Cher reflects on Hollywood’s most unthankful directors.
The singer, 78, sat with UK Times to promote her first of the two-part upcoming memoir. She shared the hardships and unpleasant encounters she had to go through while working with two filmmakers in particular.
“There are only two directors I didn’t like: Peter Bogdanovich and the guy from The Muppets,” she said as she reflected on clashing with Bogdanovich on 1985’s Mask and with Frank Oz on 1990’s Mermaids.
“I actually got the guy from The Muppets fired. 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!’”
About the late Bogdanovich, who died in 2022, the singer continued, “He was an a**hole. He was not nice to the girls in the film and he was so f**king arrogant. I really, really disliked him.”
The director, Bogdanovich, replicated the same feelings for the Believe singer back 2019 during an interview with Vulture.
At the time the director said of Cher, “She didn’t trust anybody, especially men. That’s why she dropped her father’s name, Sarkisian.”
While filming Mask, Cher recounted, “He 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.”
She continued, “Ask everybody: I’m really easy to work with. 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: The Memoir Part 1 is available now. Cher: The Memoir, Part Two will follow in 2025.