Amanda Seyfried Says Director David Fincher Did a Week's Worth of Takes For One Scene in MANK

For any of you who have done any research on director David Fincher and his directing style, you know that he likes to shoot a ton of takes until he gets what he is looking for perfectly. The guy is insanely meticulous and you can see it in everything that he directs.

Amanda Seyfried, who stars in his upcoming Netflix film Mank, shared a story of how Fincher made her do a week’s worth of takes for one scene in the film to make sure that he got exactly what he wanted for the scene. She guessed that there was probably around 200 takes that were shot.

While talking to Collider, Seyfried explained:

“I was part of scenes with tons of people in it and we would do it for an entire week. I can’t tell you how many takes we did, but I would guess 200, maybe I could be wrong and could be way off. Um, I could be underestimating by five days of one scene when I didn’t have one line… ‘You think I can just relax?’ No, because there are probably about nine or 10 different camera angles that had been on me at one point.”

That’s pretty crazy! But, that’s what actors sign up for when they work with Fincher. 200 takes seems a little excessive, though. There are reports regarding previous films that Fincher has worked on in which Jake Gyllenhaal had to shoot 20 takes for a scene in Zodiac. There were multiple scenes in Gone Girl that ended up being shot with at least 50 takes. Then in Mindhunter, Fincher ended up shooting a 9-minute scene 75 times.

When Fincher has something in his mind, the guy will shoot as many takes as he needs to find his perfect shot. While I’m sure this might be frustrating for some actors, they also know that the final product that Fincher delivers is going to be gold.

Mank is a black-and-white biopic of Citizen Kane scribe Herman J. Mankiewicz, scripted by the director’s late father, Jack Fincher, and it stars Gary Oldman in the lead role. Here are some details on Mankiewicz and this story that were previously shared:

Mankiewicz was a reporter and a critic in the 1920s as well as a member of New York City’s famed literary club, the Algonquin Round Table. By the late 1920s, however, he was recruited by Paramount to come to Hollywood and work in the movie business that was transitioning to talkies. He even talked fellow journalists into joining the screenwriting ranks, famously writing to Ben Hecht, "Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots.”

Mankiewicz worked on numerous now-classic films such as Wizard of Oz, Pride of the Yankees and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes but it was Kane that caused controversy that dogged him until his death. Both Mankiewicz and Welles worked on the script but Mankiewicz accused the filmmaker of trying to push him out of the limelight, even saying Welles offered to pay him off in exchange for sole credit.

Mankiewicz’s supporters (which were many, as the prickly Welles alienated as much as he attracted) cheered and chanted “Mank, Mank, Mank” when Kane won the Oscar for best original screenplay, with both receiving the trophy (even as neither of them attended the ceremony).

Amanda Seyfried plays Marion Davies in the movie and cast for the film also includes Tom Burke as Orson Welles, Lily Collins as Rita Alexander, Mankiewicz’s secretary, and Tom Pelphrey takes the role of Mankiewicz’s brother. There’s also Arliss Howard, Ferdinand Kingsley, Jamie McShane, Joseph Cross, Sam Troughton, Toby Leonard Moore, and Tuppence Middleton.

Fincher also reteamed with Mindhunter cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are set to score the film.

Netflix will release the film in October.