Dead Ringers Drove A Wedge Between David Cronenberg And Michael Ironside

In 1981, David Cronenberg directed the science fiction film "Scanners." It starred Stepehn Lack as a down-on-his-luck homeless man who possesses eerie mind-bullet powers. People with such powers are called Scanners. He is recruited into a secret government project and introduced to other Scanners, but also finds himself targeted by a rival group of rogue Scanners, of which Michael Ironside is a member. Early in "Scanners," Ironside's character uses his powers to explode the head of a journalist. It's perhaps the single best exploding head scene in cinema history. At the film's climax, Ironside and Lack will try to Scan one another to death. A few eyeballs will burst. 

Ironside, now 72, is a Canadian actor and all-around kind fellow with hundreds of credits to his name. His deep voice and stern demeanor found him playing heavies and villains a lot, and chances are quite good that you, the reader, have seen multiple Ironside performances without necessarily trying. It would be difficult to point to any one film or TV show that Ironside is known for. He is that prolific. 

Ironside and Cronenberg only worked together on "Scanners," and it's more than a mere chance that they didn't work together again. According to a 2015 interview with Screen Anarchy, Ironside revealed that he and the director had a heated falling out sometime in the late 1980s. Ironside had seen Cronenberg's 1988 twin gynecologist drama "Dead Ringers" and found it to be aggressively hateful toward women. The actor wasn't shy about saying that to Cronenberg's face. The criticism cut so deep, that the two stopped speaking. 

In "Dead Ringers," Jeremy Irons plays both Beverly Mantle and his twin brother Elliot, both of whom are minor celebrities in the world of gynecology. They are also cads. Elliot, the more forthright brother, will regularly seduce unsuspecting young women, and then switch places with the more timid Beverly. The two try their tactic on an actress named Claire (Geneviève Bujold), but she catches wise to their tricks. She continues to date Beverly, but both brothers are further interested in her due to the unique shape of her uterus. The film spirals into depression and drug abuse. 

"Dead Ringers" was initially met with a mixed response from critics, but had grown in estimation over the years, to the point that it was made available by the Criterion Collection. Ironside saw the movie and had a palpably negative reaction. The actor saw Cronenberg's film as a misguided attempt to delve into misogyny but felt that it never emerged out of merely being misogynist. Ironside said: 

"David and I have only worked together that once, we had a falling out about five or six years later, over a discussion. It was over the twins film with Jeremy Irons, 'Dead Ringers.' We were talking one day about it ... and I told him I thought it was misogynistic horses***. You start sticking odd objects inside of women and pass it off as drama. I said if you've got to work out your godamned s***, why do you have to do it at the expense of the audience? And he said 'you're full of s***' and we got in to it. And I still hold to that."

That seemed to be that. Ironside didn't like what Cronenberg said, and Cronenberg didn't like his response. The two haven't worked together since. 

Ironside's opinion on "Dead Ringers" hasn't changed since that conversation with Cronenberg. He still finds the subject matter to be icky. He also takes issue with some behind-the-scenes drama he caught wind of. "Dead Ringers" was filmed in Toronto, and the local actors, evidently, were gossiping about how difficult Jeremy Irons was to work with. This, of course, was only gossip, but it was enough to make Ironside suspicious. 

Irons, it seems, gets into character so deeply that he is unable to stop behaving badly when the cameras stop rolling. These stories didn't necessarily make Ironside see "Dead Ringers" in a warm light. He said:

"I think I'm accurate. I do. It was after having seen the film that we had the discussion. And I know a little bit was going on behind the scenes too because a couple of the actors that were involved. Jeremy Irons is a bit of a c***, you know? I don't know, I've never done a film with him, I just know what was going on behind the scenes and some of the s*** and whether he gets locked into character and starts acting out in that character, I don't know. I'll reserve that."

Ironside is merely 72, and Cronenberg is still making features at 79. There's no reason that the two couldn't make another feature film together. It seems, however, that the two might need to have another discussion about working together, despite Ironside's negative opinion of "Dead Ringers." Crazier things have happened.