Word: perfectionist
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...blood at actors who were to be shot. When they were "hit," they would yell "ouch!" or whatever else the scriptwriter demanded. Blood oozed out and the audience usually got the point. But the pellets left a blotch on the skin, which was not realistic in closeups. Ever the perfectionist, however, Coppola wanted not only blood but bullet holes. Smith covered the actor's real skin with a false latex skin, putting both blood and tiny explosive discs in the space between. On cue the discs were detonated by means of copper wires, creating an authentic-looking bullet hole...
Michael Cimino screwed up. Professional hubris. With his cast and crew, out in Kalispell, Mont., for six months of shooting, Cimino became the compulsive perfectionist. Every detail had to be just so. Every scene had to be BIG. Hey, he was a genius. He was making an epic Western. He was hot. He had an unlimited budget. But a painfully limited talent, $35 million worth of hubris. When the film opened in New York last November it received universally poor reviews. The New York Times called it "an unqualified disaster." The film's distributor, United Artists, withdrew it from...
...attempted suicide. After the movie was released last month, Actress Mary Tyler Moore, 42, acknowledged that she prepared for the part by drawing on her experiences in raising her own son from her first marriage, Richard Carlton Meeker Jr., 24. Said she: "I was kind of a perfectionist mother, and I demanded a lot of him. I think I was responsible for a lot of alienation. I brought some of that to the part." Indeed, only in the last few years did Meeker, who worked as a bit-part actor and mail-room clerk at CBS television studios, become close...
Stocky, balding Fitzgerald, who owns a 1,100-acre sheep ranch, made his mark politically as a county commissioner when he fought state controls on land development and timber production. Says he: "Weaver is an environmental perfectionist. Environmental perfection is something we can't afford." Weaver, a former builder and developer, replies that his environmental policies are in the area's best interest. Says he: "We can't afford to cut our timber faster, because if we do, we won't have any left. My constituents strongly support land-use planning. They don't want...
Peter Sellars was a perfectionist. He wanted to get the voice right, and then figure out the character. He wanted to poke fun at people but he wanted to say something at the same time. His 1950s radio series, "The Goon Show," The Mouse That Roared, Dr. Strangelove, and Being There did just that. They let him be "ridiculing without being ridiculous; serious without being solemn...