Cher didn’t hold back in a recent interview with The Times while promoting her new memoir, Cher: The Memoir Part 1. Reflecting on her movie career, Cher revealed that there are two directors she particularly disliked: Peter Bogdanovich and Frank Oz.
She worked with Bogdanovich on 1985’s ‘Mask’ and with Oz on the 1990 film ‘Mermaids.’
“I actually got the guy from ‘The Muppets’ fired,” Cher remembered. “I said, either you’re going or I’m going, which is a shame because he’s a really good director, but he had a thing about me. He would go, ‘At least my wife loves me!’”
As for Bogdanovich, Cher didn’t mince words: “He was an asshole,” she told. “He was not nice to the girls in the film, and he was so fucking arrogant. I really, really disliked him.”
Cher shared a particularly vivid memory from her time on the ‘Mask’ set: “One day, Bogdanovich comes in and says, ‘Cher, where do you think we should film this scene?’ And I say, ‘Well, the kitchen is working pretty well, why don’t we do that again?’ The next morning, he arrives on set eating an egg sandwich and starts screaming that he’s not going to let me direct this film; I’m a nobody; he can cut me out at any moment. Oh yeah, he was a pig.”
Despite the challenging experiences, Cher emphasized that she’s known for being easy to work with. “Ask everybody: I’m really easy to work with,” she said. “I’m not arbitrary in the things I say, because it’s right to do what the director wants—until you need to speak up. Meryl [Streep] says that if the director wants you to do something you don’t like, you say: ‘Yes, yes, yes, I’ll do it that way.’ Then you do it your way, and they don’t even notice. I’ve worked with Bob Altman, Mike Nichols, Norman Jewison… really great directors whom I respect. I know when to listen.”
Cher won the Best Actress Award at Cannes for her role in ‘Mask’ in 1985.
