Hooooooly cow. It's like .... they couldn't have scripted that any better. Scary stuff. Can I be an actor in one of your future films just so that I can NOT be like that? I can see both of their perspectives, but they didn't really know how to communicate with each other. And yeah ... his energy was very monotone. But to be honest, that's the sort of actor he is. It is his style of presentation to give a very dry performance (which is one of the things I loved about "Arrested Development") so it's like the director was asking a chicken to bark like a dog. Just isn't going to happen. So, the actor needs to realize this discreptency and not get all flustered. And the director needs to understand the specific limitations (and abilities) of the people in the film. Ah well ... I still expect you to put me in your film. ;-)

It's so easy to "lose it" on set... you're always being rushed, out of time, plus gazillion people around you, and you just pray that you'll get a good take each time the camera rolls, b/c it's not just you, it's the actor, the camera, the light, the sound... any one of these go wrong, then you have to do it again... and God forbid if you think that you might have a good take and suddenly the plane just swooshes by... and so takes after takes, anyone can get frustrated... but I do think it's best for the actor/director or whoever to take the issue outside and talk it over alone... it's just not good (or professional) to "lose it' in front of the crew, it makes the environment even more tense and it definitely ain't gonna help the actors... As for Mark's campaign... You sure you wanna be yelled at or thrown bottles at by me ^_^

i'm glad you liked the Gong Li article. it was kind of a bizarre mix... why all the talk about the apartments! :-P