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Over the years, there has been more than one instance in the entertainment industry where the actors were actually asked by the filmmakers to work past their limits or go to other extreme measures just to get their roles or scenes right for the particular project. Turns out, director Darren Aronofsky is no stranger to making his actors undergo the same either.
Though he is a commendable filmmaker, Aronofsky’s works don’t come to fruition without having his actors go through a grueling process to make the project perfect. The same was the case with his 2014 filmNoahas well, which hadBlack Widowactor Ray Winstone pretty much lose movement in his right arm because the director wanted to make the perfect biblical apocalypse film.
Darren Aronofsky Had Ray Winstone Go Through Hell and Back forNoah
The 2014 film saw actorRay Winstonestepping into a one-of-a-kind role as he brought the warlord Tubal-Cain to life. For a villain who not only murdered the titular character’s father but also combined brutality and wounded bewilderment at the fact that God spoke to Noah but not to him, Winstone had to go through a lot just to deliver a performance to the director’s liking.
This included him filming some dangerous scenes as well, like when Tubal-Cain was shown climbing the ark with an axe as he tried to hack his way in when the flood hit. Of course, shooting this scene in real life had the filmmaker,Darren Aronofsky, even more excited than the actor, as he expressed while diving into the details of shooting the scene.
Talking about the scene with theNew Yorker, director Aronofsky explained how they were going to bring it to life, saying, “It’s going to be ‘Oh, sh-t, here comes the wave!’ And then we’re going to dump a whole f—ing lot of water on you, and you look around, amazed—this is the end of the f—ing world!—and keep chopping.” Except that this wasn’t all.
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While hisinitial reactionof the scene’s first shot was“Beautiful!”Aronofsky then went on to add an air mortar to the six buckets of water. This had the actor struggling to stay upright as the water was dumped on top of him, eventually resulting in Winstone getting a sunstoke along with losing movement in his right arm during the shoot.
Needless to say, Aronofsky’s search forsuch sheer perfectionin the film taking a toll on him didn’t sit well with the actor, who later claimed to the publication (perhaps, rightly so): “I think Darren takes great pleasure in seeing you go through pain—you go again and again and again. He pushes you to the limit, looking for perfection.”
All of this said, perhaps nothing more needs to be said to emphasizeall the excruciating stuff that Aronofsky has his actors go throughjust for the sake of what he deems to be perfect. And yet, while a majority of the critics on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes approved the piece, many others couldn’t help but call it rotten.
Did Darren Aronofsky’s Hard Work forNoahGo Down the Drain?
A decade after its release, the film currently holds a 75% approval score on the Tomatometer, an average derived from the reviews of 260Rotten Tomatoescritics. At the same time, its audience score through the Popcornmeter is not so commendable, considering how a majority of the viewers from the 100 thousand who have rated have deemed the piece rotten with a 41% rating.
Other sites likeIMDb, on the other hand, hold an even lower score for the film, giving it 5.8 stars out of 10 based on the reviews of more than 269 thousand viewers. The main issue behind all the criticism it received was the film’s perceived environmentalist political messages and extensive use of non-biblical sources for inspiration – something that just didn’t sit well with fans.
However, when it comes to the movie’s commercial performance, it might as well have been one of the filmmaker’s best ones to date, considering how it has earned the title of being Aronofsky’s highest-grossing film to date. PerBox Office Mojo, the project made a little over $359 million on its budget of $125 million from box offices worldwide.
That being said, it can’t really be said that the actors’ and filmmaker’s work on the film went down the drain, even though it may have failed to appease a majority of the general audience.
Noah can currently be viewed on Prime Video.
Mahin Sultan
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2478
Mahin Sultan is a Senior Writer at FandomWire, where she brings a fresh perspective to entertainment news. Having been in the field for over 3 years now, she has already written more than 2,000 articles across a variety of niches, from entertainment to health and fashion. This diverse experience has allowed her to quickly build a solid foundation and a deep understanding of the industry.
