Faye Dunaway fired from ‘Tea at Five’ play after assaulting & abusing staffers

69th Berlinale International Film Festival - Cinema for Peace Gala

We’ve heard stuff about Faye Dunaway’s eccentricities and we’ve heard about some of her behavior which would be considered “diva-ish.” Personally, I’ll never forget how little Faye cared about the 2016 Oscar Best Picture controversy which she was a part of – she called the wrong movie name and then waltzed around the afterparties without a care in the world, while Warren Beatty was the one trying to fix everything (granted, it was not his fault or her fault). But this story is really something else… apparently Faye Dunaway has been fired from a Broadway-bound play, Tea at Five, which was supposed to be in previews at the Huntington Theater in Boston. Some highlights from this NY Post story:

The July 10 performance for Tea at Five was canceled moments before curtain because Dunaway slapped and threw things at crew members who were trying to put on her wig, sources say. Enraged at the cancellation, Dunaway began “verbally abusing” the crew. They were “fearful for their safety,” said one source.

The producers of “Tea at Five” said in a statement they had “terminated their relationship” with the actress. They said the play, which was well received in Boston, would go to London in the spring and be recast with another actress. “Tea at Five,” a one-woman play by Matthew Lombardo about Hepburn’s recovery from a car accident in 1983, was meant to be a triumphant return to the stage for Dunaway, who famously was fired by Andrew Lloyd Webber before she opened in the Los Angeles production of “Sunset Boulevard.”

“She seemed committed to the role, and fun to be around,” said a source. But her behavior was unsettling at an early photo shoot. Someone gave her a salad for lunch and she threw it on the floor. She was watching her weight and said the salad would be better on the floor than in her hand. She was frequently late for rehearsals, sometimes up to two hours, sources say. She refused to allow anyone to look at her during rehearsals, including the director and the playwright. Although she had the script for six months, sources claim she was never able to learn her lines. During the run of the play at Huntington she was fed lines and blocking through an earpiece. One source says, “98 percent of the play came through the earpiece.”

While in rehearsal she left what one production source called “troubling, rambling, angry” voicemails to the creative team during the middle of the night. She also insisted that no one wear white to rehearsals because it “distracts me,” she said. When she was rehearsing on stage at the Huntington no one was allowed to move in the theater because that also distracted her.

As she was rehearsing, she began to lose weight. She looked so emaciated that a production member called Dunaway’s former assistant for advice. The assistant said, “It sounds like she’s not complying with her medication.” The producers were so concerned about her condition they called Actors’ Equity Association to see if it was “ethical” to put someone in her state in front of an audience, sources say.

Over the last weekend of June she had a full on “Mommie Dearest” meltdown and demanded that staffers at the Huntington Theater get down on their hands and knees and scrub the floor of her dressing room, sources claim. She allegedly threw mirrors, combs and boxes of hairpins at the staff of the theater. She also pulled gray hairs out of her wig because she wanted to play a younger version of Hepburn than the playwright had written.

[From The NY Post]

I’ve been in work environments where I felt emotionally abused and I’ve worked for and with people I hated, but I’ve never experienced anything like what Faye Dunaway was doing to those staffers. My God. The first time a salad was thrown or a mirror was broken, I would have been out of there. Life’s too short. But then on top of that, she was actually physically assaulting people and then verbally abusing them? Nope. Nope nope nope. Also: no one could wear white? So random.

69th Berlinale International Film Festival - Cinema for Peace Gala

Photos courtesy of WENN.

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36 Responses to “Faye Dunaway fired from ‘Tea at Five’ play after assaulting & abusing staffers”

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  1. Valiantly Varnished says:

    There have been stories for years about how awful Faye Dunaway is so these stories don’t surprise me.

  2. Sofia says:

    Hmmm…Sounds like a real mental health issue. I hope she gets the medication and help she needs.

    • Valiantly Varnished says:

      Perhaps. But she has been like this for years. Demanding and flat out mean to people.

