With 13 films and a television series, Jean-Jacques Annaud may not have the longest list of works of art of any director, but he has nevertheless made himself immortal with a few films. One of his most famous works is The Name of the Rose from 1986. It is also the film in which he his worst experience with airs and graces has made.
F. Murray Abraham insulted fellow actor Sean Connery on The Name of the Rose
Annaud was a guest at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon in 2023 and gave his masterclass there. Deadline reported on his stories about the experiences he had with actors. Among other things, he talked about how he finds castings tiring and how you have to deal with stars. Apparently he has developed a very good method for himself because he just from a negative experience with a cast member knew to report:
My only bad memory of an actor ever in my entire career – and I think I’ve directed thousands of actors – was F. Murray Abraham, who played the Inquisitor [in Der Name der Rose] played.
According to his own statements, he was actually warned about Sean Connery, but the director describes him as one “absolute dream”. F. Murray Abraham, on the other hand, was arrogant and, according to the director, would have looked down on his colleague Connery.
He said: ‘I have the Oscar and he’s an old idiot.’ They were both late because Sean didn’t want to wait for F. Murray and F. Murray didn’t want to wait for Sean…it was like being in the schoolyard.
It was Abraham who pushed the envelope further and further. Finally he came late for his last day of filming. The director couldn’t let this go any longer. When the actor didn’t show up for the shoot until midday, even though he should have been there in the morning, Annaud was prepared.
He came to me and I said, ‘No problem, we moved your last day of filming to the end of filming. The people there are lawyers and bailiffs, you are violating your contract. You will stay here and pay your expenses out of your own pocket.’ He looked at me and said: ‘Touché’. He stayed on his own dime and we shot his last scene on the last day.
Connery and Abraham probably didn’t become close friends after filming. But at least they were professional enough to work for Forrester – Found! again in 2000. to appear in front of the camera together.
A thematically similar article appeared on our sister sites AlloCiné and FILMSTARTS.