Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick had a reputation for being difficult to work with and actor Matthew Modine got a firsthand experience of the same while working on Full Metal Jacket. The film was shot for almost a year between August 1985 and August 1986, leaving Modine away from his family.
During the production, a family emergency forced Modine to leave filming to be with his wife. However, Kubrick did not allow the actor to leave and tried to force him to continue working. As a result, Modine had to resort to threatening self-harm to get Kubrick’s approval for leaving the film’s sets. Here is what the Stranger Things star has said about the incident involving Stanley Kubrick.
Matthew Modine Threatened Stanley Kubrick With Self-Harm to Be With His Wife
Most modern viewers will recognize actor Matthew Modine as Dr. Martin Brenner from Stranger Things. However, the actor first rose to fame with his work as Private/Sergeant J.T. “Joker” Davis in Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 war film Full Metal Jacket. While talking with Unframed in 2013, Modine opened up about the experience of working with Stanley Kubrick.
In the interview, Modine revealed how he and Kubrick got into a heated argument during the film’s production. Modine stated that he was expecting his first child with his wife when he was filming the movie. However, the actor learned that his wife would be having an emergency Cesarean operation as the baby was not growing right in the womb.
When Modine expressed a desire to be with his wife during the operation, Kubrick tried to dissuade him from leaving filming citing practical reasons why Modine would only be an obstacle in the operation.
Modine made the following comments about the argument with Kubrick as the director initially did not allow him to leave the production:
“I had a pocket knife with me; I put it in my palm and I said ‘Look, I’m going to cut my hand open and I’m going to have to go to the hospital, or you can let me go to the hospital to be with my wife.’ He moved away from me and he said ‘Okay, but come back immediately after it’s done.'”
Ultimately, Modine was able to be present with his wife during the birth of their first child. However, he had to resort to an extreme method to get Kubrick’s approval to leave the filming of Full Metal Jacket.
Matthew Modine Called Stanley Kubrick Empathetic
After the argument over leaving the film to be with his wife, Modine revealed that he made up with the director by offering him cigars. In the same interview, Modine also spoke about the notion that Kubrick was a difficult person to work with and could at times be cruel.
“I saw that he had the ability to be quite cruel. But I don’t think that it was unfounded cruelty. He couldn’t suffer fools or stupidity. That’s not to say that he wasn’t empathetic; he had tremendous empathy.”
As a result, despite having argued with Kubrick, Modine denied the notion of Kubrick being an outright cruel person. Furthermore, Modine praised Kubrick for taking an honest look at human beings through his films. Therefore, it is safe to say that Modine did not harbor any ill feelings towards Kubrick even after having a heated argument with the director.
Full Metal Jacket is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video and other VOD platforms.