    • Carol says:

      Yeah, it does sound more than diva behavior – more like she has some mental issues that her medication was able to control. I hope she gets some help. It was a good thing for the producers to fire her for the staff’s sake and probably hers too.

      On a side note – I secretly love that salad story. It’s what I should do when I fix my self a bowl of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. Just knock the bowl out of my hand with my other hand. Same with a plate of cookies.

    • Hoot says:

      Sounds like a type of dementia to me. I’ve been around people that have it at different stages. Her behavior sounds comparable. She should’ve never been cast in the role.

  3. Megan says:

    I wonder if the medication she stopped taking was for a mental health diagnosis. It sounds like she went from spoiled diva to irrational abuser as the run progressed.

  4. Nicegirl says:

    Omg that is crazy

  5. Nicegirl says:

    Is she bffs w/Naomi Campbell??

  6. Kealeen says:

    Honestly, I put a tiny bit of blame on her for the Moonlight tragedy, at least for announcing the wrong movie onstage. Warren looked confused and started to look offstage, and she grabbed it from him, allegedly annoyed because she assumed he was trying to be funny. She read it while completely ignoring that it said “Emma Stone.”

  7. DiegoInSF says:

    She eventually got the face she deserved. Hope she doesn’t get any more chances when it comes to gigs.

    • Megan says:

      Let’s not age shame.

      • Betsy says:

        That’s not age shaming. She looks so unlike herself I legitimately thought those weren’t her pictures.

      • Valiantly Varnished says:

        That has nothing to do with age and everything to do with bad plastic surgery.

      • whatWHAT? says:

        nah, that ain’t age.

        that’s bad plastic surgery trying to HIDE her age. Look at Emma Thompson or Helen Mirren. both are gorgeous “older” women who haven’t f*cked with their faces to hide their wrinkles.

  8. Fluffy Princess says:

    The only thing shocking about this is that she was hired for something. She’s been a witch for decades.

  9. Jb says:

    Awful person mixed with actual mental health issues makes for a truly toxic person. I’ve heard bad things about this woman but hopefully she doesn’t continue to hurt herself and others.

  10. Embee says:

    As I’ve written on here before, my ex was mentally ill and experienced psychosis. When he was psychotic he would behave like this. “The people in yellow shirts are following me” so no yellow that day. Red food is poisonous so no tomatoes! It’s exhausting but he was fighting for his life (he believed). Remember that when someone can not discern reality they become frightened and frightened people are MEAN. I really hope that we get better at treating psychosis and other mental health disorders. So many suffer: the sick person and those around them.

    • Valiantly Varnished says:

      While I agree I also don’t think we should play armchair psychologists. We don’t know if Dunaway has mental health issues or what they are. We do know that she has a very long history of being very mean and rude to people on sets.

      • smcollins says:

        Exactly. Not all awful and “crazy” behavior is attributed to some kind of mental illness. Some people are just assholes, and she’s had that rep for yeeeeeaaaaaars.

    • Lillian says:

      Thanks, Embee, I thought this was a really empathetic comment.

  11. Renee says:

    Is anyone surprised by this? Her tantrums and abusive behavior on set are legendary.

  12. tealily says:

    “She refused to allow anyone to look at her during rehearsals, including the director and the playwright.” She knew there would eventually be an audience, right?

  13. Lynne says:

    I wonder if she has Dementia.

  14. Blanster says:

    It definitely sounds like more than diva behavior to me – either some form of dementia or a more longstanding mental illness. Her inability to remember her lines and continued need for blocking help says more than poor behavior. I get that she’s been a diva for years, but this is beyond that level of dysfunction. Things like Alzheimer’s can take 20-30 years to develop. I’m not saying she has that, but behaviors that “appear” in old age have sometimes been developing for years and years. I hope she gets the help she clearly needs.

    • FutureCatLady says:

      if we are speculating that it’s Alzheimer’s or a form of dementia, it could be something like frontotemporal lobe dementia. My mom actually has this and the first sign of it is that the sufferer loses their inhibition. some people with it will start walking around naked in public or exposing themselves to children in public. My mom started shoplifting at the age of 67 when she’s never committed a crime prior to that and she has been arrested at least 10 * since this began. the sufferer literally has zero control of some aspect of their life.

