This picture makes me immensely sad.

Two leads and the director during or after the filming of Apt Pupil. The picture says nothing about either of those guys fucking or drugging Renfro so I fail to understand the sadness and the hate for Gandalf.

That's quite the "geekface" on the younger Singer.

Sorry, OP, I wholeheartedly agree.

Do you guys feel bad for Renfro and are sad because of him? I'm not that deep into his life but I don't remember getting very nice picture of him as a person when he was still alive. Of course drugs are always a tragedy and even more so if Renfro was abused and was using partly because of that.

Here's a similarly creepy photo of Visconti and the kid who played Tadzio in Death in Venice. Visconti was known for his love of young boys/men.

The kid in Death in Venice never complained about any kind of interference with him (though it must have been a very gay set, what with Visconti and Bogarde, but they were concered with making a quality film and not getting their rocks off with available teens) and he seems to have grown up to be a happy adjusted individual.

I saw and had a brief chat with Serena (Ian McKellen) over a decade ago, when out paths crossed at the height of LOTR mania, at a gay club in London when he and a party arrived at the Duckie club and later over the road at Crash club. People talked to him all the time and he handled it all very well, no doubt some would have come on to him too.

R5 This quote from "Tadzio" sure doesn't sound like he was very comfortable during the filming:

[quote] I was just 16 and Luchino Visconti and the team took me to a gay nightclub. Almost all the crew were gay. The waiters at the club made me feel very uncomfortable. They looked at me uncompromisingly as if I was a nice meaty dish. I knew I couldn't react. It would have been social suicide. But it was the first of many such encounters.

Link to the quote, R7?

From the body language in that picture, it looks more like McKellen is molesting Singer than like Renfro is being molested by anyone.

For R8.

Discomfort does not equate to abuse.

Au contraire, Renfro is looking at Singer who is mugging for the camera.

No doubt Brian Singer contributed to this young man's ultimate death.

No doubt at all.

Visconti, the crew, the waiters, and the nightclub had terrible taste.

Andresen/Tadzio was fugly as all hell.

Just to be clear, I'm watching the movie right now and I felt compelled to come here to say that. This four year old thread was the best of the ones available.