Film Fatale: Gunnery Sgt Speaks! R. Lee Ermey On Kubrick, Cruise, Kissing Menfolk

Radar, the magazine that would not die, has fighting spirit Q&A with Marine-turned-actor R. Lee Ermey, who bitchslapped some sense (and a little psychosis) into the recruits of FULL METAL JACKET. He'll be playing yet another wacko authority figure in the sequel to THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, which opens this weekend.

I'm never sure if the hard-driving Ermey, who hosts a military doc show on The Discovery Channel, is putting us on, or not. But in the Radar interview, he says that director Stanley Kubrick rang him up during the making of EYES WIDE SHUT to say he'd been bossed around by stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, and that the movie would turn out to be a "piece of shit

What did Kubrick mean by this? Ermey's answer dispels any notion of Kubrick as overbearing control freak. "He was kind of a shy little timid guy," says Ermey. "He wasn't real forceful. That's why he didn't appreciate working with big, high-powered actors. They would have their way with him, he would lose control, and his movie would turn to shit."

Read it all--nobody gives good quote like a Marine.

Comments

Lee Ermey must be full of sh*t. In an interview for Todd Field's IN THE BEDROOM, Field was quoted as saying that initially he'd been interested in Lee Ermey for the role that he ultimtely cast with Tom Wilkinson. But Field said that when he asked Kubrick what he thought of Ermey, that Kubrick said, "DON'T DO IT."

Field went on to recount that he was left with the impression that Kubrick felt Ermey had some very serious emotional, and possibly personal issues that made Ermey unreliable as an actor. Field did not go into any detail about what those issues were.

Posted by: Mark Shane | October 4, 2006 04:47 PM

Good God! I can't imagine Ermey playing the lead role in IN THE BEDROOM, and not just because Tom Wilkinson is such a subtle and sensitive actor who wins your sympathy even when he's supposed to be playing a "bad guy" (as in THE PATRIOT).

Ermey's performance in FULL METAL JACKET has become the standard by which all hardcore sargeants are judged. If he's ever had a chance to show his hidden depths as an actor or a person, I haven't had a chance to see those films or read those interviews.

Posted by: Justine_FilmFatale | October 5, 2006 11:04 AM

What is Gunney R. Lee Remey email address?

Posted by: Mike Henry | August 3, 2007 10:37 PM

Here's the website for his show, MAIL CALL on the History Channel...there's an email and snail mail info on there.

Posted by: Justine_FilmFatale | August 4, 2007 05:38 PM