MovieChat Forums > The Collector (1965) Discussion > Creepy William Wyler

Creepy William Wyler

posted 12 years ago by ometr
5 replies | jump to latest

FROM TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES:

During the filming of The Collector, Wyler lived up to his infamous reputation for shooting countless takes of a scene and probably the most punishing sequence for Eggar was the love scene between her and Stamp when she had to appear nude before her co-star, the crew and director. The actress recalled, "...we shot that love scene for what seemed like weeks. I kept wondering why I had to stand there with no clothes on when they were only shooting me from the shoulders up. Willy always used to sit, and it was a strange level where his eyes were."

[–] bron-tay 12 years ago

Surprise surprise. Another beautiful young actress to be abused by older male artistes was Romy Schneider, who ultimately committed suicide. Another was Julie Christie (by Rod Steiger in Dr. Zhivago).

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Please put some dashes above your sig line so I won't think it's part of your dumb post.

[–] ometr 12 years ago

...unless you're Roy Boulting. He got Hayley Mills to do a nude scene in The Family Way (1966) and married her later on.

[–] doug7347 12 years ago

On another occasion Samantha Eggar has said that she "absolutely adored" Wyler, and "as a human being I just really loved the man and his family".

http://media.usm.maine.edu/~wmpg/archivefiles/Dinman/DVDCC_111125.mp3

It doesn't seem like the attitude anyone would have about someone you thought had been leering at your nude body.

Willi Wyler was a notorious perfectionist, who put Laurence Olivier through 50 takes for "Wuthering Heights" and Charlton Heston through 100 takes for "Ben Hur"!
If he put Samantha Eggar through many takes on her nude scene that would have been standard Wyler technique. Unlike Alfred Hitchcock, Wyler did not have a reputation as a womanizer or lecher.

Perhaps this supposed incident is merely a fabrication by Wyler's biographer, cited as a reference for the TCM story as a whole.

[–] ometr 12 years ago

Eggar could be contradicting herself.
Here's the source about Wyler:
A Talent for Trouble: The Life of Hollywood's Most Acclaimed Director William Wyler by Jan Herman (G.P. Putnam's Sons).

[–] doug7347 12 years ago

It was selective quotation by TCM in the "sex sells" tradition. A paragraph in the Herman book that follows soon after says:

'Wyler's reputation from earlier days -- notably having affairs with his leading ladies or being a little bit in love with them -- never crossed Eggars mind. "When I was nude," she remembers, "he said I looked like a little boy. I hardly call that being in love. He said I had a good ass."'