This promotion is a disaster: when egos, romances and insults ruin the presentation of films

the film screening Don’t Worry Darling at the Venice Film Festival has aroused expectation, but not as much as the soap opera starring the members of his team when promoting his work. Florence Pugh, the main actress, has not directly collaborated in the promotion of the film; Harry Styles, who only got to turbulent after the initial leading man, Shia LaBeouf, left the film partway through, he appeared to spit on his partner Chris Pine before the screening began (his representative denies it); Olivia Wilde, the director, who ended her nine-year relationship with Jason Sudeikis during filming (Ted Lasson) to start a new one with Styles –his current partner–, he was unable to contain the tension between his team. All this has been fueled by speculation and internet memes, which have found perfect entertainment in this sainete.

More than one producer would like events like this to be an exception in Hollywood, but on many occasions tensions go beyond filming and materialize in chaotic promotions. How are you.

The incredible ego of Edward Norton

Edward Norton: great actor but also a great expert in generating conflict. He is known for revered movies –Fight club (1999) or American History X (1998), with which he earned one of his three Oscar nominations–almost as much as for unnerving his co-stars (Nick Nolte outright refused to continue working with him as soon as they got together to read the script for Matter of honor in 2008).

But then there’s Marvel. Norton signed to be the Hulk in the 2008 film and any sequel to the saga Avengers. But his poor relationship with the franchise led him to refuse to promote the film, get fired, and be replaced by Mark Ruffalo in subsequent films. The problems came before the lights went on. Since he first tried it on American HistoryX, Norton likes to get his hands on the scripts of the films in which he only acted and when he signed for Hulk, Zack Penn’s script was not yet finished. The producers assured him that they would take into account all his proposals. So the actor sent his suggestions to the script: he wanted to create a Hulk similar to the Batman by Christopher Nolan (2005-2012).

Marvel accepted these proposals, but the result, in an initial pass, seemed too slow and intellectual. They ordered to record more action scenes because this one. The actor was obliged to shoot these new scenes, but at the time of promoting it, he decided to travel to Africa to collaborate in humanitarian work.

Blood don’t splash Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey also did not promote Kick Ass 2: With a pair in 2013, where he played the villain named Colonel Stars and Stripes. The reason: the actor had regretted having participated in a production when he saw his level of violence. On Twitter, the actor confessed that, after Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre a month after filming ended, he had changed his mind and apologized to others involved in the film, explaining that his conscience did not allow him to “support this type of violence.”

Thimotée, between the Oscar and the scandal

To Thimotée Chalamet have worked with Woody Allen It hindered his race for the Oscar. In 2017 the young actor had joined the filming of A rainy day in New York directed by Allen, and co-starring two of the most popular actresses of their generation: Selena Gomez and Elle Fanning. It was the same year that the Weinstein case began. to the #MeToo movement. A year later, Dylan Farrow resurrected in an interview the old accusation of sexual abuse against Woody Allen, when he was his mother’s partner. Under the New Sensibility, Actors and Actresses who had worked with Allen they expressed their regret and their refusal to ever collaborate with him again.

While all this was going on, A Rainy Day in New York had entered post-production and Thimotée Chalamet was nominated for an Oscar for best actor for Call me by your name. The actor threw his accounts of how much the collaboration with Allen could harm the Oscar and decided to be contrite for having participated in the film. He further announced that he was going to donate his entire salary to charity. “I’m learning that a good role is not the only criteria for accepting a job,” Chalamet said. In the end, the Oscar went to Gary Oldman and the film remained unreleased until 2019.

Lars von Trier, don’t come here

Lars von Trier has earned a reputation as a provocateur, but the biggest scandal of his career did not star from behind the cameras, but in front of the microphone. Director of Dogville stunned a group of 300 journalists by show sympathy for Adolf Hitler during the press conference of the 64th edition of the Cannes Film Festivalheld in 2011.

The director had declared to a magazine his admiration for the Nazi aesthetic. Asked about that statement, Von Trier added that it could not be said that Hitler was “a great guy” but that he, personally, “liked him”. From then on he began to rave and the situation got worse, if possible: “I am not in favor of World War II, but I am in favor of the Jews. No, not too much because Israel is a nuisance.”

The director, who had gone to Cannes to present melancholia, He had to apologize immediately through a statement: “If I have hurt anyone with the words I said this morning at the press conference, I sincerely apologize. I am not an anti-Semite or racially prejudiced of any kind, I am not a Nazi.”

Apologies were not enough. That same day the management of the contest began to seriously consider expelling the Dane. Finally, he decided to keep the film in competition and declare the director a person non grata. Cannes broke up with one of his favorite sons, who had already won the Palme d’Or in 2000 for dance in the dark.

Shia LaBeouf, addicted to controversy

One of those involved (indirectly) in the immense racket of Don’t Worry Darling has seen put into more than a mess promoting his films. His career promised a lot when Michael Bay gave him the leading role of transformers in 2007. In 2011, for example, he decided to deny Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), where he played the son of the famous archaeologist. Spielberg called him to order, LaBeouf publicly denounced him and to date he has never returned to work for any production directly or indirectly related to the director of Schinder’s list.

But one of his most eccentric performances came in 2014, when LaBeouf walked the red carpet at the Berlin Film Festival with a paper bag on his head. The wrapper had a message: “I’m not famous anymore.” He was then 27 years old and came to present nymphomaniac, of… Lars von Trier. There was a story behind the performance of the bag on the head. About. Months before, the actor had presented a short entitled Howard Cantour, at the Cannes Film Festival. Many viewers noted that LaBeouf’s work had many similarities to a graphic novel written by Daniel Clowes. He claimed to be quoted in the play and the protagonist of transformers admitted to having leaned on Clowes for his “creative inspiration process”. After this incident, the actor announced that he was retiring from public life until further notice through his Twitter account.

With this idea of ​​abandoning the life of celebrities, he appeared at the Berlinale with a bag on his head and even created a performance titled I’m sorry. In it, the interpreter lived locked up for five days in a room, sitting at a table, without speaking, moving, or doing absolutely nothing. Viewers had the opportunity to spend ten minutes alone with him. In a later interview, LaBeouf claimed to have been raped by a woman who allegedly subjected him to all kinds of harassment during the time the exhibition lasted. He did not file any complaint and there is no evidence that these accusations are true. Another chapter in the life of an actor addicted to controversy.

Jonah Hill wants no more anxiety

A few weeks ago, Jonah Hill announced that he will stop promoting his films to protect your mental health. He will not attend any event, nor will he speak to any media because these situations “exacerbate” his “anxiety attacks”. In the statement, Hill ruled out advertising slutz, the documentary that he directs and stars in, and in which he talks with his therapist about the panic attacks he has been dealing with for 20 years. The interpreter describes it as “a journey of self-discovery” that he hopes “will serve as therapy and provide tools to a wide audience.” He will not promote this or any other project he is involved in, at least as long as he continues to suffer from anxiety issues.

Talking about anxiety is still taboo for many people with public exposure. More and more relevant figures from the world of sports or cinema dare to speak openly about these problems. One of the last to recognize that he suffers from mental health problems is Ryan Reynolds, who last year spoke of his anxiety, which he defined as “an eternal companion.”

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