8 Directors Who Admitted They Pushed Their Stars Too Far
3. Spike Lee
Spike Lee's 1986 directorial debut may have earned him rave reviews and kick-started an incredibly fruitful filmmaking career, but it also features his one apparent regret as a filmmaker: putting actress Tracy Camilla Johns through a grueling rape scene.
Lee said, "If I was able to have any do-overs, that would be it. It was just totally…stupid. I was immature. It made light of rape, and that's the one thing I would take back. I was immature and I hate that I did not view rape as the vile act that it is."
Watching the film today, the rape scene has a queasy tenor of victim-blaming to it, and though Johns thoroughly committed herself to it regardless of its uneasy content, Lee himself fully admits he crossed the line with conceiving and shooting the scene.