A filmmaker can indeed go to any extent to get his best shot. The dedication is appreciable unless it lands him in trouble. Something similar happened with Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone. While filming his 1986 film, Platoon, the director required a little girl to perform a scene.
Since he wasn’t getting his perfect shot, the director sought out other ways, and he ended up making the little girl cry. The whole situation landed Stone in serious trouble. However, since Johnny Depp was present on the set at that time, he smoothly handled the situation, and he even showed compassion for the little crying girl.
Johnny Depp condemned the director’s way of getting his work done
Johnny Depp has appeared in some incredible films throughout his career. One such film is Platoon, in which he played the role of a Gator Lerner. The film focuses on the harrowing Vietnam War. The film is really close to the director’s heart as it is based on his real-life experience. Since Stone has closely experienced the war, he wanted everything to look authentic and natural in the movie so that the audience could connect with it the same way he did.
There was a scene in the film where the director wanted to depict the melancholy of the innocent inhabitants of Vietnamese villages. Stone required a young girl to act distressed. To make the scene look real, the director decided to go to extreme measures to induce real tears. Since the little girl was not a professional actor, she found it really hard to yield the desired results, but Stone was adamant about getting one, so he started yelling at the girl.
This whole scene was witnessed by a member of the Philippine Constabulary Police, who was present on the set at that moment. He got disgusted by Stone’s behavior and started looking for his gun. At that moment, Depp intervened to handle the chaotic situation.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star narrated the incident in a documentary. He said,
“She couldn’t have been more than nine. Oliver’s strategy of bringing real tears to the little girl’s face was a bit much. He raised his voice, and it went on for far longer than it needed to. These people aren’t actors.”
Further, the actor explained that the police member
“reached in for his weapon, it was coming out, and, it was moving forward, and I went ‘Fuck’, and I put my arms round his wrist”.
Fortunately, things were settled soon, and the cop dismissed the case by warning the crew members that such harassment should never happen again with anyone on the set. However, later, Stone finished his scene, and the film was finally completed. However, the filming certainly gave the crew members a memory for life.
What inspired Olive Stone to make Platoon?
The 1986 film Platoon is based on the real-life experience of director Oliver Stone. The film focuses on the horrifying incidents of the Vietnam War. When Stone was 19, he went through a tough phase as he failed to have his book published, and he was even struggling at his university.
At that time, he decided to become a soldier in Vietnam. Previously, during an interview, the director talked about his vision to make a war-based film. Stone said,
“I really thought I needed to see what the world was really, really, really like. I’d seen enough of it in Vietnam [while teaching in Saigon], because the war was starting up then. But I didn’t see the real jungle. So I said, ‘I’m not going to shoot myself, I’m not going to put a bullet in my head, no.
But I am going to take this risk, and I’m going to go out there and see what happens, and if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.’ I did have that fatalism about it, you know? Also, I was a good Christian at that point, too, in the sense it was up to God. I don’t know that I could say that now, but [back then it was] roll the dice.”
Stone’s vision reached his audience smoothly, and the film was a critical and commercial success. The film featured Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Johnny Depp, and Kevin Dillon in the lead roles.
Source: Far Out
