There’s a lot to praise in Friedkin’s work, but I hate stories about committing physical assault on professional actors because a director didn’t trust them enough to give him the reaction he wanted. Friedkin allegedly rehearsed stunts with Ellen Burstyn, then purposefully amped up their intensity to surprise her, leading to permanent injury. Even the pea-soup-to-the-face story pisses me off (and the actor was upset, too) because at its core, there’s a lack of trust in someone to do their job well without being tricked. Ellen Burstyn is more than capable of looking scared without offscreen gunshots. That’s not cute, it’s abusive.