20 Things You Didn't Know About 2021's Oscar Nominees
7. Amanda Seyfried Shot One Scene 200 Times - Mank
David Fincher's reputation for meticulousness is well-known by now, often insisting that his actors shoot dozens of takes of even the simplest scene.
But on Mank he took this to greater extremes than ever, with his Oscar-nominated star Amanda Seyfried estimating that she shot one scene approximately 200 times over the course of five days.
More agonisingly for Seyfried, it wasn't even a scene where she had any lines, but because of Fincher's penchant for extensive camera coverage, she had to be "on" throughout the entire shoot rather than be able to relax.
Despite this, she has been extremely complimentary of Fincher as a collaborator:
"Honestly, it is the hardest I've ever worked. But I am so thrilled with it...I was just also like, how the f**k am I going to play Marion Davies? She had the accent. And how many takes? All of that stuff swarmed in. But I was also like…to get to work with Fincher, he's one of a kind. And I actually can't believe we did it. And we finished on February 21, right before the quarantine."