Psychopath
You've probably never heard of Jeff Speakman or The Expert, but when you learn what went on behind the scenes you're going to want to sign the petition we're sending Netflix that requests they add it to their roster. It's basically Death Wish but in the '90s and with a budget made up of whatever loose change they could dig up by rummaging through their couch cushions. The sister of whatever Speakman's badass character is called gets murdered by a remorseless criminal, and when the judicial system fails him, he takes justice into his own hands. With extreme prejudice. Because this time, it's personal. Etc.
According to director William Lustig, Speakman came to him during the filming of the climax and said he couldn't do the scene because it was too violent and wouldn't be setting a good "example for the children of America" (absolutely none of whom watched the movie). This was after most of the film had been shot and, you know, Speakman had learned about the project and agreed to do it -- it's not like he was under the impression that The Expert was about an expert chef who had to learn to become an expert at loving his family. Also, this is what Speakman's IMDb page looks like:
So Lustig tricked Speakman into filming the shots he needed by letting him do what he felt would inspire the youth of America, only to later manipulate the bejesus out of the footage during editing. However, word got out and Speakman, a trained martial artist, stormed into the editing booth and threatened to kill Lustig with his "karate bullshit" -- all of which is making us wonder if Speakman was the product of an only partially successful attempt to clone Steven Seagal. Understandably not wanting any karate bullshit in his future, Lustig called it quits on the basically already finished film and had his name removed.
But, shockingly, threatening to murder someone because you think their movie is too violent is not an effective strategy, and Lustig's cut of the climax remained. Double standards with violence were apparently just standard procedure for Speakman -- at another point during filming, Speakman had a tiny toady following him around with "a bag of weapons." To be fair, he did set an example for the Children of America, albeit only the ones that grew up to gawk at the low points of pop culture on the internet (say hi, kids!).
https://www.cracked.com/article_24148_steven-seagal-ball-kicks-5-movie-set-disasters.html
What kind of fucking psycho threats to kill their director, This is also sad because it caused William Lustig to retire, All because of this talentless asshole. share