After putting out an article (on this website) about how fake news gets almost double the tweets than real news, I felt really sad. Why are people so drawn to insults and negativity? Why do fake stories sell more than true ones ? Is it human nature? It was disconcerting to see, in an article about me, how an anecdote about “the boys club” on a set gets turned into a vicious piece of nonsense. I was talking about a moment when a camera operator lied to me about a shot to protect the male star! It wasn’t even an argument, it was just an interesting thing to observe about relationships between men and women. The person who wrote this article obviously was never on a set or has no experience making movies! People have good days and bad days they have good moments and bad moments. It’s all under the umbrella of the creative process. It wasn’t even a fight, it was an observation. I don’t have “numerous fights with male stars and cameramen” as The Week somehow drew from a simple anecdote which I told to the Variety reporter, whose story “The Week” chose to condense.

A good crew becomes a family, and I’ve stayed in touch with many members of those families over the years. The truth is, I’ve had splendid relationships with my cameramen and The American Society of Cinematographers honored me with their Board of Governors Award. I was happy to have the opportunity to thank all the wonderful cameramen I’ve worked with, like Harry Stradling, Gordon Willis, James Wong Howe, Laszlo Kovacs, David Watkin, and Andrzej Bartkowiak, to name a few. And I have retained warm, loving relationships with many of my leading men…Kris Kristofferson, Robert Redford, Nick Nolte, George Segal, Ryan O’Neal, Jeff Bridges, and Pierce Brosnan. In the three movies I’ve directed, four actors were nominated for Academy Awards… Lauren Bacall, Amy Irving, Nick Nolte, and Kate Nelligan. They are part of the 14 Oscar nominations which those movies received, and I’m very grateful to everyone who was part of that experience!