Sarah Polley has built an admirable career as an actress, director, and Oscar-nominated screenwriter, but her show business career began in earnest when, at the age of eight, she was cast in Terry Gilliam’s “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.” But despite the opportunities that the film created for her, and the movie’s cult classic status, the actress is still haunted by the film’s harrowing shoot.<\/p>\n
In her new book, \u201cRun Towards the Danger,\u201d Polley accuses Gilliam of creating an unsafe environment on set, particularly for a child. In an excerpt published in The Guardian, she goes into detail about the highs and lows of the experience.<\/p>\n
Polley writes that she was ecstatic to have the opportunity to work with a legend like Gilliam, and was initially enamored with him upon meeting him. But once they began working on the film, Gilliam’s flaws began to emerge.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we went into production, things quickly began to fall apart,\u201d Polley wrote. \u201cTerry was erratic, a dreamer, someone who didn’t live in the world of ‘logic and reason’ – just as the Baron himself didn’t. I would overhear the crew complain that plans, months in the making, would suddenly be replaced at the last minute with wild, ambitious impulses that put enormous pressure on the crew, the budget and the schedule. “<\/p>\n