Yesterday, one of this week’s big internet buzzes, the Star Wars Steampunk drawings, came up in the daily FCT posting. Today, it’s the other big buzz of the nanosecond: two bootleg outtakes of Lily Tomlin and director David O. Russell losing their respective shit on the set of I Heart Huckabees. If you were offended in any way by that previous sentence, don’t search out the two clips on YouTube; for the remaining four people who haven’t already seen ‘em, just go to YouTube and do a search for “Lily Tomlin;” you’ll find the outtakes in no time.
That they leaked out isn’t much of a surprise; the public has always enjoyed preserved examples of celebrities going nuts, whether it was legendary Jazz drummer Buddy Rich ranking out his band back in the day; The Troggs getting inarticulate in the studio; Casey Kasem going ballistic over a long-distance dedication; Orson Wells bitching about peas during a voice-over session; or Liam and Noel Gallagher of Oasis going at each other’s throats mid-interview. That last one’s my favorite, because the journalist, John Harris (author of The Dark Side of the Moon: The Making of the Pink Floyd Masterpiece, an excellent book about an album I don’t especially care for), sold the tape and the resulting CD, Wibbling Rivalry, actually climbed to #52 on the UK charts.
Those examples, though, are all audio files—souvenirs of a different age. There’s something humorous about hearing them, like eavesdropping on the other side of a door as events unfold badly. Video, on the other hand, makes it all more immediate—and more uncomfortable. Sure, there’s delicious irony when Russell bursts into the room, screaming that Tomlin should act like “a grown up,” but overall, the whole thing is pretty sad.
Most artists, whatever their form of art, tend to be, shall we say, rather emotional. There’s plenty of research to back this up, but all you really need to do is think back and recall the people who populated your high school’s drama club. Did they have an aneurysm when people called them “drammies” or “dramaramas?” Then you see my point. So add a few decades of experience, mix in millions of dollars and boatloads of pressure, and you wind up with tirades like these outtakes. The people involved are human; the people around them are grateful when the AD tells them to clear the set; and probably everyone involved is more than a little embarrassed that the clips got out.
All this underlines the fact yet again that in a media-saturated age, everything you’ve ever done now goes on your permanent record. With the immediacy of video, one bad afternoon three or four years ago, becomes a story that even The New York Times is covering—as if it happened today. And as if it even matters. The point is, it gives critics ammo and it makes folks (largely Russell more than Tomlin, in this case) look terrible. The grand irony is that the real person without class is the one who leaked the clips in the first place.
For better or worse, any creative space has to be a safety zone where actors can read a line the wrong way; singers can hit 20 bum notes in a row; writers can create the world’s worst first draft; and, yes, directors can blow their cool. Just how far can you push it before it becomes intolerable is besides the point; the creative process doesn’t have a roadmap and sometimes you have to go in the wrong direction before you figure out how to get from A to B. To really get those creative juices flowing, people need to know that they’re safe to make mistakes in pursuit of their best work and they won’t be held up to ridicule for it. As a result, the scumbag who leaked these clips violated the trust of every member of the cast or crew on that movie set.
If you’re involved in producing a fan film, there’s plenty to take away from these clips. If you’re acting, create that safe space while trying to keep communication open enough that train wrecks like these don’t happen. If you’re the director, don’t go bats on your actors. Are you the editor? Don’t make like the idiots who screwed over the Star Wars Kid or the person who leaked these clips by plastering your outtakes all over the web. And perhaps most of all, even if your production went smooth as silk and everyone had the time of their lives, if you made a terrible fan film that will make all involved wince in agony at the mere mention of it, for God’s sake, don’t put it online, because it will haunt you for the rest of your days. Remember: The self respect you save just may be your own.
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