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P.S. One late night after considerable consumption of wine, Innaritu said, “Filmmaking can give you everything. At the same time it can take everything from you.”

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10. DOMESTIC COUNSELING The actor was so drunk he couldn’t remember his lines. The director was afraid to say something so his co-star did it, instead. He took a swing at her and she punched him out. Shooting shut down for a week while his nose healed. BTW, they were married.

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9. WISDOM A young actor had been behaving badly and was at risk of destroying a promising career. His legendary agent took him aside and offered this advice. “My boy,” he said, “it’s okay if everybody thinks you’re a star, just as long as you don’t think of yourself as one.”

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8. MAZURSKY REX For “Enemies”, the studio wanted Paul to cast a difficult star. When they met, the actor said, “I have only two questions. Must I screw three women? And does it have to be about the Holocaust?” “I have only one question,” said Mazursky. “Why the fuck would I cast you?”

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7. SANGFROID David Lean was watching preparations for the attack on Aqaba when an AD inadvertently signaled ‘action’ to thousands of camels, soldiers and explosions. Only problem, the cameras weren’t rolling. “Right,” said Lean as he climbed back into his Rolls. “See you in a week.”

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6. CONFIDENCE “Which line would you like me to cry on?” the famous actress asked the young director. “Uh… how about the second-to-last one?” she asked. “Which is better lit, my right or left?” she asked. “The right.” she admitted. And that’s exactly how she did it. All four takes.

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5. DOING NOTHING The director was afraid to tell the young actor his dailies sucked. The editor said, ‘fuck it’ and invited him into the cutting room. “I don’t care if you’re thinking about nothing,” he said. “At least move your eyes.” That actor is now a big star. The editor got nominated.

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4. COJONES By lunch on Welles’ first day of shooting the studio was furious he hadn’t gotten a shot. By 3pm they were apoplectic. Minutes before wrap they were about to fire him when he called action. The 7 minute opening shot of Touch Of Evil is genius. “Cut!” he yelled. “We’re 3 days ahead!”

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3. SABOTAGE A famous actor begged to work with the hot young writer-director. He then rewrote her script, told her where to put the camera, recut the movie and then blamed its failure on her. The director never made another feature; the actor won a lifetime achievement award.

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2. EMOTION The director wanted the actor to cry. After hearing, ‘cut,’ the actor burst into tears. When asked why, he said his character was trying NOT to cry and the tears were his, not the character’s. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, ‘the audience will cry because I didn’t.’ He was right.

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Edward Zwick @edwardzwick.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

1.THE DIRECTORS' LAMENT🧵 You stumble back to your hotel room praying for six hours of sleep. At the wrap party you learn the DP was screwing the boom man, the producer split with his wife and the crew had an intervention for the key grip. While you're in your room doing the next day’s homework.

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Rebeccas Solnit does it again. Brilliant, acutte, simple.

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Reposted by Edward Zwick

Jordan Harper @jordanharper.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Hearing “if you call white guys racist enough they’ll become racist to spite you” be voiced on a podcast I like/respect was a real bummer earlier this year

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P.S. “The saddest journey is one that follows a precise itinerary. Then you’re not a traveler, you’re a fucking tourist. Guillermo del Toro

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10. GOOD ADVICE The actor kept calling ‘cut’ during a take. The director fumed quietly until one day, during a complicated shot, the actor did it again. The director exploded. “You have lots of lines in this movie,” he boomed, “I have only two. “Action and Cut. How about you let me say them?”

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9. A SINGULARITY Cary Grant arrived at a restaurant before his guests and asked to be seated. “I’m sorry,” said the hostess, “that table is reserved for Cary Grant.” “But I AM Cary Grant,” he said. “You don’t look like Cary Grant,” she said. “No one looks like Cary Grant,” said Cary Grant.

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8. ROLES Every morning the actress would panic. The director spent hours talking her off the ledge. It’s axiomatic that an actress can show her anxiety while the director must hide hers. For her work, the actress won an Oscar; the director became addicted to Xanax.

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7. EXPERIENCE The young director was thrilled to be working with a famous star. She imagined them becoming friends. Despite working well together, he kept his distance. Finally, at the wrap party, after several drinks, she asked him why. “Too many fucking goodbyes,” he said.

6. POKING THE BEAR A new exec at WB saw the first cut of Clint’s movie and called to give him notes. Clint, who had only made movies at Warners for 30 years, said, “Great notes. Why don’t you do them and call me when you’re done? I’ll be at Paramount making my next movie.”

5. GOOD ADVICE At lunch on her first day of shooting, the ingenue was taken aside by the director who asked, “How much are you making for this movie?” Convinced she was getting fired, she whimpered “100K.” “Well, you’ve earned all of it,” he said. “Now stop acting.”

4. PANIC, PT. III The actress couldn’t find a co-star with whom she could fall in love. Actually fall in love. The director pleaded, chided and browbeat her but she skipped town and the movie was shut down. Six years later when the movie was made the actress who took her role won the Oscar.

3. PANIC, PT. II The actor arrived on location four days before shooting. After the table read he announced he wanted to quit and was willing to cover sunk costs. The producer agreeably said, “Sure. Just make out a check for 4 million dollars.” The actor made the movie. It bombed.

2. PANIC The actor hated the table read and announced he was quitting the movie. The director pleaded, chided and browbeat him for hours. In the end he did the movie, which became a huge hit. The actor and director never worked together again.

