re: Being There (1979)

quote:

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TCM reiterated the same thing the other night when they aired the film. Mankiewitz recounted how Sellers was convinced of it, and pleaded with Hal Ashby to take it out because it took away from the mystique and mystery of the picture and the character.

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When I saw the film in the theater when it came out, I immediately thought that Sellers knew the scene was a dreadful mistake and would have completely destroyed the characterization of Chauncey in the film, so he deliberately sabotaged it by cracking up reading his lines so Ashby couldn’t use it.

I assumed it was Sellers’ passive-aggressive way of disobeying his director. Ashby got his”revenge” by including it in the credits, but Sellers was completely in the right IMHO.