Does anybody know why Walter Matthou hateed Barbra Streisand so much?
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Walter Matthau's son said in a documentary that it was because he and Barbara were "too much alike."
Dumbledore's girl through and through...
This conflict is well documented in several Streisand biographies. In 1968, Matthau was already a veteran stage/screen actor, noted for his dour, deadpan comedic persona.
Still in her 20s, Streisand had never been in a film before. Her "Funny Girl" movie debut had not been released yet. In just a few years, she had already conquered the Broadway stage, records (multiple Grammys), TV (multiple Emmys), and was a media and public sensation.
The allegation by many who worked with Streisand (including Matthau) was that she was overly confident and arrogant about her achievements, fame, and talent. Aware that the film was "her" vehicle (which is true), she was opinionated and controlling toward Matthau and Gene Kelly, and aloof to the rest of the cast.
Matthau was hardly the "shrinking violet" type, and viewed Streisand as a snotty, flash-in-the-pan newcomer, and treated her as such.
During arguments, WM was quoted as saying "Don't forget, Betty Hutton thought she was indispensable, too" and "You may be the singer in this picture, but I'm the actor". BS was quoted as saying "Well, the name of the movie isn't Hello, Walter!"
This is conjecture on my part, but I believe over the next 20 years, a combination of two events occurred: Like Matthau, Streisand experienced the "school of hard knocks", including numerous critical & commercial failures. As she entered her 3rd decade of stardom (especially within the music sphere) Matthau came to the realization that Streisand was not a fad, and began to welcome her into the domain of "war-scarred showbiz veterans".
Apparently, their animosity eventually melted into a mutual admiration, as Matthau is seen in the audience of both her 1986 "One Voice" concert TV special and her 1994 "Barbra: The Concert" HBO special. Surely, even the slightest hint of residual resentment would keep Matthau from attending these concerts, as being seen there would not provide him with any career enhancement. The peak of his career had definitely long passed by the 90s anyway.
hey,
thanks a lot I really wanted to know. Is there anyway you can tell me what interview it was?? is it on the internet?. thanks again
Depending on how much interest and time you want to spend on the subject of Streisand, you might want to check out HER NAME IS BARBRA (1993) by Randall Reise or BARBRA STREISAND: THE WOMAN, THE MYTH, THE MUSIC (1986) by Shaun Consadine. Available through Amazon or probably free from your local library.
These are the 2 I've read, but there are countless others. Some undoubtedly better, and just as many worse.
Biographies (and even autobiographies) tend to be subjective and harbor an agenda. This is certainly the case with the Consadine profile. He obviously admires her talent, but feels she is a self-absorbed opportunist.
Reise, on the other hand, paints a more balanced portrait: neither fawning nor damning. Randy was a very close friend of a co-worker of mine, Neil Hitchens, who died young a few years ago. When I worked with Neil, he was co-writing "Marilyn A to Z" with Randy. It went on to be quite a successful book.
Both of these guys were very objective. They were interested in the uniqueness and impact on the social culture of their subjects (Marilyn & Barbra), but not so obssessively star-struck that it became worship, rather than well-researched material.
Streisand and Matthau got along very well in the beginning - but when Barbra started spending to much time with the directors/cameramen (she was a perfectionist, very detailed and wanted to learn everything about film making) and Walter justed wanted to go home he started to dislike working with her.
Apparently the dislike didn't last too long after the film was finished and they appeared friendly in many of the post-shoot photos
According to most reports, Streisand always had ideas and suggestions about the way scenes could be shot, and she wasn't shy about mentioning them to Gene Kelly. Apparently he didn't mind, and like William Wyler on FUNNY GIRL, he'd listen to what she had to say & use the ideas he thought were good. But Matthau (for whatever reason) felt she was overstepping her bounds as an actress. He'd also been making films since 1955, and having just won an Oscar the previous year for THE FORTUNE COOKIE, he was very confident about his place in the industry - especially in relation to Streisand, who'd made only one film (FUNNY GIRL) which was still in the can & wouldn't be released until after DOLLY! wrapped.
