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Sean Young is looking back on one of her more challenging film experiences, playing Gordon Gekko’s wife in 1987’s Wall Street. While fans won’t remember Kate Gekko as one of Young’s biggest roles, she has plenty to say to The Daily Beast about working on the Oliver Stone movie with Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, and Daryl Hannah.
In an interview published today, Young recalled working with director Stone, whom she described as “a bastard,” and her “awful” co-star Sheen, who stuck a piece of tape to her back with the word “cunt” written on it. Douglas, whom she praised as “wonderful,” tore the tape off before Young got a chance to see it, she explained. “I said, ‘What was that? and he said, ‘Forget it,'” she recalled. “Then the art dealer—the guy who brought in all the paintings that were on the wall—was there guarding the paintings, and he told me what Charlie had done.
“I spoke with Charlie the next day and said, ‘Your dad was a pro. Writing ‘cunt’ on a piece of tape and sticking it to my back? Not pro. It’s just stupid. What are you doing?'” Young also remembered that her co-star “was on a lot of coke” while filming Wall Street. “That’s what coke does to you,” she said.
But it wasn’t just clashes with Sheen that made her experience on set so difficult. It was also her relationship with the film’s director that led to a smaller role and a harder time at work. In one instance, Young recalled Stone putting her co-star, Hannah, in a backless dress that she was uncomfortable wearing.
“I look at Oliver and say, ‘Oliver, why would you want her to wear a dress she doesn’t feel comfortable in?'”, Young said. “He says, ‘Could you excuse us for a minute?’ and I get up and leave the trailer. So, we’re doing the rehearsal and he takes my only line in the scene — Bud’s talking about racehorses and I turn to him and say, ‘These are jumping horses, dear, these aren’t racehorses,’ like a big snob —a nd he gives my line to Daryl.
“And I go up Oliver and say, ‘I don’t understand? I have no lines now. What’s the point of me being in this scene?’ And he goes, ‘You’re right. You’re fired.’ I went to the trailer, got my stuff, and then they told me to get in this car. And this driver, who I thought was going to take me back to Manhattan, drops me off at the bus station. I just thought, ‘OK. If this is how you get your rocks off.'”
In a 2012, Stone insisted that Young’s role was cut down because of her behavior on set and for lobbying for Hannah’s role. “It got to a place where I said, ‘I’ve had enough!,'” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “We were at a stable — and the horse standing next to Sean was having an erection — and she just wouldn’t rehearse correctly. So we let her go. She tried to leave with some of the clothes from the movie, and we had a very tough producer who got the clothes back, and I heard she was in the streets of East Hampton, furious, and walking around half-naked.”
Young didn’t just detail her experience on Wall Street with the Daily Beast — she also talked at length about Blade Runner, her interview with Carl Reiner, her Harvey Weinstein story, and more. Head to The Daily Beast to read the full Sean Young interview.
