he production of James Cameron’s 1989 underwater epic The Abyss was notoriously grueling for its cast. They were subjected to 12-to-15-hour workdays, and nearly half of filming was done 40 feet underwater in 2 huge tanks. Cast and crew came up with several nicknames for the film, such as “Son of Abyss” and “The Abuse”.
Cameron nearly drowned during filming when his SCUBA tank ran out of air. Star Ed Harris also nearly drowned while filming one scene, (resulting in him punching Cameron, who had continued filming, in the face), and later said he started sobbing in his car on the way home from the set due to the stress.
But it was Harris’s leading lady, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, who was hit hardest.
**plot spoilers ahead**
In one particularly intense and emotional scene, Mastrantonio’s character Lindsey drowns, and her husband Bud (Harris) desperately tries to resuscitate her. Mastrantonio was soaking wet and freezing, with her shirt torn to expose her breasts; Harris had to pound on her chest, shake her, and repeatedly slap her in the face.
This would be a stressful situation for any actor, and was compounded by the fact that Cameron — always known for demanding retake after retake — made her film the scene over and over and over again over a span of several hours. A broken camera further compounded the trouble.
Mastrantonio finally snapped, and had a complete emotional breakdown. “We are not animals!” she screamed at Cameron, and stormed off the set, refusing to return unless he wrapped the scene.
She did complete the film, which was a critical and commercial success, but both she and Harris refused to talk about it, and vowed never to work with Cameron again — and neither ever has. Mastrantonio’s only comment about the experience was to say, “making The Abyss was a lot of things. Fun was not one of them.”
We all know Margaret Hamilton as the despicable Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz (1939). However, she took over the role only after the original actress walked off set for the following reason:
The actress who was meant to play the Wicked Witch was Gale Sondergaard. And the original concept of her character was meant to be a slinky and seductive sorceress, who was beautiful despite her evil nature (see picture above) – very much like the Evil Queen from Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) –; however, producers and filmmakers quickly changed her makeup to a more traditional ugly witch (see below).
Soon, Sondergaard was reluctant to wear the disfiguring makeup, fearing it could damage her career – indeed, her striking features defied the grease paint –; eventually, she decided to turn down the role, leaving it to Margaret Hamilton. She later implied:
In those days, I was not about to make myself ugly. I have no regrets. Absolutely no regrets.
Another example concerns Sir Ian McKellen, during filming his role as Gandalf in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012). Sure enough, it has been established that the British actor was very uncomfortable and unhappy about working in front of a green screen, because he had to act all by himself, with no one in front of him – at one point, the experience almost made him break down and cry! McKellen describes this experience as follows:
It was so distressing and off-putting and difficult that I thought, “I don’t want to make this film if this is what I’m going to do”. It’s not what I do for a living. I act with other people, I don’t act on my own.
Famously, Harrison Ford refused to use the script written by George Lucas in Empire Strikes Back.
“George, you can type this shit, but you sure can’t say it.” Harrison Ford (in ANH)
In Empire Strikes Back, after Princess Leia(Carrie Fisher) says, “I love you”, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) was to reply, “I love you too”, according to George Lucas’ script.
(the original script writer, the famous Leigh Brackett died halfway through writing the story. Lucas took over and wrote the boring line.)
But Harrison did not follow Lucas’ script. Instead, he came up with that brilliant, tender, and very “Han Solo” reply:
“I know.”
It encapsulates their strained relationship and carried a deeper meaning.
All throughout the story (ESB), Han Solo was arguing with Leia over their relationship. Solo knew that Leia loved him. But she refused to acknowledge her feelings to him with an open, clear statement. She went so far as to stubbornly deny it. And this annoyed the hell out of him.
Only at the end, when Han faced death, Leia put aside her snobbish attitude : the class-divide between Princess and Pirate, and laid her true feeling bare.
She loved him. And he knew.
That was enough.
And that (mutinous) idea conceived by the actor Harrison Ford was brilliant. He should have won an Academy Award for that.
But this is not what Lucas had written.
George Lucas was absolutely livid, infuriated that Ford had not followed what he had written.
You don’t have to take my word for it – watch the videos by Kershner, the director and Harrison Ford for the story.
Kershner (the director) said it was “the perfect Han Solo remark,” but Lucas didn’t think so. When he saw the scene with the new line he said, “Wait a minute, wait a minute. That’s not the line in the script.” …”I think it’s fair enough to say (Lucas) went apeshit. He thought it was horrible and that it would get a bad laugh.”
Watch the videos. They explain the situation better than I could.
Some people doubted my story – well its a fact that Lucas wrote the script and we have the testimony of Harrison Ford and the director Kershner to valid that incident.
Brackett finished her first draft in early 1978; Lucas has said he was disappointed with it, but before he could discuss it with her, she died of cancer. With no writer available, Lucas had to write his next draft himself…. According to Lucas, he found this draft enjoyable to write, as opposed to the yearlong struggles writing the first film, and quickly wrote two more drafts,all in April 1978.
Source:
Pollock – Skywalking – biography on George Lucas
Michael Kaminski, Josh Robert Thompson – The Secret History of Star Wars
George Lucas Apparently Went “Apeshit” Over Harrison Ford’s Classic Line “I Know” From Empire Strikes Back.
