Roman Polanski Destroys Faye Dunaway

Okay, Roman, but she didn't rape anyone like you did.

"Things reached the stage where simply to save time, I agreed to all her suggestions on principle. Almost invariably she’d end by saying, “You know, maybe it was better the way it was”—and we’d revert to the original script.

Faye’s insecurity was such that every time I dropped some insignificant line of hers in the interests of polishing a sequence, she took it as an affront and accused me of mutilating her part.

The whole thing came to a head during the scene in which she and Jack Nicholson meet in a restaurant after he’s had his nose slashed. The camera was over her shoulder, and one strand of her hair was catching the light. It was one of those freak situations where, if nothing were done, the audience’s attention would be focused on a single illuminated hair.

“Cut,” I said, and summoned Faye’s hairdresser. In total silence, with the lights still burning, she did her best to flatten the rebellious hair. It popped up again and again. No amount of lacquer seemed to do the trick.

Faye, being the only person on the set unable to see what was wrong, couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

At last, hoping she might not even notice, I took the hair and plucked it out.

Howard Koch yelled, “Lunch break, everybody!” in an attempt to defuse an explosive situation. It didn’t work.

Faye, who can swear like a teamster truck driver, was having a fit. “I don’t believe it!” she screeched. “I just don’t believe it! That motherfucker pulled my hair out!”

Her hysterics were earsplitting, obscene, and only in their early stages. After lunch she let it be known that she wasn’t going back on the set.

That one little hair provoked the kind of crisis. Before it started, Bob Evans reminded me that he hadn’t wanted “that meshuga” in the first place. I was stuck with “the dreaded Dunaway,” as she was unofficially known, and would have to take the consequences.

The meeting opened with Freddy Fields, Faye’s agent, looking uncomfortable and Faye herself still mad as hell. Fields started enumerating her many grievances against me. I’d been cast in the now familiar role of monster.

“I was wrong to do it,” I said, “but that doesn’t alter the fact that she’s nuts and a menace.”

I missed you, autobiography troll! Thank you for giving us something interesting to read during this crisis!

How is that destroying Faye Dunaway? Roman comes off as a dick in that section, you know - besides being a Pedophile.

Faye threw piss in his face. YAY Faye!

Roman was angry because the urine didn't belong to a 13 year old.

[quote] Roman comes off as a dick in that section, you know - besides being a Pedophile.

Oh shut it you ignorant twat. Go read a book and learn what a pedophile is, which is not what Roman Polanski is.

Oh excuse me CUNT

PEDERAST!

Does that make you fell better

feel

She doesn't come off THAT bad here. And I guess the part about her throwing pee in his face is a lie or he would have brought it up. I think Faye's performance works perfectly for the movie.

Miss Dunaway may have been a pain, but what counts is what's on the screen, which, as Jack Nicholson agrees, is an extraordinary performance.

“I was wrong to do it,” I said, “but that doesn’t alter the fact that she’s nuts and a menace.”

This sent Faye into such a paroxysm of foulmouthed abuse that neither Evans nor Fields knew where to look. I was delighted. That’s the way she is, I gestured behind her back, grinning slyly.

Freddy Fields diplomatically saved the day with much soothing talk about the need for the show to go on. Faye had shot her wad. The psychodrama had done her good, and any way, she’d exhausted her vocabulary. We resumed the over-the-shoulder shot as if nothing had happened.

Jack Nicholson proved the complete opposite of Faye in every respect. Jack’s on the wild side. He loves going out nights, never gets to bed before the small hours, listens to music and smokes grass. Early-morning calls are even more agonizing for him than they are for me; but he comes on the set knowing his lines and everyone else’s, and he’s such an exceptionally fine actor that the worst piece of Hollywood dialogue sounds crisp when he delivers it.

When shooting was over, everything—even Faye Dunaway’s tantrums—proved worthwhile.

How is that destroying Faye

After reading it I'm on her side.

So we have another POLANSKI apologist creating a thread.

How tedious.

She was great in the film so whatever trouble she caused was worth it.

