 15, 2014 01:16 PM)
Could the two of them have been psychologically manipulated, as directors are famous for doing, into hating each other? This is always done to improve the actors' performances. The characters do spend more than half the movie hating each other and it comes across very well. Maybe they did too good of a job and they couldn't stop it. LOL The salary thing doesn't make sense since Sophia was not paid $1 million for this. The first actress to be paid $1 million for a movie was Elizabeth Taylor for "Cleopatra." And Charlton Heston has said that this was the movie that made him a millionaire. Garlic breath? Nobody ever heard of a breath mint? LOL The "lack of aging" decision was made by the producer. In Heston's autobiography "In The Arena," he mentions Sophia's professionalism. One way actors work with each other is by standing out of camera range during another actor's performance so that they can work off of them. Sophia had only one day scheduled left and she was going to be standing off to the side. The night before, she fell down stairs and broke her arm. But she was there the next day in a cast to help him with his lines. Looking back, he said that no one was more perfect for that role than Sophia.
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Rueiro — 12 years ago(March 29, 2014 02:31 AM)
While making "El Cid" Heston developed a instantaneous and profound disliking for Loren because on one occasion she kept him waiting for ages before shooting one particular scene.The reason was that there was some problem with her elaborate costume and she had to change it, which took ages. When she finally was ready for the scene, he chastised her before the entire crew, a humiliation she never forgave him for.
