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“They don’t respect you!”
That phrase could have been uttered by any number of Hollywood directors about their temperamental stars. But at The Hollywood Reporter‘s director roundtable, it took on a special significance, as it was spoken by Ben Affleck about his own brother — Casey Affleck, whom he had cast in his first directorial effort, 2007’s Gone Baby Gone.
PHOTOS: THR’s Director Roundtable
“He’d get the sides and go, ‘This is shit,'” the Argo helmer joked to the panel of hot directors, including Gus Van Sant, Tom Hooper and Quentin Tarantino. He then relayed a funny story about his younger sibling’s unorthodox acting techniques.
“A scene we did with my brother, we set the shot up, ‘We’re gonna see down the hall, you’re gonna come into the room and f— the girl up,’” Affleck recalls. “So we start the shoot. My brother walks in and goes to another room. Everyone’s standing there. There’s an empty hallway. Nothing’s happening.”
STORY: Director Roundtable: 6 Auteurs on Tantrums, Crazy Actors and Quitting While They’re Ahead
“And I just said: ‘What are you doing? Don’t walk into another room where no one can see you!’ It was tough,” Affleck laughs. But the actor-turned-auteur admits the reason he cast Casey in his first movie was because of his brother’s sheer talent.
“I cast him because he’s such a great actor, and part of why he is a great actor is ’cause he will walk into a room where he knows the camera isn’t, whether it’s to f— with you or because he really thinks it’s real,” Affleck says.
Affleck joined fellow directors Ang Lee (Life of Pi), Tom Hooper (Les Miserables), David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook) Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained) and Gus Van Sant (Promised Land) for a roundtable discussion moderated by THR news editor Matthew Belloni and executive editor features Stephen Galloway.
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