35 Fascinating Facts about Movie Directors

Director Roman Polanski pleaded guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl in 1977 but fled the USA to avoid charges. This is why his 2011 film Carnage starring Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, and John C. Reilly although set in New York was actually filmed in Paris.

27. Spider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts has his own collection of pet spiders, including rare South American ones.

28. David Ayer, the director of the film ‘Fury’, pushed the cast to physically spar each other, causing many black eyes and bloody noses. Also, the actors were forced to live in the tank together for a long time where they ate, slept and defecated.

29. Tod Browning, director of the 1931 film “Dracula” had nightmares and difficulty sleeping during the filming of his next project, the 1932 cult film, “Freaks” due to the vaudeville performers despite his own previous sideshow and vaudeville performances.

30. American History X director Tony Kaye was so dissatisfied with the final cut of the film he spent $100,000 of his own money to take out 35 full-page ads in the Hollywood trade press denouncing Norton and the producer, using quotations from a variety of people from John Lennon to Abraham Lincoln.

Steven Spielberg purposely did not allow Matt Damon to attend the pre-production Boot Camp for actors in Saving Private Ryan so that the remaining cast would build up genuine resentment for his character.

32. When J.J. Abrams chose to have John Williams score ‘The Force Awakens’, he gave his frequent composer/collaborator Michael Giacchino a role as stormtrooper FN-3181 in the raid on Jakku as an apology.

33. Christopher Nolan believes that audiences can sense when things are actually there instead of just being all computer-generated, which is why he constructed large-scale practical sets for spacecraft in “Interstellar”, including both the interior and parts of the exterior.

34. Quentin Tarantino didn't go to film school, and has said: “When people ask me if I went to film school, I tell them, ‘No, I went to films’.”

35. When Martin Scorsese read the book Wiseguy, which he would eventually adapt into the classic mob film Goodfellas, he called author Nicholas Pileggi and said, “I’ve been waiting for this book my entire life” to which Pileggi replied, “I’ve been waiting for this phone call my entire life.”