It has been reported that actor Adam Driver allegedly “attacked” actress Lidia Franco, his co-star in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, while the pair were filming the movie. Per Publico, Franco made the claim during a podcast interview with Radio Comercial’s Era o que Faltava, saying (translated from Portuguese), “I keep from this movie a very bad experience because of Adam Driver.” She then reportedly acknowledged his acting skill but said that “he is a very bad person. He behaved very badly with me, physically. He attacked me.”
Franco, 76, went on to claim that the attack “had nothing to do with the scene.” She alleged that “it was a camouflaged assault, with a chair.” She did not go into further details regarding the alleged incident. Franco did share what happened afterward, saying that the production staff allowed her to exit the set but claimed that they could not do anything further. “I was given permission to leave, but legally there was nothing they could do,” she stated, as translated on Reddit.
Videos by PopCulture.com
The actress also commented on the impression she got from Driver ahead of filming, claiming that he was difficult and demanding. “One of the things he started doing in Spain was to demand that, in rehearsals, all the technicians leave the plateau. He demanded that and continued to do it in Portugal, but some Portuguese technicians refused,” she stated. “From the back, I saw at least one leaving the studio. He demanded, I think by contract, that nobody could look at him. If they looked, the extras were immediately fired. And it happened.”
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote was co-written and directed by Terry Gilliam (Monty Python) and was first released in 2018, after having infamously been in development hell for decades. In addition to Driver, it also stars Stellan Skarsgård, Olga Kurylenko, Joana Ribeiro, Óscar Jaenada, Jason Watkins, Sergi López, Rossy de Palma, Jordi Mollà, and Jonathan Pryce as Don Quixote. At this time, it does not appear that Driver, nor anyone else involved with the film has commented on Franco’s allegations.
It appears this is the first time Driver has faced accusations of this nature. The actor once walked out of an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross after hearing a clip of his film Marriage Story playing in his headphones, but no aggression was reported in this instance. Driver later stated that he had explained to producers that he does not like to hear or see his own work, and they, in turn, claimed they advised him when to take his headphones off so that he would not hear the clip.
