10 Most Insanely Perfectionist Film Directors
1. David O'Russell Has Fistfights And Screaming Matches With His Stars
Directors can be demanding and very difficult people by their very nature. Sometimes tensions can arise on set. But there is “difficult to work with” and then there’s David O’Russell. O’Russell is legendary in Hollywood for his uncompromising stylistic sensibility and his bust ups on set.
O’Russell’s directorial style tends towards an improvisational, on the fly method, which eschews organised arrangements of shots and instead O’Russell shoots ideas as they come to him, teasing them out for hours on end.
On the production of the Gulf War heist film Three Kings this method of shooting as well as David O’Russell’s techniques of encouraging actors (lots of violent screaming), led to an atmosphere of immense tension on set. This tension finally spilled over in the form of a fist fight with George Clooney, an item I didn’t know until now needed a place on my bucket list.
O’Russell’s confidence in his own vision has regularly resulted in heated disputes with his actors and crew members and even other directors. After learning that the star of his film I Heart Huckabees, Jude Law, was planning to leave to star in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, O’Russell tracked Nolan down at a party and put him in a headlock until Nolan agreed to let Law stay.