The late Stanley Kubrick was one of the best filmmakers to ever exist and the remarkable works he has left behind are clear pieces of evidence of this claim. But despite being an incredible director, he was famous for giving his actors a hard time on set just to get the perfect take – just what he did on his $162 million film back from the late 1990s, Eyes Wide Shut, which was also the last film he shot before he passed away.
As it turns out, in the Tom Cruise starrer movie, Kubrick had the actor Harvey Keitel, who was initially in the film, redo a walking-out-of-the-door scene 68 times until the actor got frustrated enough to call it quits.
Harvey Keitel And His Not-So-Pleasant Experience On Eyes Wide Shut With Stanley Kubrick
Although the late Stanley Kubrick produced some of the finest stories of all time for the big screen, the story happening off-set was something some actors just couldn’t take. This included the famous actor Harvey Keitel.
Though very few fans must know of this, Harvey Keitel was initially cast for Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick’s last film before he died, for the role of Victor Ziegler, as revealed by Gary Oldman on SiriusXM’s Opie & Anthony show.
“Originally Harvey Keitel was in Eyes Wide Shut,” Oldman revealed. “He was playing Sydney [Pollack’s role].”
However, that didn’t work out for Keitel as the late filmmaker had him redo a scene sixty-eight times just to get the perfect ‘walking out of the door’ shot. Gary Oldman shared:
“He was doing the scene and they were just walking through a door and after the 68th take of this, just walking through a door, Harvey Keitel just said ‘I’m out of here, you’re f—ing crazy’. He just said, ‘You’re f—ing out of your mind’, and left.”
Frustrated at having to do one single simple scene so many times, Harvey Keitel ended up quitting the Tom Cruise starrer $162 million film and was eventually replaced by Sydney Pollack to star in the 1999 masterpiece.
The Late Stanley Kubrick Was Also Famous For ‘Not Knowing What He Was Looking For Until Eventually Seeing It’
The late legendary visionary Stanley Kubrick was an incredible director indeed. Many of his exceptional works for the big screen were considerably underrated, but that didn’t stop him from continuing to let his thoughts and emotions out through his films.
But besides his extraordinary works, he was also famous for his habit of looking for things without knowing what he was looking for until he found it. In fact, Kubrick himself once declared ‘he didn’t know what he was looking for until he saw it,’ as shared by Far Out Magazine.
Continuing on SiriusXM’s Opie & Anthony show, Gary Oldman explained that the reason why the late director had his actors redo one scene over and over again was to finally come across the one shot that made him realize that it was exactly what he was looking for.
“He would just say do it again,” Oldaman revealed. “Like, what are you looking for? [He doesn’t tell that.] Just do it again. I don’t know whether he was looking for something very specific but he wasn’t going to tell you? I mean I love Kubrick’s films, but I don’t know how I would’ve worked with that.”
Regardless, Stanley Kubrick’s habit of looking for things until he found them was one of the traits that made him one of the finest filmmakers to ever have been in the entertainment industry.