      • Hoot says:

        Right on. I went through this behavior with my mom. Not to the extent as FD, but it was frontal lobe/stroke related dementia and hard to watch. No short-term memory (but extensive long-term, until that faded in her 80’s). Behavior became exceedingly uninhibited.

  15. Other Renee says:

    They couldn’t find anyone without a history of abusing others to play this part? Seriously? 🙄

  16. John says:

    First, there is absolutely NO CELEBRITY WORTH THAT MUCH DRAMA. End of story. That isn’t being a ‘diva’; that’s just being a petulant, spoiled child, one convinced of its own greatness (even though whatever ‘greatness’ there may once have been has long, LOOOOOONG passed). And in what bizarre alternate universe would someone cast Dunaway as Katherine Hepburn??? Joan Crawford, hell yes! Hepburn, um…no. I’m frankly surprised that ANYONE hires her anymore, given her track record.

    Second, I’m all for plastic surgery WHEN DONE RIGHT (i.e., Jane Fonda) but Dunaway looks the cast and crew battered HER instead of the other way round! And while I know celebrities are often deliberately photographed at their most unflattering, those photos CLEARLY show a person who looks as mentally unbalanced as they act. Look at those eyes. That is someone who needs help. Seriously. I speak from experience.

  17. Meeee says:

    I met her, once, and walked away feeling like a piece of sh*t. She was so rude.

  18. ClaraBelle says:

    In the early 2’s I was at a checkout in a Trader Joe’s in Hollywood and all the clerks were atwitter about something. My checkout guy told me that Faye had just been in the store and had a raging tantrum for some reason. He said it was not unusual and clerks dreaded her occasional entrance.

  19. ChillyWilly says:

    Dude, I have been terrified of her since I saw Mommy Dearest as a kid so I would have legit peed myself if I was on that set!

  20. SM says:

    Crazy. And she does look unwell

  21. clairej says:

    A friend used to have to put calls from Faye through to her Boss. Said she was an absolute bitch. So was Kristin Scott Thomas. This was 1999. Richard Attenborough was super lovely.

  22. Portland says:

    Oh boy. In the 90’s Faye Dunaway was shooting a movie here in Portland and a big group of my friends worked at the hotel and adjoining restaurant where she was staying / frequenting. The week of her arrival was exciting for all, and that quickly fizzled as her demands and attitude dwarfed any ounce of decency she might’ve had.

    SHE THREW A SALAD AT MY FRIEND, GLASS PLATE, CUTLERY & ALL because it had croutons. (SALADS! She’s def got a tantrum style.) She lived at the hotel for three months, and everyone was terrified of her. People drew straws, flipped coins and traded shifts and days off, all because: “I CAN’T DEAL WITH FAYE TODAY! PLEEEEEEEASE TAKE HER! I CAN’T!” A good friend of mine who worked at that restaurant for years (and loved it there like a family), had to not only quit, but got legit PTSD from being around Faye Dunaway for a few months.

    I, of course, would hang on EVERY WORD of these Faye stories like we were sitting around a campfire. 🙂

  23. em says:

    I read Faye’s autobiography. She grew up in borderline poverty and reached the top on her own merits, not because of who she was related to or who she slept with. It seems the truly self-made female stars get a reputation for being a diva and the nepotistic ones go out of their way to prove how down-to-earth they are. This story makes me sad. She’s obviously dealing with mental health issues that have gotten more pronounced with age. The quote from her former assistant about not complying with her meds is spot-on. I know that Faye’s bad rep goes back decades but none of her past antics compare to this behavior.

  24. Cher says:

    If she’s acting like this because she has dementia, then she’s had dementia since she was a young woman. She’s always had a rep for being a hideous, abusive human being. If it’s because of longstanding mental illness, she should either get the help she needs or stop working with others till she does. She gets no sympathy from me.