Comments on: 10 Actors Cut From Terrence Malick Films & How They Reacted

By: Oliver Lyttelton

Oliver Lyttelton — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

Nick Offerman is in Knight of Cups? Ron Swanson is in a Terrence Malick film? That's made my year.

Also, great piece, Jess.

By: Ted

Ted — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

I have zero sympathy for anyone post-The Thin Red Line. It's obvious by now that Malick creates his films in the editing room, that's his style. If you sign up for one of his projects, you should know there is a non-trivial chance you'll be cut or reduced and complaining about it after the fact is just moronic. If you want a film that stays closer to the script, then don't sign up for a Malick project.

By: DG

DG — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

I like this writers style. I feel like Penn and Plumer's assessment of Malick's process/style is spot on. I've never read the Tree of Life script but I'd imagine if there was more narrative (as Penn says there was) it couldn't have done anything but help the movie. I mean I love Badlands as much as the next guy but it's kind of crazy that he keeps cutting actors and making really polarizing films (most people seem to either adore his work or find it pretentious to the point of silliness) yet people still line up to work with him. I wonder if that will still be the case in five years if all of his movies keep following in the footsteps of TOL/To the Wonder?

By: Webster Skyhorse

Webster Skyhorse — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

But Rourke being cut WAS politics — there's a Nolte documentary out there which includes an anecdote. . . Nolte and Medavoy are lunching with Malick pre-TRL and Rourke walks past. Malick says he wants Rourke in the cast, that he loves Rourke. Medavoy says no way, it won't fly. Compromise: Malick gets Rourke, but then gets bored with the actor's past beefs with execs becoming a factor in the cutting and deciding which elder actors and which newcomers get ultimate focus.

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

Cue Paul Mahler Jr. to come and add his pretentious farts to this article in 3.. 2…1…

By: egghead

egghead — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

Lukas Haas was in the final cut, though his part was trimmed immensely. He has no lines, only reaction shots mostly and a short scene of him dying in someones arms.

By: yer

yer — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

Glad to see a filmmaker who sticks to his guns. He creates his vision and no one elses and that's why he still remains one of the most unique directors around.

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

Great article. But you forgot a big one: Richard Gere in Days of Heaven. "We shot a much more richly verbal movie, with much more high emotions, much more dramatic. And when I came to loop the movie and I saw that it wasn't that, I clearly was not too happy about that because all of us could have saved a lot of brain cells in the process."

By: The Stand-Up Guy

The Stand-Up Guy — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

Malick is a hack and he's obviously not a very upfront or honest person. Just because he's an artist doesn't mean he can just drag people along for 6 months and put them through hell and just cut them. There's something called being a stand-up person. People like Pt Anderson and Richard Linklater are very upfront and honest with their actors from most accounts. It seems that Malick didn't even tell many of these actors that they could be cut and not just cut but cut completely. Doing that to Adrian Brody is just a crappy thing to do.

Seriously, Tree of Life was sooo ridiculous. Such pretentious bull it's unbelievable. The exalting the beauty of nature has been done soooooo many times. It's not original! Look at every bad poem out there. "The sun, the moon, the beautiful waves blah blah" we get it. I look out at nature every day here in VT. The guy isn't interested in people. He treats actors like Hitchcock treated actors, like cattle and that's BS.

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

Janit Baldwin is most likely the first actor to get cut completely from a Malick film. She played Sissy Spacek's best friend in 'Badlands' but is nowhere to be seen in the finished film.

By: Noel Duffy

Noel Duffy — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

Im about to shoot my first movie and have been fucking around for the past six days worried about a connecting scene for a complex plot explanation. Bollox to it let shoot the movie and see what happens when I arrive there. Malick and Herzog are right. Actors winging on about their fucking scenes in a Mallick movie.

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

This seems like a large waste of money.

By: Beck

Beck — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

I wish someone would re-cut The Thin Red Line. I liked it, but an Adrian Brody/Mickey Rouke version with Bill Pullman and Lukas Haas sounds even better.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

Regardless of Malick's talent or lack thereof as a filmmaker, regardless of whether actors know going in their roles could be cut, out of professional courtesy if nothing else he should let them know. If the producer could email one of the actors to let them know, I don't see why Malick gets a pass on doing the same thing.

That said, all actors considering working with him should take note of Affleck's 'me or the tree' comment as that seems to truly sum up Malick's attitude towards his cast.

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

Im just puzzled by the amount of actors that queue up to work with him, Bale, Portman, Gosling, Mara, etc. Just wasting their time making a Malick movie, time that could be better spent making better films with better filmmakers. I hope my favorites Joaquin Phoenix, Hoffman and Amy Adams never do a Malick film.

By: Edward Copeland

Edward Copeland — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

We really need a way to communicate with the many trees, plants and wildlife not deemed worthy enough to make it into a final Malick cut. How do they feel? Are their leaves not good enough? Though I think it's particularly funny that anyone thinks his or her part got cut for narrative reasons. That would presuppose a Malick film having a narrative in the first place. Why all these actors think it's so prestigious to work with this man who Haskell Wexler describes as "weird" boggles my mind. Outside his cult, with each new film Malick looks more and more like he's cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. He needs to make nature documentaries and leave features to storytellers.

By: Douglas Urbanski

Douglas Urbanski — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

If there is a nastier person in the film industry, I have yet to meet him or her. Saving it all for my book!

By: jawsnnn

jawsnnn — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

I don't find Malick's films particularly engaging, and I don't think they are masterpieces. However, they are not trash either. It is a unique vision from a unique person, and while I do not admire it, I understand it. Since he has been in the industry for many many decades now, and has a reputation for cutting roles and irking his crew… anyone grumbling about his ways is being a little petulant.

By: FRANKED

FRANKED — Fri, 13 May 2016 10:13:25 +0000

3 years later Frank, we\’re still waiting, this was a sloppy article, bah humbug.