Perfectionist David Fincher Won’t Let Marc Maron Release Their Two-and-a-Half-Hour Interview

Ryan Lattanzio
·3 min read
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Filmmaker David Fincher’s devotion to perfectionism, from his many and well-documented repeat takes to his casting choices, is by now the stuff of Hollywood lore. But it turns out, according to podcast host Marc Maron, that obsession with detail and getting it right extends beyond the camera. As the host of “WTF with Marc Maron” revealed in a recent conversation with Jodie Foster Fincher won’t let Maron release their two-and-a-half-hour interview.

“I did a two-and-a-half-hour conversation with him,” Maron told his guest. “And he didn’t think it was right. He wouldn’t let us release it. So I’m sitting on this two-and-a-half-hour conversation with David Fincher. He’s like, I don’t know, let’s hold off on it, because I think I could do more.” (Via MovieMaker.)

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Maron added, “He seems like this perfectionist, you know, tormented guy.”

Maron’s guest Jodie Foster was on hand to promote her new film “The Mauritanian,” but the question of Fincher inevitably came up because she starred in his 2002 film “Panic Room.” She said that sometimes she wished he would just “chillax.”

“He just makes me want to put my arms around him and tell him, you know what, it is gonna be okay. Like, chillax. And I love him for it. I love him that he is so committed,” Foster said. “And he gives 100,000 times more than anybody else on that movie. I mean, and he can do any of our jobs better than we can. I mean, he’s a better actor than I am. He’s a better prop master. He’s a better DP. So I’m always just, bow down in the presence of somebody who really is just so gifted and so committed. But it’s hard to be David Fincher, I wouldn’t want to be him.”

As for Fincher’s tendency to film many, many takes, she said, “He doesn’t drive me crazy. I love him. He makes me laugh. And it’s true that it’s annoying that you have to do as many takes as you do. And I was pregnant… I was pregnant on ‘Panic Room.’ And by the end of it, I was six months, or almost six months pregnant by the end of it. And by the end of it, I couldn’t move. I literally could not walk down the street. I couldn’t move. I had to go on bedrest after that for another three weeks. And despite all of that, like, I would just do anything for him. Yeah, I would do anything for that guy.”

Fincher recently dove into his perfectionist methods with “Gone Girl” star Ben Affleck in a Variety interview, where Fincher said it took him awhile to get comfortable with the idea of shooting so many takes.

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