Atlanta Black Star reported that film creator Lee Daniels and actor Gabourey Sidibe recently opened up about why Daniels “fired everybody” on the film crew for the 2009 film Precious.
At the Toronto International Film Festival, Daniels talked about the events that led to him firing and replacing his crew members. He revealed that after viewing unedited footage of the movie, he said he “didn’t like” it and “didn’t feel good about it,” as Sidibe, who sat next to him, got emotional and wiped tears away from her face.
“I had a white line producer, a white AD (assistant director); they also read that “Shadowboxer” was the worst film ever made that year,” Daniels said, talking about his 2005 film.
He then mentioned that the AD and the line producer “had zero respect for me, my vision, or what it was. They were New Yorkers that looked at this as a job. I kept coming home like, ‘this doesn’t feel right, she doesn’t look right, the set looks weird.’ I felt like I was giving birth to an alien, literally, and so I did something that I, now, don’t even know whether I would have the courage to do, but I fired everybody. I shut it down.”
Sibide added that it was “20 days in.”
Daniels added, “I was so, so nervous about making sure that she was lit beautifully. It didn’t feel right, and so I shut it down. My financier really believed in me. We didn’t know that it was going to be the hit it was going to be financially.”
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Supporting Daniels, Sidibe added, “the original DP (Director of Photography) had no idea how to light my skin.”
She mentioned that the lighting made her look “green” and said, “I had to lay so they could light me, and I swear to you I was on the ground for over an hour while they were trying to light me.”
Sidibe revealed that there were other instances on set where the DP didn’t light her skin aesthetically and said, “That was one of the major problems with him.”
The Empire producer said he eventually brought on Andrew Dunn as the new DP for the film, which had a phenomenal turnout, earning an Oscar and grossed to $60 million worldwide.