R9 I agree, I think if "throwing pee at his face" was true, Roman would have mentioned it in the book.

R6 Thanks for talking sense here.

Roman wouldn't mention it in his book because she got the upper hand.

I don't believe anything that comes out of his mouth, because he wants to control his actresses and Faye is controlled by no one.

Faye should have been grateful for Roman for directing her in the successful Chinatown. Faye's career was going down the shitter before Roman temporarily saved it.

Polanski rapist troll threads are so boring.

R17 Faye was/is hated by the industry. It's not like Roman was the only one having trouble with crazy Faye.

"Absurd stories told by women"

That tells you all you need to know.

FUCK HIM

And there's OP licking his shitty ass

And Roman Polanski is HATED by many in the industry.

And most movie goers who are disgusted by his behavior.

Here's a legendary DL thread called "Faye Dunaway Experiences"

Faye is totally nuts.

Team Faye

I hope it's true she threw piss on him.

I also hope she kicked Bette Davis in the cunt bone

R25 "I also hope she kicked Bette Davis in the cunt bone"

Why you wish that??

Faye isn't nuts, she's batshit crazy, and that's one of the many reasons I love her.

This thread isn't about whether she's nuts, she is.

This thread isn't about whether Polanski is a teen fucker , he is.

It's about whether or not those posted excerpts from his book destroy Faye Dunaway.

It doesn't

Fucking a teenager, or even a 12 year old, does not make one a pederast.

Fucking children makes one a pederast.

And few of us here at the DL can stand fucking children.

They stink.

The end result was CHINATOWN. That's all ye need to know.

While people quibble over the correct term, let's just use DESPICALBE TEENAGE STATUTORY RAPIST.

Understand? Or is it too tough for you?

R29 Thanks for Roman Polanski.

"...during the filming of 1974’s “Chinatown,” Dunaway had a habit of urinating into trash cans and a disdain for flushing toilets in her dressing room. Rather, the book claims, she called in Teamsters to do the job, leading to multiple resignations. (Dunaway told author Peter Biskind she had “no recollection” of such doings.)"

I think the script and the performances made Chinatown more what it is then the direction.

And Jack and Faye have both said they didn't take Roman's direction in creating their performances.

And Robert Towne wrote the script before Polanski was attached.

R32 But that's from the same book that says she threw piss on Roman.

And some on this thread say it must not be true since SAINT TRUTH TELLER Roman didn't mention it in HIS book.

Are we supposed to pick and choose what we believe from that book to suit our own individual purposes?

The hysterical pedo freak (who posted 20 posts here, panicking about Roman Polanski), is in ignore.

Take your medication and rest my dear

Thanks for keeping the thread active though.

Roman's on this thread? Roman, the pedo freak?

R18,

Chinatown came out in 1974 June. Keeping that in mind, without that film, the following would still all be true, at minimum ...

1973 July. Directed by Hollywood legend Stanley Kramer in one of his latter films, Oklahoma Crude. 1973 December. Box-office hit The Three Musketeers directed by previous Cannes winner Richard Lester. 1974 October. Hit sequel to Musketeers comes out with Dunaway in a more featured/title role. 1974 December. Stars opposite Paul Newman in Oscar winner and BP nominee megahit The Towering Inferno.

Certainly, Chinatown helped nab her roles in Three Days of Condor and Network, , but this chunk of resume is hardly what I'd call, "the shitter."

Roman is loved by the industry and people. It's just NOW after the hypocrite fake #MeToo movement, that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and banishing Roman.

The situation will be reversed someday though.

"And Robert Towne wrote the script before Polanski was attached."

And Polanski turned that draft, with its Hollywood fantasy ending, into a tragedy of cosmic proportions. Read THE BIG GOODBYE by Sam Wasson---we wouldn't be talking about CHINATOWN if Polanski hadn't been at the helm.

R28 I don't know much 'bout them fancy words and such, just an uneducated country boy here. So what does fucking a 12 year old or teenager make you?

A decent person?

An upstanding citizen?

