The TÁR director says Tom Cruise once told him exactly how to keep his first film, In the Bedroom, from being sabotaged by Weinstein’s heavy meddling.
Miramax Films
Todd Field‘s latest film TÁR, about a power-hungry conductor (played by Cate Blanchett) who is ultimately forced to reckon with a history of sexual misconduct, is currently receiving high critical acclaim.
TÁR is the first film in 16 years from the indie director since 2006’s Little Children, which was nominated for three Academy Awards and followed up on Field’s 2001 directorial debut In the Bedroom.
In the Bedroom was met with a ton of praise when it first premiered at Sundance Film Festival. Still, as Field recounts in a recent interview with the New Yorker, the film was at risk of becoming another victim of Harvey Weinstein’s creative plundering.
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As an executive producer, Weinstein was known to make unwanted and excessive creative assertions over the films he acquired, often undermining the original filmmaker’s original vision.
After finding out his debut was bought by Weinstein’s Miramax, Field says he worried his film’s theatrical release would suffer under Weinstein’s weighty demands:
“I was weeping in the bathroom.”
Fields said he found a helpful ally in Tom Cruise, who, like a master chess player, told him exactly how to handle the situation:
“I called up Tom Cruise and said, ‘Something terrible has happened.’ He basically said, ‘This is how you’re going to play it. It’s going to take you six months, and you’ll beat him, but you have to do exactly what I’m going to tell you to do, step by step.’”
Cruise told him the long game he needed to play was to let Weinstein make every change his heart desired. Then, when his crude revision of the film inevitably tests poorly, remind Weinstein of the original version that theater audiences loved so well.
Fields took the advice, and lo and behold, the strategy worked: In the Bedroom became a critical success, earning five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Related: She Said: How The Dramatization Accurately Portrays Weinstein’s Crimes
Cate Blanchett Responds to ‘Anti-Woman’ TÁR Criticism from Real-Life Conductor
Focus Features
Cate Blanchett, who portrays the classical composer-conductor at the center of writer-director Todd Field’s latest film TÁR, has received criticism from real-life conductor Marin Alsop.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Alsop said about the film:
“I was offended: I was offended as a woman, I was offended as a conductor, I was offended as a lesbian… To have an opportunity to portray a woman in that role and to make her an abuser — for me that was heartbreaking.”
Blanchett took the opportunity to respond to the criticism of her fictional character inTÁR from the real-life conductor, saying about the film:
“I think that power is a corrupting force no matter what one’s gender is. I think it affects all of us.”
Blanchett notes although the character of Lydia Tár is loosely based on Alsop (who is explicitly mentioned by name in the film), her character had many inspirations: “I looked at so many different conductors, but I also looked at novelists and visual artists and musicians of all stripes.” Blanchett adds, “It’s a very non-literal film.”
You can view the original article HERE.
