Guillermo del Torro on the late William Friedkin: Kindness was his most effective tool

Academy Award winning filmmaker William Friedkin , best known for The French Connection and The Exorcist, passed away on Monday in Los Angeles following unspecified health issues, aged 87. The filmmaker’s last directorial – The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is yet to premiere at the Venice Film Festival. During the making of the film that stars Kiefer Sutherland, among others, Oscar winner Guillermo del Torro visited Friedkin, whom he called Billy, several times. Following the veteran filmmaker’s demise, del Torro took to social media to write a long post about what he saw and learnt from Billy.

According to del Torro, Friedkin had made it clear to his cast and clear that he was operating on a tight schedule and that he expected everyone to come prepared on set so as to avoid re-takes at any cost. Everyone on set gave him their all, until one fine day, an actor hit a roadblock with a lengthy monologue. A small stumble would occur almost infallibly every time the actor said a certain line. Friedkin, though, was known to have a temper and caustic wit and everyone thought the actor would hear not too nice things from the filmmaker. Instead, Friedkin called the actor, addressed that he had a problem and said that it would be best to take it up after a break, preferably sleep over it and then resume. “The gesture was healing, soothing and put the entire set back in control. I had seen, at the ripe age of 58, that of th many tools in Billy’s arsenal, kindness was one of the most effective ones,” wrote Guillermo.

Winding up his note, Guillermo added that he is grateful to have met “Billy”. “He has barely left and I already miss him horribly,” Guillermo signed off.

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