By STEPANIE McGRATH
AllPopAmber Benson, who plays Willow's girlfriend Tara on "Buffy The Vampire Slayer", has some interesting insight into the controversial indie film "Don's Plum", which stars Benson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire.
Shot in 1995 and '96 and directed by R.D. Robb, "Don's Plum" focuses on a group of friends "joking and crying, flirting and hurting", according to one reader review on the imdb.com website.
"I think the main issue is that it was all done improvisationally, so I think a lot of the actors were afraid that people would think that the characters they were portraying were really them, and some of the things they said and did were a little vulgar," Amber said.
DiCaprio plays a lewd, chauvinistic character who, at one point during the film, yells "Girls make me sick," according to the Mr. Showbiz website.
"He wanted to be an assh--e times 10," a member of the film's crew told Mr. Showbiz when the controversy began. "The whole idea, originally, was to be an assh--e, be on drugs."
Benson thinks that some of DiCaprio's racier moments could be the reason for his and Maguire's strong opposition to the movie.
Some have also speculated that DiCaprio's sudden rise to fame in "Titanic" made him leery of appearing in such a raw, nasty role. But DiCaprio's spokeswoman, Nancy Ryder, said in 1998 that both DiCaprio and Maguire had agreed to make the movie as a favour for Robb and did not want it to be released as a feature.
The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last weekend. Due to a court decision, it will not be released in the U.S. or Canada.
Photo Courtesy of: TM & Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
'Buffy' star focuses on films
