Whit Stillman breaks Hollywood taboo, says he was ‘blacklisted’ from directing TV

The Washington Times ^ | Apr 12 | Peter Suderman

[chuck_the_tv_out]

Whit Stillman doesn’t want to talk about politics. Ask the famed indie film director for his thoughts about the current Republican primary race, and he politely — but flatly — declines.

“No, I have nothing,” he says.

Lightly pressed further, he changes the subject, turning the tables to ask questions of his own.

[....]

Mr. Stillman recalls directing an episode of the TV show “Homicide: Life on the Street.” He had a script he liked, but a rewrite turned a yuppie victim — whose family had been murdered — into “this awful, caricatured yuppie villain.”

“We don’t necessarily want to do a PR job for them,” he says of the character type. “But we also don’t want to dehumanize them, either.” He objected to the rewrite and is sure he was “blacklisted” — his explosive and unprompted term — from directing television as a result.

[chuck_the_tv_out]

Blacklists never go away in wartime. Only those who control them change.

[fella]

“Homicide: Life on the Street.” One of my all time favorite shows. It treats the audience as if people actually have minds capable of remembering and thinking. Unfortunately, in the last couple of seasons the producers and writers over dosed on PC and then jumped the shark several times.

[x]

Decent guy for a movie director.

He comes from a once wealthy family with connections to the Rockefellers. His father was in the Kennedy administration, but Whit actually contributed to the American Spectator back in the 70s and 80s.

That was a very different era from the present, and I don't suppose he's especially conservative nowadays, but Stillman was definitely an exception in the film industry. More thoughtful than most movie people.

Wikipedia says his godfather was the man who coined the term WASP, and that's very appropriate if you know Whit Stillman's films. Wikipedia also has this gem:

Whit Stillman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Slim Whitman.

[Amadeo]

I agree wholeheartedly that Whit Stillman is a decent guy and a good filmmaker. His family was instrumental in getting JFK elected to the Senate, but it was a different Democratic Party back then.

Whit was born to fantastic wealth, but I don’t think he ended up with a lot of it. I think that after his parent’s divorce and business reversals that Whit found himself well off, but needing to make money somehow. I understand he sold his Manhattan apartment to raise money to make one of his films.

I like Whit. He’s a really decent guy, and I suspect he’s a lot stronger conservative than he can let on.

[jmaroneps37]

I started out liking that show but that smug ash hole Belzer (I know more about Iraq than the troops there because I read 20 newspapers a day) finally became too much to take.