Two examples:
Saving Private Ryan - Spielberg made the whole main cast go through 2 weeks of “hell week” boot camp. He made them suffer together.
Then he flew Matt Damon in on a private jet, put him up in a nice place, and made the rest of the cast fully aware of it.
So there was actually real animosity towards Damon for not having suffered like they did and you could feel it in the movie.
Inglorious Bastards - Quinton told Eli Roth they were going to shoot the “bear Jew” scene a certain day. He put him in the cave and filmed other things. Only to say they weren’t ready for him.
He did this I think 2 or 3 days in a row.
When Roth finally comes out you can just see in his eyes the craziness and I can’t imagine how it must have felt to finally be set free from this literal cage (cave).
What other examples do you know?
There’s some that have done extra to get the best out of young performers.
Examples would be: Room (2015) with the director making things into a game (like ‘who can scream the loudest?’); and Close (2022) where the director worked with the kids for ages before even introducing a camera.
A counter-example would be Gran Torino (2008), where the young actors aren’t particularly good ('cos Eastwood is more of a “you get two takes, and if you haven’t got in 2, you haven’t got it” kinda guy)
In some of the blu ray extras, the director of Up talked about how he coached the kid that plays Russel to get certain emotions out of him.
I don’t think it is as intense as the OPs examples. But it was kind of cool to see the behind the scenes.
Learning that about Eastwood makes me think he wasted an opportunity. The “two takes” attitude is reasonable when working with experienced adults, but when you’re working with teenagers, you have to acknowledge that they’re still learning their craft.
Now I wonder if they would have given better performances if Eastwood had been more patient and flexible.
I think common sense and the law of averages says, “yes, he absolutely wasted talent and crushed at least someone’s dreams.”
At least, assuming he did it with any regularity.