Benny Safdie said firing former collaborator Sebastian Bell-McClard after “disgusting” misconduct allegations against the producer of Uncut Diamonds
was an attempt to rein in himself and help him realize he “has to be more careful”.
In an interview with
GQ magazine to promote his role in the Christopher Nolan film, Oppenheimer, co-founder, writer and director of Elara Pictures, responded to multiple allegations made against Belle-McClard by the staff of Uncut Diamonds and Good Times. The interview was the filmmaker’s first public comment, and he and brother Josh Safdie issued a brief statement clarifying that they had terminated Bale-McClard from the studio he co-founded.
That decision came after multiple women — including a 24-year-old whom the producer hired on Good Time
in 2016 and began a sexual relationship with while she was — disclosed that Bear-McClard h ad reached out to them through platforms like Instagram, and began engaging in inappropriate and harassing behavior, according to Variety.
“It’s disgusting, when you find something about someone that you don’t realize, you have to be more careful,” Benny said of the controversy. “There’s a lot going on, and it’s not something you want to happen to anyone. When you see that, one of the things you can do is take control.”
Benny also opened up about why he and his brother Josh parted ways on the project after the success of Uncut Diamonds.
Last year, Adam Sandler was due to reunite with the brother filmmakers for a new film set in the world of sports memorabilia collectors, but it was later revealed that Benny would not be co-directing.
“Ellara’s still there. We’ve done a lot of documentaries, and the ideas just keep coming,” he explained. “It just felt like, well, there are things that I want to explore that don’t necessarily line up with Josh right now. So it’s a divide and conquer mentality. He wants to tell the story, and he can do it. I’m off to work on a couple of other things. It just seems like a natural progression of things happening.”
One of the other projects he’s working on is Curse
. What was once a one-minute comedy is now an hour-long comedy starring Nathan Field and Emma Stone as a couple and Benny as an HGTV producer.
“They live in an area called Espanola, near Santa Fe. That’s where they’re building their new home. They have a very different approach to gentrification.
It was the show and some of the on-screen roles that caught the filmmaker’s attention for a time, leading his brother and longtime collaborator Ronald Brownstein to delve into their new Sandler project. So it makes sense to take a step back. “It’s just a question of, ‘This works for me now, this is what I have to do,'” he said.
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