Why Safdie brothers cast ex-con for sex scene where he exposed himself to minor
The Safdie brothers have been making headlines for all the wrong reasons in the last 24 hours after the details behind their alleged feud were revealed.
Despite previous statements claiming that their split as a directorial duo was down to creative decisions, a Page Six report has alleged a far darker reason behind it.
On the set of their film Good Time it is claimed that a sex scene involving Buddy Duress, an ex-con who they hired in two of their films, exposed himself to his acting partner in a sex scene and asked if he could ‘stick it in’.
To make matters worse his partner in the scene was a 17-year-old girl who was recruited for the film by producer Sebastian Bear-McClard.
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While neither Safdie brother knew about her age when the scene happened, Josh is accused of finding out later on in the same day, with Benny ending their partnership in 2023 when details of the incident started to come to light in the press.
The news will lead many to question why the 17-year-old was sharing a scene with a non-actor who was recently released from prison, who himself was allegedly high during the scene.
Hiring non-actors was a core aspect of the work of the Safdie brothers, regularly hiring people they met on the street to give added ‘realness’ to their films.
The pair first worked with Duress on their film Heaven Knows What where they hired him to play a drug dealer.
They met Duress via the film’s lead Arielle Holmes, who the Safdies also met in midtown Manhattan as a non-actor.
Duress was at the time actively on the run from a drugs facility following a stint in prison, and Josh said in an interview with The Dissolve that ‘the only thing that I was afraid of while we made the movie was Buddy [Duress] being arrested, because I knew that he had a few warrants and was on the run’.
Duress was arrested 12 hours after they finished filming and, after a stint in prison, they wanted to hire him for their next film Good Time telling Robert Pattinson that he was the only actor cast when they first spoke about him starring in the thriller.
The ex-con turned actor appeared in Good Time as Ray, a criminal and part-time drug dealer, with Josh Safdie telling Glide Magazine: “Buddy has the unique ability to say anything and it sounds pure and real.
“It’s very cool to see him working on other projects too, because seeing how other directors get to work with him because he did start to train as an actor after having worked on a few films.”
Ultimately though the controversy shows the dangers of hiring non-actors, with Duress reportedly being high on the set of the film. He died in 2023 of a heroin overdose.
This potential for danger has continued onto other sets as shown by Timothée Chalamet interviews about Marty Supreme.
During a Q&A session about the film he said: “I won't say who, but in that motel sequence, there are a lot of non-actors… that I find it really thrilling to work with, but sometimes it would take multiple takes to really get something out of them.
“I'm really getting in the guy's face and I'm really trying to get him angry with me. I was saying to Josh [Safdie, the movie’s director], he’s not getting angry with me, he's not getting angry with me.
“I did another take, and then the guy said, ‘I was just in jail for 30 years. You really don't want to f**k with me. You don't want to see me angry’. I said to Josh, ‘Holy s**t, who do you have me opposite, man?’”
LADbible has contacted representatives for Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie for comment.
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Topics: Film, TV and Film, Celebrity
Michael Slavin