I only had the opportunity to work on one movie, but the Teamsters I worked with had a lot of stories. A few said Rob Lowe was the biggest azzhole they had ever met, most thought Jack Nicholson was a great guy.
One guy told me a story about working on a movie with Woody Harrelson. He insisted that the main generator for Home Base be run on Bio-diesel. He made a huge stink about it. The transportation manager looked all over town for another generator truck set up to run bio, but came up empty. Finally a guy at one of the generator truck rental places went out in the shop and came back with about six bio-diesel decals, winked and said "don't forget to tell your guys, straight diesel".
That actress Levin Rambin was an absolute little bitch, Elizabeth Shue was as nice as I hoped she would be, Gerard Butler was OK. The director Curtis Hanson who has a pretty good list of movies was a weird duck, and ultimately had to be replaced mid-shoot, I think he had a breakdown.
One night the CHP working traffic for the shoot waved a drunk driver over and was giving him a sobriety check about 25 yards away from the shoot. Being I was hanging out at the craft-services table getting fat, Hanson was standing next to me and he asked "what is going on over there?" as he nodded at the CHP and drunk.
I said "I think they are going to arrest that guy for DUI".
Hanson said "oh no, that is terrible, I'm going to go see what I can do".
"Huh? That's not a good idea Mr. Hanson".
Well he walks across the street and starts to walk up behind the officer giving the test and his partner spotted him. He pulled out his big flashlight and made a b-line for Hanson. "Don't hit him, he's the director!". The officer stopped and looked at me. "If he's in the hospital we all go home: I said smiling at him.
He changed his tune and just grasped Hanson by the arm and steered him away. A day later Hanson was gone and a new director flown in.
