Orson Welles pretty much hated everyone
Daniel Martin 
EVERYONE.
(a long thread on Twitter)
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 25 | October 10, 2022 3:47 AM |
PS not sure if the name listed here is the actor - but yes, if it is, the book this Twitter poster is excerpting misspelled Jack Lemmon.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | May 21, 2022 2:15 PM |
At least some of what he says is quite reasonable or at least a matter of opinion.
But he must have been pretty embittered a lot of the time, given how far he fell and how he became seen as somewhat pathetic.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | May 21, 2022 2:18 PM |
He's not wrong, especially about US Senators.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | May 21, 2022 2:27 PM |
You should hear what he said about frozen peas.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 5 | May 21, 2022 2:27 PM |
I caught him the other week on an old Jack Benny radio show on satellite radio. He was quite funny and poked fun at himself. He interacted a lot with Mary Livingston on that episode. I wonder what he thought of Benny.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | May 21, 2022 2:36 PM |
He’s typical of his generation. He’s smart, but isn’t very empathic and doesn’t have great psychological insight.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | May 21, 2022 2:52 PM |
I doubt some of these were said in total seriousness, but you never know, they’re hilarious either way. I especially love the comments about John Landis.
Orson Welles was a true one of a kind artist that will never, ever be replicated.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | May 21, 2022 3:44 PM |
Orson was a genius.
Geniuses hate everyone and have logical reasons to do so.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | May 21, 2022 6:20 PM |
I'm always on my mark, OP. Move your camera!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 11 | October 6, 2022 8:42 PM |
He refused to sleep with Maggie Smith during making The V. I. P. s as he was afraid of her "ginger growler".
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | October 6, 2022 9:43 PM |
^That didn't stop him from making a play for Lucy when he guested on ILL.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | October 6, 2022 9:47 PM |
I read that on some of his later films he dubbed voices of different actors; you couldn't tell and he was even better than the actors! I watched Mr. Arkadin. I could tell every time.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | October 6, 2022 10:20 PM |
Not a good husband or father -too selfish. Maybe too ADHD to fulfill his promise? Too undisciplined somehow. He must have been tremendously frustrated in his later years. He did at least have a sense of humor, which helps, but still a tragic case I think. He has lived on though, which I think he worried he wouldn't.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | October 9, 2022 10:23 PM |
He could be a DLer: fat, old, drunk, bitter, and resentful.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | October 9, 2022 10:42 PM |
A genius who eventually hated himself too for not being able to sustain the celebrity at the expense of the genius.
Oh, those wine commercials...
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | October 9, 2022 10:43 PM |
Like Capote, he had to sing for his supper. Which often meant making things up for entertainment. For instance he said he was related to former Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, but it was a lie.
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | October 9, 2022 11:47 PM |
R19 Yes, a lot of his talk show anecdotes you can hear on Youtube are false. He has this story about meeting Hitler almost accidentally in the Austrian Alps (before he was Chancellor) and if you look at the chronology of his and Hitler's lives and where they were when, it really, really seems implausible.
He legitimately had a very interesting life. He could tell great stories that were true. He DID meet Churchill and FDR. But he wanted to tell good stories, so he "embellished" a lot.
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | October 10, 2022 3:14 AM |
R20, his great biographer, Simon Callow, is gay, and I am sure he would be happy to claim Welles, but my recollection is that he he says there is just no reason to believe that he was..
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | October 10, 2022 3:16 AM |
His comments on Woody Allen are very interesting. The stuff about him both loving and hating himself.
Was there anyone Orson did like?
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | October 10, 2022 3:35 AM |
He praised a lot of people when he felt like it. A lot of his comments shouldn't be taken that seriously, because he was clearly in a cranky mood. I am not saying he actually liked Allen, but it also has to be recalled that Woody Allen was a happening director then (much more than in recent decades) and Welles no longer was.
He seems to have had a good relationship with John Huston, who acted in his never finished comeback movie about the New Hollywood. He had Huston accept the Honorary Oscar he finally got in the 1970s. He was in town but wouldn't go pick it up because he was still mad at the industry.
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | October 10, 2022 3:47 AM |