A inspiration to be modeled?

Employee of the month?

Your father?

Doesn't sound that bad at all.

She wanted to look pretty and the art department liked her enough to spend time making a prop to present her as a gag award. You don't waste your time on people you hate.

She begged him to rewrite his awful lines. He's not a native English speaker so it probably sounded off to her, and she wanted it more natural. He wouldn't do it and so she had to memorize her corny lines which made her unnatural. Then he said one more of you Faye and I take you back to tub and rape you ass! Slapped her and left. Sounds like an asshole to me.

R37 Faye's work/films before the legendary Chinatown were FLOPS. The success of Chinatown revived her semi dead career . That gave her an opportunity to be cast in Network and the subsequent Academy Award winning. After that Faye's career was thankfully Dead forever.

All Roman did was change the ending.

And the book Big Goodbye gives just as much credit to Evans, Nicholson, and Towne as it does to Roman.

Did you read it?

R42. Apparently, you don't know how to read. I'll refer you back to R37.

Just to reiterate ...

She was the female lead in The Towering Inferno, an Oscar nominee and BP nominee. That film was in the can before Chinatown came out.

She had a more featured role in the hit sequel to The Three Musketeers. That film was in the can before Chinatown came out.

I won't repeat the final line of R37.

I'm sorry you are so stupid and can't read.

R42 That's an easily disprovable lie.

Bonnie & Clyde a flop?

Thomas Crown Affair a flop?

Little Big Man a flop?

Three Musketeers a flop?

Yes she make some flops before Chinatown, as did Polanski, Evans, and Nicholson, but you are simply a liar.

That's not "all Roman did." Sure, others contributed, but, ultimately, it's a director's medium.

Polanski clarified plot, edited dialogue, strengthened motivation...but why go on? You'd know that if you read the book.

OP, i'm still waiting when she got destroyed.

R46 100% True.

I wonder how many times Polanski has fapped his limp Polish sausage to the scene where Evelyn confesses to the incest, and shakes her head 'NO' when Jake asks if the father raped her?

1000s?

Hundreds of 1000s?

R45 Stop actin stupid, Faye's movies int the 1970s were FLOPS, except the movie with Paul Newman and Steve McQueen.

R49 Nobody care except the sick minds like yours.

Yet Robert Towne won the Oscar for Screenplay and Polanski won nothing.

In fact he wasn't even given partial screenplay credit after all of his supposed improving, clarifying, and editing.

Hmmmmm....

R50 Yes, we are the ones displaying stupidity.

Resting bitchface.

Faye was perfect for the part. I'm glad that they did not cast Jane Fonda.

*I stand corrected, Inferno was still filming when Chinatown came out. However, the main point still stands: Chinatown played no major bearing on Inferno's production. It was always going to get made, and Dunaway had her role regardless. Same with the Musketeers sequel, which had her character's name IN THE TITLE.

She also turned down a role in Arthur Penn's Night Moves to do Chinatown. Not Chinatown, obviously, but wouldn't have been a bad film to have on one's resume.

What is the China Syndrome about ? Never saw this movie. Is it good?

Faye's own personal craziness was perfect for Evelyn Mulwray. No one else could have made that role work as well as she did.

I would not have wanted to be on the set when she was there. But I love the movie.

Before the fake #MeToo movement, The industry and people gave Polanski his dues.

Thank you Roman for all your contributions in Art and Cinema.

R55 Jane Fonda would have been better than Faye.

R57 Yes, It's directed by Roman Polanski. Of course, it would be legendary and excellent.

I wish the Manson crew had slaughtered Roman instead of Sharon.

What he said makes me love Faye more.

Dunaway got to work with quite a lot: Nicholson, Newman, McQueen, Redford, Beatty, Hackman, Hoffman, Mastroianni, Holden, Sinatra. All I have to say is: Damn, Gurl!

Whatever, Roman. She was exquisite in the part.

[quote]Okay, Roman, but she didn't rape anyone like you did.

It wasn’t...well, you know.

Fuck no, R60!