Anyway, the big Streisand/Matthau blow-up occurred on a hot, steamy June day when the production was shooting in Garrison (Robert Kennedy Jr. had just been killed, which contributed to the tense atmosphere on the set). When Streisand made one of her suggestions to Kelly, Matthau exploded. "Why don't you let the director direct?" he shouted. "Why don't you learn your lines?" she shot back. After a continuance of similar dialogue, Kelly took his two stars off to a private spot for a conference. After a break, everyone went back to work.
Regarding the "Hello, Walter" story - despite comments made on the LARRY KING LIVE show, Streisand never said this to Matthau. The infamous line was spoken when Matthau was complaining to a Fox executive about Streisand. The executive reportedly responded, "I'd like to help you, but the name of the picture isn't HELLO, WALTER!"
While there have been many reports about Streisand's temperment, it should be noted that various actors have also found Matthau difficult to work with - most famously, Art Carney during the Broadway run of THE ODD COUPLE. He was even ready to take his greivances (regarding Matthau) to Actors Equity, but in the end decided against it.
One final note - for a movie that had more than its share of bad vibes throughout filming, HELLO, DOLLY! had a remarkably triumphant Hollywood premiere. A story in the Los Angeles Times marvelled at the "feel good" atmostphere of the opening night party - Kelly beamed as Matthau kissed Streisand repeatedly while photographers clicked away, and executives who usually have a quick drink (and disappear even more quickly) were seen celebrating late into the evening. After being burned on DOCTOR DOLITTLE and STAR!, it looked like they finally had a winner. And for a while, that's exactly how DOLLY! performed.
But with a budget like that, the film needed to do SOUND OF MUSIC-type business. When the final figures were counted, DOLLY! had become the fifth-highest grosser of 1970 - unfortunately, those figures weren't Alpine enough to take it into the black.
Thank you for your dead-on breakdown of the Streisand-Matthau fued. And if you ask me, the tension between these two stars is clearly evidenced onscreen.
shareTheir hatred worked for them on the screen.
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If Babs is still as snotty and ungrateful as she apparently used to be, she sure hides it well! :)
shareI remember reading that at one point Walter Matthau famously shouted at Barbra "I have more talent in my smallest fart then you have in your entire body!"
sharethis is gairly intersting. she was abig pain in the ass on the movie cos shew as sooo desperate to get stuff right she drove walter crazy
because she felt she was too young for the role. she has said that she was very flattered to be offfered such a great role but that she felt very miscast.
however in the words of Hello, Dolly! composer Jerry Herman 'Barbra is a smart cookie' as she basically 'invented' a new way to portray Dolly using her what she had. she plays dolly as a sort of quirky eye rolling Mae West.
She also insisted that she have a new song written for her in the opening and a ballad as by this point the music of the film had already been recording by many. Theree where aatleast two cast recordings in the USA inculding the oroginal and the all blaack version with pearl bailey not to mention the recordings aand cabaaret interpretations of the title number itself
and so Jerry Herman wrote 'Just Leave Everything To me' to replace 'I Put My Hand In' which is Dolly's opening number in the stage show. He also used 'Love Is Only Love' originally written for Mame and wrote a new intro (Mrs Horace Vandergelder etc) for her ballad in the second half of the movie
Barbra also insisted on seeing the red dress made for the title number that she have one in a different colour and refused to leaver her trailer until it was so. This was because so maany actresses had been photographed in the Red Dolly dress by this point and she insisted on being different
This may all seem very Diva-ish but if shed complied had done a pretty straight adaptation of the show she prob would have ended up looking more foolish but by insisting on the matters shhe did she created somthing new thus separating this miscast mistake away from the mammoth reputation of the Broadway success and its star Carol Channing
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"This may all seem very Diva-ish but if shed complied had done a pretty straight adaptation of the show she prob would have ended up looking more foolish but by insisting on the matters shhe did she created somthing new thus separating this miscast mistake away from the mammoth reputation of the Broadway success and its star Carol Channing"
I agree. She was young, she was inexperienced, she hadn't done as much work as probably anyone on that set, but she had an eye for what is right from the get-go. Ever since her career began she was uncannily aware of what should/shouldn't be done in a movie, and she was picky about it. I think that's what got her the "diva-bi**h" reputation. But her perfectionism is, in all actuallity, a great thing to have. Not a lot of people in the business have the ability to see the things she is able to.