Edward Zwick @edwardzwick.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

TEN ANECDOTES, TRUE AND OTHERWISE🧵 "Hits, Flops & Other Illusions" 1.An actor insisted on having holes in his pants pockets so he could hold his genitals while acting. One day the wardrobe mistress innocently sewed them up. In the middle of a take he started cursing and left the set. She was fired.

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TOMORROW I have the pleasure of sharing the stage with Charles Yu, National Book Award author and creator of the fabulous "Interior Chinatown" (now on Hulu.) We'll talk books, tv, movies and everything in between. Tickets still available.

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P.S. More of this in "Hits, Flops, & Other Illusions --available now in paperback online or at your local bookstore.

10. IN THE DARK, PT III What if the theatrical experience, already in decline pre-Covid, continues to forfeit its place in our cultural imagination? Or, to paraphrase the adage a bit: ‘If a movie falls in the forest and only one person sees it at a time, is it still a movie?’

9. IN THE DARK, PT. II Yes, the preview process is barbaric. Making changes according to a focus group’s inanities is folly. And the studio’s belief in test scores is appalling. But learning to interpret why the butts are shifting in their seats is a necessary skill to all young directors.

8. IN THE DARK No matter how objective you think you are, it isn’t until you sit in the dark with an audience that you learn to see as they see. To deny directors that experience is to engender a generation of storytellers who, like their audience, believe movies to be a solitary pastime.

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7. KARMA The actress read for a popular TV show. She was wonderful but wrong, and didn’t get the part. Her career subsequently skyrocketed. Years later, while working with the same director on a film, she reminded him he hadn’t cast her. “And you’ve never thanked me,” he said

6. SPECIAL SKILLS During a post-screening Q&A, the very successful comedy director was asked about her relationship with the legendary DP. Did they discuss shooting styles? Storyboard? Look at paintings? “Dear God, no,” she said. “I let him handle all that stuff. I just know when it’s funny.”

5. PERKS The director needed to talk to the handsome young movie star about the day’s work and found him in the make-up trailer perusing a copy of the Victoria Secret catalogue. “What are you doing?” the director asked. “Oh,” said the lad, “…Shopping.”

4. VANITY In the finale of John Milius’ script for “Jeremiah Johnson,” Redford – then 36 – was to die at the hands of a young brave who turns out to be his son. Seeing himself old and grizzled in age make-up, Redford refused to shoot it. The movie just sort of…ends.

3. A PRODUCTION ODYSSEY, PT III Lacking even a toothbrush, the designer found a motel, made his way back to the production office and made the color choices himself. On the day of shooting the director arrived, took one look at the set, declared it wrong and drove away. In his Porsche.

2. A PRODUCTION ODYSSEY, PT II The designer caught up with the director at a private airfield. “Get on,” he said, “We’ll talk on my plane.” The designer climbed aboard. But the director had scheduled an interview during the flight. Once they landed, he jumped into a waiting limo and vanished.

From, "Hits, Flops & Other Illusions" Anecdotes, Admonitions & Apocrypha 1. A PRODUCTION ODYSSEY🧵 The director hated the van and drove his Porsche. On a scout in New Mexico he misread a map, sped on ahead, took a wrong turn and never made it back to tell the designer what colors to paint the set.

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SCREENWRITING from, "Hits, Flops, & Other llusions" 1. COUNTING PAGES Each rewrite begs another. Don’t despair, the best souffle is made beating egg whites by hand. Just when you’re ready to give up, they peak. Take it out of the oven too soon, it collapses. Food metaphors work every time.

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P.S. “First you have nothing, and then, astonishingly, after ripping out your brain and your heart, you have something.” -- T.C.Boyle

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10. LET’S GET PERSONAL, PT. III In his Nobel prize acceptance, Orhan Pamuk identified shame as the most important tool for a writer. By confronting those humiliating, even mortifying aspects of ourselves we touch what is common to all of us. Emerson said the same in his essay on “Self-Reliance.”

9. LET’S GET PERSONAL, PT. II Why write something ‘personal’ when the studios want superheroes and branded IP? Only by examining your heart will you access what is unique about you. Ask yourself, what is my own story about? What is it REALLY about? And why the fuck should anyone care?

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8. LET’S GET PERSONAL All good writing is personal. That doesn’t mean autobiographical. Whether a period piece in 14th century France or a sci-fi space opera, characters aren’t created, they pre-exist and can be found within you. Imagine yourself as a sinner or a saint and you’ll find your voice.

7. THE "LIGHTBULB JOKE" REDUX Herewith, an imagined conversation between a development executive’s response to an esteemed playwright who has just pitched his Pulitzer-winning play: “I just have two questions, Mr. Miller. Does he have to die? And does he have to be a salesman?”

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6. A HORROR STORY The show runner pitches the studio head a show about a widower raising his family with the ghost of his dead wife. “I like it,” says the studio head, “what if the man is a detective?” Thinking it’s a joke, the writer laughs. She cancels his deal the next day. True story. No names.

5. “GET ME REWRITE!” L.B. Mayer asks Fitzgerald for a scene about a troubled marriage. He writes 12 pp Mayer goes ballistic, calls in a studio hack who writes: “A husband and wife are in an elevator. The doors open, a pretty woman enters. The husband ogles her. The wife sees it. The doors close.”

4. SUPPORTING CHARACTERS The traditional American movie hero is laconic, even taciturn. Movie stars tend to stay within their comfort zone so their performances are often overwhelmed by supporting actors, whose parts are inevitably more vivid and sparkly. That’s why they tend to steal the movie.