Look at ALL the HITS Polanski had after Chinatown! What happened to the GENIUS director's talent? Did the creativity leave his brain as the urine hit his face?

2011 Carnage

2010 The Ghost Writer

2005 Oliver Twist

1999 The Ninth Gate

1994 Death and the Maiden

1992 Bitter Moon

1988 Frantic

1986 Pirates

1979 Tess

1976 The Tenant

"In fact he wasn't even given partial screenplay credit after all of his supposed improving, clarifying, and editing."

Why would we? He was doing his job...giving DIRECTION.

I don't like Polanski the Person/Celebrity, but The Ninth Gate is a guilty pleasure, and The Ghost Writer was one of my favourite films of 2010. But, I certainly get your point R68.

And, he is still a rapist, though.

She may be terrible but I have always loved her looks in B & C. We'll always have that.

R71 I agree, I hate her personality and arrogance but she was Beautiful in the 1960s and early 1970s

Roman Polanski is Loved. Everybody is just scared now of the MeToo lynching and fake feminists.

Yes, Faye is a raging cunt, but the Polish Pedo doesn’t have any room to judge.

R74 He's not judging, Roman has the right to express his opinion/experience with her like everyone else.

Faye Owes a lot to Polanski. Her career was dying in mid 1970s and her revived it for her temporarily.

[Quote] Faye Owes a lot to Polanski. Her career was dying in mid 1970s and her revived it for her temporarily.

R75, this has already been discussed and disproven in this very thread. Learn to read.

R76 Not everybody shares your opinion. Learn to think

I'm sorry you can't wrestle with facts, R76.

R77 I mean

Robert Evan on Faye Dunaway : (Faye was loathed and nobody wanted her, Bob admits that Faye's career was nearly dead and didn't want her):

Faye Dunaway - Chinatown

Jane Fonda was everybody’s first choice to play opposite Jack. There was one problem—Fonda was hedging, not sure she wanted to play the part. Understandably, she didn’t understand the script. Concurrently giving me heartburn was Sue Mengers, Faye Dunaway’s agent.

She pushed her client on me to the point of blackmail. Thank you, Sue—Dunaway’s singular mystery on screen was among the best casting choices of my career. Making her deal, however, was another story.

“Bobbeee, I need an offer by the end of business, Friday. Otherwise, I’m closing a deal with Arthur Penn for my Faye to star in Night Moves.”

“Sue, I’ll get back to you tomorrow. Now leave me alone.”

I immediately called Roman. “I know Jane’s one, two, and three on your list. She’s playing cute with us, Roman. Get her to say yes or tell her to fuck off. Otherwise, I lose Dunaway.”

“I don’t want her anyway. The script’s tough enough to understand. I don’t need her mishegoss.” Roman said

“Then settle with Fonda tonight. You’ve romanced her enough; it’s time to make love. Tonight, Roman!”

Fuck her he didn’t. Fucked he got. Fonda didn’t want to play. My first call the next morning was to Sue.

“Sorry, Sue, but the studio wants to go with Jane. You and me talking now. I still want Faye. She’s more mysterious. That’s what the part’s all about. But what can I do?”

Hooked by the bait. “Plenty! It’s your picture. If you want my Faye, tell them all to take a flying fuck.” “Easy for you to say, Mengela.”

“Convince Nicholson that Dunaway’s more interesting. Then call Bluhdorn, tell him to back you.” A giggle. “Then drop it on the fuckers. It’s Dunaway or no way!”

“It won’t work. Bluhdorn wants Fonda too. Hey, I’ve got an idea. It’s a long shot: dinero . . . not Bobby De Niro . . . dinero dinero.” With the instinct of a jungle cat, Sue got the message quickly. “Okay, what’s the deal?”

“Don’t give me your sarcastic shit, Mengela. I’m trying to make something work that no one wants.”

Sharper than a Vegas pit boss, her voice now two octaves lower, “What’s the deal, prick?”

“Fifty thou—”

The phone slammed in my ear before I could finish. I waited for her to call back. She knew I was waiting. She didn’t call. I’m still the buyer though. She’s the seller.

