‘Mank’ star says one shot with Gary Oldman took 50 takes

By Toby Earle

 

Gary Oldman as Herman Mankiewicz in 'Mank'. Credit: Alamy / Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

 

Actor Ferdinand Kingsley has revealed that director David Fincher asked him and Gary Oldman to perform a scene nearly 50 times while filming new movie Mank.

 

The biographical drama stars Oldman as screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz as he struggles to write the script for Citizen Kane, with Kingsley playing wunderkind producer Irving Thalberg, who brought iconic works including Ben Hur and The Hunchback of Notre Dame to cinemas.

 

In an interview with NME Kingsley shared his experience of Fincher’s “intensive” filming process, which features multiple takes of the same scene.

 

“He’s intensive insofar as he doesn’t take his foot off the gas. You spend very little time not acting, not doing a take,” said Kingsley. “The turnarounds take about 90 seconds. The crew are military, so almost all the time on set is spent doing takes and you do a lot. You do 30, 40, 50, 60 takes a shot.”

 

Full Story: https://www.nme.com/news/film/mank-star-says-one-shot-with-gary-oldman-took-50-takes-2835766

I enjoyed the film very much, tho there were clanger bits. The photography & lighting are exceptionally brilliant. 50-60 takes? Beats installing dome lights in car factory all day I reckon

Sounds like hard work, but nothing like working in a Siberian salt mine, manning a toll booth, on the New Jersey Turnpike, sanitation or roofing work in Miami, or other heavy construction work, mining in the Outback during the summer, construction on an oil platform, being a mining roof bolter, being an E-waste recycler, building scaffolding, driving a taxi in Bangkok, driving a truck cross country, doing brickmason work, grave digging in the third world, or being a machine operator in a factory. I could go on. There are hundreds of jobs in this world that are tough, exhausting, both mentally and physically, hard on the body, toxic on the body, and just plain unpleasant. And many do not pay well.

 

Acting? Probably not one of them. And especially if you are at Oldman's level, where you are getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a week, to work your craft. So what if the film director is demanding. Deal with it. It is still far easier than what most of us do for a living!

Fincher's well known for dozens of takes over the years. Seen stories about Mindhunter and Zodiac.

 

https://www.theringer.com/movies/2020/9/21/21446089/david-fincher-profile-director-set-stories

 

Amanda Seyfried said one of her scenes in Mank required a week's shooting and 200 takes, although she admits that may be an exaggeration.

 

Curious which scene it was with Oldman though? My guess: it was the one where he suggests to Thalberg that anyone who can make King Kong look 10 stories tall should be able influence an election?

 

 

Also, Bill Nye as Upton Sinclair. Check.