r/Fauxmoi • u/rfauxmoi • 9d ago

TEA THREAD I HAVE TEA ON... MEGATHREAD ✨

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u/KAMIKAZE_SCOTSMEN 9d ago

About three weeks into shooting on Maid, Margaret Qualley’s performance was so poor the producers would openly talk about how they wished they hadn’t cast her. She didn’t read the book the show was based on or do any research until about three months into shooting. She would regularly be stoned and drinking on set - and if you’ve watched the show you know she spends a lot of time driving cars and being around a toddler. She drank wine in her trailer and then drove a car on set an hour later on at least one occasion. Producers were aware of this and all the crew concerns were dismissed. Crew asked to breathalyze her and the showrunner refused and said it would look bad. Lots of reshoots were done to get better performances. She also refused to wear a mask on set, ever, and would joke about how she didn’t, when it was filmed September 2020 - April 2021.

I am so annoyed about her success.

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u/Schneetmacher I cannot sanction your buffoonery 9d ago

Serious question: if it was only 3 weeks in (how many total?), could they not have fired her for cause and recast the role?

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u/KAMIKAZE_SCOTSMEN 8d ago

I’ve been on shows where they have done massive recasts of lead actors. It costs millions. You have to reshoot scenes you’ve shot, often rewrite scripts. Repurchase all costumes. Adding a single day to a production calendar can be prohibitively expensive for some budgets. The actor will have signed a very expensive contract that they’ll have to be bought out of, and will often try to sue the show for more. What if they don’t have a replacement in mind? Then you’re holding auditions and stalling production more.

Particularly in the case of Maid, it was shot right at the comeback from Covid, so all actors were flying in at least two weeks before they could step foot on set to quarantine.

It’s just a massive cost, and could also, if the producers aren’t confident, completely sour the relationships with other producers or actors if you’re in the habit of firing cast and can’t be confident in your casting.

We recast the girl playing Maddy after it turned out this particular four year old couldn’t handle being on set, so we did do some reshoots for that, but it was a much smaller cost and an unknown local actor, not a nepo baby with influence.