Excerpt from Making Movies
Sidney Lumet:
When we did Network, Paddy Chayefksy knew what he wanted. After all the difficulties in getting the picture OK’d, I knew he was in no mood for any rewrites demanded by stars. I’d heard, too, that Faye Dunaway could be difficult. (This turned out to be totally untrue. She was a selfless, devoted, and wonderful actress.)
As always, if there’s a potential problem, I like to bring it out in the open before we begin. So I made an appointment to see her. Crossing the floor of her apartment, before I’d even reached her, I said, “I know the first thing you’re going to ask me: Where’s her vulnerability? Don’t ask it. She has none.” Faye looked shocked. “Furthermore, if you try to sneak it in, I’ll get rid of it in the cutting room, so it’ll be wasted effort.” She paused just a second, then burst out laughing. Ten minutes later I was begging her to do the part. She said yes.
She never tried to get sentimental in the part, and she took home an Academy Award.
Delish!-mjf
That was Mitchell, Sheila…..this is me:
I have to say something here. This might seem like a crazed, obsessed Joan Fan Thing, but it’s truly a testiment to Dunaway and her brilliance.
Every time there’s a Joan Crawford festival, or a Joan Crawford news reel, or a Joan Crawford bake off anywhere on the planet, and they happen to show a montage of clips and things from her work, if a scene from “Mommie Dearest” doesn’t play, Crawford fans feel cheated. All. The. Time.
I know the movie is crap, and I know how campy it is and how much fun it is to laugh at and watch, but in the center is Dunaway who’s performance of Crawford is one of those rare times in movie history when an actor transcends mere acting and literally changes before our eyes. No fake noses, or accents, or camera tricks, or “lit sparingly because she’s so-o-o-o beautiful people will be SHOCKED to see her this way”. None of the actory bullshit. This is an actor, who, with a slight gesture to her face and hands, BECAME a legend that millions of people now hold up as The Performance Of A Lifetime.
I’m not kidding.
Dunaway is underused, and terribly, terribly underrated.
I wish I could put “Mommie Dearest” on one of my lists, but the movie itself is mish mashed and over directed.
Yet anyone who hasn’t seen this thing, needs to sit down with it and study Dunaway and her nuanced, sometimes over the top, hilarious, beautiful, fascinating, and terrifying portrayal of Joan Crawford. There’s never been anything like it. Never.