If you were looking at Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman side by side, just judging them on their looks and what we think we know about them, who do you think would be the bigger bitch? I would have thought Daniel Craig, in all honesty. Daniel seems to have that snotty ugly-hot thing going for him, and his general attitude seems very prickly. Meanwhile, Hugh seems like one the sweetest men in the world. Turns out, Hugh is perfectly capable of being a big bitch. Thank God!
So it went down like this – during a performance of A Steady Rain, an audience member’s cell phone started ringing. And the guy didn’t pick it up or switch off his phone or anything. The motherf-cker just let it ring! So Hugh channeled his bitch, turned to the audience member and said “You want to get that? You want to get it? Grab it. I don’t care… Come on, just turn it off…Unless you’ve got a better story. You want to get up and tell your stories.” The audience applauds with the last line.
Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman have become the latest stage actors to confront members of the audience for leaving their mobile phones switched on when they were interrupted during a performance of the Broadway play A Steady Rain.
Jackman was playing a Chicago policeman during an intense moment of the Broadway play A Steady Rain when a phone rang in the stalls.
The star of the X-Men sci-fi films won a cheer from the audience as he interrupted his performance to tell the phone’s owner: “You want to get that? You want to get it? Grab it. I don’t care.”
Pacing around the stage and clearly annoyed despite his attempts at levity, when the ringing persisted Jackman pleaded: “Come on, just turn it off…Unless you’ve got a better story. You want to get up and tell your stories?”
A few seconds later another phone went off and it was the turn of Jackman’s co-star, Daniel Craig, to intervene. “Just get the phone,” said the current James Bond star.
New Yorkers are traditionally not easily separated from their mobile phones. Despite pre-performance warnings to switch them off, Craig was also interrupted by one during a monologue at a preview performance 10 days ago.
The British actor Richard Griffiths ordered a woman to leave the theatre or switch her phone off when it it started ringing during a West End performance in 2005.
The following year, he threatened to leave the stage when phone ringing three times interrupted a performance of the History Boys on Broadway.
[From the Telegraph]
That’s actually never happened to me during a play, only during movies. It pisses me off during movies too, but I can’t even imagine how difficult it is for actors doing a live performance to have to deal with these jackasses who are too dumb to turn off their phone. Yes, yes, everybody makes mistakes, and sometimes good people honestly forget to turn off their phones. But to let your phone ring and ring during a play? Dumbass.
the vid is great.
agree, it’s pretty damn rude. at least silence it, for cryin out loud. (and then TURN IT OFF!)
Al Pacino famously took away mobile phone from a chatting audience member and spoke into it, saying, “Hello! This is Al Pacino. I’m in the middle of a play right now.”
Good for them. It’s about time someone addressed boorish cell phone behavior. We’ve all been at church, our kids plays etc. when some goofy parent’s phone goes off. They should have told the theatregoer to leave or fined him. It’s sooooo selfish and ruins the pleasure of fellow audience memebers.
Haha, it was great because he was sticking to his role of the character he was playing. He had the same accent throughout, not his Australian on and he kept the same tone of the character. I love Hugh.
What an a-hole to leave it on, and then just sit there and let it ring. It was awesome the way Jackman handled it, too. I love that man!
I LOVE that he stayed in character to tell that jerk off. (Although it would have been much harder for him if he’d broken character and then tried to get back in, so I don’t feel he had much choice).
I wish I’d been there, right beside the idiot with the phone. I’d love to have punched them in the face.
Can I say I hate freaking cell phones and the people who think that what ever they’re doing at the time like:
1. Talking so freaking loud in the store and telling every one their business.
2. Drive at least 10-15 miles under the speed limit because you can’t drive and talk at the time.
3. Sitting in the movie theater and having some jacka** phone ring during either the movie or previews.
I see kids riding their bikes while talking on the cell phone.
There great in a pinch but other than that people are just rude as soon as they put that phone to their ear.
as someone who works in the theatre i have to say that as annoying as it is to hear the tinkling of a cell phone from the audience, i think he should have just sucked it up and ignored it because he’s actually showing total disrespect for the world of the play and the rest of the audience, how can an audience fully appreciate a production where an actor just stops half way through? its typical of actors who think that THEY are the play
I love it when they do this!
