"Mank" star Ferdinand Kingsley is recalling what it was like to work on the film with David Fincher, whose "intensive" directing style had his actors do hundreds of takes for one scene. In an interview with NME published Thursday, Kingsley opened up about his experience with the man rumored to be one of the most demanding directors.
"He’s intensive insofar as he doesn’t take his foot off the gas. You spend very little time not acting, not doing a take," Kingsley said. "The turnarounds take about 90 seconds. The crew are military, so almost all the time on set is spent doing takes and you do a lot. You do 30, 40, 50, 60 takes a shot."
Kingsley recalled one scene in "Mank" that featured him and Gary Oldman, which had to be redone 50 times. It did not come close to the number of retakes other actors had to do.
"Gary and I did one shot 40-something, 50-ish times. I think the record on the shoot was either 74 or 78 and that was a scene with Gary, Tom Pelphrey, and Arliss Howard in a walking and talking scene. So they all got blisters," he said.
"They’re walking around the MGM studio lot and it’s a brilliant shot. I think David [Fincher] said his record is 104 takes. When I asked if we were going to beat that he swore at me. That was when he filmed Panic Room and he said it was a stunt. I can’t imagine what it was like."
Amanda Seyfried could argue that number. The actress previously told Collider she had to redo a scene in "Mank" roughly 200 times.
"I can't tell you how many takes we did, but I would guess 200, maybe I could be wrong and could be way off," she said. "Um, I could be underestimating by five days of one scene when I didn't have one line."
Kingsley admitted Fincher was precise about how he approached filming but said he could appreciate the director's vision.
"The first four or five takes are him setting up the visual to perfection. He’ll nudge your camera a 10th of a millimeter to the left, or he’ll tell you to put your weight on your arse cheek one degree more. That’s where you’re working out the visual precision – then he’s just lasered in on your performance and it’s amazing. He’ll give you four or five notes after each take and after eight takes, you’re thinking, 'Okay, I’ve now got 40 notes,'" Kingsley said.
"Then you think, 'I’m not sure I’m doing any of these. I might just be an acting robot because I’ve forgotten how to do them.' But you then come up the other side and realize you’re doing something you’d discussed about two hours ago. I’ve internalized it and he’s got past me trying to do it. Fincher knows how to help actors. It didn’t feel stressful and it didn’t feel like a grueling experience. It wasn’t SAS acting."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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