Screaming Huckabees

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on March 19, 2007 at 01:28 PM

It's a shame that those two YouTube videos of screaming matches between director David O. Russell and costar Lily Tomlin on the set of I Heart Huckabees have been yanked. It's now 1:30 pm Pacific, and at least one of them was "live" and downloadable between 30 and 45 minutes ago. Toronto Star critic and blogger Peter Howell watched Huckbees #2 about 30 minutes ago, he just told me, but when I clicked on it at 1:15 pm Pacific it had been pulled. Both are gone...erased.

Did anyone copy these clips (called "Screaming Huckabees #1 and "Screaming Huckabees #2)? And if they did and can make them viewable to the Hollywood Elsewhere community, could they please get in touch? People yell at each other on sets all the time...big deal. Tomlin and Russell have long since moved on...who cares? I live for stuff like this.

"Screaming Huckabees 2" was shot on an indoor set, and "Screaming Huckabes #1" (involving Tomlin, Isabelle Huppert and Jason Schartzman) was shot in a car. Howell informs that the former clip was apparently posted three days ago by a dude named Alec Brownstein, an advertising copywriter. Here's a YouTube profile of the guy.

And yet "Screaming Huckabees 2", Howell notes, "has only 530 views so far, so I guess word suddenly broke this afternoon and Russell moved to put the kibosh on it."

Links to both YouTube videos appeared a little while ago on Defamer and wwtdd.com (i,.e. What Would Tyler Durden Do?).

Some kind of award ought to go to the quickdraw attorney (working for Russell?) who got to YouTube and had these clips pulled. Fast footwork deserves publicity! Good pit-bull types are hard to find.

Defamer's Mark Lisanti provided context for the Russell-Tomlin shout-matches with this excerpt from Sharon Waxman's Rebels on the Backlot book, to wit:

"July 24, 2003: The Car Trip....

"So far, the actors have been remarkably tolerant of Mr. Russell's mischief. As Ms. Huppert later observed in a phone interview, the actors knew Mr. Russell was intentionally trying to destabilize them for the sake of their performances. 'He is fascinating, completely brilliant, intelligent and very annoying sometimes, too,' she said. They also know he has created superb films from chaotic-seeming sets before. Besides, he's the director and the writer; now that they've cast their lot with him, they really don't have a choice.

"But on what is meant to be the last take of the day, Ms. Tomlin, who recently ended an exhausting run of her one-woman play, collapses into Mr. Hoffman's arms crying and doesn't stop. As he embraces her, the wails grow louder and louder, and finally it becomes clear that she is not in character. After long moments, Ms. Tomlin breaks the tension by shouting at Mr. Hoffman: 'You're driving a hairpin into my head!' Everyone collapses in laughter and the take is trashed.

"But the drama is not over. The car scene takes several more hours to shoot, and as the sun fades, the accumulated tension erupts. Ms. Tomlin begins shouting at Mr. Russell: she is unhappy with the way she looks. She wants to try the scene a different way. She taunts him with a few expletives and curses at the other actors too. Their patience worn, the other actors laugh at her outburst.

"Later, unfolding himself from the back seat of the Chevrolet, Mark Wahlberg jokes that his next project will be a nice, easy action film.

J"uly 31, 2003: Candid Camera...

"The production has moved from the dried-up swamp to the set of the detectives' office. It is hot and cramped, and the hour is getting late. To pass the time while a shot is set up, Mr. Russell treats the crew to a description of a baby passing through the birth canal.

"And then Ms. Tomlin is berating Mr. Russell again.

"This time, the director turns on her angrily, calling her the crudest word imaginable, in front of the actors and crew. He shrieks: ''I wrote this role for you! I fought for you!'' Mr. Russell ends his tirade by sweeping his arm across a nearby table cluttered with production paraphernalia. He storms off the set and back on again, continually shouting. Then he locks himself in his office, refusing to return. After an uncomfortable, set-wide pause, Ms. Tomlin goes in to apologize, and Mr. Russell returns to the shoot.

"Unbeknownst to both of them, a member of the crew has videotaped his tirade. The recording makes its way around the Hollywood talent agencies. Asked about the incident later, Mr. Russell says: 'Sure, I wish I hadn't done that. But Lily and I are fine.' For her part, Ms. Tomlin admits that both she and Mr. Russell lost control. 'It's not a practice on his part or my part,' she says. 'I'd rather have someone human and available and raw and open. Don't give me someone cold, or cut off, or someone who considers themselves dignified.'"