But to be fair, it did just ring and ring and ring and ring. I betcha the owner was sitting there all sumg assuming it wasn’t HIS/HER phone going. But he stayed in character which was cool.
And could I just say – Richard Griffiths is a walking legend. That is all 😀
sometimes good people honestly forget to turn off their phones
I can buy this sometimes (like you came late to a movie and missed the huge, full-color-and-sound, big-screen reminder?), but I’ve never been to a NYC play where there wasn’t some kind of pre-performance reminder to switch off all phones and beepers. It’s the disrespectful assholes who ignore the reminders.
i agree w/ Rose… The show must go on, even if some rude ass person lets their phone ring!
I’ve had this happen at the theater and there really is no excuse for it. There are always plenty of reminders to silence phones
This was unbelievable the way the person just let the phone ring. My God, especially after they both called him out on it. This is hands down, one of the rudest, most arrogant things you can do. Live theatre is difficult enough for the actors, then having to deal with an interruption that’s so easlily preventable.
I think the theatre should throw the person out.
Allie, that’s just it for me too. One or two rings, I would be understanding. You could be all embarrassed because you forgot, but you still turn it off. Or down. Just hit ignore, you stupid dinks. Instead, that phone just kept on ringing.
Rose – Why should the actors have to put up with that? Hugh sort of made it part of his dialogue and, I’m guessing, would’ve just continued on if the phone hadn’t KEPT ringing.
It’s the sense of entitlement that kills me – everyone else should turn off their phone but some people feel they’re better than others so they don’t have to. Ugh.
I honestly don’t understand peoples attachment to cell phones and blackberries. I’ve seen people in stores who can’t even bother to acknowledge their checkers because they are talking or texting. I carry a cell phone for emergencies only and wouldn’t know where to begin with texting. I can talk to my family and friends on the phone when I’m home where the conversation can be private. They’re great if your running late to give the other person a heads up but other than that I just don’t get it. And you know it’s not a MD cause they put thier pagers and things on vibrate a lot. Other than MD’s why do you need your cell when your watching a play?
I think they should start kicking people out.
Maddie – my thoughts exactly! I hate them. I have one just in case I have an car accident or something like that.
*golfers clap*
Turn off your phones, you inconsiderate jerks.
Both my husband and myself have multiple business clients who call at all hours of the day and night, weekends included, to have us do programming and development work on their websites. We generally keep the phones on vibrate when in places like theaters, but on the occasion that we have to take calls we at least have the manners to leave the room. To add to the challenge, we have two little kids who have not only figured out how to unlock and use our phones, but have no qualms about telling us while working at home to get off the line so that they can have their desired attention. So I guess it serves us right in some karmic way to have to find balance. But I completely agree with everyone about not interrupting actors who are performing in a live play.
I think it’s fine that Jackman didn’t just continue. I’ve done a lot of theatre and interruptions are usually short and you can focus and just push on. (Once I was on a thrust stage and an audience member stepped up onto the stage and walked across behind us rather than walk through the audience to get out to the lobby!) BUT you can be sure that if the cell phone was distracting to HJ, it would have been distracting to the audience and these people have paid a lot of money to see the show. Best to halt the action, resolve it, then continue so that everyone (not just the actors) can focus again.
What’s the last thing DC says? I can’t make it out but everyone laughs.
GOOD for Hugh! It’s time everyone got together and dissed all the inconsiderate cell users–as a member of the audience, if I’d been sitting next to the jackass with the ringing phone I’d have outed him/her.
I was in my temple the other day and a woman answered her phone and actually held a whole conversation for about 2 minutes. She had no regard for the people praying or all the dagger eyes looking at her! I was appalled!
Leaving your phone on VIBRATE is also extremely RUDE. Why? Because that loud vibrating sound is JUST AS IRRITATING as a ringing phone. It isn’t quiet. I think that people whose electronic devices goes off should be kicked out of the theater, no refund. You DO NOT need to be reached all the time. Obviously, you can be away from your damned phones and “businesses” for a couple of hours. It isn’t like you are doctors who needs to perform emergency surgery to save lives. Even they aren’t always reachable.
