There are new allegations of Francis Ford Coppola's bad behavior on the Megalopolis set
"There were times when we were all standing around going: ‘Has this guy ever made a movie before?'" one crew member commented
Francis Ford Coppola isn’t exactly known for being the most cuddly and nurturing guy, especially if those traits would come at the expense of his art. The set of Apocalypse Now was famously so chaotic that it led to a near-fatal heart attack for its star and an entire documentary chronicling the madness of its production—not to mention the real live water buffalo that was slaughtered on camera, and so many other things that would cement it as a classic decades later, but certainly would not have flown today.
So it comes as no surprise that there would be some complaints from the set of Megalopolis, the director’s greatest (in his opinion) and potentially final film ever. We’ve already gotten wind of some of them. Back in January, there were reports of mass crew walkouts and ballooning budgets—ones that came as no surprise considering the fact that Coppola spent 40-odd years writing and rewriting the project, which he funded largely out of his own pocket.
Now, just days ahead of the film’s premiere at Cannes, The Guardian has a long piece fleshing out some of those behind the scenes claims from members of the crew. There’s essentially one real allegation here. According to the report, the director tried to kiss several female extras during a nightclub scene because he was “trying to get them in the mood.” He also allegedly pulled some women to sit on his lap.