Why Harvey Keitel Got Fired by Stanley Kubrick While Filming 'Eyes Wide Shut'
“Mr. Kubrick did some things I objected to,” Keitel explained.
Harvey Keitel is one of Hollywood’s living legends. The actor has worked with some of the most distinguished directors in history, including Martin Scorsese (Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, The Irishman) and Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs).
As a huge fan of Tarantino’s films, I’ve always loved Keitel, especially for his performance in Reservoir Dogs. (I also rather enjoyed his performance in the Michael Crichton thriller Rising Sun.)
So when I saw a clip on Twitter featuring Keitel, it naturally caught my attention. It turns out Harvey was initially cast in Eyes Wide Shut, the terrifying Stanley Kubrick masterpiece (which I recently re-watched), as Victor Ziegler, an important role that ultimately went to the talented Sydney Pollack (1934-2008).
It’s worth watching the clip below to understand why Keitel didn’t finish filming. (WARNING: the clip contains profanity.)
Keitel admitted that Kubrick is a genius, but apparently he grew tired of the director’s perfectionism and tendency to shoot scenes over and over and over. (This is one reason Eyes Wide Shut is in the Guinness Book of World Records, having the distinction of the longest constant movie shoot, which ran "for over 15 months, a period that included an unbroken shoot of 46 weeks.")
What precisely happened is unclear, but apparently Keitel mentioned something to Kubrick about the many takes, and the Lolita director did not appreciate it.
“Mr. Kubrick did some things I objected to,” Keitel explained. “I didn’t like it. I thought they were disrespectful. And I won’t be disrespected by him or anybody.”
Keitel said he was fired over the flap—which he admits is never desirable—but check out his response to an interviewer’s question on why he pushed back after being (in his mind) disrespected.
“Was that the Brooklyn in you,” Keitel is asked.
“That’s the sense of worth in me,” Keitel responded.
There’s a powerful lesson here for those who care to see it, one that turns the Marxist concept of power on its head and reveals the power of exit, voluntaryism, and human action.
Keitel may have lost a job, but he refused to give away his agency—not to a studio and not even to Stanley Kubrick.
This isn’t to say that Kubrick is a villain or anything. He had his own way of making movies, and he was brilliant at it.
The point is the lines between artistic integrity, self respect, and professional success are different for everyone. Where people choose to draw the lines is up to them, but Harvey Keitel shows that in a free system, we do have a choice.
Kubrick was a great filmmaker, but Eyes Wide Shut is a dreadful unpleasant movie.
Have you seen the Bad Lieutenant. That to put it mildly, is something else!