It's not uncommon for directors to be let go from projects. However, this is usually to do with events where they've taken things WAY too far. But that can definitely happen when you give a power-hungry individual too much creative control on a film or television show. However, most times, these megalomaniacal directors find a way to get precisely what they want. Not even an A-list actor can override them. That was certainly the case when George Clooney got into a physical altercation with a director as well as when the late-Christopher Plummer had beef with Terrence Malik. Here's what happened...
The Feud Started With Terrence's Choices As A Filmmaker
The truth is, Terrence Malick is a very particular filmmaker. While someone such as Steven Spielberg always finds a way to make films that can appeal to a mass audience while still being personal to him, Terrence clearly doesn't care. He makes movies for himself, and that's why film-goers either love him or hate him. His films, such as Knight of Cups, Tree of Life, To The Wonder, Days of Heaven, or The Thin Red Line have garnered a lot of positive reactions from those who love a good sprawling visual, but from a story or entertainment angle... well... reactions of been more mixed. And these mixed reactions are even shared by the actors who were cast in Terrence's films.
In a roundtable interview with The Daily Beast TV, which also featured Tilda Swinton, Viola Davis, George Clooney, Charlize Theron, and Michael Fassbender, Christopher Plummer described his terrible time working with Terrence Malik on a movie called The New World.
"He is quite an extraordinary guy, and I love some of his movies very much," Christopher began. "But the problem with Terry, which I soon found, is he needs a writer desperately because he insists on doing everything. As we all know, he insists on writing, and overwriting, and overwriting, until it sounds terribly pretentious. You have to work terribly hard to make it sound real. And then he edits his films in such a way where he cuts everybody out of the story."
Then Christopher and George Clooney launched into a story about Adrien Brody's experience filming with Terrence Malick. Like many major actors who have been cast in Terrence's films, Adrien found out that his leading role in The Thin Red Line was reduced to a cameo and a voice-over... And he found this out right before the premiere. In fact, Adrien even did a front cover spread for a Vanity Fair as he thought he was THE lead in the film... Little did he know that Terrence completely changed his mind about the movie in the editing room and basically cut him out of the movie without so much as a phone call warning him.
"[Adrien Brody] was the lead in the movie," George Clooney explained. "I was in that movie. I was cut out too. I was happy!"
It seems as though Terrence Malick doesn't have all that much respect for actors as he is instead overly consumed with the 'poetic shots' of his movies. They're undeniably beautiful but things get boring after a few minutes.
"[His shots] are paintings. All of them. And he gets lost in that. And the story gets confused. Particularly in [The New World]," Christopher said of his movie with Terrence.
And Christopher too was edited out of the movie, albeit not to the degree that Adrien Brody was in The Thin Red Line.
"I was put in all sorts of different spots, my character was suddenly not in the scene I thought I was in, in the editing room. It completely unbalances everything. This very emotional scene that I had suddenly was background noise. I could hear myself saying it, this long, wonderful, moving speech that I thought I was so fantastic in. It’s now background sort of score, way mild in the distance, while something else is going on. And [co-star] Colin Farrell just said, ‘Oh you know, we’re just going to be a couple f***ing ospreys.'"
The Letter That Solidified The Feud
Christopher's experience on The New World caused him to write Terrence a pretty aggressive letter that made each of them never want to work together again.
'I had to write him a letter. I had to write Terry a letter. I gave him s***. I’ll never work with him again, of course. He won’t have me," Christopher told the room full of surprised actors. "I told him, 'You are so boring. You get in these ruts. You’ve got to get yourself a writer.' My career with Mr. Malick is over."
While many actors couldn't get away with this, there's no doubt that someone who held the status that Christopher Plummer did could. In fact, it didn't really matter. Christopher always came across as the type of person who would always speak his mind no matter what. And in this case, it was all about standing up for the integrity of the actor and the story itself.