Foxcatcher’s subject furious about his portrayal
Wrestling champ Mark Schultz rages on social media over suggestion of a sexual relationship with John du Pont
Like clockwork, the debates over the historical accuracy of this year’s awards hopefuls have commenced. When Oscar voting begins, so does the urgent scrutiny of based-on-real-life dramas. Cue the think pieces about the creative licence filmmakers should or shouldn’t have taken with movies such as Selma and Big Eyes, Unbroken and The Imitation Game.
But this year, there’s an angry voice in the mix that’s a little unexpected, and it’s that of Mark Schultz, the subject of Foxcatcher. His Twitter feed and Facebook page offer a window into his longtime ambivalence over having his life dramatized, but he’s generally been supportive of the movie.
“FOXCATCHER IS GOING TO BE THE FILM OF THE YEAR,” he tweeted Dec. 23. That changed. Schultz, recently took to Twitter and Facebook with a somewhat sudden and intense burst of anger. He has since deleted the tweets, which railed against director Bennett Miller and included such missives as: “YOU CROSSED THE LINE MILLER. WE’RE DONE. YOU’RE CAREER IS OVER. YOU THINK I CAN’T DO IT. WATCH ME.” And: “I HATE BENNETT MILLER.”
In the movie, Channing Tatum plays Schultz as a lost and impressionable wrestling champ on the skids, who falls under the spell of a mentally unstable millionaire, John du Pont. Steve Carell (with an eye-catching prosthetic nose) plays du Pont, a wrestling enthusiast who offers Schultz money, housing and a state-of-the-art gym facility to field a wrestling team that will, du Pont portends, be destined for greatness and Olympic gold. Mark Ruffalo plays Schultz’s brother, Dave, another talented competitor. Dave is portrayed as the more stable, clear-headed of the two brothers.
Mark Schultz has been upfront about the fictional twists in the movie.
“In #Foxcatcher the movie my relationship with duPont is fiction,” he tweeted Dec. 21. “He was so repulsive I could barely tolerate him. I was there for $ only.”
Schultz released a book, also called Foxcatcher, in November, which he says sets the record straight, and he’s been offering other tidbits on social media.
But something set off Schultz earlier this week, and it appears to have been the homoerotic undertones of the movie. Critics have noted the seemingly romantic obsession Carell’s du Pont has for Tatum’s Schultz, and the real-life Schultz has clearly been reading those reviews.
In the midst of his Twitter tirade, Schultz also posted a lengthy message to Facebook (that also has been deleted) which culminated in this: “Leaving the audience with a feeling that somehow there could have been a sexual relationship between duPont and I is a sickening and insulting lie. I told Bennett Miller to cut that scene out and he said it was to give the audience the feeling that duPont was encroaching on your privacy and personal space. ( The scene) wasn’t explicit so I didn’t have a problem with it. Then after reading 3 or 4 reviews interpreting it sexually, and jeopardizing my legacy, they need to have a press conference to clear the air, or I will.”
Miller has yet to respond to the criticism.