Good for Hugh. I’ve been in the theatre a couple of times when people’s phones rang and it is extremely distracting from the experience. Same goes for the incessant texters in the theatre. There is a pre-show warning for a reason.
Unless you have an ill family member, a child at home, are responsible for national security, or perhaps monitoring an insta-outbreak of the bubonic plague, you do not NEED to take a call. Perhaps if that is also the case, you may want to think twice about staying home. Or at headquarters.
Same goes for flights BTW. They tell you to turn off the phone for safety reasons, but hey, ever been on a flight when some yahoo’s phone rings ? Mighty uncomfortable. The FA’s have a conniption, and rightfully so.
Also, i’m with Post. Have been in a number of meetings with people’s crackberry’s vibrating all over the table because the person is, I guess, Just.That.Important. They don’t always answer it (although bolting out of the room to do so seems to be the “in” thing to do)…just leave it bouncing away, perhaps with a rudimentary glance.
Seriously, turn your damn phone off.
(In this situation though, i’d imagine the offender might have been too mortified to draw the attention to themselves by actually pulling out the phone, hoping that the phone would just stop ringing.)<–still an idiot.
I figure if you don’t have time to watch the play without the phone on…stay home.
Agreed. If there’s a reason you would have to allow a call to interrupt the play/movie/whatever, stay home instead.
I’m curious as to why these types of venues don’t utilize the technology out there that prevents cell phone signals from entering/leaving the room, like a scrambler? They could use it and no one would be the wiser, as people would just think it was bad cell reception that the calls didn’t go through.
Good for Hugh!
It’s incredibly difficult to perform on stage – to forget to silence your phone is just plain disrespectful.
I want to call out the everyday narcissists, too. I also hate it when people carry on conversations while checking out their groceries or ordering coffee. So flippin’ rude. Someone is trying to make your day a little easier – at least give them the courtesy of a standard social greeting.
I guess some humans just need to rely on disrespecting others to feed their own ego. The blatant sense of entitlement is truly disgusting.
And now that I’m on the other side of the register, I don’t even bother to be polite when someone decides to talk on the phone. One woman ordered a drink while she was yapping on the phone – I dropped her change very conspicuously into my tip jar. She had an agitated look on her face – but she didn’t bother to hang up.
We’re a local shop that relies on exemplary customer service and word-of-mouth. But patrons that can’t be dicked to behave like civilized adults . . . Fuck them. They can take their business to Starbucks.
Rose & Megan, I pay my money to see the actors perform a play – not listen to someone’s mobile phone ringing. It is not just distracting to the actors but everyone in the audience who can hear the phone. I whole heartedly agree with Hugh and Daniel’s actions – in fact I would be happy to see people who do this removed from the theatre!
ha ha ha Love Hugh, Good for him.
I love the idea of blockers or scramblers, Jag. Particularly in a bigger, wealthier theatre (as I suspect the tech is too expensive for smaller ones).
I am surprised how many people find it offensive that people use their phones in stores, though. Church or temple, I imagine, is a really bad place for that as you wouldn’t have a normal conversation with your bestie there either. But recently some curmudgeon wanted to enact laws where I live to ban people using their cells on busses, as it is too irritating. I don’t get it. If I were shopping with my sister, or on the bus with my friend, I’d be having a conversation. How is it more offensive that you only have to hear half of it?
Attaboy, Hugh! I’ve heard those damn things going off in the middle of Mass, for Christ’s sake. People have no damn consideration whatever. They think it’s all about them.
Anybody with a ringing cell phone in a theater or a movie should be hauled bodily out of their seat, up the aisle, out the door and tossed into the street.
He should come back to Melbourne and do the play here! At the Arts Centre, inside the theatre (not the foyer) they somehow block signal reception- so its guaranteed that no phone will ring!!
This article is horribly written. Honestly, I think you guys are only getting the readers because of the video from TMZ.