Taking care of Toby
Sir: Kirsten Dunst never insisted that I ban Toby Young (Status anxiety, 6 September) from the set of How To Lose Friends & Alienate People. Toby’s piece stemmed from a recent article of mine in Empire magazine. In his opening paragraph, he says he learned from it that ‘the reason I was banned from the set of the film is because Kirsten Dunst insisted on it’. But Toby didn’t read my article before he wrote his.
For the record, Kirsten told me on set that Toby had given her a performance note. (Toby says she overheard him give a note about her performance to a third party. The difference is negligible and entirely unacceptable behaviour either way.) Kirsten, a true professional, whose performance was never anything other than spot-on, was understandably bugged, but not nearly as much as I was. When she politely asked if it was necessary that Toby continue to visit the set, I replied, ‘Consider it taken care of.’ My plan was to explain set protocol to Toby, and suggest that if he couldn’t refrain from expressing himself about how anyone was doing their job, it was best that he not show up. My plan was for a reprimand, not a ban.
That night, I got a lengthy email from Toby critiquing one take of a scene I had shown him as a courtesy. Based on that 30-second take, he wrote up a detailed analysis as to why he felt ‘the scene didn’t work’. Toby’s note broke the camel’s back. But he gave me a great ‘out’ by saying ‘every time I visit the set, I’m filled with anxiety’. I simply copied and pasted this phrase into a reply, and followed it up with, ‘Very easy solution to this.’ That was the full content of my letter. Toby was never banned from the set, but his future visits were strictly monitored.
Toby has written a number of pieces about this production, and I often read about a fictional character — the director of the film — who happens to share my name. Toby is usually good about running these things past me, and I’ve told him that I understand that his job is to ‘print the legend’ for comic effect. But after reading unwarranted internet criticism of Ms Dunst for having Toby ‘banned’, I thought someone needed to print the truth. Robert Weide
Studio City, California
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