That line about her telling Walter to wash his mouth with soap is really funny, and it doesn't surprise me. She was a naive Jewish girl from Brooklyn who probably didn't hear a lot of that growing up, and as a result didn't put up with it. Even in her interviews you can watch on youtube she has a real clean mouth. [apart from her crazy outburst while making fun of George Bush in concert haha]
I like her, power-house voice, beautiful eyes, stubborn as heck haha, and really funny. Matthou probably had anger issues or something :-P hah
Also remember that Walter Matthau swore nonstop off camera. At one point Streisand suggested he wash his mouth out with soap.
shareI would imagine neither of them would be easy people to work around. He was a talented actor, very funny, but he also had a very rough personality and sense of humor (Streisand isn't the only one who found him somewhat difficult to work with). Meg Ryan (who starred with him in at least two movies) adored him, but she did admit that if you don't know him, he could be difficult to handle.
Streisand, on the other hand, had a lot going on. She was really well known on the Broadway circuit, but there was some nervousness over whether she could handle carrying a movie like Hello Dolly (as I don't think Funny Girl was released yet). Also, while she was a confident performer, the constant berating did a number on her self-esteem. She was in a state of high stress. She's known for her dislike of being in the limelight in most situations, but she was dealing with her first movie coming out, she was carrying a major motion picture, she was having to get past any problems with the cast and crew members, and to top it all off, she had a small child.
Probably, the infamous animosity between the two happened by just taking two very very different types of people, throwing them together in a movie, and turning up the heat (stress-wise). Put all that together, and you have a recipe for trouble.
I would be interested to see what they thought of each other years later. Perhaps she got a little more mellow, and maybe he came to see that it's possible to have a man and a woman be good in a movie without having to compete with each other. I don't know. I don't think the dislike lasted all those years, though. And I don't think it's all that uncommon now, it's just that these days, PR is really important, and actors don't want to cast themselves in a bad light (and to do that also means not to cast costars in a bad light), but I think there are definately minor irritations at the least, major dislikes occasionally, in today's movies. I refuse to believe that that stuff all ended with movies like Gone With The Wind (Clark Gable threatened to walk if they didn't bring his friend Victor to direct that movie, making the folks at Wizard of Oz shooting to deal with a change in director), The Sound of Music (Christopher Plummer was well-known for the snobbish way he treated some other cast and crew members, and he never once spoke to the children outside of taping, according to at least a few of the "kids"), or Hello Dolly, with Matthou and Streisand at odds.
Both actors were right for the part, just not for each other. I can't see anyone else replacing Matthau or Streisand.
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I agree...that's what I thought when I saw the movie. They're both funny and great in acting...I can't see Hello Dolly! without Walter and Barbra.
Matthou has humour and sarcasm so he's suitable for the part. Barbra acted charmingly and has THAT VOICE....
I really enjoy Walter Matthau's films, but remember quite well the negative publicity that surrounded this film, and that part of the problem was his vocal criticisms of Ms. Streisand to the press, which was highly unprofessional then as now. Perhaps the age/generation difference between the two actors was simply too distant.
I hope that as each grew older that Mr. Matthau was a bit more appreciative of Ms. Streisand's talents (not to mention personal and professional pressures when making the film).
Agreed: I think that both actors were right for the part, but not necessarily for each other.
Actually, Streisand and Matthau became friends later on. She gave him a lovely gift at the end of the filming, and he is highly visible as one of her guests on her ONE VOICE concert on dvd/vhs.
"I'm the only person here I've never heard of" - Charity Hope Valentine, SWEET CHARITY
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The Beatles sucked, and the worst and most overrated band ever, you PCP Charles Manson lovers.
Because she is a dirty American liberal Jew?