Richard E Grant has criticised a Hollywood star for his on-set behaviour, claiming he offended his co-stars after "losing the plot" on set.
The British actor starred alongside Danny Aiello in 1994 film Pret-a-Porter, which followed a group of notable figures from the fashion industry as they arrive in Paris for fashion week.
Grant branded the Robert Altman comedy-drama “terrible”, claiming that “it had no structure and was a car crash as a result”. But it’s “one insane day” that looms largest in his memory – when Do the Right Thing actor Aiello “completely lost the plot” and lashed out at his co-stars.
In a new interview with The Guardian, Grant said: “If you’ve got a good script, you can embellish and add stuff, but this was a free-for-all. There was one insane day when Danny Aiello completely lost the plot. Sophia Loren was supposed to have fainted, and he infiltrated the scene and started taking it over: “I’ll give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation!”
Grant also claimed that Aiello called Bacall “a left-wing Commie bitch” and, in an apparent reference to Everett’s sexuality, stated: “Then he insulted Rupert Everett for being English and for being...”
When Christine Baranski, Grant’s co-star in West End play Hay Fever, asked whether Bacall “ate him up and spat him out” in response, the actor said: “She took no prisoners. She ripped him five new ones. It was more dramatic than anything that happened in the actual film.”
Grant, who’ll appear as a contestant on the new series of Celebrity Traitors, added that the film’s cast blacklisted Aiello. “None of the cast would talk to Danny after that; they sent him to Coventry.”
Aiello was a respected character actor who starred in films including The Godfather Part II, Moonstruck, Woody Allen’s Radio Days and The Purple Rose of Cairo, as well as Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, which earned him an Oscar nomination for his performance as New York pizzeria owner Sal. He died in December 2019, aged 86.
Pret-a-Porter is considered a misfire from Altman, the director of acclaimed films including The Long Goodbye, Nashville, The Player and Gosford Park.
The ensemble film also starred Anouk Aimée, Marcello Mastroianni, Kim Basinger, Stephen Rea, Julia Roberts, Forest Whitaker and Teri Garr.
One noted celebrity fan, though, is singer Charli XCX, who named it as one of her favourite underrated movies during an interview on the Lipps Service podcast.
