LEE’S GRUELLING SHOOT LEFT ACTOR IN HOSPITAL OTHERS WET, COLD AND DEPRESSED
SPIKE LEE forced the cast of his war movie MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA to suffer so much on set, one actor ended up in hospital.
The movie was shot over a wet and cold Italian winter, after actors had been subjected to a gruelling and demeaning boot camp, intended to recreate World War II conditions.
And a combination of Lee’s demands, bad eating and the conditions left The Wire actor Michael K. Williams in hospital.
He tells WENN, "My character has a nervous breakdown in the field, and to sustain that constant state of agitation for that many hours it kind of got to me. I had that jet lag thing going on and skipped a couple of meals. Then I was face down in the field and they had to get me to a hospital for an IV (intravenous drip). I wasn’t producing Vitamin B." Italian actress Valentina Cervi adds of the conditions on location, "We were all wet, and we were filming in two degrees below zero (Celsius). It rains in Italy a lot in the winter, and we were shooting in December. For the last sequence it took two weeks, and he (Lee) wanted us wet the entire time. It was hard sometimes." And Omar Benson Miller, who plays a private, describes the boot camp as "the bottom of the bottom," adding, "They treated me like trash. In boot camp, they treated me like a mule. I was always carrying the extra equipment and fetching the firewood. They were picking on me all the time. I had to keep my cool." Miracle At St.Anna is set for release on 26 September (08).
Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)
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