Finally, Mengela made the first move. She had no choice

“Bobbeee. . . . you don’t want Mengela to lose a client, do you? You know what a prima donna she is. If I mention numbers even close to that, she’ll fire me. They’re all crazy.”

“Mengela, tell Dunaway I’m doing this for you, not for her. You know it. I know it. And she knows it . . . she’s colder than Baskin-Robbins.”

“Arthur Penn doesn’t think so, Bobbeee. Remember Bonnie and Clyde, The Thomas Crown Affair—”

I interrupted her role call. “Remember Doc . . . The Deadly Trap . . . Oklahoma Crude? Three in a row. For a dame, I don’t care who she is, three strikes in a row and you’re out. Sue, listen real careful. I love ya. The only shot we have is bargain-basement time. I’ve got a weak link I can play on. They want John Huston to play old man Mulwray. There ain’t no money in the budget for it. That’s my hook. Got it?”

“Got it, prick,” hanging the phone up in my ear.

Again, I waited for her call back. She knew I was waiting. It was her call to make—she had no choice. It was now past 7:00 P.M., I poured myself a scotch, patiently waiting for the phone to ring. It did.

“Bobbeee?” “Mengela.” “We’ll take it.”

“I think it could be too late. You should have gotten back to me sooner. Let me get on the horn and try to stop the deal with Fonda.”

“You prick, you no-good bastard. First you make my client spread her legs, then you tell us ‘I’ll get back to you’? You son of a—” Slam went the phone in my ear.

At eight the next morning I called Sue. “I’ve had a tough night with Roman, Sue. He’s scared shitless that Dunaway will be difficult to work with. Thank God, Jack was there, he helped me convince him. Tell Faye she’s got the part.”

Like a Sotheby’s auctioneer, “Closed?” said Mengela.

“Closed,” I said. “Do I at least get a thank you?” I got a giggle.

“Bobbeee . . .” “Yeah?

“I fibbed.” Another giggle. “There was no part in Night Moves for Faye.” Mengela was getting off. Her giggling nonstop.

I held the phone, until lack of oxygen made her stop. “Mengela?”

Hardly able to catch her breath, “What?”

“Fonda passed.”

I lost the hearing in my left ear from the slam of the phone

so what is he gave her shot? Doesn’t change the fact that he is a degenerate rapist.

Roman: intense, focused, punctual. Two brutal months of preparations with Roman not knowing whom to kill first; Towne or Hira, Towne’s white, shaggy, and shedding giant hunk of a sheepdog.

“Hira, Hira,” Roman moaned. “Wherever I go there’s hair. I’m scratching where I shouldn’t. His script stinks, his dog smells. I should have stayed in Paris. Wherever I go, there’s dog shit.”

Poor guy; he only had two ears to vent his anger—mine. Worse for Roman than Towne was Dunaway. Was she difficult? No, “impossible,” said the maestro.

A perfectionist. “Silk stockings were a must to be part of being a lady in the thirties,” she declared. Didn’t matter to her that in the seventies they were nowhere to be found. She insisted, and we searched until they were found. Hurrah for you, dear Faye. Roman didn’t share my feelings.

“Tell me, it’s true,” Roman said. “You’re paying me back for Passover. Dunaway’s a menace. Towne’s a mess. Up there someone’s telling me, ‘Schmuck, you should’ve spent Passover in Poland.’ ”

It was a hair that broke the camel’s back. Dunaway dressed to the nines—hat, veil, and all—confronting her newfound shamus, Nicholson, in a clandestine rendezvous at a posh thirties L.A. restaurant. The scene demanded sparks to fly. Sparks did fly, but not on the screen.

Through the camera, Roman saw a wire of a hair reeling up from Dunaway’s veil. He went over and plucked it to save the shot—instead of thanks, he got a smack across the face.

“Touch me again, I’ll call in my troops!” screamed Dunaway in full theatrical fury

I'm watching every Poolanski film during the lock down. He's a genius. Every film a work of art meant to be analyzed and watched over and over. I'm truly in awe of this guy.

