10 Directors Who Broke Their Stars To Make Famous Movies

3. Werner Herzog Exhausted Klaus Kinski For Woyzeck

There has rarely been a working actor and director relationship that proved more fruitful, and indeed more troubled, than that of Klaus Kinski and Werner Herzog. Kinski and Herzog made five films together, all of them of note due to the fact that the two together were, artistically at least, fiercely compelling. Behind the scenes, however, the pairing always proved combustible, the eccentric Herzog and the violently erratic Kinski coming together like fire and water. They collaborated so often, it's suspected, because of the recognition that each brought the best out the other, which is why Herzog asked Kinski to star in his film Woyzeck only a week after they'd finished shooting their previous project, and why an exhausted Kinski agreed. After Nosferatu The Vampyre - which starred Kinski in the lead, and shot across Europe, twice, simultaneously (Herzog wanted an English-language version and a German-language version) - it should have been Bruno S. that Herzog was directing in the title role for Woyzeck, but the director wanted to exploit Kinski's fragility by casting him in the part instead. The film was shot in 18 days, most scenes were done in a single take, and Kinski's crumbling physical and mental state remains on film for all to see.