There are a few Hollywood directors that are very tough to work with and the name of David Fincher pops right on top in the list. Several celebrities have revealed the traumatic experience of Hollywood’s Perfectionist which include Jake Gyllenhaal.
When David Fincher was directing the 2014 mystery thriller Gone Girl starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike in the lead, Matt Damon paid a visit to witness the director’s process. It was painful, the actor revealed later.
Matt Damon’s Visit to David Fincher’s Gone Girl Set
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have been best of friends for decades. Although Damon himself never appeared in any David Fincher movie, his best friend Affleck did. While visiting the Batman star on the set of Gone Girl, Damon witnessed the director’s unique style of directing and the fact that he is a very hard man to please. “I have never worked with Fincher but Ben worked with Fincher, Affleck did,” Damon said in The Bill Simmons Podcast.
“So, I went down and visited the set one day and what I’ve heard from both Steven [Soderberg] and from Ben having worked with him is it’s Fincher is like has that Kubrick thing like he can’t unsee what he sees.”
Damon sat behind the director while filming Gone Girl. “He was directing and it was this scene where Ben and Rosamund Pike walk into this bookstore,” Damon said recalling the set. “And so the camera was down the aisle of books so it sees them down the aisle open the door come in and then as they walk down the camera dollies with them at the far end of the bookstore and walks down and then they eventually enter an aisle,” he added.
However, the scene was far from ending. As Damon revealed that he would notice the tiniest of details of what he is seeing on the big monitor placed before the director. Fincher’s satisfaction is not always favorable for the actors as they had to go through the repetitive cycle of acting in the movie.
David Fincher Was Super Angry on Gone Girl Set
As Damon was witnessing the kissing scene of Pike and Affleck with his headphones on, the background actors ruined the scene. “They call background which is for the extras that people in the bookstore and then yell action,” Damon said. “So, when he calls background in an action a background actor walks across the frame,” he added.
“Then Ben and Rosman enter the bookstore and the scenes about to start but Fincher is already monologuing. He’s going, ‘who the f*cks walks like that’ and it’s the background artist that he’s that is it just instantly caught his eye. I mean, ‘What the f*cks was that? What the f*cks, was like that nobody walks like that. They’ve now been in bras men are on the other side of this bookstore and they’re doing the scene but Fincher’s just still talking about this. And I’m sitting here going like ‘oh my God they’re definitely gonna do the scene again.’”
Although it was not a major scene in the movie, they “get through the whole scene they’re acting their hearts out.” The Bourne actor said that the scene was great but it didn’t matter. The background artists walked wrong and ruined the scene upsetting the director. When the make-up artist came forward to brush Pike’s head, Fincher’s pointed out to her saying that’s how a person walks.
Damon recently appeared in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, currently showing in theaters.
Source: YouTube.