R85 Thanks, I absolutely agree with you.

Roman is a genius, his work should be celebrated.

The set closed down. A summit was called. Sue Mengers was out of town, so agency boss Freddie Fields took on the challenge.

“Forget Polanski, he’s crazy. I’ll give you Mark Rydell—he’ll make a picture out of this mess.”

“Fuck you, Freddie. Polanski’s my choice, Dunaway’s my star. I’ll handle it.”

First to Dunaway. “The two scenes you’ve shot—spellbinding!” Dunaway was hardly impressed. Then came an offer hard to refuse: “An Oscar nod or a Rolls Corniche—one of the two I personally guarantee is yours.” By then Coppola’s Mercedes was a legend. How could she refuse? Melt she did.

Then I went to Roman. “What you’re getting from Dunaway makes Svengali look like a peasant.”

A balk . . . a shout . . . a Polish moan of despair.

“An Oscar nod, or a Rolls Corniche,” I offered. “Without one, the other is yours courtesy of yours truly.” A Polanski look. A Polanski laugh. “Make it a Bentley and you can bring Dunaway back to the set.”

Luckily for me, they were both nominated for Oscars, and everything else you could name.

Chinatown’s last scene brought with it the heavy luggage of deep dispute and fence-straddling second guesses.

“Ruinous . . . immoral,” said Towne. “It is not the story that I told.”

Roman saw it another way, the evil way, the unexpected. “It’s what ‘memorable’ is all about,” he said. “Demented,” Towne fought back. “That’s right,” I said. “That’s why Roman will get his way.”

Till this day, Towne vents his anger toward me. How could I have sided with Roman? Poor Robert, for all his schreien he copped his one and only Oscar for his “fucked up” Chinatown.

Later in Faye’s career she’d be the hit of all Europe and Cannes!

R88 Hahaaaaaaaa, " the hit of all Europe and Cannes!" This movie with Johnny Depp (JD also directed it) was TERRIBLE.

Faye is delusional.

R85 talking to R86 is like “She’s my daughter ... she’s my sister.”

Never Ask Faye Dunaway If She Threw Pee on Roman Polanski

“I won’t respond to that. That doesn’t even deserve the dignity of a response. I don’t know the details of that. It is absolutely ridiculous … This from the Guardian? I don’t believe it! It is insulting that you would even bring it up! My God … I turned down the Mail to do this!”

—Faye Dunaway on the rumor that she threw a cup of urine in Roman Polanski’s face when the director refused to allow bathroom breaks on the set of Chinatown.

If somebody came up to me and without warning pulled a hair out of my head I'd probably slug them.

Thank you, anti-Polanski psychotic trolls, for making it so easy to block you.

I love Chinatown. It really is a perfect film. And Faye was brilliant in it. I think she was better in this than in Network. In fact, it might be her greatest performance.

Is that when Roman plucked the hair out!

Chinatown is one of the most perfect films ever made. Obviously, Polanski had a great deal to do with this. Faye and Jack are both marvelous in it, but Faye sounds like an absolute nightmare to work with. It's amazing she kept getting jobs. Was she ever diagnosed? Is it bipolar disorder? And if so, why has she never been successfully treated?

Has Jane ever spoken about passing on this part? Any regrets?

Jane has said more than once that she was never offered the part, so didn't have the chance to pass on it.

Faye and Roman both managed to be very cordial and complimentary of each other on the Chinatown DVD documentary.

[quote] Roman Polanski Destroys Faye Dunaway

That's a silly premise for a thread, given that Done Fadeaway so publicly destroyed herself. Her insecurities. Her addictions. Her disastrous personal and professional choices, all fueled by her insecurities and her addictions.

Rinse. Repeat. What follows that is 'Down the drain.'

R98 Sorry Jane but I believe Roman Polanski, Bob Evans and Sue Mengers. The three of them corroborated the same story, at different times, that Jane Fonda was offered the part in China Town and she turned it down.

I blame dementia.